Blue White Illustrated

| M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L U nderstandably, moving on from Penn State's 2019-20 season has been a challenge for Patrick Chambers. The good parts are undeniable, as the program reached new heights in Cham- bers' ninth season at the helm. Winning 21 games, the Nittany Lions secured sixth place in the Big Ten, their highest finish in the conference standings since the 2010-11 season, and posted a winning Big Ten record for only the third time in pro- gram history. But it's the devastatingly abrupt end that Chambers and his team are having trouble putting behind them. Led by Lamar Stevens, who was only seven points away from becoming the leading scorer in school history, the Nit- tany Lions were set to face 11th-seeded Indiana in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on March 12 and were assuredly headed for an NCAA tourna- ment berth, regardless of their finish in Indianapolis. But the COVID-19 pan- demic effectively destroyed those plans. Confident in their prospects for postsea- son success, the Nittany Lions, like everyone else in athletics, saw their sea- son end without warning. "Many tears have been shed," Chambers said. "We put our heart and soul [into it], we've invested so much time and energy and sacrifice, to be able to hear that, to see that, and to get our kids to the selection show." Chambers wasn't alone. More than a month later, Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour expressed similar disap- pointment over the premature end to so many seasons and careers. "We were assured of going to our first NCAA [tournament] in almost a decade. They had an incredible year," Barbour said on a radio show in April. "My first thoughts are around just the devastation of the hopes and dreams and aspirations of those young people being cut short and dashed at that moment. But I've also been really proud of how they've responded and reacted. "We did a virtual staff [meeting] a cou- ple of weeks ago, and Lamar jumped on and he was just incredibly mature about it. Here's a young man who was a handful of points away from being the all-time leader in points scored for Penn State. You're not going to hear him publicly whine about any of that. He's a leader. He's a very mature young man, and I can't wait to see him at the next level." For now, Stevens and the rest of the Nit- tany Lions will have to take solace in their accomplishments during the 2019-20 season. Penn State suffered just one loss in 11 nonconference games, earning wins against Georgetown, Syracuse, Wake For- est and Alabama, among others. In the December portion of the Big Ten sched- ule, the Nittany Lions knocked off No. 4 Maryland at the Bryce Jordan Center, then resumed conference play in January with a thrilling win against No. 23 Iowa at the Palestra in Philadelphia. Shaking off a disappointing three-game slide that followed their victory over the Hawkeyes, the Lions strung together a school-record eight consecutive Big Ten wins, defeating No. 21 Ohio State, Michi- gan, Indiana, Nebraska, No. 16 Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue and North- western. After ascending as high as second place in the conference standings, the Nittany Lions stumbled at the end of the regular season, dropping five of their last six. But they were still able to set several school records. Their 11-9 Big Ten mark included a program-best four road victories, in- cluding their second-ever win at Michi- gan State's Breslin Center and third all-time at Purdue's Mackey Arena. Citing the passage of time as the best elixir for the difficulties that both players and coaches have had to endure, Cham- bers said that the program was making progress by directing its attention to the future. "I think each passing day it gets a little bit better," Chambers said in an in-house April interview. "I started a new team chat with the incoming freshmen, which is exciting. That, to me, was kind of a step in the right direction of healing and mov- ing on a little bit, slowly but surely. "And there's nothing wrong with re- flecting. There's nothing wrong with grieving. There's nothing wrong, in our little bubble, [thinking about] what it meant to us and how it affected us on a very micro level. But now it's time to start focusing on next year's team." It's a team Chambers is excited to start working with when his players have an STATE OF DENIAL Their NCAA tournament hopes thwarted, the Nittany Lions try to move on LAMAR STEVENS Ryan Snyder

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