Blue White Illustrated

Future unclear after Chambers' ouster | P enn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers resigned abruptly Oct. 21, the result of a months-long internal investigation deemed to have re- vealed inappropriate conduct. Penn State athletic director Sandy Bar- bour said the investigation began in July in the wake of a report by ESPN website The Undefeated alleging racially insensi- tive comments by Chambers directed to- ward former point guard Rasir Bolton, who transferred to Iowa State following his true freshman season with the Nit- tany Lions. Refusing to disclose details of personnel matters, Barbour and the ath- letic department acknowledged only that new allegations were leveled against Chambers immediately after the story's publication, prompting the joint investi- gation by Penn State's Affirmative Action and Athletics Integrity offices. Penn State named assistant Jim Ferry the team's interim coach. Ferry, who came to University Park in 2017 after five seasons as head coach at Duquesne, will coach the team during the 2020-21 cam- paign. At a quickly arranged virtual press con- ference shortly after the news had broken of Chambers' resignation, Barbour de- scribed the events of the day as "diffi- cult," but added that both she and university president Eric Barron believed that PSU had reached "the right out- come." "Coach Chambers has made many con- tributions to the program and to this uni- versity, for which we are grateful. The team has been on a positive trajectory and has responded well to Coach Chambers' efforts on and off the court," Barbour said. "But as difficult as this news may be, we think it's in the best interest of Penn State, our program and our student-ath- letes." Revealing few specifics regarding the nature of the findings, Barbour said only that "the allegation was previously un- known to Penn State, and was independ- ent and unrelated to The Undefeated article." Chambers, who was preparing for his 10th season as the Nittany Lions' head coach, confirmed his resignation in a statement that he posted to Twitter. "I am so proud of all our program has accomplished these past nine years, and I will be forever grateful to the Penn State community for its ongoing support," he wrote. "Anyone who has ever coached – especially at this level – knows the ex- ceptional amount of energy and focus it takes to deliver each and every day. This has been an incredibly difficult year for me and my family, and we are in need of a break to re-set and chart our path for- ward. So, I'm taking a step back to pre- pare myself for the next 20 years. And while I do, I'll celebrate all we accom- plished." Arriving at Penn State in June 2011 fol- lowing a two-season stint as head coach at Boston University and five seasons as an assistant at Villanova, Chambers took the reins shortly after Ed DeChellis's abrupt departure for Navy. He inherited a roster that had been largely depleted in the wake of the team's NCAA tournament berth, and within months of his arrival the university became enmeshed in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Grinding through six seasons of limited on-court success, Penn State began to score recruiting coups in Philadelphia and elsewhere, leading to a three-year on-court surge that ranked among the best in school history. The Nittany Lions earned a semifinal berth in the Big Ten tournament and an NIT championship in 2018, and while they followed it with a disappointing 10th-place conference finish the next year, they regrouped this past season, finishing 21-10 overall with an 11-9 Big Ten record. With Lamar Stevens leading the way, the Nittany Lions doubled the program's all-time conference winning streak with an eight- game run that included rare road victo- ries at Michigan State and Purdue. The Lions were assured of their first NCAA tournament berth since 2011, and Stevens was on pace to overtake Talor Battle as the program's all-time leading M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L Barbour promises national search following resignation of Lions' veteran coach PATRICK CHAMBERS Ryan Snyder

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