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gotta get a little bit more chemistry going, a little bit more cohesion. I just feel like because of adding two players, it has kind of put us off-kilter a little bit. We've all gotta get on the same page. "It might take until February, he added. " "That's why you have the nonconference [season]. That's why you have 13 games in the noncon to get everybody on the same page and get yourself ready for the Big Ten. You know as a coach that it's gonna happen. It happened to me at [Boston University], it happened to us at Villanova. It's gonna take some time, and I've gotta be patient and I've gotta just keep trying to push the right buttons and make some things up and give us a chance to win. " The Nittany Lions have certainly had their opportunities. Five times already, Penn State has fallen to an opponent by three points or fewer. Even more frustrating for the Lions is the fact that in six of their first 10 losses, they were leading at halftime. Penn State's statistics have waned in lockstep with the erosion in confidence. Against nonconference opponents, for instance, the team was hitting 47.7 percent of its field goals. But against Big Ten opponents the Lions were making only 39.1 percent of their attempts. The 3-point field goal percentage had fallen as well, from 35.6 to 29.1 percent. Even the team's free throw percentage was down, from 75.6 to 70 percent. And yet, Chambers said the Nittany Lions have not regressed. "I would say mentally maybe we're a little bit fatigued," he said. "Now you're in the Big Ten, so every game is crucial and you want to win every game. I'm sure they're putting pressure on themselves. "The Big Ten is different. Great coaches, great players. They know your stuff, they know your tendencies. You've gotta do the little things to get yourselves over the I hump." Chambers thanks O'Brien for show of support Moments before his Nittany Lions took the court against Princeton in December, Penn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers walked the baseline toward his good friend and colleague Bill O'Brien. The pair embraced, exchanged a few words and separated. They both had business to conduct. For Chambers, that meant coaching his team. For O'Brien, it meant doing what he does best: directing several hours of verbal harassment at an officiating crew. Having taken the head coaching position with the NFL's Houston Texans, O'Brien will no longer be a fixture along the baseline at Nittany Lion basketball games. But during his time at Penn State, he and Chambers struck up a friendship, and the basketball team was also a beneficiary of Craig Fitzgerald's strength and conditioning overhaul. As Chambers wrapped up his Jan. 6 news conference, he saluted his departing colleague. "I want to thank Bill O'Brien for everything he's done for our program. He's helped us out tremendously, and I became real close with him, Chambers " said. "We're going to miss him. " Working in tandem at times in their promotion of both Penn State football and men's basketball, O'Brien and Chambers were able to bond through their participation in Penn State's Coaches Caravan in 2012 and '13. Lesser known, however, is that O'Brien played a key behind-the-scenes role in helping boost the men's basketball program. He regularly attended Penn State games and even gave a pre-practice pep talk before the team's upset of eventual NCAA runner-up Michigan last season. He helped out with the program's annual Coaches vs. Cancer golf tournament, and Chambers also cited some of the fa- cility upgrades and recruiting support that O'Brien helped provide. "He did so much for this university, so much for our program – letting us in Lasch, meeting recruits, letting us walk around – just incredible," Chambers said. "And the same goes for Fitzy. We don't have a new weight room if not for Craig Fitzgerald. "We're going to miss those two guys, and I want to make sure that I give them a positive reinforcement and a positive shout-out. Let's think about the positives of what they did for us over the last two years. So I want to thank them." – N.B.

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