Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/290421
| PROGRESS REPORT y season's end, the Penn State men's basketball team had earned 16 vic- tories, its fourth-best RPI since 2000 and the program's first post- season invitation since it made the NCAA tournament field in 2011. These were all steps forward, but for third-year head coach Patrick Chambers, the team's 16-18 finish (6-12 Big Ten) was a bittersweet mixture, equal parts accom- plishment and disappointment. Attempting to whip the program back into shape following the abrupt departure of former head coach Ed DeChellis three years ago, Chambers has been forced to accept that the rehabilitation project he agreed to undertake is going to involve gradual steps rather than dramatic leaps. Knocked down by a dearth of talent, ill- timed injuries, transfers out of the program and a string of stomach-turning close losses, Penn State has made progress, but it's been halting and hard-won. Chambers and his assistants have had their patience tested time and time again. And yet the former Villanova assistant has continued to find reasons for optimism. "We're crawling. We're crawling," he said. "We're just like that one-and-a- half-year-old who is about to take his first step. I think we're going to start taking steps real soon here." Coming off a disastrous 2012-13 season in which senior point guard Tim Frazier was lost to an Achilles tear only four games in, the signs of progress this season were undeniable. For the first time since Chambers took the helm, the Nittany Lions were com- petitive in nearly every game. They de- feated Indiana in Bloomington, and they also pulled off an improbable regular- season sweep of Ohio State, the first time that had happened since 1998. The Buck- eyes were ranked in the Top 25 on both occasions. All told, of Penn State's 18 regular- season Big Ten games, 12 were decided by five points or fewer. The problem, of course, lies in the fact that the Nittany Lions were able to win only five of those games. Worse, after a strong nine-win noncon- ference season, Penn State dropped its first six Big Ten games. Some of those de- feats were utterly inexplicable, such as a one-point loss at Purdue in which the Nittany Lions were leading by three points with only eight seconds remaining in reg- ulation. And by dropping games that could easily have been victories, they dug them- selves a hole that they couldn't quite es- cape. "It was kind of like, whoa, you didn't expect that. You name it, everything that could go wrong for us those first six games went wrong for us," Chambers said prior to the start of the Big Ten tournament in March. "The ball didn't bounce our way, foul trouble, injuries, illnesses... crazy stuff happened." But the team didn't just give up on the season. Instead, it showed great resilience, Chambers said, splitting the final 12 games of the conference schedule. "That's all I ask," he said. "Give us a chance to win games, compete as hard as you can and put yourself in position to put yourself in the postseason, and I think we've done that. With the horrible start that we had… I think [the late-season surge] is an incredible turnaround and says a lot about this group, their heart, and the guts that this team has." Guts and other intangibles weren't enough for the Nittany Lions to overcome some of the statistical deficiencies that plagued them through the course of the season. During the nonconference season, they produced markedly improved offensive numbers, but their defensive numbers lagged behind. Against Big Ten competi- tion, those trends reversed. While the defense improved, the offense declined, dropping by nearly 16 points M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L Patrick Chambers sees hopeful signs in Nittany Lions' up-and-down season B