M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L
hey both had options.
Isaiah Washington and Shep
Garner were three-star prospects
who could have put o= signing
their national letters of intent in November.
Penn State, the school to which they had
verbally committed, was coming o= a dis-
mal season. The Nittany Lions went 10-
21 in Patrick Chambers' second year at
the helm and certainly had seen better
days.
But for both players, who are inarguably
the highest-rated prospects Chambers
has brought into the program since taking
over in 2011, the decision to stick with
the Lions had little to do with the present
or past and everything to do with the fu-
ture.
"It's pretty much all about perspective.
You have to see the end product and what's
being built and not just look at what's
there," Washington said. "You don't nec-
essarily buy a house based on what they're
doing on the ;rst or second day of building.
You buy it based on what it's going to be-
come."
As two cornerstones of the project,
Washington and Garner very much intend
to be part of something worth seeing.
* * *
Washington knows intimately the ebb
and the Mil-
lionaires to a 23-3 record and a district
title.
The following year, with eight of its
top nine players having graduated,
Williamsport Area endured an up-and-
down season, finishing with a 12-12
record and losing in the district cham-
pionship game. As the team's only ex-
perienced player, Washington routinely
found himself facing double-teams and
box-and-ones, yet he averaged 22 points
per game while also leading the squad
in rebounds and assists. Following the
season, he received first-team All-State
recognition.
"My role kind of changed in that last
year," Washington explained. As a junior,
he said, "I had some pieces around me,
so I didn't have to do all of the scoring,
but this year I had the scoring load and…
[had to use] a lot of different stuff I've
been working on my whole career. I need-
ed to do that for our team to be success-
ful."
He will need to continue doing it, because
the Nittany Lions are seeking those same
BUILDING
BOOM
|
A three-member class comes to Penn State
looking to get in on the ground floor of something big
T
N E W C O M E R S O F I N F L U E N C E
attributes as they build toward the 2014-
15 season.
Washington, whose scoring average as
a senior was the highest of his career, sees
an opportunity to boost Penn State's mid-
dling o=ensive numbers. The Nittany
Lions averaged 70.9 points per game this
past season, ranking eighth in the Big Ten.
And that ;gure was compiled with the
help of All-Big Ten point guard Tim Frazier,
who ;nished second on the team with a
14.9-point average in his ;nal season of
eligibility.
As a combo guard, Washington won't
be ;ghting for Frazier's minutes. But he
will have a chance to help make up for
the scoring de;cit, and one of his class-
mates – Garner – will be in the mix at the
point guard position, as will incoming
junior college guard Devin Foster, a 6-1,
205-pounder out of Vincennes University
in Indiana.
Garner, a 6-2, 185-pound second-team
All-State guard from Philadelphia Roman
Catholic, was seen as the heir apparent
to Frazier. But the Nittany Lions also
had a returning point guard in sopho-
more Graham Woodward. Then Wood-
ward decided to transfer after only one
season at Penn State, and Chambers
needed to quickly replenish the Lions'
depth at the position. All of which means
that Garner will be battling it out with
Foster, a second-team junior college All-
American.
No worries, Garner said.
"The normal person would be like, 'Wow,
they brought in a point guard?' But me, I
look at it in a di=erent way," he said. "I
look at it [as a sign] that I've got to com-
pete, and competing is great."
Returning senior guard D.J. Newbill and
sophomore Geno Thorpe also ;gure to be
involved at point guard.
But Foster's 12.2 points, 4.8 assists and
three-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio,
all of which helped him lead Vincennes
to a third-place finish in this past year's
NJCAA Division I tournament, could
help set the stage for a position battle at
point guard throughout the summer and
fall.
Penn State must ;nd a way to replace
Frazier's points and league-leading 5.4
assists per game, and Chambers will use
whatever personnel combinations allow
him to accomplish that goal. Foster gives
him some new options.
"Devin is coming o= a remarkable sea-
son, leading his team to the Final Four
and being named a juco All-American,"
Chambers said in a prepared statement.
"He's a competitive kid who will bring a
winning attitude to our program."
The Nittany Lions' newcomers have em-
braced the competition while maintaining
a healthy outlook on the program's fu-
ture.
"Of course you're going to have people
discourage you along the way or wonder
why you committed there or say some of
the things they said, but it never really
fazed me because I feel in my mind that
Coach Chambers is doing a great job,"
Washington said. "I just believe in making
commitments and sticking to them. When
you make a commitment, you keep it. I
never thought twice about it.
"A lot of people don't view things the
way I do, I guess. They just look at what's
happening right now. You can look at a
lot of di=erent programs that were not
really there until a group of guys actually
gave it a look and then they brought it to
fruition."
With Washington set to arrive on Penn
State's campus May 19, Garner slated for
a June 29 arrival and Foster expected to
join the program sometime this spring,
that future is approaching fast.
■
Woodward opts
to leave Lions
Penn State announced in early
April that point guard Graham
Woodward was leaving the program
after one season in University Park.
The Edina, Minn., native had not
chosen a new school as of this writ-
ing but was planning to visit Iowa
State.
Coach Patrick Chambers de-
scribed Woodward in a news release
as "a tough, hard-working player
and a great young man. We wish him
the best moving forward."
A week earlier at his season-end-
ing news conference, Chambers had
said he was hoping to keep the team
intact through the off-season.
"I like this core, I like this team,
and I think we did a lot of incredible
things this year. A foreign tour, go-
ing to New York, we were very cre-
ative and innovative with practice
just doing different things, so
hopefully they'll want to stay," he
said. "We don't want anybody to
go."
In his 31-game career at Penn
State, Woodward averaged 2.8
points. A perimeter shooting spe-
cialist, he made 23 3-pointers.
ISAIAH WASHINGTON
"It's pretty much about
perspective. You have to see
the end product and see what's
being built and not just look
at what's there."
