Blue White Illustrated

into this year's Big Ten tourney was a CBI bid in 2014. A love unful5lled, the talent and e7ort of an inarguably gritty player gone to waste. That would be an easy, surface-level retrospective, though. Without hesitation, Newbill, his team- mates, the Nittany Lions' coaches and personnel within the program see some- thing greater. More meaningful than any set of statistics or wins and losses, Newbill's is a story of survival few can understand. Repeatedly knocked down on and o7 the hardwood, Newbill has unfailingly and instinctively responded the only way he's ever known: by getting back up to 5ght another day. * * * More than either of the two before it, Newbill's senior season has been a kind of purgatory. The Nittany Lions won 12 of the 13 games in their moderately di8cult nonconference schedule, with eight of those victories coming by single digits. But once the Big Ten season began, the momentum ended abruptly. Although Newbill was able to maintain his place among the nation's leading scorers, topping all Power Five con- ference players with an average of 21.1 points per game heading into the postsea- son, the team settled into the lower reaches of the league standings and remained there for the duration. Of their 14 Big Ten losses, 10 were single-digit games marred by poor late-game execution, abysmal o8ciating and 6at-out bad luck. Until the last game of the regular season, a 79-76 victory at Minnesota in which Newbill hit the decisive 3-pointer at the buzzer, the critical mo- ments simply did not go his way. "I really want it for him," head coach Patrick Chambers said. "I want it for him bad. Because the only thing he's not doing is flying the plane and driving the Coach Patrick Chambers was un- happy with the o8ciating in Penn State's 76-73 loss to visiting Mary- land on Feb. 14 and made his dis- pleasure known in the postgame news conference. He was particularly an- gry about a costly o7ensive foul against Jordan Dickerson with 1:50 le9 on which the Nittany Lion center was clearly pulled to the 6oor by Maryland's Evan Smotrycz. Cham- bers described it as "the worst call I've ever seen in my entire life." His remarks were a breach of Big Ten protocol, and they resulted in a $10,000 5ne against the Penn State athletics department. But as far as his boss is concerned, there are no lingering hard feelings. During a radio appearance with Steve Jones a few days a9er the game, ath- letics director Sandy Barbour gave Chambers a strong vote of con5- dence. "It's real simple for me. I love Patrick's passion, most importantly for his student-athletes, for the game, for the Penn State program, for our ability to be successful. I support that," she said. "There's obviously a lot that goes into that from his coaching and that of his sta7 to our student-athletes and the way they perform on the court and then a lot of moving parts around it. I support Patrick's pas- sion." When asked why the Big Ten did not o7er some type of public apology or repri- mand for the o8- ciating error, Bar- bour was some- what less enthu- siastic. "We do know the rules. I think they're very clear. It's behind us," she said. "All of our e7orts have been fo- Barbour: 'We are headed in the right direction' VOTE OF CONFI- DENCE Barbour said she believes Chambers can build a "long- term, sustainable winner" at Penn State. Photo by Annemarie Mountz

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