Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/523134
State is today coming o+ these di,cul- ties. But now is the time for us to make the statement that we can turn the cor- ner and sit there and idle or we can push the gas. I'm all for turning the corner and pushing the gas. I mean, let's really do this thing – let's show the world who we are and what matters to us, what's important to us and what we're about. You're asking people to reinvest af- ter a stock market crash. You're ask- ing them to get back into the market when they're still hesitant. Is that fair? Yeah. That's what smart investors do. I like your analogy. That's what you do. I believe that we're a very good invest- ment. More important, in this particular case with what we're talking about, needing to raise funds to invest in Penn State student-athletes, all we're talking about is the family. Most of the time we are concerned with and involved with the external world, and we have to navigate that from a public relations standpoint, from a tell-the-story standpoint. What we're talking about here, all we care about, is the family. So we're only talk- ing about internal [e+orts] here. Which Penn Staters might feel more strongly about than people at any other university. I totally agree. Yeah, absolutely. And so I believe we're a great investment. But here's the phenomenal thing: You don't have to believe me. Listen to our student-athletes. Listen to them tell the story, to tell you about the impact of a scholarship – the impact of an opportu- nity to come to Penn State, get a great education and participate in a Big Ten championship or a national champi- onship in their given sport. Or to repre- sent their country, our two women on the United States' women's national soccer team or folks playing profession- ally in ice hockey, volleyball, football, soccer… Shi&ing gears, you extended Patrick Chambers' contract. Di%erent people have come through here, but Pat seems to be doing things that I haven't seen before… He absolutely is, and that's why I ex- tended him. I believe he's [providing] the leadership that we need there. There's no doubt in my mind that being a "football school" does not preclude you from being successful in basketball and, frankly, in any other sport. It de- pends on, as a university, do you sup- port conditions for success for women's volleyball, for men's basketball, for wrestling, for ice hockey? And the an- swer at Penn State in those programs has been "yes." So what is it we're not doing in men's basketball? I'm taking that as a chal- lenge. Because to me there is no reason Penn State men's basketball can't be successful. So what is it? What is Penn State not doing in men's basketball? There are so many challenges with hoops in terms of demographics in the imme- diate area, getting people to come to games on Wednesday nights, but also facilities… I think the place where we've got an ability to make some changes pretty quickly – I mean one of the obvious places – for me is in the Bryce Jordan Center. It's a multipurpose facility. It was built that way, it was designed for that. But what can we do? I think a real easy, simple place [to start] is to make sure it looks like it's Penn State's basketball [home]. I think that's an easy start – [revising] some of the seating con*gurations. It comes back to fan experience. How do we help that? And I'll admit, I don't have a whole lot of answers right now. But we're putting in the e+ort to explore it and generate those answers. Because the premise is that Penn State men's basketball can be as good as any of the programs we have. And a revenue generator potential- ly? Sure. Yeah! ■