Blue White Illustrated

T he Penn State men's basketball team had just lost to 6:h-ranked Iowa, 73-49. It was an ugly score, a 24- point blowout that happened to be the Nittany Lions' 6:h loss of 20 or more points this season. And as bad as the point di8erential looked in the box score, it might not actually have re7ect- ed just how lousy Penn State had played. The Lions, a:er all, had missed an as- tonishing 19 of their 20 3-point at- tempts. But coach Patrick Chambers was un- daunted. His message to the team in the wake of its dismal loss to the Hawkeyes was unambiguous: keep shooting. "I told them, even though we didn't make shots against Iowa, you're getting better. Just trust me. I'm watching 6lm. Keep doing what we're doing." As stark as Penn State's shooting woes were in the loss at Iowa, Chambers' eval- uation of the 6lm showed signs that his Nittany Lions hadn't completely tanked. Just the opposite, in fact. And a steady dose of positivity has since allowed the team to weather a brutal start to the con- ference schedule, a stretch in which it played seven of its 6rst 10 games away from the Bryce Jordan Center. The Lions' shots may not have been falling at Iowa, but the team grabbed 40 rebounds to Iowa's 45, had six blocks and seven steals in the game, and turned the ball over only 10 times. They were hardly earth-shattering numbers, but they argued against an overreaction. And Chambers' stay-the-course ap- proach was vindicated on Feb. 6 when the Nittany Lions knocked o8 No. 21 In- diana at the BJC, 68-63. Basking in the satisfaction of a hard- fought victory, the kind that had eluded he and his teammates through the bulk of the Big Ten season, forward Brandon Taylor con6rmed the e8ectiveness of that approach. Asked how the team had been able to persevere in securing the win, the senior pointed to the power of playing with con6dence. "I think we lost a little bit of our con6- dence at Iowa," he said. "It's [a matter of] continuing to get shots up. The day a:er Iowa, we're in the gym getting shots up. That's something we've been doing all year – continuing our work ethic and not letting it fall o8 as the season goes on. "Throughout the season, we've taken a lot of punches, and not giving up is the reason why we came out of this game with a 'W.' We could have put our heads down, we could have run away, but we stuck our necks out there and we con- tinue to work and we continue to watch 6lm and get shots up in here. We knew that there was going to be a game where we're going to defend and play Penn State basketball for 40 minutes." Although they were far from perfect, the Nittany Lions withstood a series of sharp punches from the Hoosiers, only to set up an end-of-game situation that o8ered a 6ghting opportunity for a vic- tory. In a back-and-forth game that in- cluded 14 lead changes and 13 ties, Penn State was able to take a 3-point lead in the 6nal 1:59, then respond to close out the win even a:er Indiana again tied it 20 seconds later. Having focused intently on improving his team's performance in late-game sit- uations – situations in which the Nit- tany Lions frequently came up short in the past – Chambers said the work has been for a purpose and hasn't waned in recent weeks and months. Pivoting from the victory into the 6nal stretch of the conference season, the Li- ons returned to action Feb. 13 at Nebras- ka. Following their 70-54 loss to the Cornhuskers, they were set to play four more games at the BJC during a 19-day span leading up to the conference tour- nament March 9-13 in Indianapolis. With their season winding down, the feeling of euphoria that followed the victory over the Hoosiers is one that Taylor and his teammates are looking to experience again. "It's just a great feeling that hard work pays o8," he said. "We're just excited for this win but we're not going to get too happy. We're going to get right back to work and try to string them together." ■ bers relayed how integral his national championship credibility has been in el- evating the whole team's work ethic and competitive spirit. Especially for a program that will have eight scholarship players with freshman or sophomore eligibility next season, Samuel's steady in7uence will be critical. Said Chambers, "I expected the work ethic, but I was unsure of the leadership value that he would bring to this program and to this team. So that really excites me, especially when next year you don't have any seniors on the team. You have a guy who won a national championship, and I think that bodes well for this fresh- man class coming in that he's been there, he's done it, he understands how hard you have to work." Admitting that it's been di9cult to sit out the season, especially the road trips, on which he is not permitted to join his teammates, Samuel insists that he's stayed in the present. Focused on the evolution of his game, along with keeping his team- mates positive through the ups and downs of this season, he has learned to be pa- tient. "Obviously you're going to think about it because you know you're ready to play and you want to see what you're going to be working with next year. But I just try to stay about now," he said. "Even with them, they talk about next year and I just say 'No, we've got to worry about now.' We can still do something special here." ■ Confidence is key to Lions' improvement

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