Blue White Illustrated

FAITH HEALING Narrow losses torment, but newcomers have Patrick Chambers feeling hopeful ony Carr sat next to his head coach on stage at the Penn State Hoops Club postseason banquet. He was coming off a debut season in which he won Big Ten All-Freshman and honorable mention All-Conference honors, and at the banquet he was announced as the team's most valuable player. Surrounded by teammates, coaches, family and other program supporters on the floor of the Bryce Jordan Center, Carr watched as a highlight reel of his performances played on the video board overhead. But his focus was on the future. Specifically, Carr was thinking about the ways in which his sophomore season might be better – not just for himself but for his team. "I'm very excited by it. What is it, 218 days until the next game?" Carr said. "I'm just looking forward to getting out there and keep pushing forward for my team and my brothers." Penn State received a number of en- couraging performances this past year, as freshmen Carr, Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins offered tantalizing glimpses of their potential. But the season was still a struggle. The Nittany Lions finished 15- 18 overall, and after going 6-12 in confer- ence play, they drew the No. 13 seed in the Big Ten tournament and exited with a 78- 51 bludgeoning at the hands of Michigan State in the second round. One of the most frustrating aspects of the season was the Lions' penchant for coming out on the wrong side of close games. Of the eight games that were de- cided by a single possession or went to overtime, they won only two. They lost twice in overtime and dropped four other games by a combined nine points. Reflecting on that uphill battle, coach Patrick Chambers said he saw notable achievements in quality wins against Georgia Tech, St. John's, Michigan State, Minnesota, Illinois and Maryland, as well as teachable moments from throughout the season. "I just think they were all great experi- ences. We were right there," Chambers said. "I just felt like we could win every game. I felt we were very competitive. We just have to learn how to do it for longer stretches. The experiences that we gained from these close losses, these overtime losses, are only going to make us that much physically and mentally tougher." In the process, Chambers is revisiting the philosophy he established for his team before the season's start. He had said he wanted the Lions to score more than 80 points per game, and they did end up pro- ducing their highest average of his tenure as head coach at 71.7 points. But they also allowed opponents to average 72.7 points, their worst performance in his six years with the program. Subtly acknowledging the misstep, T | M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L YOUTH MOVEMENT Stevens started all 33 games and averaged 12.7 points in his debut sea- son with the Lions. Photo by Patrick Mansell

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