P
enn State finished 15-18 overall last
season, a record that wasn't a big
departure from previous years.
During the three prior seasons, the Nit-
tany Lions averaged 16.7 wins, never
dipping too far below .500 but
never soaring too far above it,
either.
But while the record was fa-
miliar, the way the Lions got
there was unusual. Under
Patrick Chambers, Penn State
had been known for its defen-
sive tenacity and rebounding hustle.
Last season, however, it finished 11th in
the Big Ten in scoring defense (72.7
points per game) and 14th in rebounding
margin (minus-3.4 per game). Those are
trends that Chambers
wants to change, and
the sooner the better.
"We didn't get it done
on the defensive end,"
he said. "We didn't get
the stop against Ohio
State, we didn't get the
stop against Indiana, we didn't get a
critical rebound in certain points of the
game where you put the game away by
rebounding the ball. So I don't think it
was so much the offensive execution
[that hindered Penn State last season]. I
think it was on the defensive end. … We
need to get stops."
Chambers has plenty of returning tal-
ent to work with as he looks to reshape
the team's identity into something more
in keeping with Penn State's recent his-
tory. All four of the players who sur-
HIGHER LEARNING
Penn State's seventh-year head coach sees last season's lessons paying o
NEW SEASON
With nine players
returning Cham-
bers is feeling op-
timistic about
Penn State's out-
look this season.
Photo by Nate
Bauer
M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L
I N T E R V I E W P A T R I C K C H A M B E R S
