New PSU hoops coach has Philly ties

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Just before the gates opened last Saturday at Beaver Stadium for Penn State's football game against Alabama, the new Nittany Lions basketball coach was supposed to be at the student gate, the spot known as Paternoville, to "pump up" the students. A security guard was asked where the coach would be speaking from.

The guard pointed to a landing in a staircase just inside the stadium gates, above the crowd.

"Players and coaches usually speak to the students from there," he said.

The security guard hadn't met the new basketball coach.

At the scheduled time, Patrick Chambers, formerly of Newtown Square, Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia Textile, Villanova, and Boston University, walked through some students and jumped onto a two-foot platform in front of Gate A. The square-jawed hoop coach looked ready to return a kick, wearing a Nittany Lions jersey and mini-shoulder pads, screaming variations of "We are . . . Penn State."

Chambers furiously pumped a helmet in the air, threw a jersey at a student, then pulled the helmet on and disappeared into the crowd, only his arms visible as Chambers high-fived everybody in his path.

"Felt like I was playing football again," Chambers said right afterward.

Chambers' big job, of course, is to transfer some of that energy across the street to the Bryce Jordan Center, to turn Penn State hoop games into a destination, to make Nittany Lions basketball relevant. All you need to know about Penn State's history over the last quarter century is that the last coach, Ed DeChellis, led the Nittany Lions to the NCAA tournament last March and then left to coach Navy, deciding his long-term future was more secure in the Patriot League.

"Chambers to Penn State" is bigger news in Philadelphia than just a Philly guy getting a job - and relevant right now, not just in the winter - because every Division I coach in Philadelphia knows Chambers is at Penn State. A school that perpetually failed to gain a basketball foothold in Philly now has one. Winning hoop games in Happy Valley is never a slam dunk - "prove it" is the smart mode - but Chambers can walk into any gym in this city and find people he knows. He has relationships with virtually all the AAU movers and shakers. That energy the students saw crosses the Susquehanna and then the Schuylkill.

I first wrote about Chambers two decades back when he was a sophomore point guard at Textile. (It was a natural story since Patrick's brother, Paul, was starting point guard at Penn.) Legendary Episcopal coach Dan Dougherty said then how the guy nicknamed "Bird" was always a character. Dougherty remembered having Patrick in a precalculus class at Episcopal. One time Chambers showed up in sneakers, against the rules of the private school, so Dougherty, a no-nonsense type, told Patrick to listen to the lecture from outside a window of the first-floor classroom.

It was pouring rain that day, and when Dougherty opened the drapes, Chambers was sitting outside in a chair with a desk attached, taking notes with one hand, holding an umbrella with the other.

That level of moxie has always served the youngest of 12 children well. Chambers also has gone through some trials - the biggest of his life certainly was in 2002, taking a broken cocktail glass in the back of his neck, missing his jugular vein by a centimeter. (He was stabbed by the apparently jealous husband of a woman Chambers had just been introduced to.) That changed his life, Chambers said a couple of years ago: "I realized what I wanted to do. It wasn't about chasing money. It was about being part of something bigger than myself. . . . I was chasing the almighty dollar, driving a luxury car, a BMW X5."

He still keeps the bloody clothes in a closet in his home office, he said - "as a reminder."

After that experience, Chambers stopped working in sales for the family printing business. Amazingly, his first full-time job in basketball was as director of basketball operations at Villanova. It didn't hurt that he'd been working as a part-time assistant at Episcopal, and Villanova was then recruiting Episcopal's two stars, Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington. Villanova didn't get either one, but Chambers turned out to be a blue-chipper as a coach and rose to be Wright's top assistant, a big part of 'Nova's run to the 2009 Final Four.

As head coach for two seasons at Boston University, Chambers stocked his roster with Philly kids and reached the NCAA tournament last spring. The difference was that he was basically taking the players Big Five schools had passed on.

When DeChellis left, I hadn't thought of Chambers for the job. (My published thought was a long-held one: Bruiser Flint.) I didn't ever buy the idea the good players wouldn't come to Penn State but pointed out Penn State strangely kept hiring coaches with no recruiting base.

"Just like you, a lot of other people didn't think they'd hire a guy who was a two-year head coach," Chambers said.

In his own mind, "I felt like once I got my foot in the door, I'd get the job," Chambers said. "I feel like they were looking for somebody with some enthusiasm, some energy."

He has always charted his own path. In college, Chambers played for one of the great shooting coaches in the history of the sport, Herb Magee, but he rarely took a shot. He had first tried to walk on at Drexel, didn't make it, walked on over on Henry Avenue, became starting point guard, and still is Philadelphia University's all-time assists leader.

Chambers suggested the Nittany Lions can't just be Penn State-Philly to get it done in the Big Ten.

"We've got to go where the best players are to help compete on a daily basis and kids who are serious about getting a degree," Chambers said. "Is Philly an important place for us? Yeah. Why? Because it's got a ton of players. So does New Jersey. So does New York. So does Maryland and Florida and Texas."

Chambers is no kid. He is 40 years old, now married with two children. But in this town, he's competing with men he learned the game from. "It will be tough," he said. "You have to lean on relationships." The Big Ten Network no doubt will come up in every conversation. Chambers already has a commitment from one recruit Temple was in with and has a Philly guy already on campus, Southern Mississippi transfer D.J. Newbill, a former Strawberry Mansion High star. (He also just missed on a recruit to Temple).

To really succeed, and not just not fail, Chambers knows he'll have to compete with all the Philly schools, including Villanova, currently the 800-pound gorilla of local recruiting.

"That's down the road," Chambers said. "Right now, they're a top 10, top 15 team. We have gone against them [in recruiting] and lost already. Jay's my mentor, and I love him. He and I have already talked about this. I'm hoping in the next three years, we're beating Villanova for players. That's the goal. I shouldn't be here if that's not the goal."

Ten years ago, Chambers never had been a college assistant or high school head coach. Now, he is in charge of a Big Ten program. Life stories don't win basketball games, but this will get interesting.