Oct. 16, 2014
CHICAGO, Ill.
COACH Patrick Chambers
Patrick Chambers: Good morning. Obviously looking forward to starting my fourth year at Penn State. I have a good mixture of veterans and youth. I'm seeing that in practice. Obviously very good leader in D.J. Newbill. Ross Travis is coming along terrific helping him in his leadership. I developed a leadership council which I'm really fired up about. They've taken ownership of this team, and I'm noticing things in the locker room, in practice, in the weight room. As long as we continue to get better, I think we have a chance to be better than we were last year, and that's the goal. Get better every day and be the best team we can be by the end of the year. And I look forward to our front court really contributing this year in Donovon Jack, Jordan Dickerson, Julian Moore, Brandon Taylor along with Ross. It's going to be exciting year for us, and again, Big Ten is a difficult league, but as long as we compete like we did last year, hopefully, some of those swing games will go our way this year.
Q. How do you feel about not being the most eastern school this year, and Rutgers and Maryland being in the league, how does that influence the Big Ten?
Patrick Chambers: I think it's great. I think it's great for us. It's great for recruiting. It's great for the current players because their families know that they cannot only come to Penn State, but now they can go up 95 and go to Rutgers and down 95 and go to Maryland. I think it's a win-win, and a lot of people thought that we were in the Midwest. So it's really terrific that there's somebody a little bit further east so everybody understands who the Big Ten is now. I think it's a win-win and really a positive situation so far.
Q. Does the depth of the Big Ten make it even harder for a program to take that step from the lower tier up into the middle?
Patrick Chambers: It does. You know, I've been down in the bottom portion for the last few years. Our kids are working really hard, and again, I just said it in my opening statement, it needs to swing our way a little bit. The principle of verticality will even out sometimes. I think the ball is going to bounce our way, and you have to earn that. But your culture has got to be right, your environment has got to be right, your leadership has got to be point. The accountability needs to be there. The locker room needs to be tight. Of all those things -- and I drawback to my experiences at Villanova -- when we were tight, you go to the Final Four. When you have a great locker room everybody holds each other accountable, you go to Elite 8s and Sweet 16s. I'm not saying we're that type of team, but I see it and we're headed in that direction. If we can get all that done, then maybe the next jump is the middle of the pack, and if you continue to get good recruits the way we are right now, then you might be able to get up into that top four, top five, but that's the goal, that's the vision. You've got great coaches, you've got Bo, you've got Thad, you've got Tom, Tom, Tim, Matt, you've got terrific Franny -- I don't want to miss anybody. I don't want them to get mad at me here -- but you've got great coaches in this league and that's the challenge. But you love it. As a man, you have to embrace the struggle. You love the challenge of this league, and that's why I embrace it every day. I cherish it, I learn from the past years and all these failures and setbacks, and it's just going to make us a better coach and a better staff and a better program.
Q. You mentioned your blend of veterans and young guys. Do you coach a team like that differently when you don't have a lot in the middle between them?
Patrick Chambers: You do. I'm going to spend more time, obviously the veterans are going to bring along the younger guys. D.J. Newbill knows every drill by now. He knows all my sayings. He knows what I want to do. He might say it before I say it, which is great. That means there's a great connection between us. But we've got to continue to develop him and get these veterans ready and remain hungry, and they've got to bring the younger guys along. Our practices are àla Chip Kelly right now. They are fast, we are moving, we are competing, we are getting a ton of reps. Guys are spent after practice, and it's not from 17s or extensions or running like that. It's from going up and down 5 on 5 and getting us better for game-like situations. FastScripts by ASAP Sports.