Feb. 17, 2015
Feature by Matt Allibone, GoPSUSports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK. Pa. - Take a look at both last season's first-team All-Big Ten selections and this year's preseason team, and it's hard not to feel puzzled.
Not because any of the choices aren't excellent players deserving of recognition, but because there seems to be one player near the top of the conference's stat sheet missing-- D.J. Newbill.
Newbill has played for the Penn State men's basketball team for three years and has led the Nittany Lions in scoring each season. If that doesn't impress you, consider that he is leading the conference in points-per-game this year (20.8), finished second last season (17.8) and fifth the year before that (16.3).
Despite the accomplishments, you rarely hear the Philadelphia native named when the best players in the nation are being discussed. At the same time, his importance has never been doubted inside his own program.
"D.J. Newbill should be in every conversation," head coach Patrick Chambers said. "It's nice that he's a [Senior CLASS Award] finalist, which is great and he deserves that but he's not in many conversations and he needs to be and he should be. He's carrying a team and he's scoring in a variety of ways."
Newbill's scoring isn't just the result of piling up points against non-conference competition either. He's averaged 18.6 points against Big Ten opponents the past two seasons with a terrific 20.3 mark this season. In 32 conference games dating back to last season, the guard has reached double-digits 29 times.
Still, scoring stats only tell part of the story when it comes to Newbill. His play last year helped the team's win total improve by six games and the Lions are already 15-11 this season with five regular season games to go, one win away from matching their 2013-'14 total.
The 6-foot-4 guard's role has also expanded over his career to the point that it's hard to refer to him as any one position. While he began as a point guard and still regularly handles the ball, he spent most of last season playing shooting guard and now spends plenty of time at small forward.
Regardless of what position number is attached to him, Newbill is clearly the motor that makes the Lions go. Apart from scoring, he leads the team in assists (3.1), steals (1.3), 3-point shooting (37 percent) and is third in rebounds (4.8). As Chambers puts it, he does everything but "fly the plane and drive the bus."
"He's a tremendous leader and he's been playing multiple positions," Chambers said. "And he's defending now the best player on the other team and he's rebounding the basketball. He's done everything for us. Without D.J. Newbill, wow, it'd be scary."
Although his senior season is nearing its end, Newbill has kept his foot on the accelerator. Already the seventh leading scorer in the nation, the team captain doesn't let a practice go by without badgering Chambers about what he still needs to work on.
Along with asking questions and meeting with the coaches during his free time, the team's leading scorer has also become a film room junky, often studying tape to break down his own game.
"His leadership is incredible because he knows he doesn't know everything and he's still developing into a leader," Chambers said. "He's willing to pull up tape. Normally a best player is not doing that. He spends a lot of time with me in my office, which is probably smart but a lot of times guys think they know it all already and he's very open, very honest, very coachable. He wants to get better, studying film more. Little things like that."
Those little things include spending as much time as possible with his younger teammates, who all praise him for his leadership abilities.
This year alone, he has helped true freshman point guard Shep Garner grow into an everyday starter, sophomore Geno Thorpe become a more complete player and one of the conference's best defenders, and junior transfer Devin Foster turn into a contributor off the bench.
"I learned so much from [D.J] and it's been quick, like five months, six months," Garner said. "I ask him any type of question under the sun, call him any time of night and he's there for me."
"I've learned a lot from him, just the way he approaches everyday, practice or the game," Foster added. "He brings it all. He's the best player. Some best players don't give it their all but he does. He's someone to look up to. This is his last go-around so I try to do everything he tells me so I can help him be better in his career."
As happy as Chambers is to see his best player mentor his younger ones, what impresses him the most is the way the three-year starter acts around everyone else in his life. A respectful and soft-spoken guy off the court, Newbill treats all people the same, a quality that his coach believes is more important than how well he can shoot a basketball.
"He's the most humble guy I ever coached," Chambers said. "He treats the managers better than anybody. Again that might sound silly, but to me running a program, we want to treat everybody the same. From President [Eric] Barron all the way down to the last manager and he does it better than anybody. I think those are great qualities to have in life."