March 3, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - When Patrick Chambers arrived at Penn State in 2011 as the new head coach of the basketball team, he found himself with an exceptionally young roster at his disposal.
With only one senior and eight of the club's 12 players either freshmen or sophomores, Chambers knew the wins weren't going to come overnight. Still, it was the new coach's goal to mold his youngsters into not just competitive players, but successful young men in general.
Now four years later, Chambers will experience perhaps his most emotional senior night yet on Wednesday against Ohio State (6 p.m. on BTN), when the Nittany Lions honor Kevin Montminy, D.J. Newbill, Ross Travis and Alan Wisniewski, four players who have been here for the coach's entire tenure.
Not only are those individuals the four players who have gotten to know Chambers the most, they're also the ones who embody the definition of student athlete. And not only do they take their schoolwork seriously, they also have represented their school with class and dignity.
"Our first job here is to develop men and make sure they get an incredible education and I think we're doing that," Chambers said. "When you start to develop men you start to win more games. We just have to develop more men and they'll get there because this is a man's league."
The past four years haven't been easy for Chambers or his players. The Nittany Lions have consistently battled the best the Big Ten has to offer and taken their fair share of hits. While Chambers appreciates that each senior is a nice guy off the court, what he respects the most is that none of them ever fled when the going got tough.
Newbill, who redshirted his first year after transferring from Southern Mississippi, has carried Penn State for the past three seasons and never once complained or asked out. Travis, the third leading rebounder in school history, has seen his playing time go up and down and still willfully does the team's dirty work.
Then there's Montminy and Wisniewski, two players that walked on, two players that earned scholarships, and two players excelling in majors that pile schoolwork on them (finance and accounting for Montminy, industrial engineering for Wisniewski) and yet both still show up at practice everyday knowing that more playing time is likely not in their future.
Each player comes from a different background and each has a different story, but they all share a common bond. None of them quit on Chambers or Penn State.
"I want the best for them, they were loyal, they stayed committed, they battled through a lot of challenges and adversity," Chambers said. "They stayed true to who they are. They mean the world to me because they easily could have left. The way college basketball is now, a lot of people transfer and they didn't do that, they wanted to be part of the solution and I'm indebted to them for what they did."
With a current record of 15-14 and the Big Ten tournament about to come up, the Nittany Lions still have plenty of opportunites to surpass last season's win total of 16 and give Chamber's his first winning record at Penn State. Still, the coach is more determined to give his seniors a victory in their last home game.
It won't be easy, as the Buckeyes are currently the 23rd-ranked team in the country and are on a two-game winning streak. However, the Nittany Lions beat Ohio State on senior night last year 65-63, and have the added motivating of sending Montminy, Newbill, Travis and Wisniewski out right.
"I think the players really want to finish strong and they want to finish strong for Ross, for D.J., and Kevin and Alan," Chambers said. "There's still the motivating factor here where, we didn't win our 16th game [last year] until the CBI. There's still a couple of games and the Big Ten tournament."
"No doubt, we want to give it all we got for these guys," freshman guard Shep Garner added. "It's their last home game. We're gonna do what we have to do to help them get this win, it's important for them."
Although there are still games left to play, the time will soon come when Penn State's seniors take off their blue and white uniforms for the last time and move on to the next stages of their lives.
Newbill, the leading scorer in the conference, will pursue his dream of playing in the NBA, Travis will graduate with a degree in telecommunications and possibly try to enter the music industry, Montminy will remain in school for a fifth year to finish his master's degree and Wisniewski will move to Michigan to accept a position with the Ford Motor Company.
Their lives may be about to go in different directions, but the group will always have four years of memories and friendships to look back on.
"I came in with those guys, we watched each other grow," Newbill said. "They're like my brothers. All four of us, seeing us go is kind of like, wow, we really spent almost everyday of our life together for the last four years and now we're going to part into whatever we're going to be doing. I'm going to pursue my career and they're going to pursue theirs. It's great to see how far they've come."
Ohio State Scouting Report
The Nittany Lions (15-14, 3-13 Big Ten) and Buckeyes (21-8, 10-6) met three weeks ago in Columbus, with Ohio State notching a 75-55 victory in Value City Arena. Ohio State has gone 2-2 since it played Penn State, but the Buckeyes have won two-straight, including a pivotal 65-61 win over Purdue on Sunday night. With two games to play Ohio State is in the thick of the Big Ten race for a double bye at the Big Ten Tournament. Additionally, each game has NCAA Tournament implications for the Buckeyes.
Freshman phenom D'Angelo Russell leads the Buckeyes into Happy Valley. Russell is second to D.J. Newbill (20.4 ppg) in scoring at 19.0 points per game. He is also third in the Big Ten in assists at 5.3 per game. Senior Sam Thompson is second on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game.
The Nittany Lions are 7-12 all-time against Ohio State in Happy Valley. That mark includes a 65-63 victory over the Buckeyes in last season's meeting in the BJC (Feb. 27, 2014).