UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Basketball was always a way of life for junior forward and three-year Nittany Lion starter Lamar Stevens, who found his love and passion for the game at a very young age.
Growing up, Stevens could almost always be found with a basketball in his hands. Basketball was what he truly loved the most. He would often wake up at the crack of dawn before school and go to the gym to practice with his father, Lou Hudson, who was a 2,000-point scorer and all-time great player at Widener University.
"Basketball is just something I have been surrounded by all my life," said Stevens, a native of North Wales, Pennsylvania. "I just happened to be something I got really passionate about."
"I used to always go and watch (my dad) play in (recreational) leagues," Stevens said when asked what helped him fall in love with the game. "He was good. He could jump."
At first, though, Lamar Steven's goal to follow his father's footsteps and finding successes in the sport was challenging and easier said than done. His ambitions initially exceeded his skillset.
"When I was younger, I wasn't that good, I was just tall," Stevens admitted. "My friends were always a lot more skilled than me, but then I just kept working. I transferred to a school where the basketball program was better, and I started focusing solely on just one sport, basketball, (instead of football and baseball), and I was able to get a lot better."
Stevens' hard work, including his various morning practices with his father, Lou, the 1988 NCAA Division III Player of the Year, most certainly paid off.
Not only was he ranked in ESPN's top 100 recruits as a four-star forward coming out of Roman Catholic high school (after playing his sophomore and junior years at The Haverford School), but he also had an almost immediate impact on Penn State's team upon his arrival in Happy Valley.
After averaging 12.7 points per game as a freshman followed by 15.5 ppg as a sophomore, Stevens hit his stride. He helped lead the Blue & White to the 2018 NIT Championship as a sophomore, where he averaged nearly 20 points per game and matched his career-best with 30 points at Marquette. His efforts and determination – and 28 points in the title game – earned him NIT Most Outstanding Player honors.
"My staff and I are taking such great pride in helping him develop and see how much he's grown on the floor because you can see it statistically, but off the floor, he's just become 'the man'," said Penn State coach Patrick Chambers of Stevens.
Despite his success over his first two collegiate campaigns, Stevens refused to get complacent – a valuable lesson he learned from his father over the years. With his will to continue to improve his game, Stevens was invited to and attended the Elite Nike Basketball Academy last summer.
"I learned so much," Stevens said of his Nike Academy experience. "I learned more about the mental aspect of the game and the thinking process in the game than anything - ways to prepare my mind and have it ready for tough stretches in certain points of the game."
The skills he learned at the Nike Basketball Academy have paid dividends throughout the beginning of 2018-2019 season, where Stevens is currently averaging a career-best 19.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. He ranks in the top 10 in the Big Ten Conference in scoring and has been at the top of the league's individual scoring chart.
"His body has changed, his approach has changed, his mindset has changed, and so has his development in every aspect," Chambers said. "He's grown leaps and bounds.
Penn State's 73-67 win over Duquesne in December stands as a great example of how much Stevens has improved and developed as a player. Not only did the 6-8 forward have 21 second-half points to help erase an early Nittany Lion deficit, but Chambers put his trust in Stevens on an isolation play with five seconds left in what was, at that point, a tie game.
Stevens drove to the hoop and drew a blocking foul on the opposition, then calmly stepped up to the free throw line and hit two free throws that would eventually lead to Penn State capturing a great road victory.
"He made some big-time shots for us," Chambers said of Stevens' clutch 25-point, 10-rebound performance. "Lamar has a bright future."
"I think it's a great honor that my coach, my teammates, really believe in me," Stevens added. "To take those shots, I think is that is something to have your team believe in you. I think we're a really unselfish team, though, and it's not mainly about my shots or my minutes – it's everybody."
Stevens' contribution to the Nittany Lion program, however, goes far beyond the box score. He's become a great leader and has helped mentor many of Penn State's underclassman – a tall task considering the roster includes 10 student-athletes who are either freshmen or sophomores.
"We have a group of young guards who are really talented, and I think the knowledge I've gained over three years, and can pass on to them, benefits them now and in the future," Stevens said. "I've taken great pride in being a leader of our team.
"It's good for (the underclassman) to know that they've had somebody go through some of the stuff that they might be going through, and I share how I got through it and what I wish I would've done differently," Stevens continued. "I just like to pass on that knowledge to them, so they don't make the same mistakes that I did."
Chambers was quick to praise the development of Steven's leadership and maturity both on and off the court.
"He's been a fantastic leader this year. Early on at Haverford School, he was more of a follower, kind of going with the crowd and now he's really emerged and stepped up. He knows what he wants, and he knows what this program needs.
"Lamar absolutely is (our vocal leader). He's been great in practice, great in huddles. He's talking more in games because he has to do a lot in games. He's got to score, he's got to defend, and he's got to rebound. It's a work in progress, but he's doing a great job."
Stevens' "work in progress" has seen him progress up Penn State's career lists. He has more than 500 career rebounds and surpassed the 1,300 career points mark at the beginning of January. There's more room to develop, grow, and keep moving up those charts.
The accolades and statistics aren't as important, though, to Stevens who wants to help lead his teammates in building a successful program. He chose Penn State because he wanted to "blaze his own path and start a great tradition" and in his career as a Nittany Lion, he has helped do both with even greater possibilities ahead.
