Penn State Men's Basketball
Head Coach Patrick Chambers Postgame Press Conference
vs. Cornell - December 29, 2019
Opening Statement
I'm really proud of my team. Really solid nonconference, probably better than solid. You never put a number on anything – I've done that in the past and it hasn't worked out. The goal was just to get better and I felt like that was our approach, I felt like that was our mindset, and obviously Mike [Watkins] and Lamar [Stevens] and our leadership council have done a really good job of leading us so to be able to get to 10 wins in the nonconference – and we had a difficult nonconference [schedule], that was a hell of a stretch we've had – and we've got to build on it now. Now you got a week and you're Big Ten games the rest of the way. I do believe our best basketball is ahead of us. It's ahead of us. As far as today, I was really proud of the first 8-10 minutes of that second half. I thought against Central Connecticut State we kind of coasted a little bit. I don't think we did that in the first 8-10 minutes. I still have to watch film. I thought we were in the stands, I thought we communicated. We really bottled them up in the second half. So, I was very encouraged about coming out of that halftime and I look forward to a great week of practice. And what a great crowd – let me mention that real quick. What a great crowd. I can't remember in all my years having such a great crowd between Christmas and the New Year. So, I want to say thanks to all the Penn Staters who came out.
Q: Coach, you kind of mentioned a little bit about Mike [Watkins] and Lamar [Stevens] to start, but, one of the plays in the first half where Mike kind of drew a double team and he threw behind the defense to Lamar for the dunk, and then on the other possession Lamar had the big block. What do you think that did to ignite you guys because you kind of went on a run there after that?
A: Any great hustle plays or hard-working plays that, or sharing, those two guys sharing the ball, we were concerned before the season started because Mike and Lamar hadn't played well together. Now I think you're seeing them play well together and look for each other and kind of feed off each other. But those winning plays are critical, especially to start our break, because we've got great speed and athleticism. So if we can get a block or a great play and change from defense to offense quickly, you know, usually that works out for us.
Q: With nonconference behind you, what are you guys looking forward to, what is your focus, going into Big Ten play?
A: Nothing changes. Nothing changes for us. It's continue to get better. Come in with a growth mindset, get better, we'll watch this film, there were mistakes made, and let's get a little bit better. I want to win special teams – they scored a couple times when we fouled. I think we can tighten up our ball screen a little bit. There's little things that we've got to work on to achieve where we want to go. I'm telling you right now, we haven't seen our best basketball yet. That is ahead of us and I look forward to seeing that.
Q: What does your best basketball look like?
A: I'd say 20 minutes of Georgetown and 20 minutes of the second half of Syracuse. How's that sound? We put those two halves together, guess what, that's who we are. Right now we're working on getting towards that, we're building towards that, we're dedicating ourselves to that.
Q: Coach, there was a big effort in the paint as well as points off turnovers – you had 44 [points] in the paint and 30 off turnovers. What do you think kind of led to some of those opportunities?
A: I'm telling you, we had three very spirited, physical practices Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and I knew our guys were ready to compete. I kept telling them, it's a must, to get Big Ten ready. The mental conditioning, the mental fitness of the Big Ten, we've got to start dialing in on that and I felt like that's what we displayed today.
Q: There was a point in the first half where Mike [Watkins] had a big dunk off the alley-oop and there was a huge smile on his face. How much fun is he having that you can see where that is maybe feeding into his game and how he is playing, the level of fun he is having this year?
A: He definitely is enjoying playing the game of basketball. He's in a good space – day to day, day to day – but he's still got to get better. The one thing about, what Mike's about to head into in the Big Ten, most teams have a great big man. Our league is huge this year and the fives are fantastic. He's going to go up against [Luka] Garza who is leading the Big Ten in scoring. So, we've just got to keep developing, keep getting him better, but I want him to enjoy this, his last go-around.