As Patrick Chambers challenges his Nittany Lion student-athletes to get better each and every day, he also challenges himself daily to become a better coach and leader. Chambers has spent the last eight years at Penn State establishing a culture of teamwork and excellence, supported by pillars of accountability, faith, humility, gratitude, and passion that is built on a foundation of a positive attitude.
No one could set higher expectations for Nittany Lion basketball than Chambers himself. Competing for Big Ten championships is just one of his many goals, and the journey has produced several “firsts” and “bests” for this Penn State program.
En route to seven wins in their last 10 conference games in 2018-19, the Nittany Lions won five contests in February, the most in that month since the 1997-98 season. Chambers has now compiled 127 victories in his eight seasons at Penn State to rank fifth all-time in coaching wins, the most in any eight-year span in the Big Ten era.
Those victories are celebrated, as is the commitment Chambers makes to the Coaches vs. Cancer mission and the organization’s long-time affiliation with the Penn State basketball program.
At the 2019 Final Four, Chambers was honored with the Coaches vs. Cancer Collegiate Champion Award and he accepted the award on behalf of the local committee members, volunteers and sponsors who helped make Coaches vs. Cancer of Penn State one of the top chapters in the nation. CVC-Penn State surpassed the $3 million mark for net funds raised in fall 2018 with continued support for those in the Centre Region affected by cancer.
Milestones on the court were achieved as well, as the Penn State basketball program took a big step in the pursuit of consistent, sustainable success in 2017-18.
By the end of December, the Nittany Lions reached double-digits in wins. Melding as a team, growing, and tucking away lessons from practice or a tough game, the Nittany Lions stepped into the spotlight, defeating No. 13 Ohio State at Value City Arena in January, one of only two teams in the nation to accomplish that feat in 2017-18.
The relentless attitude the Nittany Lions possess is paying off: Penn State defeated three top-20 ranked opponents in back-to-back seasons for the first time ever. The 2017-18 season included a 23-point win over a top-10 team, the largest margin of victory over a ranked team in program history. The crowd, unsurprised by the big win at the Bryce Jordan Center, swept onto the court to celebrate with the Nittany Lions.
Penn State racked up nine Big Ten Conference wins, the most, to date, in the Chambers era by the end of February 2018. A week later, Penn State picked up its 20th and 21st wins, the latter coming at the earliest point ever for the Nittany Lions. Chambers added those two wins in the 2018 Big Ten Tournament, with a total of five hard-fought Big Ten tourney wins in his tenure, tied with Ed DeChellis for the most by a Penn State coach.
Playing their best basketball in March, Chambers’ squad registered seven wins against only one loss, and powered through the postseason to the 2018 National Invitation Tournament championship. Penn State defeated teams from the Atlantic Coast, Atlantic 10, Big East, Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences with an average scoring margin of 10.4 points per game in the NIT contests.
Dozens of records were broken and the increase in offensive production saw Penn State score 70 points or more in 29 games, while the stalwart defense, a Chambers’ hallmark, harassed and frustrated opponents. Fourteen opponents in 2017-18 failed to score more than 60 points against the Nittany Lions.
Individual records were rewritten as well as Shep Garner broke the 23-year-old Big Ten single-season record for 3-pointers with 120 and etched his name in the Penn State yearbook for both the single-season and career mark. Tony Carr became the first Penn State men’s sophomore to reach the 1,000-point career mark with Lamar Stevens becoming the second to achieve that milestone.
For the first time since 2001, three Penn State 1,000-point scorers, Carr, Stevens and Garner, were on the court together. Later that same night, the Nittany Lions would reign as NIT champions and cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden.
A Philly native, Chambers was introduced as the 12th head coach in program history June 6, 2011, and he has poured his passion and energy into building the Nittany Lion program.
Signing the top two recruiting classes in program history in back-to-back years, the 2016 group was ranked in the top 25 and the 2015 class in the top 30. A trio of players with freshmen eligibility started the 2016-17 season opener, another first. They combined for 90 starts, and added another 23 from a sophomore, giving the young Nittany Lions a birth by fire, but putting them in position for success.
The impressive performances of the rookies earned them several honors during the course of their initial campaigns with three Big Ten Freshmen of the Week accolades and Big Ten All-Freshman team selection Carr.
Carr would become the first Penn State basketball player to earn Big Ten All-Tournament honors as a sophomore in 2018. His back-to-back 25-point games put him in elite company as one of only five Big Ten players with multiple 25-point games in a single tournament in 21-year history of the event.
With Carr selected as a first-team All-Big Ten Conference pick by both the coaches and media following the 2017-18 season, Josh Reaves and Mike Watkins produced another program first – two Nittany Lions on the All-Defensive Team. Watkins and Stevens also were named to the league’s list of players to receive All-Big Ten honorable mention honors in 2018.
Chambers’ players have earned 29 Big Ten Conference honors, the most under any Penn State coach. The total includes first-team All-Big Ten nods for Tim Frazier (2012), Carr (2018) and Stevens (2019) as well as Reaves’ selection as 2019 Defensive Player of the Year and Frazier’s All-Defensive Team (2012) recognition.
Frazier ended his career as the all-time leader in assists – a record Chambers also holds at his alma mater, Philadelphia. When D.J. Newbill’s PSU career was complete, he was the fourth-ranked scorer in Nittany Lion history, after just three seasons, and Ross Travis collected the third-most rebounds of any player to wear the Blue and White.
Chambers has sent Reaves, Carr, Garner, Frazier, Newbill and numerous other players into the professional ranks. Carr was the first Nittany Lion drafted since 1999. Frazier (2009-14) an NBA veteran, is now with the Detroit Pistons, and Newbill (2013-15) signed a new contract to play for the National Basketball League’s Cairns Taipans.
ESPN brought attention to Chambers’ ability to identify talent and then develop players to reach their full potential. Using data gathered from eight seasons from 2010-2018, Chambers earned a No. 7 national ranking for player development.
His first senior class produced a professional basketball player in Newbill, a professional football player, (Ross Travis), a Ford engineer (Alan Wisniewski) and accountant (Kevin Montminy) who recorded eight-consecutive semesters of a 4.0 grade-point average, proving all avenues of success are available as a member of the program.
Maintaining academic success and helping his players earn their degrees is a primary priority for Chambers and his staff. For the ninth-straight year, the Nittany Lion basketball graduation figure exceeded the national average for sport and in the 2018 report, that figure was seven points higher than the Division I average.
The youngest of 12 children (nine boys, three girls) from a Philadelphia Irish Catholic family so large it ate dinner in shifts, Chambers’ route to Penn State was anything but usual and stands as a testament to the values of family, faith and attitude, which he holds dear.
His path was shaped by 2011 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Herb Magee, Philadelphia high school coaching legend Dan Dougherty, and highly successful Villanova coach Jay Wright. It was also shaped by a life-changing event that spurred him to pursue his passion: coaching basketball.
Chambers’ rise in coaching has been meteoric. He served as a part-time assistant at Episcopal Academy (HS), Director of Operations at Villanova, assistant coach at Villanova, associate head coach on Jay Wright’s 2009 NCAA Final Four team and head coach at Boston University prior to leading the Nittany Lion program.
AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Chambers came to direct the Penn State program from Boston University, where in 2010-11 he led the Terriers to the America East Conference Championship and the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in more than a decade. He posted a 42-28 record in two years as head coach of the Terriers, becoming the only coach in BU history to earn 20 wins in each of his first two seasons and the fastest in program history to earn a conference championship.
The Terriers earned a 21-14 mark for the second straight year under Chambers in 2010-11. Led by 2011 America East Player-of-the-Year and two-time scoring champion John Holland, BU fell after challenging No. 1 seed Kansas in the Terriers’ first NCAA Tournament game since 2002. Chambers led BU to the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational in 2009-10 as the Terriers won at Oregon State and beat Morehead State in the CBI for BU’s first postseason wins since 1959. BU also posted its first perfect home conference record since 1998.
Chambers’ Boston University teams reflected his strong ties in the “City of Brotherly Love” as his 2010-11 squad featured six players from the Philadelphia area. His personable nature and winning teams energized a stagnant basketball fan base at the hockey-centric school.
AT VILLANOVA
A native of Newtown Square, Pa., Chambers previously played for and coached with two of the nation’s most successful college coaches. From 2004-09, he was a member of Wright’s staff at Villanova University, serving as associate head coach in 2008-09. He helped the Wildcats earn four NCAA Sweet 16 appearances and advance to the 2009 NCAA Final Four during his tenure. Chambers played for Magee at Philadelphia University (formerly Philadelphia Textile), helping Magee become college basketball’s all-time victories leader (941) and a 2011 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.
During Chambers’ five seasons on Wright’s Villanova staff, he was instrumental in helping lead the Wildcats to a 126-45 record (.737), including the institution’s single-season win record of 30-8 in 2008-09. The Wildcats advanced to the NCAA Tournament all five seasons of Chambers’ tenure and posted a 56-28 (.667) record in Big East Conference games. Chambers had responsibilities in all facets of the program, including recruiting, scouting, on-court instruction and player development. He was instrumental in building the 2009 recruiting class, ranked No. 3 in the nation by ESPN.com, and brought in ESPNU Top-100 players Maalik Wayns, Dominic Cheek, Mouphtaou Yarou and Isaiah Armwood to Villanova.
Named Villanova’s associate head coach in 2008, Chambers helped lead the Wildcats to the 2009 NCAA Final Four, the school’s first in 24 years, and saw Villanova advance to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five NCAA appearances during his tenure. Villanova posted an 11-5 mark in the NCAA Tournament during Chambers’ time on the Wildcat bench and won at least 22 games in each of his five seasons, including the 2009 senior class posting a program-record 126 career victories.
Chambers also served as Villanova Director of Basketball Operations (2004-05) and as an assistant coach (2005-2008) under Wright, the 2009 Big East Coach of the Year. Four Villanova players Chambers worked with played in the NBA and five other Wildcats from his tenure played professionally overseas. He recruited four McDonald’s All-Americans to Villanova.
A standout guard under Magee, known as “The Shot Doctor,” at Philadelphia U., Chambers graduated from the university in 1994 with a degree in marketing and a minor in finance. He joined the NCAA Division II university’s basketball team as a walk-on in 1990 and went on to have an outstanding career, becoming the team’s starting point guard, earning first-team All-ECAC honors and leaving as the school record holder in assists with 709. Chambers helped lead the Rams to four NCAA Division II Sweet 16 appearances and two Elite Eight appearances.
Chambers began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Delaware Valley (Pa.) College in 1995-96. He left coaching to help operate the family business, but returned in 1999 after being named the top varsity assistant coach at Episcopal Academy, a position he held through 2004. High School All-Americans Wayne Ellington (North Carolina) and Gerald Henderson (Duke) were among the players he helped develop at Episcopal Academy under Dougherty.
Chambers himself played for Dougherty, who logged 621 victories at Episcopal, the most of any city high school coach, and also served collegiate coaching stints as the successor to Bob Knight at Army (1972-75) and as an assistant at Villanova (1967-72). Dougherty coached such college standouts as Fran Dunphy, Bruiser Flint, Fran O’Hanlon and Jerome Allen.
THE CHAMBERS FAMILY
The Chambers family is well represented at Penn State basketball games. Chambers and his wife, Courtney, have four children, Grace, Ryan, Caitlin and Patrick and three of Chambers’ 11 siblings are Penn State graduates – brothers, Chris and Joe, and a sister, Megan, who resides in State College.
Chambers’ older brother, Tim, was the 1984 Ivy League Player of the Year as a defensive back on a Penn football team that won three-consecutive Ivy League titles. Another older brother, Paul, was a three-year starting point guard (1989-92) on the Penn basketball team and stands fifth all-time in career assists for the Quakers with 396.
