Coach Profile: Pat Chambers
Coach Pat Chambers was tossed from the game against Michigan State on Sunday and showed his true character as a coach who will fight to protect his players whose work should not be diminished.
“If I feel like that’s being taken away from them, then I’m going to fight for them,” said Chambers on the ejection.
Chambers is trying to establish a new tradition at Penn State in which they are not in the bottom of the Big Ten and instead, a team that fights and gives a tough game night in and night out.
Prior to his arrival at Penn State, Chambers had become accustomed to winning throughout his career both as a coach and a player.
Chambers is from Newton Square, Pa. and is an alum of Philadelphia University. While attending Philadelphia, Chambers was a walk-on for the Division II team and eventually became a starter while earning the nickname “The Shot Doctor”. He also earned first-team All-ECAC honors as the starting shooting guard, graduated as the school record holder in assists and led his team to several Sweet 16 and Elite Eight appearances at the Division II level.
After coaching for one year in 1995-96 and then leaving coaching to pursue the family business, Chambers was named the varsity assistant coach at Episcopal Academy from 1999 through 2004.
The Newtown Square native was then able to use those connections to obtain a job on Jay Wright’s Villanova University coaching staff from 2004 to 2009. As the associate head coach, the 2009 Villanova team made a NCAA tournament run that saw an end in the Final Four.
Success at Villanova brought the then assistant the opportunity to be the head coach at Boston University for the 2009-10 season. In his two years there, Boston University had a 42-28 record and won the America East Conference Championship in his second year. He also began to use his connections within the Philadelphia area to bring in six recruits and establish himself as a great Philadelphia recruiter.
Then on June 6, 2011, Chambers became the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions and began to immediately try and establish a new culture of toughness and energy to one of the long-standing worst teams of the Big Ten.
Although the first few years were tough, much of the hard work put in by Chambers and his staff is starting to pay off. His 2016 recruiting class, featuring three players from the Philadelphia area, is his first top 20 class and ranks 18th according to 247Sports.
The new culture that Chambers wants to instill is one that has been present in the Philadelphia area for such a long time. It is one of that prides itself on hardnose basketball that will not go down without a fight. It is the style of basketball Chambers was brought up in and the style he wants to bring to Happy Valley.
Hoping that all of his recruits reach their full potential, Chambers could have a potentially long tenure at Penn State and change the perception of the program both locally and nationally.
David Arroyo is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email arroyodavid01@gmail.com.
