Nobody was wrong about Pat Chambers

[wbcincy]

There seems to be an ongoing fight over who was right between those who supported Chambers throughout his tenure and those who did not.

For those that supported Chambers, there is plenty to support their argument. On the reasonable excuses side: the facilities suck, no tradition or history, no local talent pool, bottom of the conference funding, and of course, some bad luck. And on the progress front, there was reason for support: steadily increasing RPI, developing recruiting pipeline to Philly, improved recruiting, facilities upgrades.

For those that criticized Chambers, they can of course point to bottom line results. No tournament appearance in 8 years, never getting above .500 in conference, a number of blown leads or meltdowns in the final 2 minutes of games, etc.

Allow me to offer that neither group is wrong. Yes, Chambers has steadily made progress and deserves support given the particular difficulty of this job, but it's also reasonable to criticize no tournament berths in 8 years. Both sides have valid points. So maybe we just stop fighting over who was right and who was wrong and all enjoy this run together.

 

[LionDeNittany]

Or, on the other hand... everyone was wrong on Chambers.

LdN

 

[lionville]

Question is whether PSU can hold onto him after this season. He might be a hot commodity.

 

[nitlion93]

There seems to be an ongoing fight over who was right between those who supported Chambers throughout his tenure and those who did not.

For those that supported Chambers, there is plenty to support their argument. On the reasonable excuses side: the facilities suck, no tradition or history, no local talent pool, bottom of the conference funding, and of course, some bad luck. And on the progress front, there was reason for support: steadily increasing RPI, developing recruiting pipeline to Philly, improved recruiting, facilities upgrades.

For those that criticized Chambers, they can of course point to bottom line results. No tournament appearance in 8 years, never getting above .500 in conference, a number of blown leads or meltdowns in the final 2 minutes of games, etc.

Allow me to offer that neither group is wrong. Yes, Chambers has steadily made progress and deserves support given the particular difficulty of this job, but it's also reasonable to criticize no tournament berths in 8 years. Both sides have valid points. So maybe we just stop fighting over who was right and who was wrong and all enjoy this run together.

Very well said. Everybody should copy and paste this anytime there’s a discussion about chambers after a great win or bad loss.

 

[LionDeNittany]

Very well said. Everybody should copy and paste this anytime there’s a discussion about chambers after a great win or bad loss.

How about a bad win and a great loss?

LdN

 

[rigi11]

There seems to be an ongoing fight over who was right between those who supported Chambers throughout his tenure and those who did not.

For those that supported Chambers, there is plenty to support their argument. On the reasonable excuses side: the facilities suck, no tradition or history, no local talent pool, bottom of the conference funding, and of course, some bad luck. And on the progress front, there was reason for support: steadily increasing RPI, developing recruiting pipeline to Philly, improved recruiting, facilities upgrades.

For those that criticized Chambers, they can of course point to bottom line results. No tournament appearance in 8 years, never getting above .500 in conference, a number of blown leads or meltdowns in the final 2 minutes of games, etc.

Allow me to offer that neither group is wrong. Yes, Chambers has steadily made progress and deserves support given the particular difficulty of this job, but it's also reasonable to criticize no tournament berths in 8 years. Both sides have valid points. So maybe we just stop fighting over who was right and who was wrong and all enjoy this run together.

No. Anyone who wanted to fire him was wrong.

 

[PA college fan]

Total cop-out. People who wanted him fired would have put PSU Basketball back decades like Pitt Football. Why can’t people admit they were wrong and join the party??

 

[john4psu]

Look at Penn State's basketball history and tell me how easy it is to be the basketball coach here. How many NCAA tournaments? Not many. It's akin to being the football coach and Indiana. Chambers made in-roads into Philadelphia and was able to get a quality junior to stay for his senior season.

 

[WDLion]

There seems to be an ongoing fight over who was right between those who supported Chambers throughout his tenure and those who did not.

For those that supported Chambers, there is plenty to support their argument. On the reasonable excuses side: the facilities suck, no tradition or history, no local talent pool, bottom of the conference funding, and of course, some bad luck. And on the progress front, there was reason for support: steadily increasing RPI, developing recruiting pipeline to Philly, improved recruiting, facilities upgrades.

For those that criticized Chambers, they can of course point to bottom line results. No tournament appearance in 8 years, never getting above .500 in conference, a number of blown leads or meltdowns in the final 2 minutes of games, etc.

Allow me to offer that neither group is wrong. Yes, Chambers has steadily made progress and deserves support given the particular difficulty of this job, but it's also reasonable to criticize no tournament berths in 8 years. Both sides have valid points. So maybe we just stop fighting over who was right and who was wrong and all enjoy this run together.

In my opinion, if Chambers was replaced five years ago PSU Basketball would be exactly where it was 20 years ago. And I'm not defending his record, it's not good.

 

[83wuzme]

Well, I was wrong. I thought he was a decent recruiter, but that in the BIG, our ceiling with him as HC was going to be around 8 conference wins a season.
I also didn’t want him fired, because I didn’t think the instability of making another change for an unknown quantity was likely to succeed.

 

[Berkstater]

Anything Chambers has done and will do, is better than what PSU has had and would have in any other situation! Keep Climbing!!!

 

[fkkkjm]

History will not remember that our best season in recent memory is one of the deepest years for big10 talent in forever. Two poor teams out of 14. In a regular year, we would probably not be in a war nearly every night

 

[AWS1022]

No. Anyone who wanted to fire him was wrong.

Oh good lord.

 

[AWS1022]

Anything Chambers has done and will do, is better than what PSU has had and would have in any other situation! Keep Climbing!!!

You don’t know that, but nice speculation.

 

[AWS1022]

In my opinion, if Chambers was replaced five years ago PSU Basketball would be exactly where it was 20 years ago. And I'm not defending his record, it's not good.

In my opinion, if he had been replaced five years ago we would be in our third tournament in a row....see, it works both ways.

 

[WDLion]

In my opinion, if he had been replaced five years ago we would be in our third tournament in a row....see, it works both ways.

SMH

 

[Relayer]

If Chambers was fired after last year, would Lamar have returned for his senior season?

 

[Erial_Lion]

If Chambers was fired after last year, would Lamar have returned for his senior season?

Most likely, the team would look very different this year.

 

[LionDeNittany]

Look at Penn State's basketball history and tell me how easy it is to be the basketball coach here. How many NCAA tournaments? Not many. It's akin to being the football coach and Indiana. Chambers made in-roads into Philadelphia and was able to get a quality junior to stay for his senior season.

Basketball isnt football. We could hire a Calipari and be in the final four next season.

It takes one class of freshman to put a team in a position to win the whole thing... that year.

Now do I want Calipari? No. But saying we needed 9 years to build a ncaa team is a joke.

Psu just doesnt want to spend on basketball so we have Chambers and the slow burn.

LdN

 

[fbh1]

In my opinion, if he had been replaced five years ago we would be in our third tournament in a row....see, it works both ways.

Because we would have recruited as well? I’m not sure where we would have been able to get the talent to do what you suggest. Chambers is the first coach we have had over the last 60 years that has been able to tap into the talent in Philadelphia. We weren’t getting any of that before Chambers. If I’m not wrong... isn’t that talent finally getting us to where we are now? I’ve followed the team since the early 60’s and in my opinion we have never had the talent on a past team that we have today. I will give Chambers credit for that. I am not very optimistic that any of the coaches that we would have been able hire could have been able to tap into Philly talent. It has been a long frustrating climb but I am finally happy where we are.

 

[WDLion]

Because we would have recruited as well? I’m not sure where we would have been able to get the talent to do what you suggest. Chambers is the first coach we have had over the last 60 years that has been able to tap into the talent in Philadelphia. We weren’t getting any of that before Chambers. If I’m not wrong... isn’t that talent finally getting us to where we are now? I’ve followed the team since the early 60’s and in my opinion we have never had the talent on a past team that we have today. I will give Chambers credit for that. I am not very optimistic that any of the coaches that we would have been able hire could have been able to tap into Philly talent. It has been a long frustrating climb but I am finally happy where we are.

Its not an honest opinion. Just playing his silly games.

 

[AWS1022]

Because we would have recruited as well? I’m not sure where we would have been able to get the talent to do what you suggest. Chambers is the first coach we have had over the last 60 years that has been able to tap into the talent in Philadelphia. We weren’t getting any of that before Chambers. If I’m not wrong... isn’t that talent finally getting us to where we are now? I’ve followed the team since the early 60’s and in my opinion we have never had the talent on a past team that we have today. I will give Chambers credit for that. I am not very optimistic that any of the coaches that we would have been able hire could have been able to tap into Philly talent. It has been a long frustrating climb but I am finally happy where we are.

I was just saying that no one can know what the state of our program would be right now if we would have gotten rid of Chambers. Anyone who says we would be bad right now is just as ridiculous as anyone who says we would be good right now. It all depends on who we hired to replace him. Narrow minds run amok on this board.

 

[AWS1022]

Its not an honest opinion. Just playing his silly games.

It’s just as honest an opinion as yours...no one could possibly know for sure, but keep on criticizing anyone that brings up a different opinion.

 

[WDLion]

It’s just as honest an opinion as yours...no one could possibly know for sure, but keep on criticizing anyone that brings up a different opinion.

Nope. I honestly believe what i said and history backs it up. Anybody with half a brain wouldn't believe yours.

 

[AWS1022]

Nope. I honestly believe what i said and history backs it up. Anybody with half a brain wouldn't believe yours.

But people with a whole brain would, so there’s that. I guess humor is not in your personality....such a shame. Of course no one would think they would have made three tournaments, that was an exaggeration to make a point...next time I’ll keep your complete lack of a sense of humor in mind and try to be more literal so you get it.

 

[WDLion]

But people with a whole brain would, so there’s that. I guess humor is not in your personality....such a shame. Of course no one would think they would have made three tournaments, that was an exaggeration to make a point...next time I’ll keep your complete lack of a sense of humor in mind and try to be more literal so you get it.

Enjoy playing your childish games, i have better things to do.

 

[Tweedbear]

My question is always the same. Who would take the job. Name a coach who profited from his Penn State experience and gone on to be a big time coach
We hired a name coach who was on his way down and he con th inked the slide and did nothing for us.

 

[AWS1022]

Enjoy playing your childish games, i have better things to do.

Apparently you don’t.

 

[AWS1022]

My question is always the same. Who would take the job. Name a coach who profited from his Penn State experience and gone on to be a big time coach
We hired a name coach who was on his way down and he con th inked the slide and did nothing for us.

No sense worrying about it now since Pat isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but if they were really looking you wouldn’t know until you tried.

 

[SEPATOPTEN]

Basketball isnt football. We could hire a Calipari and be in the final four next season.

It takes one class of freshman to put a team in a position to win the whole thing... that year.

Now do I want Calipari? No. But saying we needed 9 years to build a ncaa team is a joke.

Psu just doesnt want to spend on basketball so we have Chambers and the slow burn.

LdN

Not quite that easy. How many coaches in the country can you do that with? Calipari, Wright, Coach K, Self,Williams. Other than those guys nobody is bringing in one and dones in any kind of numbers. Could Self and Williams recruit at Penn State like they can at legendary basketball schools like the ones they coach now? Not sure about that. At a school like Penn State it is going to take time and that's just a fact of no real tradition.

 

[wbcincy]

You know, or not.

 

[PSUinCali]

Look at Penn State's basketball history and tell me how easy it is to be the basketball coach here. How many NCAA tournaments? Not many. It's akin to being the football coach and Indiana. Chambers made in-roads into Philadelphia and was able to get a quality junior to stay for his senior season.

Isn't this a bit of an understatement. This "quality junior" just might be the best ever to play at PSU. In my book he is the best...if he learns to shoot a steady 3-ball, he will have a nice pro career....hopefully we add a few more of these quality juniors in the very near future!

 

[81b&w]

I said this a couple years ago and I'll stand by it, I think having Franklin aboard inspired and motivated Pat and gave him his confidence back. We've become a cool school again and Pat is riding the momentum perfectly and looks much happier and healthier. Awesome stuff imho

 

[UncleLar]

Isn't this a bit of an understatement. This "quality junior" just might be the best ever to play at PSU. In my book he is the best...if he learns to shoot a steady 3-ball, he will have a nice pro career....hopefully we add a few more of these quality juniors in the very near future!

Depending on how many post season games PSU plays, Lamar's going to end up somewhere between 4-8 on the Big Ten's All-Time scoring list and will be in the top 20 on the rebounding list (between 11-17). He'll also make the top ten on the B10 Pts+Reb+Assists list. That's considerably more than just being a quality junior. There are legendary names on those lists.

 

[Katatonic]

Total cop-out. People who wanted him fired would have put PSU Basketball back decades like Pitt Football. Why can’t people admit they were wrong and join the party??

Why refer to FB?

Look at Pitt BB after they basically forced out Dixon.

 

[heckmans]

There seems to be an ongoing fight over who was right between those who supported Chambers throughout his tenure and those who did not.

For those that supported Chambers, there is plenty to support their argument. On the reasonable excuses side: the facilities suck, no tradition or history, no local talent pool, bottom of the conference funding, and of course, some bad luck. And on the progress front, there was reason for support: steadily increasing RPI, developing recruiting pipeline to Philly, improved recruiting, facilities upgrades.

For those that criticized Chambers, they can of course point to bottom line results. No tournament appearance in 8 years, never getting above .500 in conference, a number of blown leads or meltdowns in the final 2 minutes of games, etc.

Allow me to offer that neither group is wrong. Yes, Chambers has steadily made progress and deserves support given the particular difficulty of this job, but it's also reasonable to criticize no tournament berths in 8 years. Both sides have valid points. So maybe we just stop fighting over who was right and who was wrong and all enjoy this run together.

Nope. In addition to "bottom line results," you might want to consider his WAR. While there is no way to actually calculate it, I'd like any of the fire chambers crowd to offer who they think would take the job, recruit better players, and win more games.

 

[Pennoyer]

In reality, the class of 2022 is really where this season's success can have the most impact on recruiting.

In the class of 2022, Pennsylvania has 3 kids in the Top 30. Two are from Roman, one of whom is a program-changing Center, and the third is from Trinity. All 3 have PSU offers at this point. There's another top 50 kid at Westtown but is, I believe, from Central PA also. This is the class that Pat must cement using the juice from this year and the timing is really perfect - 4 kids in top 50 from PA, with 2 from Central PA and 2 from Roman. They are only Sophs so none are committed. Literally, the stars are aligned. This is the year that this program can make the leap.

 

[Erial_Lion]

There's another top 50 kid at Westtown but is, I believe, from Central PA also.

Not just from Central PA, he’s from Bellefonte and his mom is a former Lady Lion basketball player that currently works for PSU ICA.

 

[MJG-90]

Nope. In addition to "bottom line results," you might want to consider his WAR. While there is no way to actually calculate it, I'd like any of the fire chambers crowd to offer who they think would take the job, recruit better players, and win more games.

Can anyone name all of the hot candidates the Fire Chambers club threw out year after year. And point out how successful those coaches have been at the schools they ended up at? I remember the cries for Archie Miller from Dayton (now at IU) a few years ago. He was awesome at Dayton, but in his couple of years at Indiana he hasn't done much. And that's with all of the tradition of IU hoops to throw around.

Someone suggested if PSU threw cash at Calipari we'd be in the final four in a year. Calipari hasn't had Kentucky -- KENTUCKY -- in the final four in over four years, so how the heck could he pull that off at Penn State in one year? It's certainly possible, but it's not at all likely. And what sort of damage would he leave in his wake?

 

[lions1995]

They are having a nice season. We have had nice seasons in the past. The key is continuing the success the following season which is where PSU regardless of coach has struggled with basketball. I will enjoy the current season and reserve any judgement to see how they are next year without Stevens.