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Basketball Report: Former PSU Hoops HC Pat Chambers leading candidate for Florida Gulf Coast job

mralph59

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Nov 1, 2021
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After spending this past season as a volunteer assistant at LaSalle, former Penn State head coach Pat Chambers is reportedly in good position to grab his next head-coaching gig. ESPN's Jeff Borzello reported yesterday that Chambers is a "primary candidate" at Florida Gulf Coast.

Chambers resigned from his post as Penn State's head coach in October 2020. The university had launched an internal investigation regarding him and his program after he had admitted to referncing a "noose" around former guard Rasir Bolton's neck. Bolton later transferred to Iowa State, citing the exchange.
 
Through a work colleague who has visited him it's my understanding that Pat has been spending a lot if time on the Gulf Coast. I harbor no ill will towards Pat and wish him well.
 
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Good for Pat, hope he gets the job. He busted his tail to recruit and try to improve the program here and I don't know the whole story but I do think that there's more to it regarding him being fired / resigning. Hopefully he's been able to clean up his Gameday coaching because I think he'll have solid players and work them to get better.
 
Good for Pat, hope he gets the job. He busted his tail to recruit and try to improve the program here and I don't know the whole story but I do think that there's more to it regarding him being fired / resigning. Hopefully he's been able to clean up his Gameday coaching because I think he'll have solid players and work them to get better.
I hope that things work out for Pat.
 
After spending this past season as a volunteer assistant at LaSalle, former Penn State head coach Pat Chambers is reportedly in good position to grab his next head-coaching gig. ESPN's Jeff Borzello reported yesterday that Chambers is a "primary candidate" at Florida Gulf Coast.

Chambers resigned from his post as Penn State's head coach in October 2020. The university had launched an internal investigation regarding him and his program after he had admitted to referncing a "noose" around former guard Rasir Bolton's neck. Bolton later transferred to Iowa State, citing the exchange.

I'll become a fan of Florida Gulf Coast if Pat gets the job.
 
From where our BB program was when PC got the job to where he had it at his departure was night and day.
Remember Penn State Basketball had just been in the top ten just weeks before the Bolton incident.

The Rasir Bolton comment obviously was a big mistake. It seemed to me, however, that Pat made a poorly stated verbal comment while attempting to assist a struggling athlete. Dumb statement, but you also hear his desire to help and IMO there was no intent of malice, despite the fact that that malice was perceived by Rasir.

Wrong words for sure, but it was followed with an intensive investigation that took a half year before his dismissal. HUH?

In the long run I hope PC learned and will find a Div l head coaching situation and an administration that doesn't have a noose at hand to quickly place around his neck the first he makes a misstatement.

On a separate note, Micah Shrewsberry is a top drawer coach that I hope we can value going forward.
 
From where our BB program was when PC got the job to where he had it at his departure was night and day.
Remember Penn State Basketball had just been in the top ten just weeks before the Bolton incident.

The Rasir Bolton comment obviously was a big mistake. It seemed to me, however, that Pat made a poorly stated verbal comment while attempting to assist a struggling athlete. Dumb statement, but you also hear his desire to help and IMO there was no intent of malice, despite the fact that that malice was perceived by Rasir.

Wrong words for sure, but it was followed with an intensive investigation that took a half year before his dismissal. HUH?

In the long run I hope PC learned and will find a Div l head coaching situation and an administration that doesn't have a noose at hand to quickly place around his neck the first he makes a misstatement.

On a separate note, Micah Shrewsberry is a top drawer coach that I hope we can value going forward.
Shrewsbury has proven nothing. His won loss record is below .500.
 
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Remember Penn State Basketball had just been in the top ten just weeks before the Bolton incident.
The Bolton incident happened a year before we were in the top 10. He was at Iowa State as we were making our run in 2019-2020.
 
The "loosen the noose" comment was a poor choice of metaphors and not intentional, but it sounded like he didn't handle the aftermath very well based upon comments from other players like Reeves. The 6 month investigation wasn't just about that. Evidently, he was prone to crazy outbursts not just at referees, but at players, assistants and people in academic and athletic support staffs as well.
 
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After spending this past season as a volunteer assistant at LaSalle, former Penn State head coach Pat Chambers is reportedly in good position to grab his next head-coaching gig. ESPN's Jeff Borzello reported yesterday that Chambers is a "primary candidate" at Florida Gulf Coast.

Chambers resigned from his post as Penn State's head coach in October 2020. The university had launched an internal investigation regarding him and his program after he had admitted to referncing a "noose" around former guard Rasir Bolton's neck. Bolton later transferred to Iowa State, citing the exchange.
Chambers has been hired. This is a great destination spot to re-build a resume. I live a few miles from the campus. Not sure what the roster looks like for next year, former coach brought in several transfers for last season. That said, because of location should be easier to attract talent. Former coach who took Florida Gulf to the Sweet 16 is at USC on a big contract. Next coach, stayed a few years and left for better opportunity, it's a destination job.
 
Chambers has been hired. This is a great destination spot to re-build a resume. I live a few miles from the campus. Not sure what the roster looks like for next year, former coach brought in several transfers for last season. That said, because of location should be easier to attract talent. Former coach who took Florida Gulf to the Sweet 16 is at USC on a big contract. Next coach, stayed a few years and left for better opportunity, it's a destination job.
Depends on what PC wants it to be. It's possible that he could enjoy relative success and stick around if he already has a house down there. On the other hand, athletes and coaches rarely know when they are at their pinnacle and often they chase after goals which may no longer be attainable. We'll see which way he goes...but I'll be rooting for him
 
He's a damn good coach who was unfairly fired by a quack athletic director who can't do her job.
The player who was upset by the noose reference, which was meant to mean you are playing tight. He transferred, thought he may have transferred again.
 
I tend to think that we will see TaQuan Woodley Ffollow PC to FGCU. His coach at South Carolina was just fired as well. Getting a former P6 head coach and a P6 power forward would be a pretty good package for FGCU off the bat
 
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Don't care if he's the starter at the local ymca, Pat was unfairly fired. Period.
Agreed. It was ridiculous but this is the ridiculous victim culture we live in. If someone is offended then off with your head.
 
Im not 21 guns or gunsie or whatever you think. I joined this little club and my posts are what they are. Put the crack pipe down and take off the t8n foil hat
 
According to your own definition, he was a failure….losing record in his first year (and second and third)….in fact, he had more losing seasons than winning. At least be consistent.
Stop putting coaches down, coach hater.
 
He has a long way to go, but, if you recall 2003 and 2011 (the last two times we had a first year coach), this was much better. And that's putting it mildly to say the least.
Granted, our roster was better and we were in a better place with facilities and budget - so, it's not so black and white, but agreed. We are in good hands and the future is bright (FWIW, I cannot read the OP that you quoted... I blocked him a little bit ago and am not curious enough to click to read it)
 
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The roster wasn't really that bad in 2011. it might have been better than this one. Shrewsberry is simply a better coach
This year’s roster was much better than the 2011-2012 team. Sessoms might have been the 2nd best player on that team, and he came off the bench this year. Our best big was a Freshman Ross Travis, who wasn’t close to Harrar. Nick Collela was playing over 10 minutes/game…he wouldn’t have sniffed the floor this year.

That team was the 294th most experienced team in the country…this year, we were the 11th most experienced.
 
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That team also had DJ Newbill and Tim Frazier; it was better than this team.

But even if it wasn't a better team, Chambers did a horrible job with it. He finished in last place because he really was not a great coach.

Shrewsberry is a good coach. Stevens took him along to the NBA for a reason
Look at the squad that Pat was working with (remember that DJ was sitting out due to the old xfer rules)...tough to say he did a "horrible job" getting 12 wins out of them against the 21st toughest schedule in the country...

In our last 5 games, our most frequent depth chart was:

Tim Frazier
Nick Colella
Jermaine Marshall
Jonathan Graham (Freshman)
Ross Travis (Freshman)

off the bench:
Trey Lewis (Freshman)
Matt Glover
Cam Woodyard
Sasa Borovnjak
injured - Billy Oliver

We had guys like White and Cornwall struggling for minutes after being impact players at other programs. They would have been starting on that team. Guys like Nick Colella and Matt Glover wouldn't have seen any meaningful time this year. If we drew sides from all of the available players from both teams, you could argue that a junior Tim Frazer would be the 1st pick, but I'd say that about 2 thru 6 or 7 would be on this year's team (Harrar, Pickett, Sessoms, Lundy, Lee, and possibly likely Dread).

I'm a huge Shrewsberry, but not sure why we'd rewrite history to claim that Pat was playing with a full deck when he got here. He had a lot of work to do with that roster (though not quite as dire as when Ed got here).
 
Look at the squad that Pat was working with (remember that DJ was sitting out due to the old xfer rules)...tough to say he did a "horrible job" getting 12 wins out of them against the 21st toughest schedule in the country...

In our last 5 games, our most frequent depth chart was:

Tim Frazier
Nick Colella
Jermaine Marshall
Jonathan Graham (Freshman)
Ross Travis (Freshman)

off the bench:
Trey Lewis (Freshman)
Matt Glover
Cam Woodyard
Sasa Borovnjak
injured - Billy Oliver

We had guys like White and Cornwall struggling for minutes after being impact players at other programs. They would have been starting on that team. Guys like Nick Colella and Matt Glover wouldn't have seen any meaningful time this year. If we drew sides from all of the available players from both teams, you could argue that a junior Tim Frazer would be the 1st pick, but I'd say that about 2 thru 6 or 7 would be on this year's team (Harrar, Pickett, Sessoms, Lundy, Lee, and possibly likely Dread).

I'm a huge Shrewsberry, but not sure why we'd rewrite history to claim that Pat was playing with a full deck when he got here. He had a lot of work to do with that roster (though not quite as dire as when Ed got here).
It was also Tim's junior year, coming off a soph season in which he could not shoot (or, at least did not shoot - he was hesitant to be a scorer) and averaged 6 ppg. He had a very good junior season, but let's not act like a soph Tim was the Tim that graduated.

That 2011 roster was rough -- this past year's roster was certainly the better of the two.
 
It was also Tim's junior year, coming off a soph season in which he could not shoot (or, at least did not shoot - he was hesitant to be a scorer) and averaged 6 ppg. He had a very good junior season, but let's not act like a soph Tim was the Tim that graduated.

That 2011 roster was rough -- this past year's roster was certainly the better of the two.
Bozo the clown himself could be the coach and these coach worshipping clowns would defend him.
 
I wonder if Sam Sessoms will be joining Pat in Florida now that he has entered the portal.
 
He’s the starting SG on the #1 team in the country
After spending this past season as a volunteer assistant at LaSalle, former Penn State head coach Pat Chambers is reportedly in good position to grab his next head-coaching gig. ESPN's Jeff Borzello reported yesterday that Chambers is a "primary candidate" at Florida Gulf Coast.

Chambers resigned from his post as Penn State's head coach in October 2020. The university had launched an internal investigation regarding him and his program after he had admitted to referncing a "noose" around former guard Rasir Bolton's neck. Bolton later transferred to Iowa State, citing the exchange.
Per Naples Newspaper, 5 years at $350K per year
 
I am thankful for what Pat was building here, but he left after a 6 month investigation into his behavior including the noose comment. He had a bad temper and blew up regularly at players, coaches, refs, academic staff, support staff and AD staff. He alienated everyone outside of the team. Most of the players did love him which is why they were upset and many transferred. Players felt the AD lied to them about the investigation but what is the AD going to say prior to the end of the investigation? I wish him good luck at FGCU.
 
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