A lot of naysayers keep doubting Pat Chambers. But when you read about incoming recruit Josh Reaves, it sounds like Pat is getting a player on a mission. Coming to campus early to hit the weights is very impressive. Can't wait to see this guy in Blue and White. Give Pat a chance, our best days are ahead.
PSU Hoops
- Thread starter Norm Petersin
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I will say I am more optimistic than I have ever been. If he gets the train rolling I think we can expect annual trips to the NCAA, but if he fails.....well........he won't fail.
I have been highly critical of Chambers simply because PSU has not been winning, but I have to agree about Reaves. The idea that PSU could get a kid of his talent from a place like Oak Hill Academy is quite a coup.
Below is a link to the article on Reaves. Note the video highlights at the bottom.
https://bwi.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1767055
Below is a link to the article on Reaves. Note the video highlights at the bottom.
https://bwi.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1767055
Getting Maryland and Rutgers into the Conference has already provided dividends for us in basketball. Getting two 3 star Oak Hill players from the DC area (one is from Fairfax, Va and the other one is from Hyattsville, MD) would have been unheard of a couple of years ago. Plus, with the addition of Rutgers, it seems like Philadelphia has opened up more.
The additional exposure we have gotten on the I-95 corridor as it relates to basketball has finally made it OK for a quality East Coast kid to come to Penn State. I think our basketball fortunes will get better and better each year from here on in.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but a quick correction: Josh Reaves was a four star recruit. http://247sports.com/Player/Josh-Reaves-34807
Ideally, Hampton, Bostick, and whoever else who commits over the summer will all sign during the fall signing period, and the on-court results of the 2015-16 season (which I agree is a big question mark, although Chambers is certainly upgrading the talent every year) won't affect the status of the 2016 class. Where 2015-16 will play more of a role is in the class of 2017 kids - although with the scholarship openings the way they are, 2017 isn't as critical a class as 2016 was/is.
Would love to see basketball back at Rec Hall permanently. It's horrible for concerts, even worse for basketball. Sell out the Rec every game, have an actual game atmosphere. Put some bathrooms in there, and we're good to go. They just did minor renovations on the BJC, and it still sucks. Wow, in seat food ordering for 100 seats. Great. That's another empty section for games now.
chambers needs an extension. sandy giving him a 2 year extension is a joke. we need to show a major commitment to him.
There are 5 things going on that will help the basketball program going forward:
1. I think this is the least important: addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the B1G. Yes, it gets us some additional media exposure (all kinds), but it's not like the Big 10 Network wasn't already in those markets. Although moving to basic tier does get us in more households.
2. We have an AD who sees the potential to take a little pressure off football in terms of funding the department, and will do what she can to support the program. Wild card is football needs a big investment too.
3. We have a head coach and staff with Philly cred and connections. Unlike past coaches, they don't write off Philly prospects as unrecruitable. Of course, it's taken a few years to get said prospects to not laugh and hang up the phone when they called. But having the cred and connections helped. Getting Newbill opened a lot of doors, more than people realize. We got a lot of ink and attention from local Philly basketball blogs, etc. during his time here. Ditto for local coaches and AAU coaches. That should continue if the younger Philly kids do well.
4. We have a head coach with a vision for the program, who is a tireless salesman who can communicate that vision, and the recruits part in it. And his players would run through a brick wall for him. The fact he didn't lose the team last year during conference play is amazing. DeChellis may be a great guy, and perhaps a little underrated as a coach, but he's not an exciting guy who could sell the program like Chambers. Parkhill was a really good coach, but hated recruiting. Eventually that would have caught up to him, had he not left when he did. Dunn... ugh.
5. The "half-demise" of the Big East in size and stature. Less competition for Philly and DMV kids from what was a preeminent basketball conference (which ultimately was its downfall). They're still strong, with some good teams, but don't think for a minute that the conference has the same pull as it used to. On top of that, they don't even have the name anymore to remind recruits if their history.
It's a bit of a perfect storm right now, and I hope we can take advantage of it. Turning the program around without cheating isn't easy but if ever there were a time to do it...
A coach like Chambers was a long overdue ingredient. At least they made the hire (although I'm not convinced they had a clue what to look for - Chambers had interest and thankfully that's who they picked). And finally we have an AD who won't blatantly neglect the department's #2 revenue generator (not that any other AD in the word would do that - except the one that held onto the job for quite a while). It's a 7-8 year turnaround job, and I think Chambers will be ahead of schedule.
Honestly, and not to take anything away from Curley, as he did a good job in many aspects, I think Pat fell in our laps. I don't think Curley would have hired him in a "normal" situation.
The one thing Curley didn't appear to have a clue about was running a basketball program, and that goes way back to the compromises to the original design that weren't fought against during construction of the BJC. While the arena was always going to be multi-purpose, last minute changes were made that made the arena even less basketball friendly than the approved design.
I think, in some ways, basketball at a high level scared the athletic department. It really can be a cesspool with the AAU teams. You really have to know your way around to get in front of the kids you want without getting dirty. It's not easy.
If you will recall, DeChellis left late in the year (basketball year, not calendar). The coaching carousel was basically over, and most coaches looking to make a move had already done so. Pat only had two years as a head coach, and no coaching or playing tied to Penn State. Curley was still in the old mold of hire from inside the family and play it safe. As if someone from the outside couldn't understand the "Penn State Way." It also helped that DeChellis took his top assistants with him, so Curley couldn't just promote one of them to see how they did in 7 years.
Pat's playing and coaching time in Philly, along with his energy and sales skills, vision for the program, and family connections to PSU, were, IMHO, exactly what we needed. But I'm not confident Curley saw that. I just think he was probably the best coach we could get at the time, but had DeChellis left earlier, right after the season, I'm not sure he's the hire.
Can someone explain to me how a playing in a half full BJC is better than a packed Rec Hall every game?
Does any top recruit want to play in a small, old, outdated gym without top training facilities attached, that they have to share with wrestlers, volleyball players, and gymnastics teams? All of whom have multiple conference championship and national championship banners to overshadow the program.
Only Duke and a few other teams get away with the small gym, but that's only because everything else is top notch. Oh, and they have a history of, you know, winning and putting players in the NBA.
Win, and the BJC, crappy as it is, will get filled and be rockin. But you can't win consistently without good players, no matter how good you can coach. And good players expect good facilities.
That's easy. A half-full BJC generates more revenue than a packed Rec Hall.
Further, Rec Hall would be a MBB recruiting liability. Compare Rec Hall against the Breslin Center, Nebraska's new facility, Purdue's, Illinois' and Michigan's recently upgraded arenas, Schottenstein Center, etc. The Rec Hall game atmosphere might be great when packed, but don't show Rec Hall to a recruit when it's empty.
The BJC is far from perfect, but it's big and modern and it's comparable to the arenas of schools we recruit against. Rec Hall is not comparable and it's not going to become Cameron Indoor Stadium.
I'm fine with playing one or two December OOC games at Rec Hall, but Rec Hall will never be a home to MBB in the future.
I get that Rec Hall, as a small arena, is more likely to fill up than the BJC and that Rec Hall can be a great atmosphere for basketball, but I don't think it is realistic to believe that PSU would be able to recruit top talent by offering Rec Hall as the regular basketball arena. Every school that these kids would be looking at would have a more impressive arena than Rec Hall to offer.
This ship has sailed. The BJC is not going to stand idle while PSU plays its games at Rec Hall. The supporting basketball facilities are in the BJC. Rec Hall simply is not appropriate for a B1G program in 2015.
The answer is for PSU to recruit better talent, start winning, and start filling the BJC. One could say that PSU should Rec Hall during a program building period, but I don't think the talent would come seeing games played at Rec Hall. Going back to Rec Hall sends the wrong message as to where the program is going.
rec hall is ABSOLUTELY appropriate in 2015 for PSU men's hoops for certain games. like the B1G games played over winter break when there are NO students in town and only 4,000 fans at the game. it is also appropriate for any garbage non-con game (we have a lot of them) that's played on a weekday that will not draw more than 6,500 actual fans. that's quite a few.
cut joyner's salary/retainer and get rid of that loser for a change. use those monies (what is it like 400K?!) from the bloated AD budget and buy a $40K hardwood floor for basketball to use in rec hall when they need to (instead of renting it)
I think they're important beyond TV. Kids in those regions are now surrounded by B1G schools, rather than PSU as the outlier in the east, and the rest of the conference being off in the Midwest. The conference now 'feels' more local to kids in philly//balt/dc/ny. Plus we'll play in Baltimore and NJ almost every year now, so there's much better chance for kids to not only see us on TV, but in person. And to know if they come to PSU and are from those areas, their family/friends can all come see them when they're in town.
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