City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
--

Like anybody who grows up in the Philadelphia-area basketball community, Pat Chambers’ memories of the Palestra go way back.

“I must have been seven or eight years old,” the Penn State head coach said of his first visit to the legendary arena on Penn’s campus. “My older brother brought me in...it was wild, it was amazing.”

Over the years, the Radnor native built up quite a Rolodex of experiences at the Cathedral of College Basketball. As a teen, he played pick-up ball on the famed court, which has played host to more NCAA Tournament games than any other building. In college at Division II Philly U, playing for legendary head coach Herb Magee he had one of his best games there, against West Chester. As an assistant coach at Villanova, he helped Jay Wright and the Wildcats win Big 5 battle after Big 5 battle.

Now, Chambers and his Nittany Lions (9-7, 1-2 Big Ten) are about to add another lasting memory to the vault when they take on Michigan State (11-5, 3-0), led by newly-inducted Naismith Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo. They’ll match up in front of a sold-out, white-out crowd of more than 9,000 on Saturday, with tipoff scheduled for 1:00 PM on ESPN.

“When we thought of this idea to try to bring a Big Ten game to the Palestra, it got us pretty fired up and excited, and then obviously to bring in a caliber team like Michigan State and Tom Izzo just intensifies everything, I think, for everybody,” Chambers said.

It’s the second season in a row that Penn State has made a Palestra appearance. Last year, the Nittany Lions overcame a 15-point first-half deficit against Drexel for a 63-57 win. Chambers also brought his program to town in Nov. 2016, an 83-71 win over Penn.

And as long as Chambers is in State College, expect him to continue to try to schedule games around the area, against whoever will play him.

“If you look at our schedule, I’m not the smartest of guys, so I’m willing to do anything and play anywhere for the experience, to help these guys grow and mature and get better, even in setbacks I think you can grow and mature and you can find success,” Chambers said. “So that’s why our non-conference, we played in Connecticut, we played in New York, we played in New Jersey, we played in D.C., now we’re going to play in Philly. If you look back I’ve done some crazy things like that.

“I would love to play in Wells Fargo, try that one time, and I’m always up for playing one of the Philly teams to see where we are and where we stand,” he added.

Of course, Chambers isn’t the only native son returning home. A half-dozen of his players hail from the area: redshirt junior Julian Moore is a product of Germantown Academy, redshirt freshman Mike Watkins graduated from Math, Civics & Sciences before a prep year at the Phelps School. And then there’s the Roman Catholic quartet of junior Shep Garner and freshmen Tony Carr, Lamar Stevens and Nazeer Bostick.

It’s a long way since Chambers’ first few seasons at PSU, when Strawberry Mansion product and Southern Miss transfer D.J. Newbill was the team’s only roster tie to the 215 area code.

The Roman freshman trio especially has plenty of experience at the Palestra, as the Cahillites won Catholic League championships at the Palestra each of the last two seasons. And those who’ve been to the PCL semis and finals know that the building gets as loud down the stretch as any big-time college atmosphere.

“I think we’re going to be fine, the freshmen are very mature and they’ve played in the Palestra before...I like to think they’ve been there before,” Chambers said. “Now this is a whole ‘nother level, Michigan State, Big Ten basketball, so hopefully the maturity and the leaders that we have on this team will keep everybody in check and have them focused on Penn State basketball.”

Even those who didn’t get to experience such a big-time atmosphere in the Palestra were already plenty familiar with the building’s nooks and crannies.

“I’ve been playing there since I was a young kid going to camp at the Penn camp,” Moore said after a game against Rutgers last weekend. “Can’t wait to see my family, play in front of everybody and get the win.”

It’s no secret that Chambers, now in his sixth season at Penn State, has banked his success heavily on the City of Brotherly Love.

In a conference chock-full of national powerhouses, the Nittany Lions have largely been an afterthought, with seven winning seasons and just three NCAA Tournament appearances since joining the league full-time for the 1992-93 season. They’ve never won a Big Ten regular-season or postseason championship, a loss to Ohio State in the 2011 league tournament final the closest the program has come.

Chambers’ first five seasons saw the team go 72-92 (.439), though that record is above .500 (59-57, .508) from 2013-14 through the present year.

They’re coming off a tough road loss to Michigan, a game in which Penn State held a four-point lead with four minutes to play but ultimately couldn’t fight off the Wolverines.

“We’re going to learn, we’re going to watch film and watch the last four minutes to see how we can get better,” Chambers said. “We’re definitely putting ourselves in a great position to be successful.”

To turn that corner, Chambers is going to have to rely heavily over the next four years on the core of the 6-6 Stevens (12.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg), 6-4 Carr (11.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 3.9 apg) and 6-9 Watkins (9.9 ppg, 8.4 rpg), and the first half of their first season of competition bodes well for their careers.

Now, in a building they’re all-too-familiar with, is a chance to start changing the perception of Nittany Lions basketball.

“It’s going to be great to bring Penn State to the Palestra, be the home team, have that home-court advantage,” Chambers said, “and I think it’s really going to help us either way as we go along in our journey here and challenging these young guys.”

~~~

Scouting MIchigan State
The Spartans are led by 6-7 freshman Miles Bridges, who returned from a seven-game injury absence in the team's last game against Rutgers; the muscular forward is averaging 15.4 ppg and 8.4 rpg (both team highs) but had just six points and five rebounds in 17 minutes against Rutgers. ...Fellow freshman forward Nick Ward (13.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and senior guard Eron Harris (12.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg) also average double figures for head coach Tom Izzo, who is 535-210 (.718) with seven Final Four appearances and a national championship (2000) during his 22 years in East Lansing. ...Michigan State is a tough defensive squad, holding teams to just 40.8 percent on two-point attempts per KenPom, which lists them as the No. 9 team in the country in that regard. They're not so great at forcing turnovers, doing so on 16.8 percent of possessions, which is 297th nationally.