City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The locker rooms in the Palestra are as old-school as it gets: tiny square rooms, with a row of plain chairs lining three of the four walls. There are small, ancient, square lockers above the chairs, so old it’s easy to believe that the likes of Wilt Chamberlain and the scores of other hoops legends who’ve played in the 90-year-old gymnasium stored their clothes there during games now considered legendary.

In other words, they’re the furthest cry possible from the modern amenities that most big-name college hoops programs like Michigan State and Penn State get to enjoy.

“To walk in a locker room and not see any jacks for Wi-Fi and phones and Twitter -- God, it was great,” said Spartans coach Tom Izzo, who’s coached just about everywhere during his 22-year Hall of Fame career. “I told my guys we’d probably have to hang our coats on hooks -- we didn’t even have hooks in there, it was awesome.

“I threw my coat on the floor, I said this is where it belongs.”

But to the Nittany Lions players, those dingy old rooms felt like something else.

“I felt at home,” said Lamar Stevens, one of six Philly products on the PSU roster. “Like Coach Izzo said, they go in the locker room and don’t see any outlets, Wi-Fi, none of that stuff, and that felt like our home locker room. I really felt at home.”

That familiar feeling was evident at the Cathedral of College Basketball on Saturday afternoon, as that Philly-centric Penn State bunch picked up one of its biggest wins in recent memory, downing Izzo’s Michigan State squad 72-63.

It was one of those games that was set up to be special: the first-ever regular-season Big Ten Conference game to be played in the 215 area code, the product of a brilliant idea by Penn State head coach Pat Chambers to play another game in an area he wants to become a name program, and accepted by a coach in Izzo who still needed to check one of the most historic basketball arenas off his bucket list.

And indeed, by several minutes before tipoff the sellout crowd of nearly 9,000 was already in their seats, setting the stage splendidly for an atmosphere that only got louder and louder inside as snow continued to paint the landscape outdoors.

As the final seconds ticked down, the roar grew louder and louder, with each successive Michigan State missed shot or foul bringing another level of energy out of the white-out crowd.

“Magical experience for sure, not just for me and our team but for all Penn Staters,” Chambers said. “Man, was that fun, to have a packed house like that, home-court advantage was just amazing, and to have it here at the Palestra, these kids will never forget this experience as long as they live.

“And it was nice to come out on top for sure,” he added.

That Penn State (10-7, 2-2) was able to even its Big Ten record at .500 through four games for the first time in Chambers’ six years at the school was due in large part to that Philly-heavy contingent, which scored 56 of the Lions’ 72 points.

Stevens, a 6-7 forward out of Roman Catholic, led all scorers with 18 points to go along with six boards. Tony Carr, his high school-turned-college teammate, had 14 to go along with six boards and three assists. Mike Watkins, out of Math, Civics & Sciences by way of a prep year at Phelps School, had 11 points and nine boards, including several big-time offensive rebounds in the final few minutes.

Shep Garner, a junior guard and another Roman product, added eight points, including the 1,000th of his college career.

Instead of being fazed by the return home, the local Lions were more locked in than ever.

“This was a business trip for us, we conducted it like a business trip,” Chambers said. “They were very much dialed into the game plan and what we needed to do. There were many occasions where we talked about the noise and distractions that come along with this game, a game in your home town...give the players credit, they got it done. They were dialed in from the tip.”

Winning in the Palestra is something that came natural to Carr, who won two straight Philadelphia Catholic League championships in the building in 2015 and 2016 after Garner had already departed for State College; Stevens joined him for the second of those in their senior year.

“It was just kind of the same atmosphere, we just changed jerseys and changed players on a different team,” Carr said. “The crowd was great, and it was just a great atmosphere here.”

As for Izzo, who was frustrated with the effort of a team that started four freshmen and allowed Penn State to shoot 60 percent in the first half and 46 percent for the game, he wasn’t upset he made the trip.

Just disappointed his team didn’t live up to the Palestra’s legacy.

“This was humiliating for me to be in such a great city and a great basketball venue and my players did not play and I did not have them ready to play,” he said. “My apologizes to this magnificent facility.”

The Palestra won’t forget. It’s just another story to add, another memory crammed into the locker rooms that have held so many great players, and will host so many more.

Even if they don't have Wi-Fi.