City of Basketball Love

Marley Paul (@MarleyPaul22)
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Big Ten kicked off its basketball season in unfamiliar territory, ditching its comfortable home in the Midwest to host media day in the nation’s capital as the conference continues to expand East.

Penn State, boosted by a Philadelphia-centric roster, carried loftier expectations and solidified optimism into the Marriott on Thursday as Pat Chambers gleefully discussed how he formed a team of four City of Brotherly Love natives (more than five City 6 programs).  

“D.J. Newbill opened the door for guys like Julian Moore, Shep Garner,” Chambers said, recalling the transfer of Strawberry Mansion star in 2011. “And Shep opened it even more to Roman Catholic, where he helps us recruit those guys because he knows them and he feels comfortable with them.

“Your players are your best recruits, so Shep does a great job and Nazeer (Bostick) gives us a (commitment) and then Nazeer talks to Tony (Carr) and Tony gives us one, and Tony talks to Lamar (Stevens). That was our goal.”

Josh Reaves and another Philly product, Mike Watkins, both signed to Penn State as top-100 recruits in 2015, laying the additional foundation to give the promising Roman Catholic trio not only a chance to remain in the state, but to compete with legitimate Big Ten teammates.

“It could have been a big swing and miss because we went 80/20," Chambers said. "We spent a lot of time with their team’s EYBL, their high school team and it paid off for us because it worked out and it’s great to be in Philadelphia.”

On the court, the product will be a complete 180 from last year. The senior-less Nittany Lions are going to run, run and run some more with their young bodies and live and die with the natural growing pains.

When asked if he’s reluctant to put too much on the freshmen in a loaded conference, Chambers cited their non-conference schedule, which features matchups with Duke and Pitt, as the perfect rain before the storm of the Big Ten.

“It’s extremely difficult,” Chambers said. “So they’re going to get tested early and they’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to live through those mistakes because we know the end result is being the best team we can be by the end of the year, but also preparing going into late December into the Big Ten.”

Less than two months on campus, very mature, talented, coachable was how Chambers described the younger players, but added there’s still a way to go in terms of balancing the academics, rigors of practices, and the impending travel schedule.

Garner has quickly become an elder statesman on the team, starting 65 of 66 games (sitting one for 2015 Senior Day), and his coach sees a more a confident man on the floor, who’s becoming a confident and vocal leader.

“Me knowing those (Roman Catholic) guys, and them already respecting me and having a relationship before they got to Penn State,” Garner said, “it makes it that much easier. I’ve already been able to lead the guys already here so it makes it easier to get everybody on the same page as quick as possible.”

Reaves, the former Oak Hill standout, has become another young leader who has learned a lot from his freshman season, Chambers said. A lightening rod of energy and passion for the team, Reaves missed an untimely six games in conference play after coming down with mono.

“He knew he had to change some things,” Chambers said. “He’s up 10 or 15 pounds. He’s getting in and getting his cold tubs and treatment on his legs. He’s just got a very mature professional type approach to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The presence of the Fairfax, Va. native in Happy Valley coinciding with the Big Ten’s expansion has positioned Chambers and his coaching staff to possibly infiltrate the fertile D.C.-Maryland-Virginia recruiting ground, similar to its setup in Philly.

“Moving East the way the Big Ten has really helped us. So the DMV knows about the Big Ten now,” Chambers said.

“Josh Reaves giving us an important yes has opened up many doors, into his AAU program, into that area down there, as well as Oak Hill. That’s where the talent is for us in 2018, in that area, we’re hitting Ohio, obviously in-state, but they’re the concentrated areas right now.”

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Around the Big Ten

John Beilein on the development of Pennsylvania native Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman:

For two years now, I’ve seen a great evolution in his game. I want to see much more. He’s capable of being a superior athlete. If any of you saw our Minnesota game last year, the sky was falling very quickly. We’re up by 18 then all of sudden we’re up by 3. Find that video. There was a turnover it was coast to coast. He looked like Usain Bolt running to the other end (of the court) and he saved the ball to give us another possession to win the game. That’s the Muhammad-Ali we need to see and he knows it and he’s trying to do it everyday.

He’s gone from playing with a tuxedo as a freshman to maybe like a sweater-vest as a sophomore and now we’re trying to get him to put on some overalls when he goes out and play, and he’s getting there.

First-year Rutgers coach Steve Pikieil on his players/programs' stability through changes:

They’ve gone through a lot of changes. Three out of the last four years we’ve played in a different league. Just to do that once is a hard thing to do, and every league was better, so that transition in itself.

We’ve had five coaches in 11 years, I mean, I was one coach at Stony Brook for 11 years; they had five during the same tenure.

It’s going to be easy for kids to say yes in five years. These kids said yes when it wasn’t easy and they had choices too, so real proud of these kids and what they been through.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo details why he agreed to play Penn State at the Palestra on Jan. 7:

You know our motto is: anybody, any place, any time and we’ve lived up to it pretty good … I’ve gotten to play in some of the coolest places and everybody for the last 5 years said, ‘Ah you haven’t done that much, you haven’t played at the Palestra.’

I talked to Phil (Martelli) a little bit, I talked to Jay (Wright) a little bit … then all of a sudden Pat had this idea. He’s recruiting Philadelphia and so I thank him. The problem is I do want to remind people …  I never win any of these games but they’re nice places to go. I get to say I’ve been there, done that.

But this is one of those things where if you’re a basketball nut, you hear all the rumors about the Big 5 and what it was like. You’re going into arguably one of the great sports cities in America. I’m looking forward to it.

Izzo on Pat Chambers and his rebuild at Penn State:

Everybody wants to know why somebody doesn’t move up. Well in order to move up, somebody has to move down and there’s a lot of great coaches in our league right now and I think what he’s doing is he’s starting to recruit kids from there (Pennsylvania) - like I went to Flint and Sagna and did some things there. This is a way to bring more fans and hopefully bring them back to Penn State because I think, unfortunately, a lot of the time there, they have to win games on their own merit, where I get to win games on half our merit and sometimes our fans, when we’re not playing up to par, and they don’t get that often and that’s part of the process.

I went through that so I think Pat Chambers is a hell of a coach. I think this is going to be a much improved team but it’s still a process and its not as it used to be because everybody’s putting more money in it and there’s a lot of good teams in this league. I think this league has a lot of good coaches, so I think the world of him but I hope he doesn’t beat me there.

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon on having the Big Ten Tournament in Washington, D.C.:

As far back as I can remember, Maryland fans have always had to travel for the tournament. So it’s good to have it here, it was part of the promise: If we win the league that we will have the tournament here in D.C. and New York. So it’s good it happened so quickly. Really happy for our fans not having to travel as far, save a little money, and you get to see quality basketball in your own backyard.