AVALON, N.J. — After spending more than 30 days on the road in July and August recruiting in the U.S. and coaching his team in Europe, Pat Chambers is back on the sunny Jersey Shore for a few days of rest and relaxation with his family.
In the midst of a 10-mile bike ride Tuesday morning, Chambers stopped off for some coffee at the Avalon Coffee Co., and a chat with a reporter. Wearing blue shorts, a faded blue “Penn State” basketball shirt and sunglasses, a cheerful Chambers chatted with fans and well-wishers inside the coffee stop as he waited on line for his java.
“It’s close to a month, a month and a half of not seeing your kids,” Chambers said of his summer. “And it’s not easy because they need a father and you want to be around them during the important years. They’re 4, 3 and 1. ‘Where’s daddy?’ It’s hard so now this week being down here I’m trying to catch up and spend a lot of time with them and get that family time back.”
Avalon runs deep with Penn State ties. Joe Paterno used to spend summers here and his family still has a house near the beach. Whenever Chambers goes out for dinner or is on the boardwalk, fans yell, “We Are…” and he answers, “Penn State.”
“Everybody’s so appreciative of myself and of the players that they’re excited about the season,” Chambers said. “There’s a tremendous buzz about this season because of what we have coming back and what we have coming in and Penn Staters seem fired up for what the season holds.”
Chambers landed in Philadelphia at 1:30 this past Saturday afternoon from Brussels, Belgium. He and his team spent eight days in Belgium, France, England and the Netherlands, going 2-1 on the trip.
Chambers came away from the experience feeling very upbeat about his team’s chemistry and the bonding that went on in Europe.
“For me it was more about the locker room, for me it was more about the bus rides, for me it was more about the airplane, for me it was about the airports than going to see the culture and stuff like that,” he said.
Chambers was especially impressed with point guard Tim Frazier, a 6-foot-1 graduate student from Houston who is coming off a ruptured Achilles’, the same injury Kobe Bryant sustained.
When Frazier suffered the injury last November, he was a preseason All-Big Ten selection and player-of the-year award candidate.
Frazier went for 26 points in the team’s loss to a strong Belgian team.
“It’s unbelievable how he’s bounced back,” Chambers said.
“He had 26 against a very ,very good team in Belgium. We got more out of that loss than we did out of the two wins. He got knocked to the ground, he got fouled, you name it, it happened.”
Chambers said he expects to play a lot of four-guard offense, with Frazier, redshirt junior D.J. Newbill, freshman Geno Thorpe, junior Ross Travis and grad student Allen Roberts all in the mix.
“Our depth is a lot better,” Chambers said. “These freshmen compete. Geno Thorpe is really tough, nasty. He’ll back up in the guard spot. We’ll probably play a lot of four-guard lineups.”
After going 10-21 and 2-16 in the Big Ten last season, Chambers believes his team — with a healthy Frazier — can make a jump this season, although he expects Michigan State and Ohio State to finish atop the league.
“I think we can make a good jump,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a team that’s going to play with a lot of passion a lot of energy, and some desperation. The one thing I notice is these guys like each other, I dare to say love each other because from what I saw on that trip I haven’t seen in a long time since my days at Villanova. The camaraderie, the togetherness and a bond like they have, a love like they have. You can win games you’re not supposed to.”
Chambers isn’t under any illusions that Penn State basketball can match the success and tradition of Penn State football in the pre-Jerry Sandusky scandal era, but given time, he believes the basketball team can make its own mark.
“I don’t know if you can ever be as big as Penn State football,” he said. “It’s 50, 60 years of an amazing tradition. However, we’re starting today and trying to create that tradition. If you and I are around in 40 or 50 years, we might be able to say it in 40 or 50 years.
“I look at Wisconsin as a great team to look at since Bo Ryan’s got there. Before he got there they weren’t the best. Now nobody even realized what was going on before he was there, so that’s a good analogy for me. So you can start now and make a good tradition.”
