Penn State Basketball: Can Pat Chambers and the Nittany Lions find consistency?

With the increased expectations surrounding the Penn State Basketball program, can Pat Chambers and the Nittany Lions find consistency?

When Pat Chambers was hired as the head coach for Penn State basketball, the expectations were high. The fanbase appeared ready to embrace a winner. Could Pat Chambers do a good enough job to keep the Lions consistent enough to compete in the Big Ten? Would he be able to compete with the rest of Pennsylvania to infuse the program with talent?

The end result has been nothing short of disappointing so far for the Penn State basketball program. After Chambers was the associate head coach for Jay Wright and the Villanova basketball program, he was given the Boston University head coaching job. While never enduring a full recruiting class at Boston, Chambers was able to secure the NCAA tournament berth for the Terriers in his second season as the coach. This would be good enough to land Chambers his dream job.

Chambers was asked to bring Penn State back to glory and put a product on the floor that can consistently compete for postseason births. In Chambers’ first season, he really struggled to win games as the Lions were often outmatched and limped to a 4-14 finish in the league. The subsequent years under Pat Chambers would not get any better. In fact, Pat Chambers has had one winning season in 6 plus seasons and has never finished higher than No. 10 in the Big Ten.

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Entering the 2017-2018 season, the expectations surrounding the Penn State program were the highest they had ever been. Chambers has successfully infused the program with great talent, with the majority of that talent has come from basketball hotbed Philadelphia. Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens were supposed to lead the way. Mike Watkins was yet another player from Philadelphia who was supposed to help Chambers establish an identity on the defensive side of the ball.

With the infusion of great talent and the opportunity that this year posed in the Big Ten, Penn State should have been ready for a big year and were picked by numerous outlets to finish in the top half of the league. That may still happen but Penn State will have an uphill climb to reach that plateau.

Penn State did just recently beat Ohio State to start the tournament conversation, however, they do also have losses to Rider, Northwestern, Minnesota, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Those losses come tournament time could be a deciding factor in whether Penn State is left out of the field. The season is coming to a close shortly but Penn State and Pat Chambers have so many opportunities to improve on those resumes. In their remaining 8 games they play Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan, and Nebraska.

Penn State may not win all of those games, but a sweep over Ohio State coupled with a few more big wins will help the committee forget those losses to some lesser teams. In Coach Chambers’ career, Penn State has always had a problem with finishing games. Even this year, Penn State had a golden opportunity to beat Maryland but couldn’t finish. Against Nebraska, they blew a 16-point lead late and ended up winning the game in overtime. Ohio State came back from a double-digit deficit but thankfully Tony Carr saved the team with a buzzer-beater for the win.

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If Coach Chambers can find some consistency for this Penn State team, he could turn them into a contender in the Big Ten every year, especially with the talent he has in the program. Chambers has shown that his program is inconsistent and that does not appear to be changing this year, especially with his best team he has had, and potentially the most talent Penn State has ever had in State College. If this continues it will be interesting to see how long Pat Chambers can remain head coach at Penn State.

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