Nebraska Downs Penn State 70-58

I think he could really be a better coach if he were to sport a giant clock around his neck.

But Chambers already seems like a great recruiter. Realistically, we cannot possibly expect more than 3 or 4 conference wins – you just don’t lose 4 starters from a team that rarely used its bench players, change coaches and immediately recover. So you can’t judge Chambers by the on-court results as much as you can by the development of the team and style of play.

From my point of view, this team plays HARD. Every time someone takes a charge or dives for a loose ball, teammates actually sprint over to him to help out. Seeing that and hearing that his practices are intense shows me that he’s successfully instilling ATTITUDE in his players. He can’t make them Blue Chips, but he can make them play at the top of their ability, and it seems like that’s what he’s doing.

As far as recruiting…if you’ve ever watched him on the sidelines or heard him speak in interviews, you can tell he has “it”. He’s about as enthusiastic as anyone I’ve ever seen, and he’s committed and determined. I mean, we really have no business getting top recruits at this point in the program…but he’s starting to get a lot of them to at least look into it.

For example – Geno Thorpe from the Pittsburgh area is only a junior and has been recruited by both Pitt and Wisconsin. That Chambers got him to commit to Penn State (on his 17th birthday, a week after the Sandusky bomb exploded) shows that he’s got some pull. He beat out Temple, Miami, Maryland and others for Brandon Taylor. Akosa Maduegbunam had offers from Temple and some other D-1 schools, and basically said that he thinks Chambers is the best person ever and he would invite him to his wedding. Chambers also got a quality transfer in D.J. Newbill from Southern Miss (has to sit out this season).

So it’s still early, but there’s a lot to be excited about.

Last year’s offense was productive, but not particularly pretty and definitely relied on Talor Battle. We had Jeff Brooks, who was capable of creating high-percentage shots, but not much else. There was no inside out ball movement. Dribble drives were the only way PSU got the ball in the paint. DJ Jackson and Andrew Jones were never effective at posting and sealing off defenders. It is not even that they didn’t have any back-to-the-basket repertoire, we couldn’t even get any interior passing. With Frazier and Battle, they were pretty good driving and kicking obviously, but against teams that could slow them down, the offense basically collapsed. It was worse two years ago after Cornley left, but Brooks emergence last year at least salvaged the chance to dance. His ability to score inside greatly helped the offense.

This year, we’re moving the ball around a lot better, but we settle for jumpshots far too often for having no good shooters. I still think Oliver has high potential as a shooter and thought his two game outburst would lead to better things, but he really hasn’t deserved to take as many threes as he has. And then that’s really his only game on offense (79% of his FGA are 3’s). He can’t post up and he’s not a great screener and roll guy either. As far as the rest of the team, they’re all streaky at best. Woodyard is a career 30% 3PT shooter. Tim and Marshall are both ok, but that’s never going to be their game. Matt Glover rarely shoots for whatever reason, and Trey Lewis has been streaky, but now he’s not even playing. Our inside game I would argue is actually better than last year, but neither Graham or Borovnjak can carry the load for a game. We need more players to be able to drive and finish or get to the foul line. Tim is obviously the best on our team at this, but as this game showed, he can’t do it all game and win. Jermaine is good but he needs to develop some sort of pull-up jumper or floater. The film out there right now says whenever he puts his head down, he ain’t stopping until he gets to the bucket. That’s why he’s been getting so many charges.

As far as recruiting, it was very inconsistent under Ed. They were never in contention for any legitimate Top 100 guys. Their recruits were hit or miss, since many of them were under the radar-types. That said, they were pretty good at identifying sleepers. There’s one guy out there I will always wonder what would’ve been. Andre Roberson is just a sophomore at Colorado and has already developed into an NBA prospect. He was a 2010 spring signing who was very close to coming to PSU before visiting CU and going there. He would’ve been a difference-maker last year and this season. Also, he wouldn’t have even given a look to PSU at the time if we didn’t lose those two transfers. Those guys’ absence is still having a lingering effect on the program right now. I’m not saying we would’ve been destined for the NCAA tournament if they were still here, but obviously they would make us better. Chris Babb alone is the kind of shooter this offense so desperately needs. The bottomline is Ed’s staff couldn’t get enough high quality sleepers to sustain success.

Chambers has already elevated our recruiting just by the caliber of kids he’s getting on campus. Our transfer DJ Newbill is going to be a huge player next season as a guy who has the athleticism to be deadly driving to the hoop. He’s not a pure shooter, but opponents will have to respect it. Brandon Taylor also has solid athleticism, big size (6-8 240) and is capable of playing inside and out. Then we are also adding Akosa Maduegbunam, who likely will be more of a shooter. They’re already getting a jump on classes down the road with nationally ranked prospects, and I don’t envision it stopping there.

And you’re totally right. Thanks.