Peter Alexis Relinquishes Basketball Scholarship

I realize it’s a new coach, but the kid made his decision to come here because the program asked him to please attend.

I’m getting a sleazy SEC feeling here.

I don’t like it.

But until there’s more information released I guess we have to assume Chambers made an honorable decision. I kind of doubt Chambers is under enormous pressure to win now, and so I kind of doubt that was the only reason he did this.

ALexis is not Chamber’s recruit. When you hire a new coach there are things the new coach should have leeway to work with and evaluating the players that were here from the previous regime should be permitted. What if a player had a poor attitude or just didn’t fit in with the team, should the new guy be stuck with giving him a ship for the remainder of his time. Even if it is performance based, what if it is such a huge difference in ability that he can’t even help in the practice arena? When abilities are evaluated you can have a kid, even at the college level that is not only dangerous to himself to be competing with certain other athletes but dangerous to the rest of the team. I just don’t know enough to judge this situation. I don’t want it to become common practice when Chambers gets his own players in but during the transition period this is how coaches build teams faster. Look at what Creen did in Indiana, he released over half the squad his first year. Chambers isn’t purging like that.

I saw many lost academic scholarships because the students didn’t hold up their end of the deal. If the kid accepted one of the few scholarships reserved for student-athletes, he’s gotta keep up with all that that entails. That’s a lot to put on a freshman (or anybody). But he has no right to drag down the whole team if he’s not working out.

This doesn’t completely smash his chance at an education. It just affects his chance of receiving a free Penn State education, which most of us would say is a privilege, not a right.

You mentioned the scenarios that would still help him, such as being a walk-on, or getting a free ride at another school.

but he shouldn’t have been offered a basketball scholarship to PSU to begin with.

I’d like to think that Chambers gave him a choice:
1. go somewhere you can start/play significant minutes
2. stay here and never see the court because you’re not a good fit
3. stay here and be part of our program in a different (walk-on) role

Chambers’ job is to win, not to coddle players. Basketball rosters aren’t very big, after all.

can we caption the photo in this article as “U MAD, BRO?”

Thanks for writing it.

I voted with the majority that I approve of the decision. As you mention in the post and as others comment above, a lot depends on the way that Chambers did this. On its face, it seems like the kid is getting a lot of time to find the right place to transfer, and I’d guess that Chambers is willing and happy to work with him to find a good place so he can still get a free education.

It seems crazy to me to argue that “Success with Honor” means being 100% loyal to a roster of players you didn’t recruit or sign for four years. If you’re going to essentially “cut” some of these kids, I have no problem with that, as long as it’s handled the right way. If you help them find a school and/or basketball program that’s a better fit for them, than great, I’m all for it. Same goes if you let the on as a walk-on or equipment manager or whatever. If it’s handled that way, this seems distinct from over-signing, or at least the worst cases of it where kids show up for football in August to learn they don’t have a schoolie.

The thing is, we don’t know what was said in the “carefrontation”. It may have been completely Alexis’ decision to vacate his scholarship. Maybe Chambers sat him down and gave him an honest assessment that he probably wasn’t going to see much playing time at Penn State and Alexis decided he would rather transfer somewhere like the Patriot league and play. Or Maybe Alexis’ parents are well off or they were responsible and saved $100k for college and they told Chambers, “Coach, Peter really likes playing here, but we can afford to pay his way. Take his scholarship and give it to someone else for the good of the team. We just ask you keep him on as a walk on.”

I don’t have any inside info and I’m totally making these conversations up, but I can’t call this slimy until I hear each side of the story from Chambers and Alexis. But from what I’ve seen of Chambers he wouldn’t just cut a kid unless the kid was on board with it. He can’t go around preaching family and loyalty to recruits if he’s going to heartlessly cut kids.

I think most academic scholarships require something from each party, i.e., the student has a performance metric, like maintain a B+ average or something. If your grades fall below that, you lose your scholarship. This obviously requires effort, but effort alone isn’t enough if there’s no performance.

With athletic scholarships, there’s no metric about having at least 300 rushing yards a season or anything…but still, I think the year-to-year nature of athletic scholarships allows coaches the freedom to basically cut scholarship players if they’re never going to start due to lack of talent, lack of effort, locker room disruptions, etc.

I’m proud that PSU fans don’t start at the terms of the scholarship and go from there. We start with the ideas of family, commitment, effort, loyalty, integrity and go from there. Nevertheless, I think when you have a new coach coming in and his job depends on winning, he can make the call to not renew a scholarship if the player is unable to perform at a high level in a new system. I’d prefer that the school use every connection possible to set the kid up with either an academic scholarship to continue at PSU or with another school that will offer an athletic scholarship. However, I don’t think an athletic scholarship is a 4 year obligation of the school to someone even if that person isn’t even on the team’s roster any more than I would have expected to maintain an academic scholarship even if I wasn’t attending class (even if I had put in a legitimate effort, but ultimately got an F).

I don’t have enough information to judge Chamber’s decision one way or the other here, but I voted No in the poll because I don’t like the fact that this situation is one that can even occur under the NCAA rules.

I’ve always been a proponent of the 4 year scholarship, because I feel it better protects the player’s interest, especially in situations like this. But seeing how that proposal has stalled in NCAA rule making land, I wonder if some sort of amnesty rule based on coaching changes wouldn’t be a better fit. Essentially something like, if a new coach comes in he and a player can agree to a mutual release before June 1 following the coaches first season, and the player can transfer within D-I without having to sit out a year, with a limit of 2 or 3 players who can be amnestied so as to not allow the coach to completely dump the roster. In this case it might not make a difference since it seems Pete loves Penn State and wants to stay no matter what, but I think it could make a difference elsewhere.

The way I see it, anything that gives the players a stronger position in the whole system would be a positive.

mainly because I don’t think we have the whole story and I don’t see Chambers as a sleazy guy.

Is it that Alexis wasn’t putting forth the effort, or is he simply not a big10 caliber player?

I remember a few years ago when PSU picked up that Logan El character and he was so highly recruited but hadn’t seen playing time. When asked about it, JoePa basically said something like “he has to decided if he wants to a Big10 football player”. Sometime later, Logan El transfered to a DII or DIII school and that’s all we ever heard from him. So in a way, I think Joe had his own “carefrontation” with him.

I’m not gonna kill Chambers for this especially since we only have part of the story.

Hopefully Jeter is the real deal if PSU lands him.

The difference being that it was toward the end of their four-years, not after one year like Alexis’ situation. Joe Paterno telling a few upperclassmen with remaining eligibility that it might be time to get on with their lives was an annual tradition to free up two or three extra scholarship offers.

And like others have said, there are only so many basketball scholarships available. The alloted scholarships are six or seven times less than the football team.

With all due respect to Peter, who I do not doubt is a very nice young man, his skills during his senior year of high school were definitely below “refined.” He seemed to be a fellow who still was trying to grow into his body. So, if he has not improved since then, I can fully understand Chambers actions.

If Chambers is worth his salt as a coach, and Alexis is a good ball player, then he could have found a way to make Alexis fit, even if it was in a bench role.

Need moar details about this situation, plz. Waiting to decide how I feel about it until then. But this doesn’t seem sleazy or underhanded at the moment. Seems like everyone was up front with everyone, which in real life is something that is never a guarantee.

happen. If the kid is leaving on good terms then the coaching staff usually finds him another school to play at. So long as PSU doesn’t pull a St. Joe’s, then it should be fine.

But I dug how you organized and presented all this. Pretty fair coverage of all sides of the issue, to my virgin eye.

It would suck if Chambers’ job were jeopardized because of DeChellis’ players.