Patrick Chambers: Rehiring him illustrates why Penn State basketball will always stink

… 29-79 (.271) in Big Ten in six years

When a coach goes 14-17, 6-12 in his conference, he should be worried about his job, particularly if he is in his sixth yer and has one winning record.

Unless you coach basketball at Penn State.

From all accounts, Patrick Chambers is a very positive guy, a hard worker who loves his job.

The problem is that he is not very good at it.

For instance, if a coach has a record of 29-79 in his conference after six years, winning just 27 percent of his games during that time, his job would normally be in jeopardy.

Not if you coach basketball at Penn State. Instead of being on the carpet, his contract was extended by the athletic director.

And that, my friends, is why men's basketball will always be woeful at Penn State. 

"We're close"  

After being blown out by Michigan State in the Big Ten Tourney, Chambers reportedly said, "We're close."

That is precisely what the navigator of the Titanic said.

Except that losing in basketball at Penn State is so traditional that no one cares. You may have seen some videos of the home games at the Bryce Jordan Center this year. In the bottom area of the bleachers you will see a sparsely populated crowd. On the top, you will see black curtains pulled down so that you will not be able to see that no one is there.

An op-ed on the PennLive site about Penn State basketball said this about the fiasco known as basketball in Happy Valley:

"This program is a giant Catch 22. The only thing that will cure the general apathy of its fan base is a lengthy era of winning. But it’s so difficult to win without anyone caring. It’s like pioneers building in the wilderness west and surviving until civilization fills in around them."

In short, no one cares, so that is why the genius of an A.D. by the name of Sandy Barbour renewed his contract. He has some good young players, though people on the PSU blogs do not think that they will all be around next year.

You see, college basketball players like to play in front of large, supportive crowds. That does not happen at the BJC.

BJC 45 percent of capacity

The op-ed I previously alluded to noted that the 15 home games for the Nittany Lions "averaged 45 percent of capacity this season. And that’s tickets sold, not bodies in seats. Nobody in the league is even close to that percentage of empty seats."

The optimists at Penn State say, "We were in a lot of close games. Another year and those will be wins."

Another few seconds and the Titanic would not have hit the iceberg, either. Some things are inevitable, however, when you are on a death spiral.

One of the Penn State blogs contained this insight into the future of the Nittany Lions under the leadership of Chambers. After losing to woeful Rutgers, giving them their first road win since joining the Big Ten, he wrote, "Losing to Rutgers at home carries negative residual effects on the perception of the program. Fans are already turning on the Philadelphia experiment and making lists of candidates to replace Chambers."

PSU not bothered by losing

Except that Penn State is satisfied with losing. They accept it. It is part of their basketball tradition.

Even that writer who lamented the loss to Rutgers was not willing to throw in the towel on Chambers, who has an 86-107 (.446) overall despite playing cupcakes at the start of the season.

"Two years ago, [AD Barbour] with a contract extension in the midst of Chambers' unprecedented recruiting haul of Josh Reaves, Tony Carr, Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins. We have already waited two years for these kids to get to campus and start developing, so is it worth throwing away the last two years because of a bad loss to Rutgers?"

And that is the logic that has gotten Penn State to this point in basketball … and the reason that it will never change.

Next year and next year, and next year ... never arrives.