The Penn State men’s basketball team was just two games into its Big Ten schedule, and already, the questions were creeping back into the picture.
Considering the struggles of the past three seasons starting against conference play, twice losing six-in-a-row, and once a whopping 12-game losing streak, that back-to-back losses at Maryland and Michigan came in quick succession was impossible to ignore.
Had the thought crossed their minds? Could it happen again? What had they learned to avoid the same fate this time around?
Head coach Patrick Chambers, preaching a mantra of one practice, day, game at a time, acknowledged Monday that he’d addressed the elephant in the room. Said Chambers, “I just said let's not be prisoners of our past. Let's break through and just take it one game at a time and whatever happens, happens.”
Tuesday evening at the Bryce Jordan Center, the Nittany Lions followed through.
Though playing host to a young, struggling Minnesota outfit, a small first half deficit and second half hole suggested the Lions might not. Guard Shep Garner was struggling to get going offensively, and the entire Penn State side could only watch as the Gophers buried 60 percent of their shots from the floor for the game’s first 34 minutes.
Capped by a wide open Joey King 3-pointer on the near baseline, the Lions were faced with an 8-point deficit with just 6:06 left to play and, more important, a true gut check. Challenging his Lions, Chambers and the team’s on-floor leaders helped ignite a 23-6 flurry to swing the game and knock out the first win of the Big Ten season.
Saying the game at times felt like deja vu of the most recent loss in Ann Arbor, Mich., players lacking energy on certain defensive possessions and deflated by made 3-pointers, the Lions could either fold or fight back. Said Chambers, “That's the game today, and it's going to happen but you can't worry about it. You just gotta move on.”
Sound familiar?
Urging the same mentality on a group that has at times been beholden to the dreaded specter of past failures, that the Nittany Lions surged ahead and shed the proverbial anchor of history was nothing short of encouraging.
“Truthfully, I was proud of these guys because there was a big elephant in the room and on our backs because the last three years I don't think we won a game until late January, early February, and for these guys to step up the way they did and not go ‘Oh, here we go again’ or ‘Woe is me,’” said Chambers. “I thought our huddles especially in the last six or seven minutes were terrific. They were engaged. They were ready to attack, and that's what we needed.”
Coming short of calling the game a “must win,” Chambers argued that the process is, and will continue to be, more important than the result this season. And regardless of the outcome Tuesday evening, the same would have been true, he insisted.
“If the outcome didn't happen the way we wanted it to, next game. And that's what we've done,” said Chambers. “I haven't said new season, 0-0, this is the goal, we need this, we need this. None of that. All I've been saying is next game on the schedule.
“We're not going to dwell. We're not dwelling on the past, we're just going to try to get better every single day and embrace the process, and that's what we've been doing.”
As for the message’s efficacy among the players themselves, their penchant for echoing Chambers’ sentiments directly could not be clearer. Well, for the most part, anyway.
Asked by a veteran reporter whether or not the game had a must-win feel to it, Garner - fresh off a 20 point, 6 assist, zero turnover effort - couldn’t help himself.
Said Garner, succinctly, “No doubt.”
