Former Penn State basketball coach Chambers lands new job

ALTOONA, Pa. -- Patrick Chambers is back in college basketball this season, taking the first step toward rebuilding his coaching career after being forced out at Penn State a year ago.

Chambers will be a volunteer assistant coach at La Salle, on the staff of fourth-year head coach Ashley Howard.

Chambers was forced to resign last October at Penn State after a school investigation into inappropriate conduct. The findings of that investigation were never made public, and several Nittany Lion basketball players were upset last year over not being told why their coach was forced out.

Chambers had used the word "noose" when talking with former Penn State basketball player Rasir Bolton, who is Black, and Bolton subsequently transferred to Iowa State. Chambers previously had pushed player Myles Dread during a timeout in a game and was suspended for one game.

It's unclear what other inappropriate actions may have been alleged or found against Chambers, but Penn State apparently had seen enough and forced him to resign.

Chambers told the Philadelphia Inquirer this week: "I never want to diminish what happened. I failed as a leader. I was trying to help, and I used the phrase that obviously was a swing and a miss. I've taken a deep dive, taken classes, watched more videos, read more books.

"I feel like today, I'm better in that you have to learn from your failures," he added.

Chambers has a lot of experience and ties in the Philadelphia basketball scene, and he surely will be able to help La Salle in some capacity as a volunteer coach. It's the first step he'll have to take to rehabilitate his image in order to try and become a head coach again.

Will Chambers get such an opportunity at another school? It could be tough given the controversial nature of the comment he used and the damage it did to his reputation. But Chambers still wants to be around the college game, and as time passes, the 50-year-old could work himself back into the mix for coaching jobs.

"I know Pat. Most people who know Pat say that dude isn't a racist," Howard told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Now, was it a poor choice of words? At the same time, I know just being around him, knowing all the players he's impacted and all the former players who supported him and stood up for him, I thought that spoke for who Pat is as a person."

WR PEARCE WILL BE
PREFERRED WALK-ON

Penn State picked up a commitment Tuesday night from wide receiver Kolt Pearce, who will be a preferred walk-on. Pearce, from Gilman School in Baltimore, is 6-foot-6 and 212 pounds. He had offers from Air Force and Navy.

HOCKEY TEAM MOVES
BACK INTO RANKINGS

The Penn State men's hockey team has some good news this week following a big victory over North Dakota. This is from the school's release:

The Nittany Lions climbed back into the national rankings for the first time in nearly a year as they enter the week No. 16 in the latest USCHO.com top-20 poll released on Monday afternoon.

Penn State is 6-1-0 to begin the 2021-22 season and is coming off a 6-4 victory against No. 6 North Dakota on Saturday as part of the 2021 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Nashville, Tennessee. PSU was last ranked No. 15 in the November 23, 2020, poll.

The victory against UND was the first for PSU over a top-10 team since October 31 and November 1, 2019, when the Nittany Lions swept then-No. 7 Wisconsin. North Dakota dropped two spots to No. 8 in this week’s poll.

In other Penn State hockey news, also from a release by the school:

Clayton Phillips was named Big Ten hockey’s First Star of the Week, while junior Connor MacEachern garnered Third Star honors following the win over North Dakota.

This marks the first weekly award for both players and is also the first time Penn State has had multiple Stars of the Week since Evan Barratt and Liam Folkes were named Second and Third Star, respectively, on December 3, 2019.