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BIG TEN CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 19, 2017

Patrick Chambers

Madison Square Garden - New York, New York

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Penn State head coach Patrick Chambers.

COACH CHAMBERS: It's great to be back in the Garden. We were here a few years ago in a doubleheader with Michigan, which was a great experience for our program, our fans and alums.

We were here last year as well. We played St. John's. So it's great to be back here in this historical arena.

This summer we had a fantastic summer. Our players committed to summer session one and summer session two, which was fantastic. And we had those 10 practices, actually brought our pros back in Tim Frazier, Talor Battle and D.J. Newbill, which was great as far as words of wisdom, passing the torch down.

And then to go to Atlantis, go to the Bahamas and really bond and show some chemistry, you're always looking for that connection. And I feel that put us a little further ahead this year, especially with the Big Ten starting so early.

Our team, we have close to 80 percent of our production back. First time for me. And so I'm really excited about Tony and Josh and Shep and Lamar and Mike. You add Julian in, a fifth-year senior. And then Satchel set out last year. And then Nazeer Bostick, towards the end of the year, got injured. So we'll have him coming back with a good freshman group that's coming in and really filling in some holes for us.

I'm looking forward to seeing the development from this group and the experiences that we learned from last year.

Lastly, we had our program we talked about climbing and we're climbing in everything we do. Sometimes that climb is never direct. It's never a straight line. You can go left, you can go right. You fall off. But you have to get that handle back and get your footing back. And that's what we're doing. And with this group and where our program's headed we feel like we're on the right trajectory.

Q. You had not elaborated on Mike Watkins not being on the summer trip. I assume you probably won't. But can you give us an idea if he's back in your good graces?
COACH CHAMBERS: There's a standard that we have at Penn State, as you know. And Mike has to check those boxes to be a student-athlete at Penn State. And he's currently working towards that. He had a heck of a summer, though, as far as on the court and in the weight room, and he continues to do everything I'm asking him to do.

Q. Josh is a great defensive player. Do you expect him to be a bigger part of the offense going forward? He kind of exploded with 20 points against Iowa late in the season?
COACH CHAMBERS: Josh worked really hard this offseason. And what we can't have is -- Josh is great at what he does. He's that energy guy. He defends. He rebounds. He's all over the floor. He's got to continue to be that.

But he's worked really hard on his shot and making good decisions and going both ways and doing the little things that we're asking him because we do want him to step up his point production.

And I think you're going to see the increase in percentage from 3, but he's also going to get to the free-throw line and get some more rebounds for us. But you're exactly right. We want more from Josh, for sure.

Q. What are your thoughts on the week-long break between the conference tournament and the NCAA Tournament? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? And just playing here at the tournament, will it help -- how much does that help in recruiting in this area? Obviously you've had success here already, but will this help it more?
COACH CHAMBERS: It's going to be interesting to see how that week off affects each team. But it could help mentally and physically for sure to give them a couple of days off and to actually get away from me for a little bit as well, might be a good thing for everybody. But with that energy and juice, I think that week is going to be a positive.

It's great, the footprint that we have is northeast corner, obviously, at Penn State and where I recruit and where I'm going. And to bring them -- to be here at Madison Square Garden and play in this incredible arena, just another opportunity to showcase Penn State and what we're all about and the process that we are on. But it's great for our fans and alums.

We had great fan turnout for Michigan and great fan turnout for St. John's. So anytime I can get back to New York, we're going to get back to New York.

Q. Having so much of your production back, what kind of adjustments does that allow you to make offensively?
COACH CHAMBERS: We scored 72 points last year, the most since 2001. We had great offensive production last year. But with Satchel and Mike's development and Julian being a fifth-year senior, and John Harrar, our freshman, I think we're going to be able to play inside/out a little more.

We have the bigs up front, if we're in one of those scoring droughts that every team goes in, I feel really confident in putting the ball inside and being able to score from short range or at least get those guys to the free-throw line where they can knock some things down.

Q. Are there any perimeter shooters that we might not know about or might not be aware of that are going to help you this year?
COACH CHAMBERS: So, I was ready for you. So Minnesota and Northwestern averaged six 3s a game last year. We averaged seven -- 6.8, to be exact.

They went to the NCAA Tournament. They finished in top four. I don't think we have to continue to focus on 3s. We have to continue to focus on defending and rebounding. We were 13 out of 14 in rebounding. We gave up 73 points. Positive, right? 72 points on offense. Negative, you gave up 73.

That's not a good combination. So we're going to focus on defending and rebounding. But I think with Shep, Tony's development, Lamar's development, Josh's development, and we're going to let Satchel shoot some 3s from the top of the key, I think that's going to add to our arsenal.

Q. I was pretty tough on the schedule. Do you want to address that, the non-conference?
COACH CHAMBERS: The schedule, we knew the Big Ten was going to have those early-season games. So really condensed the schedule on where we could put non-conference.

Duquesne, it just didn't work out scheduling-wise. And then it was tough to get any high major to -- Big East, Atlantic 10 teams to do a home-and-home. So we had to do the best we could with what we had, the footprint that we had. I think it worked out well.

If you look at it, you're at ACC-Big Ten Challenge, you've got two Big Ten games, then you have GW and George Mason, that's a heck of a few weeks there. So that two, three weeks is really going to show who we are and what our identity is.

Q. You scored a lot of points per game but a lot of it might have been because there were so many possessions. You worked at a really fast pace. Are you working on becoming a more efficient scoring team this year?
COACH CHAMBERS: You know, we were right around 70 possessions a game. And I like where we are with 70 possessions a game. That's going to put us between 72 and 75.

If we can defend and rebound a little bit better. I know everybody is focused on offense. But I think where we lacked was that grit, that toughness on the defensive end to get stops.

I look forward to saying we're not going to be a feel-good team this year. We're going to be a team that can grind one out or show its grit, especially when you're not making shots.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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