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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENTMarch 29, 2018Patrick ChambersTony CarrLamar StevensShep GarnerNew York, New York Penn State 82, Utah 66 HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: What an incredible year, you know, 26 wins and to finish on such a high note for this team and staff and program, credit goes to these guys. We had a foreign tour. We've been gone for a long time. There's so much love in our locker room and within the program in general, and that's why you're able to rebound from not hearing your name on Selection Sunday. The guys came out and competed for the last few weeks. And think about the teams we lost to: Michigan and Purdue, one is at Sweet 16 and one is at the Final Four. I think we've proven to a lot of people across the country that Penn State basketball is here to stay. It's not just a steppingstone, it's a destination. Q. Was there any sort of point in the season where you thought you guys really started playing together as a team and it really got rolling, and was there any reason for that? LAMAR STEVENS: I think think we really found ourselves, when Josh Reeves was out -- when he came back, it added more to the team. With his leadership and his ability to impact the game, I think that's when we really realized how good of a team we could be. I think from then on, our confidence was high sky and we were playing at a really high level. Q. Tony, this NIT run, you guys have had a pretty decent run, just the margin of victory, have you been surprised at the lack of resistance or the dominance? TONY CARR: No, I definitely wasn't surprised. We're a great team. We have great players and we play great defense. So once the defensive end is taken care of, the offense just comes and it's kind of hard to stop us because we have so many great players and shooters. We're not surprised that we can be dominant. Q. For the three, you all came from the same AU program in high school and now you won a championship here at Penn State. How does it feel? SHEP GARNER: It feels great. It feels great to know that we all come from the same place and we end up playing together in college. We did something special. You know, it's a great team. It's a great team. It's the most connected team I've ever been a part of. You know, this group of guys, I wouldn't pick another group of guys to do it with, another coaching staff. This is definitely special. Q. Do you think you guys have the foundation going forward as far as Penn State basketball? You had a great run postseason wise but now you guys are rocking and rolling like Coach said, 26 wins, sky's the limit. What do you think? SHEP GARNER: I think we do, we set the standard. We preach, you know, defend and rebound, but now we have something that we can always go to, you know, to say we won something, we're champions. We can still always go back to say, you know, we still didn't make the Tournament, so you can always go back to something. If you ever need any motivation, you can always go back to this or that. This is definitely going to be something special moving forward with this program. Q. Tony, you heard the chants, I'm assuming of one more year. How will you handle the process from here in? TONY CARR: I'm talking to the coaching staff and talking to my family, and just make the best decision going forward. Q. Lamar, how do you feel scoring your thousandth point in the Garden? LAMAR STEVENS: It was a great feeling, you know. It was better just winning this championship, though. It's a great accolade but I'd much rather have the Championship any day. Q. What worked in the second half that enabled you guys to pull away after a five-point lead at halftime? LAMAR STEVENS: I think we really started focusing in on the defensive end. Barefield he really had it going in the first half, and we really focused in on shutting him down. We were able to get stops and get out in transition. Q. You all had a great run -- this is for any of the players -- you had a great run over these last few weeks. Going back to the Temple game in the first round, you were down for a lot of the game and it was a hard-fought game going into the fourth quarter. You held them to single digits over that fourth quarter. Can you talk about that? Was that a source of momentum? That was the most competition you've faced for the whole tournament. SHEP GARNER: All year, we've been figuring out ways to win. Coach always says great teams, elite teams, figure out ways to win, and over and over, we were doing that. That game, it was tough for us, but again, we found a way to win. That's what great teams do. Q. Tony, you guys in the semifinals, you went on a 24-0 run. Tonight you went on a big run late in the third quarter. Just what caused the spurts for you guys? TONY CARR: Defense. You can't go on a run unless the team is scoring -- we just locked down on defense. Q. Shep, there's -- I suppose there's a process that teams have to go through mentally when they don't get in the tournament and they think there might be a chance. What happened during the fourth quarter of the Temple game, and then afterward? Did you guys come to a resolution that this is where we are, so we're going to do the best we can? That's what it looked like. SHEP GARNER: Yeah, you know, that was Coach. Coach told us, we're here. We've got to come out and compete, compete and win a championship. From first day in practice, he said New York in the huddle and that was our goal. Any time we were a little sluggish, he always went back to New York. You know, we've got to get to New York; we've got to win a championship in New York. You can always go back to that, and to see that we achieved the goal that we set out to get, great. Q. What about that? The Temple game, it just didn't look -- until the end of the Temple game, it didn't look like they were into it and after that they were gangbusters -- HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: I think Temple is that good. Fran Dunphy is a Hall of Fame Coach in my opinion. Temple is really long with Quinton Rose and Josh Brown. I thought they really did a great job on Cody. That was Tony's probably worst game of the entire years he's been here; you would agree with that. I think they did a good job on Shep, too. If you go back to that game, Josh Reeves was our leading scorer. He was really good from three-point land, and then we got some stops late we turned them over late and we were able to step up. So I don't want to put that on these kids. I'd rather take, Temple played that well. That was like a big five game. It reminded me of a big five game through and through where nobody is going to give up an inch and it was very physical and it was going to be tough to score and we knew that. I felt like by winning that game, that was huge, on so many levels, but I knew it was going to take us into the next opponent, which turned out to be Notre Dame. We were going to feel really confident because we knew that was going to be so difficult. Q. You mentioned about Purdue and Michigan, but it seems like your whole conference prepared you guys for this tournament. HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: I'd agree with that. It's a shame the Big Ten didn't get much respect on Selection Sunday but playing on the road in the Big Ten is brutal. They are sold out everywhere. I think the Big Ten, once again, 41 and 42 years now, leads in attendance, so everywhere you go, it's packed. We got to a point where we started feeling more comfortable on the road; and I think you see that, beating Notre Dame on St. Patrick's Day; and Marquette in the Al McGuire 3700 and we were able to get some big time wins. We love this place. We came here a few years ago against Michigan; St. John's last year, and then played really well in the Big Ten Tournament. Trust me, if I can get back here next year, I'm going to try. Q. Talk about the defense. The game you had against Utah tonight, what was the key to the success? HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: You know, I watched as much film as I could, and they scared me. They reminded me of Northwestern, a little bit of Michigan, a little bit of Wisconsin, usually take care of the ball. Don't really foul. I mean, the one quarter they had zero and we had five, and they usually don't hurt themselves and they drill threes. They made 14 in a game; they made 12 in a game. Watching that St. Mary's overtime game it was amazing. To play at St. Mary's, I see how difficult it was, I've never been there personally but Fran Fraschilla talked about it, really hard to beat St. Mary's. So we knew it was going to be a really difficult game. We wanted to take away threes and make sure we limit them to one possession, and we wanted to take care of the ball, and I think we did that for the most part. Q. You mentioned you felt this program was now a destination after tonight. Considering where it started the season and there was talk about maybe being on the hot seat and possibly not being able to really get it going, how much more validating is it to bring a championship back? HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: I've been on the hot seat for seven years. So you've just got to try to do it the right way and you've got to try to bring in big I'm players and you've got to have an administration that support you. When all that is aligned and you partner up and you just keep working, you know eventually it's going to swing your way and it finally did. If I didn't have my family, who is back over there to the right, and my wife, you know, she is amazing to support me the way she does. I can't thank her enough because being the wife of a coach, is absolutely brutal, because the losses never leave us and the wins are just not gratifying enough. But this one, this one's going to be gratifying. Q. Can you speak to the maturation of Tony since he came on campus till now? Early on people labeled him as a high-volume shooter but tonight, not his best game shooting-wise, but 14 assists and nine rebounds. Can you speak to his overall development? HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: He worked so hard in the off-season. He put on 25 pounds and he needed to begin to trust and he started to trust. He started to believe and he trusted his teammates. You can see his assists have skyrocketed. He really shared the ball. You go back to the Ohio State game in the Garden on that Friday night where you know he wants to take the shot, I want him to take the shot but doesn't take the shot, and that's a kid who has grown. We talk about growth mindset. We talk about growing and emerging leadership, and I think Tony embodies all of that. Q. Could you talk about the significance of winning this tournament and what it means to the program? HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: I think it's a springboard for us, to win 26 games, to cut down some Nets, that means winning. You're winning; you're finding success, and that helps everything out. That helps ticket sales. That helps recruiting. That helps so much and I know ticket sales are already up for the bjc next year. We have created a lot of excitement but it's definitely a validation of how hard the staff has worked, and the risk and the trailblazing that a lot of these players took to say yes to us. Q. Tony has grown an awful lot in the last two months, and now he's all over the draft lists. What are you going to tell him? HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: You know what, I've been collecting a lot of information and I'm going to do what's best for Tony, and whatever that is. Talk to his family, talk to him, and if he thinks it's best to go, I'm going to encourage him to go. If he thinks it's best to stay from the feedback that we get, then he should test the waters. So he's got a couple different options. Q. That's never happened at Penn State where anyone had to worry about an early entry. HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: Exciting. We haven't had a pro since Calvin Booth in 1999 -- Q. I think Joe Crispin played a little bit -- HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: Drafted. I'm talking about drafted. Q. No. He played. HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: Was he drafted? Q. No. HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: I meant drafted. Lamar, I think with the way he played, too, he should think about testing the waters, as well, and if Mike wasn't hurt, I would tell him to do it. It's exciting what we have coming about a being and how About big John, not saying he's a pro but he just got us 12 rebounds. We've got ourselves some good big men. Q. What I was getting at, is this some sort of positive? HEAD COACH PATRICK CHAMBERS: Absolutely. It's only a positive. It's a win/win for everybody. If he stays it's a win. If he goes, it's a win. What he has done for this program; if he goes, we can say we finally developed a pro and it's recruiting. So people are going to want to come to Penn State. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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