Over the past 28 years, Penn State has managed to pull off one of the greater coaching feats in major College Basketball. That’s right, while Joe Paterno has sat in his office decade after decade, the basketball program has quietly put together a respectable streak themselves. What is this streak you might ask? The Bruce Parkhill coaching tree.

The tree first buried it’s roots in 1983 when Bruce Parkhill was hired by Penn State to replace Dick Harter as head coach. Parkhill, looking to assemble a young capable staff hired two assistant coaches: Jerry Dunn and Ed DeChellis. While DeChellis had a brief 2 year stint as an assistant at Salem International, he returned to Penn State in 1986 and remained on the staff until Parkhill’s departure in 1995. With no coach, Penn State promoted Jerry Dunn in 1995 where he would remain until 2003. A year after Dunn was promoted to the top spot, Ed DeChellis left Penn State for the head coaching job at East Tennessee State  until being rehired as Penn State’s head coach in 2003.

And that is the streak. Craftfully done in front of those who may not have seen the full picture, Penn State managed to hire a head coach three times in a row without ever leaving the staff. 28 years of never leaving the tree that Bruce Parkhill planted. Three coaches over the span of 28 years is impressive enough, but to never look outside the walls of Rec Hall or the Bryce Jordan Center for a coach is an achievement all on its own. With newer and younger hires from across the nation coming to Penn State, the “In house promotion”  school have thought has lost momentum, but not before it shaped the past three decades of Penn State Basketball.

What does this have to do with recruiting? Parkhill by all accounts wasn’t the best recruiter and wasn’t particularly fond of doing it. He was much more content coaching up what skill he had than going out and fighting tooth and nail for the next big name. Couple that with the fact DeChellis and Dunn were brought up in that mindset, heading down to the City of Brotherly Love wasn’t on the to-do list. Certainly all three coaches tried to pull some players out of the area, Philadelphia wasn’t neglected, but the urgency wasn’t there. (more…)

The past week and a half has been pretty stressful for every Penn State basketball fan. Between the odd timing of Ed DeChellis’ departure as well as a suspect list of coaching candidates coming into Happy Valley, many fans were wondering if the program was going to take a step backwards with it’s next hire. If anything, Tim Curley’s involvement with the search while using words like “Nation-wide” and “Competitive salary” made even the most positive of fans cringe.

But of the few names Penn State fans could agree, Pat Chambers was far and away at the top of most fan’s lists. Thankfuly it seems as though short of a disastor in the next few hours that Penn State will offically announce the hiring of Pat Chambers as their new head coach. And frankly, if Chambers doesn’t take the job Penn State is back to square one having rejected or have been turned down by other options.

Who is Pat Chambers? While coaching at Boston University, Chambers posted back-to-back 21-14 seasons in his first two years and took BU to the NCAA Tournament as a 16-seed this past season. He started his basketball carreer at Villanova as director of operations in May 2004. He was promoted to assistant coach after one season and finally Associate Head Coach in June 2008 and saw the Wildcats make the NCAA tournament four times, including a spot in the Final Four. Over this time Chambers was able to make many Philadelphia recruiting contacts. (more…)

If Penn State is looking for a guy who can recruit in the Big Ten, Jim Boylen might just be their man. As an assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, Boylen was seen as Izzo’s heir to the throne if Izzo were ever to leave. After leaving Michigan State in 2007 for the head coaching position at Utah, Boylen was once again in consideration for replacing Izzo had zzo taken up the Clevland Caviliers on their offer to fill the coaching void left by recently fired Mike Brown.

So if you like playing pretend, Penn State is seriously considering an interview with a man that was days from becoming Michigan State’s head coach. If that sounds like a pretty good deal, then you know what you’re talking about. (more…)

It only took 48 hours, but Penn State has their first “official” candidate for the head coaching position. Jeff Lebo, who is now the coach at East Carolina, is more recently known for his 6 year stint at Auburn. While at Auburn, Lebo lead the Tigers to a 96-93 record going 36-61 in the SEC with only one postseason appearance in the NIT. Before his stint at Auburn, Lebo coached at Chattanooga going 40-20 in 2 years and 4 years at Tennessee Tech ammasing a 75-43 record.

Here is what Andy Katz had to say about the situation.

According to multiple sources, Penn State will consider East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo, who is from Carlisle, Pa. Lebo was also recruited to play at North Carolina by Fogler (Who is leading the Penn State coaching search) when he was an assistant to then coach Dean Smith. Lebo’s father, Dave, was a longtime coach at Carlisle High.

If Lebo sounds an awful like DeChellis 2.0 that’s because in a lot of ways he is. Lebo put together 2 winning seasons while at Auburn and has never made the NCAA tournament in his 13 years of coaching. His recruiting at Auburn never really got going, and averaged a 6th place finish in the SEC Western division.

The connection Eddie Fogler has with Lebo makes this recommendation less than surprising however as the two have been close friends for several years. Fogler was even hired by Auburn to help run the coaching search after firing Lebo. With Lebo’s close ties to the area and Fogler’s position in the coaching search it was only a matter of time before Lebo’s name was mentioned. In short, don’t worry. Much (more…)

In a radio interview this afternoon on the Philadelphia radio station 97.5 The Fanatic, former NBA coach and future Hall Of Famer Larry Brown hinted that interviewing for the Penn State coaching position wasn’t out of the question. Brown had been asked once before if he was interested in the job while DeChellis was still coaching to which Brown responded “Well they already have a coach”.

With DeChellis out of the picture, Brown was once again approached with the question to which after some laughter Brown responded: “If you set it (The interview) up, I’ll be there” (more…)

Why? Well for the past few weeks Penn State has seen things go their way. After picking up Dayton transfer guard Juwan Staten, Staten took it upon himself to go out and recruit Markcus Crider, a Providence decommit that already had Penn State in his top 3. LaDontae Henton who decommitted from Dayton also had Penn State in the mix with offers from everywhere including Ohio State, Maryland, and MSU. After picking up a solid transfer, Penn State was in the running with two solid 3 star recruits who were actually interested in playing for Penn State. Assuming that Staten is half the headcase some people claim him to be, picking up Crider would have been a step towards making Staten happy while he waits a year to play due to NCAA transfer rules. Then again, nobody knows if we’re trying to keep him happy, or his dad happy. But I digress. (more…)

Eight years ago Penn State brought in Ed DeChellis as some supposed savior to the program. Well, he was an alum and Penn State wanted to pick up a guy who made them feel good, they could pay next to nothing and had a somewhat successful mid-major stint. At the time people didn’t like it that much, but considering how the Jerry Dunn era had ended it was time for a change. Give the guy some time to recruit and see what he can do in a killer Big Ten conference.

Fast Forward to tonight. (more…)

For Lavin it made sense, he was coming off of a 7 year tenure at UCLA which included 6 straight 20+ win seasons which included 6 NCAA tournament teams. Coming to Penn State gave him a chance to build a program in the Big Ten, one of the nations most respected conferences.

For Penn State is gave them a big name coach willing to take a chance at building a program into a contender in the Big Ten. Seemingly it was a win-win for everyone involved. (more…)

It was only a matter of time. Every team in the Big Ten had dealt with some sort of injury except Penn State. Granted Sasa will be quick to point out he’s wheeling around courtside, but in regards players on the roster that were contributing important minutes, the Nittany Lions have escaped unscathed.

Headed into the final 5 minutes of the first half against Illinois last night Penn State’s luck finally ran out as Jeff Brooks laid on the floor in pain clutching his shoulder. As Brooks was escorted off the court by the Penn State medical staff anyone watching the Big Ten network got to look at the inner workings of Brooks’ shoulder as it was still dislocated. The actual contact that caused this injury is unknown, but it occurred in a loose ball scrum for a rebound. It wasn’t a particularly physical play which made the injury surprising, but like Jamelle Cornley’s shoulder injury in 2009 it doesn’t always take violent contact to hurt a shoulder. (more…)

With wins over Illinois and Michigan State and a close 3 point loss to the soon-to-be #1 Ohio State, a lot of newly found Penn State basketball fans are starting to have a discussion about Penn State’s chances to make the Big Dance in March. Plenty will have to go the Lion’s way, but it isn’t out of the question that the Nittany Lions could find themselves in the field of 68.

So what is it going to take? Wins. Plain and simple. Every win that Penn State can get in the Big Ten is a big step towards getting a ticket to the dance. Generally speaking finishing in the top half of the Big Ten has been good enough to land in the tournament, but that has a lot more to do with the Big Ten’s depth than anything else. For Penn State to get an invitation it’s going to take 8-12 Big Ten wins. With 3 wins in conference already that means ideally Penn State will need to win 8 of their last 12 games to get them to the higher end of the spectrum, a pretty lofty number of wins, but not impossible if Penn State keeps playing at a high level.

The Basics:

While we’re talking about wins there are a few other things you’ll need to keep in mind. Penn State’s SOS and their RPI. What do those mean? SOS or Strength of Schedule is essentially a number that tells you how good the teams were that you played. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose it just matters who you play. In regards to the 2008-2009 season (NIT championship year) Penn State played bad teams out of conference and it kept them from getting into the tournament. There is a mildly fancy formula for figuring out a team’s SOS, but all anybody really needs to know is if you played anybody good.

RPI is a lot like SOS but this changes when you actually beat the good teams you play. It’s a combination of “Did you beat anybody good?” and “Did you win the games you should have?” In short RPI tell you how strong a team is. If you play a bunch of bad teams and beat them your RPI won’t be as good as if you played a bunch of good teams and won half the games. (That math is undoubtedly off, but the principle is the same.) (more…)

Struggling to find his role all season Buie only averaged 5.8 points a game and was somewhat of a liability while on the court. There isn’t any doubt Buie has a lot of talent, but he just hasn’t found his game yet. Undoubtedly the disappointment around his performance is based on a somewhat fabricated hype. If Buiewas any other freshman on the team his play would be seen as promise in the future rather than a letdown. While Buie’s performance has been somewhat underwhelming by all accounts it hasn’t been for his lack of effort.

Either way Buie’s vanishing act in public is somewhat of a mystery. Even more troubling is the lack of information regarding his status. When asked about it, DeChellis typically refers to “no comment” or something a long those lines. Generally that isn’t a good sign.

So what could have happened, and what is going on? Lets take a look at the most likely options. (more…)

That being said, I can’t avoid this topic anymore. Talking about Penn State basketball always leads to DeChellis’ growing laundry list of underwhelming coaching performances. Don’t get me wrong, DeChellis is a great guy and a positive member of the community, but that excuse has been used for too long as the reason why he shouldn’t be fired.  For the record, I’m a supporter of the concept and player of the Penn State basketball program. That quite often gets confused for unyielding support and constant approval of anything the program does. This is not the case.

DeChellisis constantly out coached, and out recruited by his colleagues. While he has put the program in a better position than it once was, it has become obvious that he has reached his limit. The topic has generally be hashed and rehashed so I’m going to leave it at that. It’s an exausting subject to cover over and over again. Consider this our official position until further notice.

It almost looked as if the 2010 Penn State basketball season was going to be over before it really ever began. Penn State was losing to Lehigh, Talor Battle had to be carried off of the court into the locker room,(only to later return) and the offense was operating about as well as a broken washing machine. To say the first 20 minutes didn’t go to well would be an understatement.

For the most part Penn State controlled the pace of play in the first half, playing solid defense, creating turnovers and bad shots for Lehigh, shutting down Lehigh’s star C.J McCollum who was held to only 7 points on 3-11 shooting in 29 minutes of work. This defensive success however did not translate on the offensive side of the court where Penn State was able to produce good looks at the basket but was unable to finish, ultimately allowing Lehigh to end the first half with a 27-21 lead. Penn State’s lack of offensive production in the first half seemed more attributed to nerves, and some hesitancy to just execute, rather than any inability to create opportunities. Unlike last season when Talor Battle was often criticized for not sharing the load, Penn State seemed more happy to pass the ball rather than shooting it. (more…)

Answers to some offseason questions, not direct quotes from DeChellis, but summary of his comments–

1. Taran Buie

Buie has the ability to do what Talor can, but don’t assume he’ll be Talor 2.0 off the bat. In regards to his off the court issues it was dealt with internally and he understands what he did and had to “jump through some hoops” for him to get back to where he needs to. Chemistry wise he and Talor play each other hard on the court, but they get along. No clashing egos or Crispen-esq on court fighting.

2.  Sasa’s torn ACL left a hole open in the rotation, who takes his spot as a big man?

 Billy Oliver, Drew Jones, D.J. Jackson and Jeff Brooks are playing up front along with Jon Graham. Because of the lack of true depth at the position there is a chance they will play with 2 forwards and no true center on the court. Billy Oliver is healthy, headache free and Graham is coming along. The long-term goal is to play an uptempo game similar to the style they played during the NIT run. (more…)

Terrific is the word to describe the staff Steve Lavin is forming at ST John’s-      look 4 Red Storm to dance in 2011!

This was a tweet yesterday from the unofficial Twitter of the one and only Dick Vitale. It caught my eye and reminded me of the first thought I had when I heard St. John’s had hired the former UCLA coach: Steve Lavin very well could be Penn State’s men’s basketball coach right now.

Rewind to March of 2001. Penn State had just upset North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and a 10-year old in Tennessee (me) had just fallen in love with Penn State basketball. Now fast-forward to March of 2003. After two consecutive 7-21 seasons, head basketball coach at Penn State, Jerry Dunn, resigns and athletic director Tim Curley begins a “national search” for the next head coach. I remember, at the tender of age of 13, hearing the name of Steve Lavin being mentioned in connection with the Penn State job and that he was actually very much interested in it. Being a budding college basketball fan I knew the name of Steve Lavin because of the success (5 of 6 years in the Sweet 16) he had had at UCLA and that he had just been fired after one dismal season (10-19).

That distant memory was confirmed by a Daily Collegian (Penn State’s student newspaper) article from February 2007 about former Penn State point guard, Ben Luber. The article says at one point,

            Tim Floyd, now coach at Southern California, and Steve Lavin, former UCLA      coach and current ESPN analyst were two [big names mentioned for the job],         but Penn State went [with] a familiar face: DeChellis, a former assistant under       Dunn and before that, Bruce Parkhill. (more…)

When Penn State won the NIT the expectations for the program were as high as they had ever been. With plenty of returning talent, a larger fanbase, and a lot of support from the university, Penn State seemed ready to take a step towards a competitive basketball program. Accordingly Ed DeChellis received a contract extension through the end of the 2013-2014 season.

At the time it made sense. DeChellis’ extension was a necessary part of what appeared to be the foundation of a successful basketball program if for no other reason than it expressed the programs stability to recruits who might have been interested in playing for Penn State.  In the words of Tim Curley “We are very excited about the significant progress our men’s basketball program has made under Coach DeChellis and are thrilled that he will continue to lead the program into the future,”

The problem that the program faces now is the inevitability that DeChellis has reached his limit. After winning the NIT and setting a school record of 27 wins DeChellis should have never allowed a 20 loss season to occur. While there is something to be said for the leadership and statistical losses from player graduation, there is no doubt that the losses suffered by the Nittany Lions were more often than not a result of bad execution and preparation on the part of the coaching staff.

Although DeChellis has taken positive strides in comparison to what he inherited, the question becomes how long does Penn State allow this to go on? DeChellis coached teams have shown time and time again tremendous heart and effort but have lacked in the killer instinct and the ability to execute against a deep and talented Big Ten conference. While there is no doubt that DeChellis is great example of a Penn Stater on and off the court, there comes a time where his ability to win basketball games needs to be addressed. (more…)

—————–Post Conference: (more…)

 That being said, firing him now could put the program in the state similar to where it was before he arrived, coming off a bad season, without a real direction, and on the cusp of losing more than half the team to transfer or graduation. Firing Ed right at this juncture would almost be the same thing as pushing the reset button on the past 7 years and starting from scratch.

When it comes to understanding the general state of Penn State basketball, a lot of fans go straight for Ed’s win-loss record. While you are who you are by how many games you win, there are plenty of factors involved that don’t play into the stats. When Ed got here the program was in shambles, players were leaving left and right, and 90% of the people involved with the University couldn’t have cared any less than they already did about the program. (more…)