Patrick Chambers has resigned as men’s basketball coach at Penn State, the school announced Wednesday.
Assistant coach Jim Ferry will take over as interim head coach.
Penn State’s statement:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour accepted the resignation of head men’s basketball coach Pat Chambers today following an internal investigation of new allegations of inappropriate conduct by Chambers. The new allegations surfaced shortly after The Undefeated’s article and a review was conducted jointly by Penn State’s Affirmative Action and Athletics Integrity offices.
Barbour named assistant coach Jim Ferry as the interim head coach for the 2020-21 season. Ferry has 30 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 19 years as a head coach with his most recent stint at Duquesne from 2012-17.
Chambers served as Penn State’s men’s basketball head coach for nine seasons, compiling a 148-150 record. He guided the Nittany Lions to the 2017-18 NIT Championship with a 26-13 record. The 2019-20 Penn State basketball team achieved a 21-10 record and was poised to earn an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time since 2011 before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Off the court, Chambers was active in the Penn State chapter of Coaches vs. Cancer, where he was honored nationally with the 2019 Coaches vs. Cancer Collegiate Champion Award.
Some good details on the situation here from David Jones of PennLive.com.
1. Patrick Chambers has been the subject of Penn State internal investigation for the past several months, led by PSU athletics integrity officer Robert Boland, PennLive has learned. Interviews with many former players and coaches have centered around Chambers’ treatment of them.
— David Jones (@djoneshoop) October 21, 2020
2. Sources have indicated it was launched after recent public comments of former PSU and current Iowa State guard Rasir Bolton and those of graduated guard/current Dallas Maverick Josh Reaves. Those interviewed have been asked questions about possible recruiting irregularities.
— David Jones (@djoneshoop) October 21, 2020
Here is some background on those situations.
Rasir Bolton transferred from Penn State to Iowa State and accused Chambers of making inappropriate comments about a noose.
Details on the Josh Reaves component are here.
Chambers released this statement, which can be found at @GoodmanHoops on Twitter.
**AD Sandy Barbour held a brief press conference this evening:
"Coach Chambers is the one that delivered the news to them, and as you can imagine it was difficult news for them to hear."
Sandy Barbour shares how @PennStateMBB players learned about Pat Chambers' resignation. pic.twitter.com/dr4jpJ5Al7
— Penn State On BTN (@PennStateOnBTN) October 21, 2020
BREAKING: Penn State’s Pat Chambers is resigning, sources told @stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) October 21, 2020
Sources: Pat Chambers is stepping down as Penn State's head basketball coach.https://t.co/bKyDo2qpbp
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) October 21, 2020
Chambers led the Nittany Lions to his best season in 2019-20, going 21-10 overall and 11-9 in the Big Ten. It would have been enough to get to the NCAA Tournament, but the tourney was canceled because of the coronavirus.
Chambers went 148-150 in nine seasons at PSU, and just 56-110 in the Big Ten.
Ferry was the coach at Duquesne from 2012-17 and amassed a 60-97 record, including a 17-17 season in 2015-16 and a CBI berth. He was fired in 2017.
He immediately became an assistant at Penn State and has been there ever since, helping to land guard DJ Gordon from First Love Christian Academy in Washington, Pa.
Before his time at Duquesne, Ferry was a head coach at Long Island, Division-II Adephi (N.Y.) and Division-III Plymouth (N.H.) State. He was an assistant at Bentley and Kenne (N.H.) State, his alma mater.
Stay tuned for further developments on this breaking story.
