Chambers strives to build program at BU

Beneath all of the bright lights and fanfare commonly associated with college basketball and March Madness is something far less flashy and far more substantive.

It is hour after hour, breaking down every meticulous detail for every single opponent on a schedule that spans the greater part of five months. It is day after day in the gym, working relentlessly to perfect a team as much as possible. It is week after week traversing the country, trying to convince 17-year-olds and their families why your program, more than any other in the country, is right for them.

Indeed, the life of a college basketball head coach is one engulfed by a tireless, unglamorous pursuit of excellence that may never come to fruition by season’s end.

There is pressure on these coaches and for many of them, it is more than enough work to stick to preparing, coaching and recruiting for the betterment of their program.

But for a coach like Patrick Chambers at Boston University, such duties are simply insufficient.

For Chambers, the changes he has tried to implement for the Terrier program have extended far beyond the baselines at Case Gymnasium, far beyond the training and execution that define the success of his teams.

What Chambers is trying to accomplish at BU is to fundamentally change the culture of a basketball program that has been defined more by stagnation and apathy than success and eminence.

When Chambers was unveiled as the BU head coach in April 2009, the referendum was clear enough – even after 15 largely successful years under Dennis Wolff, Terrier basketball needed someone with new ideas who could not only help BU win conference titles, but also make the program more relevant.

With the hire, BU got not only someone who it believes can achieve that relevance, but a man who embraces the task.

“We’ve got to build a program, one that everyone will be proud of, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Chambers said.

While the goal of building a successful Division I basketball program is ambitious enough, trying to boost support for BU basketball may present a more daunting challenge.

Caught in a city where professional sports are king and at a school where hockey is the student body’s preoccupation of choice, BU basketball has long-been defined by empty seats in Case Gym and Agganis Arena, even under successful coaches like Wolff, Mike Jarvis and Rick Pitino.

Since 1978, according to NCAA figures, BU has never averaged more than 2,303 in attendance per season and continually ranks in the bottom 10 percent of Division I teams in average attendance.

Having been an assistant at Villanova University for five seasons, coaching in a conference complete with storied programs, palatial arenas and rabid fan bases, Chambers admits that he knew what he was getting into by coming to a school where widespread indifference to basketball was the norm.

“This was not a culture shock,” he said. “I did my research and [Villanova coach] Jay [Wright] was in this league with BU when he was at Hofstra [University], so I knew that I had to build here and I knew the stakes were against me.”

Thus far, the solution to the challenge has been to be seen as often as possible.

In a break from his more stoic predecessor, much of Chambers’ strategy to rally support has centered around transparency – getting out in the community and on campus, making himself available to those to whom he’s trying to pitch his product.

Seemingly from the moment that he jumped on top of the scorers’ table and started chanting “On your feet!” at the 2009 Terrier Tip-Off, Chambers has quickly become one of the most visible presences on the BU campus – be it promoting games at the George Sherman Union or driving down Commonwealth Avenue in a golf cart.

This fall, he and assistant coach Dwayne Killings started the Chambers Student Council, a group of fans and campus organization leaders that brainstorms ways to attract more students to games.

For Chambers, the idea of connecting to the BU community is critical to elevate the stature of BU basketball.

“If we can build relationships with the students, if we can do different things to engage and see what students like today, you never know what can happen,” he said.

Equally important has been getting himself and his players out in the greater Boston area, building relationships in the city through various charitable efforts.

Over the past year, Chambers has had BU players volunteer at local inner-city elementary schools by reading to students, as well as participating in the Making Strides Walk for Breast Cancer. Chambers himself has conducted several players’ and coaches’ clinics around the city.

“All I can do is what’s in my control, and what’s in my control is to go out and do as many lectures, as many speeches, shake as many hands and get to know as many people as I can,” Chambers said.

“I say the same thing to our players – our players have to go out there and say ‘Hello,’ be respectful, be good guys and maybe when students see that, they say ‘Hey, these guys are good guys, we should go out and check them out sometime.’”

Now, roughly 46 months into Chambers’ tenure, the attendance figures have yet to drastically change despite the hard work he has put forth. The Terriers averaged 968 fans per game in the 2009-10 season, Chambers’ first, and at this point in his second season, the figure is at 750.

Though his concerted efforts haven’t paid immediate dividends, Chambers understands that the wholesale change he is trying to administer at BU takes time and a level of patience from fans.

But the man who at his opening press conference proclaimed that he looked at BU basketball like “the Gonzaga or Xavier of the Northeast” is not deterred by any setbacks he has experienced, still seeing BU as a program with immense promise.

“With all the facilities that we have and all the support that I get from the administration, I really believe that we’re heading in that direction,” Chambers said. “Sometimes you have to take one or two steps back to take five or six steps forward, but I really believe that we have the potential to be the great mid-major of the Northeast.”

But perhaps the irony in all of this is that the seemingly separate tasks of building a successful team and creating a culture of excitement surrounding a program are interconnected.

And just like any other Division I basketball program, building a winner at BU is something that will take time. After all, college basketball is a business that seldom rewards quick fixes.

From the time Chambers arrived on campus, he has had a vision for where he wants the program to be while still remaining cognizant of the obstacles that confront him. Almost two years into his tenure, he understands there is work left to be done, but remains confident that with the proper combination of time, patience and determination he can create not only a winning program at BU, but one that people on campus can embrace and look at with a sense of pride, even apart from wins and losses.

“We’ve just got to keep working hard. We’re only in year two – we’ve got be patient, we’ve got to persevere, we’ve got to keep grinding and keep working hard,” Chambers said.

“We’ve got to build this thing, and I think once we start building it and once we start building those relationships, I’d like to think it’s not going to be the NCAA Tournament that cures it. I’d like to think that people like who we are and what we’re all about.”