A Change of Pace

Patrick Chambers had his mind on Duke University.

Sitting in a plane bound for Boston, the associate head coach of the Villanova University men’s basketball team thought only of how he could prepare the Wildcats for their upcoming Sweet Sixteen matchup against the favored Blue Devils at TD Banknorth Garden. Chambers boarded the late March flight having watched and organized all the Duke film he could get his hands on.

‘I was ready to go,’ Chambers said.

As for his interview with Boston University about its head coaching vacancy? It would have to wait, Chambers decided. The Garden’s proximity to BU didn’t tempt him in the slightest. If the America East school truly valued him as a candidate, Chambers thought, BU athletic director Mike Lynch would delay the meeting to a later date. At the present moment, he had an obligation to Villanova, to his mentor, head coach Jay Wright.

Wright had other ideas.

‘You have to interview,’ he told Chambers on the flight.

Chambers did interview, and now, nine months after Wright’s airborne blessing, the 38-year-old from Radnor, Pa., finds himself fulfilling a lifelong dream. A journey of ecstatic highs and perilous lows brings Chambers to Boston University, where he finally has a program to call his own.

***

Though he always loved coaching, Chambers once had a life outside of it. From 1999-2004, he doubled as a businessman and top assistant coach at his former high school, Episcopal Academy in Lower Merion, Pa. Chambers worked diligently in both employment arenas, but was lured largely by material assets. He chased money, and made plenty of it.

The lavish lifestyle treated him well. Episcopal’s season spanned no more than five months a year, allowing Chambers ample time to live as he pleased. He took full advantage of his freedoms, but before long, they became irrelevant.

Chambers’ life was about to change forever.

Wrapping up a night on the town in early October 2002, Chambers had just left the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel in Philadelphia when disaster struck. A man wielding a piece of glass charged out of the hotel bar and randomly attacked Chambers, chipping three of his teeth with a punch to the face before stabbing him in the neck with the broken shard.

Paramedics rushed Chambers to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for a severe neck laceration that left him in critical condition. Numerous stitches stabilized Chambers, but the damage had been done, and the ripple effects of his near-death experience began immediately.

In the wake of the incident, material objects suddenly mattered little to Chambers. Lying in his hospital bed, he knew the life he led before the attack could not continue. He had to adjust. And fast.

‘That incident was basically a roadblock that said, ‘You better change now if you want to reach all your goals and be the person we all know you can be,” Chambers said.

The youngest of 12 children, Chambers started cherishing his loved ones more than ever. These days, he goes home to two people who bring him the utmost joy, his wife, Courtney, and one-year-old daughter, Grace. Seven years after the night that almost ended his life, Chambers has an entirely different perspective of what he treasures most.

‘That’s what life’s about, being a great father and a great husband,’ Chambers said. ‘My wife is so supportive. I talk to her constantly about what’s going on with the team and how I can get better. She’s like a head coach right along with me.

‘And Grace, she has just brought me so much happiness. She doesn’t know if we won or lost, or if I had a good day or a bad day. I walk in the door and she says, ‘Hi Dad!’ with the biggest smile on her face.’

Following the attack, Chambers realized that personal satisfaction in the workplace would come in only one field: coaching. He rededicated himself to the Episcopal job, and, in 2004, received a promotion. But not just any promotion. By accepting a position as director of men’s basketball operations at Villanova, Chambers would have to sacrifice many of the luxuries that defined him before the incident.

‘It was a great challenge,’ Chambers said.

It was also a rocky transition. The then-single Chambers left the business world, sold his house and moved into a friend’s basement near Villanova. He traded his past life for a job that required his attention seven days a week, 12 months a year.

‘There were times I doubted myself,’ Chambers said. ‘There were times I thought maybe I made a bad decision in changing my lifestyle and going into basketball. It was worlds apart.’

Years passed, and the increasingly competent Chambers earned annual promotions up the Villanova coaching staff. He progressed from director of basketball operations to third assistant, second assistant and first assistant before being named associate head coach, Wright’s right-hand man, in June 2008.

‘Jay really gave me that role to say, ‘Alright, now it’s time for you to help me run this program, help me do all the little things that are going to prepare you to be a head coach,” Chambers said.

But at a time when Chambers wanted nothing more than to forget the events of Oct. 6, 2002, they stayed with him. The trial of his assailant, Joseph Lynn, charged with attempted murder among other offenses and later sentenced to one year in jail, lasted four years, coinciding with Chambers’ tenure at Villanova.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

‘I couldn’t let it affect me,’ Chambers said. ‘Jay was tough on me. He said, ‘Hey, I know you’re going through a lot, but I need you.’ It was just like something my mom would say: ‘Have a good cry. But as soon you’re done crying, it’s time to get tough again.’

‘There were many nights I cried. But as soon as those tears were done, it was time to get back to work and stop feeling sorry for myself.’

Lynn refused to apologize to Chambers until the final day of the trial, but Chambers had already forgiven him. The days of the attack characterizing his life were over, replaced by a burning passion for a coaching career that would soon reach new heights.

***

Instead of celebrating Villanova’s 77-54 upset victory against Duke, which punched the Wildcats’ ticket to the Elite Eight and then the Final Four, Chambers spent the wee hours of March 27, 2009, preparing for an early interview with Lynch. He outlined his short- and long-term plans for the BU program in a detailed PowerPoint presentation, complete with the Terriers’ logo and colors.

Running on no more than three hours’ sleep, Chambers presented his candidacy to Lynch later that morning. Lynch entered the meeting having narrowed his prospects to Chambers and six other finalists, none of whom were more prepared than the sharply dressed blue-eyed gentleman who’d just coached a Sweet Sixteen game the previous night.

‘He had a specific idea in mind of how he wanted to run his program,’ Lynch said. ‘That was pretty impressive to me, how detailed and thoughtful he was in answering our questions. I thought any of those seven guys could have been our basketball coach, and he started to emerge.’

On April 8, 12 days after the interview, Lynch introduced Chambers as the 24th men’s basketball coach at Boston University. Following the dwindling of a search pool that just weeks before included up to 300 potential candidates, BU had found its man.’ ‘

‘To be able to finally attain that goal is something I’ll never forget,’ Chambers said. ‘That very minute, when the words came out of Mike’s mouth, you reach the pinnacle. You’re finally a head coach. You’ve dreamt about this. You’ve dreamt about being in Jay Wright’s shoes. At that moment, the tears start flowing, and you feel like, ‘I did it. I made it.”

Much like Chambers seven years ago, the team he inherited from predecessor Dennis Wolff needed to undergo a transformation. A new coach meant a new style of play, this one an up-tempo brand far different from the defensive-oriented variety Wolff employed for almost two decades on Commonwealth Avenue. Chambers would attempt to infuse into the Terriers what he had once instilled in himself ‘-‘- change.

Nine games into the 2009-10 season, Chambers’ 3-6 squad ‘-‘- picked for a third straight year to win the America East and earn the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2002 ‘-‘- remains a work in progress. Illnesses and injuries have battered BU to a point where its rookie coach has yet to deploy a full-strength roster. When it comes to conquering hardship, however, the Terriers need look no further than at the man patrolling their bench for motivation.’ ‘ ‘

‘The way we’ve handled adversity in the past hasn’t been well,’ senior guard Tyler Morris said. ‘He’s teaching us that there’s going to be challenges in anything you do in life. He’s had a bunch of challenges in his life, and it’s just about how you handle them and go forward.

‘His mentality has kind of rubbed off on the team. Hopefully, as the season progresses, we can continue to take on his personality and have each individual guy take on his never-quit attitude.’

Time and again, Chambers has heard the assertion that BU’s current players aren’t ‘his guys,’ rather Wolff’s recruits who happen to be suiting up for him. It’s a fair claim in some respects, but false in others. Though he didn’t watch their games in person the past two seasons, Chambers knows all about the ‘underachievers’ label that’s trailed the Terriers like a shackle.

‘Everybody says this is a talented group that never reached their pinnacle, and I’m trying to drive them to that point,’ Chambers said. ‘No, I didn’t recruit them, but I care about this group a lot and I want to see them reach their goals. I want to see them have a new ending.’

If Patrick Chambers’ life were a novel, the tears that streamed down his face upon learning of his hiring at BU would have made for a perfect storybook ending. But his journey is far from complete, with more challenges to tackle in the coming years. The promise Chambers made to himself in that Philadelphia hospital bed seven years ago remains fresh in his thoughts, reminding him of the person he used to be, and the man he is today.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

‘Thank goodness I wake up every day with a pretty good attitude, an attitude that says, ‘I can’t wait to start this day. I can’t wait to get out of bed, get to work and shape these young men and my staff,” Chambers said. ‘As long as I keep that mentality, I’m going to be in this business for a long time.’