A Stone Untapped

Part one of a three-part feature on Patrick Chambers’ tenure at and departure from Boston University.

As he walked off the court and strode through the bowels and arteries of the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., Patrick Chambers was content if not downright and outwardly satisfied.

The Boston University men’s basketball coach had been at the helm of and overseen one of the most accomplished seasons in the recent history of the program, and was fresh off an NCAA Tournament appearance in which his Terriers were within single digits of the No.1 seed University of Kansas for a majority of a game played in front of a national television audience.

Even though his team ultimately lost by 19 points, it certainly didn’t feel that way for many close to the program; rather, there existed a prevailing sentiment of pride and accomplishment for an admirable performance and perhaps more than anything, a sense of excitement and anticipation for what lay ahead of the program with their perpetually-energetic 39-year-old coach leading the way.

But perhaps for Chambers, bliss derived from ignorance, for amidst all the joy and eagerness that had overcome the BU program in the aftermath of an America East title and a berth in the Big Dance rested a salient truth – Chambers has just coached his last game for the Terriers.

 Just over two months and a two-year contract extension later, the school announced on June 3 that Chambers, the young up-and-comer who had turned around the program in just two short years, had left BU to accept the head coaching position at Penn State University.

“I looked at those kids at the end of that game in the locker room and I knew we were close to building something really special and we had to keep it going,” Chambers said. “That’s all I was thinking about.”

For BU, it represented the culmination of a stint that was brief as it was memorable, leaving many with a sense of loss, left to wonder what the program could have become had it been able to retain Chambers for at least a few more years.

For Chambers, the move to Penn State and the Big Ten signals a pivotal shift in the career of a promising head coach, a career that had begun just two years prior when BU selected him as the man to jumpstart and elevate the stature of the program after a stagnant end to Dennis Wolff’s 15- year tenure on Commonwealth Avenue.

It was then and there in April 2009, standing at a podium before family members, a handful of local media representatives and the group of BU players he was hoping to win over, that Chambers made a bold declaration that would define his brief tenure at the university.

“I look at this program like the Gonzaga or Xavier of the East,” Chambers said that day.

For a first-time head coach taking over a program that had not been to the NCAA Tournament in seven years, let alone one that played in the fledging America East Conference, it was a daring and entirely risky move, one that could potentially create a lofty standard that may never be reached regardless of how well his teams performed.

But it was a stance that Chambers held firm to, one that he blazed an encouraging path toward in each of his two seasons. In his first season, Chambers managed to take a talented, veteran-laden team featuring seniors like guards Corey Lowe, Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong and exceed the 20-win plateau despite a discouraging start to the season in non-conference play. The team ultimately fell a game short of the NCAA Tournament, losing to a familiar foe in Marqus Blakely and the University of Vermont in the AE Championship.

With a decorated senior class graduating, Chambers brought about a full-fledged transition, one with his distinct brand and personality attached to it. Gone were the likes of Lowe, Morris and Strong, but in to replace them were three experienced transfers and a banner recruiting class loaded with talented players from the Philadelphia area, a class that was widely-ranked in the top 10 among mid-major programs.

The 2010-11 season proved to be a landmark one for both Chambers and the BU program as a whole. It began with another lackluster start, one that extended into conference play as the Terriers stood at 10-13 in early February following a humiliating 60-48 loss at the University of New Hampshire. However, it was at that time that the makeshift team featuring just three returning players banded together and set out to right what appeared to be something of a sinking ship.

Led largely by senior forward John Holland, BU reeled off 11 consecutive victories, a run that took them through the regular season, AE Tournament and into the promised land of the NCAA Tournament, where the loss to the Jayhawks ended the winning streak and the season.

The image of the once-apathetic and entirely uninterested BU fan base rushing the Agganis Arena court in throngs after the Terriers captured the AE crown appeared side-by-side with a shot of Chambers standing and cheering triumphantly on top of the scorers’ table in the very montages that have come to define March Madness and college basketball itself.

Perhaps the program wasn’t to the point of a perennial mid-major contender like a Gonzaga or a Xavier, but at the very least, the long-dormant, over-looked program appeared to be gaining a sense of visibility and identity that came with success.

And at the forefront of it all was Chambers, the man who had become the face of a BU basketball program that had lacked one for so long. There was a growing sense that BU athletic director Mike Lynch had managed to attract one of the game’s up-and-coming coaching prospects and would have him leading his program for the foreseeable future.

Even opposing coaches took notice.

“When’s the extension?” quipped University of Hartford head coach John Gallagher after his Hawks were ousted by BU in the semifinals of the AE Tournament.

Fittingly enough, Chambers inked a two-year contract extension on May 5 that would keep him at BU through the 2015-16 season.

“This is where I want to be. We’ve made this my dream job and again, you don’t get this type of support anywhere,” Chambers told The Daily Free Press shortly after cutting the deal. “We love the city of Boston, we love the university and we’re very grateful of this opportunity that they’ve given us and for BU basketball and what it’s done for us in this short time as a head coach.”