FADEM: The coach for me

I don’t know what I did to deserve this ‘-‘- maybe it was my buttering up of Athletic Director Mike Lynch (‘Superhuman athletic director,’ Feb. 17, page 8) or my ridiculous coaching suggestions (‘Coaching options,’ March 31, page 8). I’m not really sure what it was, but whatever I did (or didn’t do) may or may not have caused a coaching hire for the men’s basketball team that couldn’t fit me personally any better.

We have plenty of connections, starting with new BU coach Pat Chambers’ college: Philadelphia University. The coach of Philadelphia University for the last 42 years and the third-winningest coach in NCAA basketball, is Herb Magee, commonly referred to as the Shoot Doctor.

Magee is a shooting expert who ran camps all throughout the Pennsylvania area. During camps, he would lecture attendants while effortlessly swooshing free throw after free throw, to the point where you began disliking basketball.

Little known fact: Hot Dog used to be a shooting prodigy and occasional shooting model for Herb’s instructional videos. For whatever reason, I picked up on Herb’s lessons at one of his camps, to the point where he noticed my abilities and signed me up for some films. Before I knew it, I was a 12-year-old video-shooting example who didn’t look a day over seven.

Anyway, Pat Chambers played for Magee, and PC no doubt knows what I’m talking about with the shooting. However, Chambers wasn’t a shooting pro at Philadelphia ‘-‘- he was a disher, and a good one at that. BU’s newest coach is the all-time career leader in assists at Philly U with 709.

Want some more connections?

Chambers was an assistant at Episcopal School ‘-‘- a prestigious private high school known for one thing in 2005-06: hoops. The team featured Wayne Ellington, Gerald Henderson and one of my childhood best friends, Charlie Barks, who ran the point. I saw many games that season, but never knew at the time I would be watching the future coach at my future university.

Then Coach got a job at Villanova ‘-‘- my hometown team that’s about 10 minutes away from my house. Now, he’s coaching five minutes from my residence at BU.

So yeah, I almost feel like Coach Chambers is family.

I interviewed Coach to talk about all that has happened for him in the last month. He was on a recruiting visit but took some time out of his busy schedule to let me fire away with questions over the phone.

I started off by asking him why he chose BU, why it was a good fit.

He said one of the first things that drew him here was the university’s academic standard. Coach compared it to Villanova, and he really valued the school’s dedication to graduating student athletes. He also touched on the long tradition of BU basketball and his love of the city of Boston in general.

I asked him what he thought about coaching basketball at a hockey school.

Surprisingly, he said he loves it. He wants to build off the energy and passion the hockey team has created for the school. He said he plans on learning from Jack Parker, a man Chambers said does things the right way.

I moved on and asked coach where he would prefer to play ‘-‘- The Roof or Agganis?

His vision is to see BU as Gonzaga East. He said he doesn’t plan on hiding his expectations and desire to become a basketball-excited school. He wants everyone to get excited about the team and hopes that the excitement can carry into Agganis.

I tried to challenge coach with some difficult questions, but he had all the right and respectable answers. Like when I asked him what he thought about Jake O’Brien’s decision to look elsewhere.

His answer was genuine and perfect ‘-‘- Jake’s a good everything ‘-‘- a good player, a good student and a good person. He said that if he wants to test the waters, he’s by all means entitled to, and he wishes him the best. That’s not to say that Coach doesn’t hope Jake returns, because he would make a valuable impact.

I asked Coach something I really had to ‘-‘- a lot of people tell me they see him around campus in a golf cart, often times with recruits and their families.

Coach said it beats walking, and the parents always love going for a ride. He said they respond well to it, which is probably why Coach is in the process of bringing in a UMass transfer who was lucky enough to let Chambers speed him down Comm. Ave. in the cart.

I really enjoyed talking to Chambers on the phone. He brings a new type of energy and passion, even in one simple 15-minute interview, that I never saw or heard from Dennis Wolff.

Next year’s season is a fresh start and the last chance for an extremely talented senior class to win a conference title. I have the utmost faith in how Chambers will handle all the responsibility and pressure he has on him. This program is going to change with the new life that Pat is bringing with him.