Hoops Notebook: Lions moving past 'moral victories' as stakes rise

Patrick Chambers made clear his message to the upstart Nittany Lions following a 76-73, hard-fought loss at No. 6-ranked Purdue Sunday evening.

Competing and taking top ten teams to the wire in their own gyms are good things for Penn State basketball. Fighting back from a 3-5 start to the Big Ten schedule into a sixth-place standing in the conference, however, they’re no longer good enough.

“He said at this point moral victories aren't really our thing anymore,” junior Josh Reaves recalled of Chambers’ post-game message in West Lafayette, Ind. “We're a good basketball team. We can compete with people. We can play until the end. So he was just harping on just trying to get better. He wanted to get better today, just one percent better each and every day and that's what we're going to do. We're getting treatment, trying to get our bodies ready for Wednesday.”

Tackling topics ranging from the setback against the Boilermakers to the team’s approach to the days ahead, let’s run through the other news and notes to emerge from the media availability Monday afternoon featuring both Chambers and Reaves:

- Going punch for punch with the Boilermakers Sunday night, the loss amounted to a setback to Penn State’s path to an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. With two games in the regular season remaining, plus the Big Ten Tournament in New York next week, the Nittany Lions are in no way precluded from achieving goals that as recently as four weeks ago might have appeared ludicrous.

Still, the sense of disappointment at a missed opportunity to earn a second win against a top ten opponent in as many tries was palpable from both Chambers and Reaves. Pleased by the mettle of his group, one that not only competed with an outstanding Purdue team but did so in the “ridiculously hostile environment” of Mackey Arena with integral forward Mike Watkins on the bench in foul trouble throughout, Chambers lamented missed opportunities to extend a halftime lead.

“For whatever reason, the second half started, we had some good opportunities to really extend the lead and we didn't do that. And then they got on a little bit of a run and we stopped making shots and our offense got a little stagnant, and that always hurts your transition defense,” said Chambers, citing 15 turnovers and free throw shooting as other areas of concern. “So Penn State really hurt Penn State at that point early on. But look, we showed some grit and we showed a little bit of a grind out there in a place the roof was about to come off and we come storming right back with chances to take the lead.

“It's something we're going to have to do much better down the stretch here the last couple of weeks is make free throws, critical free throws that I felt like we missed. Defense had to tighten up a little bit too, but I'm really proud of the development. I like the growth, I like what we're seeing. Today we gotta get one percent better. We'll watch film, and then tomorrow we start on Michigan. I'm not ready for Michigan right now. I'm ready for Penn State and how we can get better today.”

Reaves’ comments regarding the loss were in line with Chambers, the junior forward taking time on his own to process the areas in which he believed he could have performed better Sunday night. Generating just 7 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the floor, while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing five assists but costing three turnovers in 38 minutes, Reaves said he immediately sought out a replay.

“I didn't do what I could have done to helped the team be successful. I wasn't playing like myself defensively,” said Reaves. “I got home and waited for BTN to show the replay of the game and I watched the whole thing from start to finish. It was a really tough game, a physical game. They got a lot of good players on their team. When one goes down, everybody else picks it up; that's just a sign of a really great team. They know each other's strengths, they know each other's weaknesses and they know how to handle themselves when things aren't going their way. They're a really good team and they just have a lot of firepower coming from everywhere.”

Setting the loss aside by this morning, Reaves said the team is now setting its sights on correcting the mistakes from the game while building on the positives to emerge from it.

“We went down in the second half and we came back. We just kept fighting when things weren't going our way,” said Reaves. “That's one of the loudest arenas I've ever been in, and we fought through that adversity. We came back, brought the game back to winning distance and they were just able to close it out.”

- Receiving six votes in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll released Monday afternoon, the first such time for the program dating back to the eighth week of the 2014-15 season, the Nittany Lions’ surge is now being recognized as such nationally. In that vein, the Nittany Lions also learned Monday that sophomore point guard Tony Carr had been named the Big Ten Player of the Week following his average of 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in a dominating win against No. 8 Ohio State Thursday and the loss to Purdue on Sunday. The honor was the first bestowed on anyone within the Penn State program dating back to a nod to Brandon Taylor in February 2016.

Rejecting making too big of a deal over either accolade, Chambers did note that the positive attention turning toward the program is nice for Penn State fans, the players’ families and students as a “Senior Night” showing against Michigan Wednesday (7 p.m., BTN) looms.

“I'd rather get votes now than in November, so we're headed in the right direction,” said Chambers. “We just gotta keep getting better.”

And of Carr’s award, Chambers echoed the sentiment as he insisted it amounted to an acknowledgment of the team’s efforts.

“I think it's great for Tony but I think it's great for his teammates, too. I don't think it's just an individual award. I think it's a team award and it's a program award. I think everybody has a lot to do with that and I know he's very gracious and will be very humble. He'll thank his teammates for sure,” said Chambers. “It's great to be recognized and get an accolade every now and then, but I'm sure he would rather give up that honor to beat Purdue last night. He would give up that honor to beat Michigan on Wednesday. That's just the type of kid he is. He really, really loves this program and he cares a lot, and that was very noticeable last night.”