Penn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers' contract extension is approved
The native of Newtown Square led the Nittany Lions to 26 wins and the NIT championship this season.
Penn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers has had a contract extension through the 2021-22 season approved by the university board of trustees' committee on compensation, the school announced Thursday.
In a release, the university said the contract needs to be finalized and "executed with all the appropriate signatures."
In his seventh season as the Nittany Lions' head coach, Chambers, 47, a native of Newtown Square, Delaware County, led his team to the 2018 NIT championship. Penn State finished 26-13, the second-highest win total in program history.
Chambers' record at Penn State is 113-122, but the Nittany Lions have made steady improvement, helped in large part by the coach's recruiting in the Philadelphia area. The Lions carried seven players from the area on their roster this season, four of whom played at Roman Catholic High School.
Former Roman star Tony Carr, a sophomore, finished first on the team and second in the Big Ten in scoring with a 19.6-point average and declared for the NBA draft after the season ended.
Chambers, who played at Episcopal Academy and the former Philadelphia Textile and coached for five seasons on Jay Wright's staff at Villanova,was entering the final year of a contract extension he signed in 2015.
"Coach Chambers has demonstrated tremendous vision and determination in building a strong foundation for our men's basketball program," athletic director Sandy Barbour said in a statement. "The success the team enjoyed this season was a result of the efforts and passion of Patrick and his staff in creating a culture that has raised the standards and expectations of the program."
Chambers said that "building a championship basketball program at Penn State has been our mission since day one and we have made significant progress toward reaching that goal.
"I am grateful to have the support of the administration, the students, local communities and from Penn Staters everywhere," he added. "It has helped us elevate Penn State basketball to a new level, and we are confident the best is still yet to come."