HD Video: Pat Chambers reacts to loss to Indiana

  • 01/23/2013 9:43 pm in

Penn State coach Pat Chambers met with the media following the Nittany Lions 72-49 loss to Indiana on Wednesday at Assembly Hall.

Watch and listen to the press conference in the embedded media player below:

Quotes after the jump.

On letting the game get away from them late in the first half:

“It was (Will) Sheehey hitting threes. Usually he is a good middle-range jump shooter. That team has a lot of talent, and you just can’t take everything away so you have to pick your poison and Sheehey hit some threes that opened up everything. You play the percentages and try to take certain things away. Our biggest concern was (Christian) Watford and he only had 10 points. I’ll take that. My other big concern was (Jordan) Hulls. You know what (Cody) Zeller is going to do to you, you can already put it in the books, but Hulls has been the Nittany Lion killer, and he only got eight tonight. You think Watford 10, Hulls eight, our team really has a chance. I think our kids played so hard. They never gave up and they played right to the very end. Everybody I put in played hard. I’m really proud of my team. It might not show it on the scoreboard but I thought we did everything we could do in our ability.”

On holding Cody Zeller scoreless from the field:

“I don’t think Zeller played a ton of minutes; usually he gets in a lot more than he did tonight. I saw him tweak his leg and I asked him if he was ok. He told me that he was. But the big thing was that we played zone. Sometimes that means giving up certain things, and they found our weaknesses by making the extra pass. ”

On why Penn State played zone:

“I didn’t like our match-ups. They are a very talented group and as a coach you have to do everything you can to try to help your team be successful. I felt like we mixed it up a lot, playing a lot of zone, but a little man and disguised the zone. We did a lot of different things and for a while it worked, but then talent takes over and they started making threes. Eleven threes is just too many because we are not a great three point shooting team.”

On why Penn State had such a hard time guarding the three:

“It was good ball reversals and lots of ball movement. It wasn’t like we weren’t in front of them, but we got there a little late. For good shooters like Sheehey and Hulls, they are going to drill it, and then (Kevin “Yogi”) Ferrell got some un-contested ones.”

On DJ Newbill:

“I played him 39 minutes, and I know he had eight turnovers, but it didn’t feel like it the way he played and the way he carried himself. If he can bring that everyday, than we have a special player on our hands. The way he handled himself was very impressive and I’m looking forward to the future with him because this is one of the most difficult places to play. It really is. For a kid from Philly to step up the way that he did, it was a pretty special day for him.”

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