IS GETTING ITS DRAFT BOARD READY
Chambers is now very much in play for a head college job, following in the footsteps of other Wright Villanova assistants - Lange, Joe Jones (Columbia) and Fred Hill (Rutgers).
"What Jay has taught me, I would like to try to do at another university," Chambers said. "Affect kids' lives, to be a leader of a program. There comes a time. It might not be this year. It might be next year that you want to take on that challenge.
"I think it's about challenges. I think it's about what your goals are. Hopefully, in the near future, that opportunity will come. You just want to take everything that you learned from a guy like Jay and put it into use because I think he's one of the best coaches in the country, if not the best."
Chambers was very instrumental in the great recruiting class Villanova has coming in for next season. People just like him.
"We think he's a great coach," his brother said. "You talk to people in the business and whatever that 'it' is, he has it."
The Chambers clan grew up in Newtown Square - nine boys, three girls. Patrick, 38, is the youngest. They are all extremely close.
"It was the greatest growing up," Patrick Chambers said. "I didn't know any other way . . . We're such a tight family. We love being around each other, we love pushing each other, we love needling each other. We love enjoying each other's success and we're there for each other in our failures. Every step of the way, my family's been with me. Hopefully, I've been there for them as well."
Paul Chambers was a really good point guard at Penn as Patrick enrolled at Drexel. He was promptly cut from the basketball team. Given Paul's success, getting cut, according to Tim, was difficult for Patrick.
"A couple of the brothers and the father take me to play golf and try to convince me to give him a scholarship," Philadelphia University coach Herb Magee said. "The more holes I won and, afterward the couple of beers that I had, they're, 'Come on, Herb, have another beer.' I'm like, 'If the kid can play, we'll help him. If he can't play, we're not going to help him. You can buy as many beers as you want and play as many rounds of golf as you want.' "
The kid could play.
"When he got there, it was obvious he could play, that he had what we didn't have at the time, the toughness, leadership quality," Magee said.
Like Paul, Patrick Chambers was a point guard. He played with some of the best players and on some of the best teams in Philly U. history. His 709 assists are a school record.
"I think he had like a 7-to-1 assist-turnover ratio," Magee said. "And he would guard the other team's best player. Senior year, he averaged about three points a game and he was on the league all-star team."
Magee is very proud of his former players and assistants who have become coaches. He is thrilled about that former player he learned about that day at the golf course.
"Jay took a major risk on a high school guy," Patrick Chambers said. "For that, I'll never forget him. I'll be indebted to him forever. To be where I am right now is a dream come true. It's incredible. I would never have thought I'd be going to the Final Four."
The Chambers family has certainly had its share of success. Tim expects "Our Lady of Victory," the movie about Immaculata basketball, to be released this fall when they "work out a deal with two Hollywood distributors." He is the movie's producer, director and writer.
One of the clan, however, has never sat on the sideline at the Final Four. That changes Saturday night when Patrick takes his spot next to Wright on the Villanova bench at Ford Field when the Wildcats play North Carolina in the second game of the national semifinals.
"I'm still in shock," Chambers said. "Jay actually said the other night, 'I think I'm still numb that we're still playing.'
"I usually go out to the Final Four on Thursday and hang out with [Penn assistant] John Gallagher and all the Philly guys."
Each year on the Friday of Final Four weekend, Wright hosts a "Villanova party" where much of Philadelphia basketball gathers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
