On signing day, Pat Chambers ‘fired up’ for 2015 class

City of Basketball Love:

When Penn State coach Pat Chambers and his staff first got a look at Mike Watkins in April 2013 – while watching Watkins’ Team Philly squad play during the first ‘live’ recruiting period of the year – they quickly saw potential.

Potential is a word used often in the basketball world. Potential, ceilings and other modifying words are sometimes even overused when talking about a high school basketball prospect.

But, to put a “ceiling” on Chambers’ 2015 recruiting class would be selling its potential short. The Nittany Lions officially received a National Letter of Intent from each of their three 2015 commits. With Philly’s own Watkins leading the way, Chambers and the Lions will also welcome in a couple of players from the DMV area in Josh Reaves and Deividas Zemgulis.

Reaves and Zemgulis made Chambers’ 2015 almost complete (there’s still one scholarship open), but it was Watkins that got the ball rolling – committing to Happy Valley in June of 2013, just a few months after the PSU staff had a chance to look at him.

“I felt like there was a lot of potential,” Chambers, speaking on the record for the first time about the class, said of Watkins. “I know that’s a scary word for us in college. But that’s what we have to do, we have to evaluate early and we have to recognize what we like and then go after it.”

“You never know with different kids,” he added. “Sometimes certain kids will commit and sometimes certain kids are really into the romance and the recruiting aspect of it. I think he felt very comfortable here. He trusted us, he liked us. We built an incredible relationship with him over the past couple years, so I knew we would get to the finish line. When he committed it was huge because he’s the best big man in the state.” …

via On signing day, Pat Chambers ‘fired up’ for 2015 class | City of Basketball Love.