Penn State extends DeChellis’ contract:
“While Ed DeChellis was only halfway through a six-year contract to coach Penn State’s men’s basketball team when last season ended, his athletic director thought it a good time to talk about an extension.
“That sort of talk certainly was not imaginable when the season began. But all coaches in DeChellis’ position are paid to imagine what few others do.
“That his visions began to be realized over the course of an encouraging 2005-06 campaign is the reason for a two-year extension announced yesterday by the university. DeChellis now is signed through the 2010-11 season — five more years.
“In the recruiting biz, which is where major-college hoops really begins and ends, that can be a significant difference. It’s the space between the start of a recruit’s junior year in high school and a point beyond his graduation. If nothing else, it should make luring more Big Ten-caliber players, which DeChellis and his staff are starting to get, that much more possible.
“‘Kids and their parents always ask you what your commitment is and what the university’s commitment is to you,’ DeChellis said by phone yesterday from a rare vacation at a Charleston, S.C., resort. ‘They want to know who they’ll be playing for. They don’t want to change in midstream.
” ‘It’s important to let parents know where you’re at and where you’re going to be. That this thing is complete and signed and Coach is going to be here. That the university is behind its coach and staff. That gives the players and parents a sense of comfort.’…”