Penn State’s coaches and returning players held a team meeting last week. It was what wasn’t said by a couple of unnamed players that bothered head coach Ed DeChellis.
“I thought they had an opportunity to exert their leadership and they didn’t do it,” he said.
DeChellis called the players into his office early the next morning and reminded them that more than distribution of points will change next season.
The Nittany Lions return all but three players from their regular rotation in 2009-10, but those three players — forward Jamelle Cornley and guards Stanley Pringle and Danny Morrissey — will leave tremendous tangible and intangible voids as Penn State looks to sustain the momentum from its 10-3 finish and NIT championship.
“I think the leadership thing is what I’m most concerned about,” DeChellis said Thursday. “Other guys have to step up now; they’ll be the guys that people will be looking towards. The on the floor stuff, that kind of works itself out — what you can do, how you’re going to score and defend, who you’re going to go to to get a basket at crunch time.
“Basketball, I think will sort itself out. I’m more concerned with the intangibles, the toughness, bringing it at practice very day, the locker room, the leadership, and that’s what we started working on as soon as the season’s over.” …