Dana O’Neil at ESPN.com:
The virtual glass sitting on Pat Chambers’ desk wasn’t just half-empty; it was cracked straight through and emptying like a sieve.
His Penn State basketball team was 0-14 in the Big Ten this season, winless over its previous 18 games in the league. The Nittany Lions were on a path of ignominy, destined to join DePaul’s 2009 Big East entry in the ranks of conference futility.
Except every time Chambers looked at that stinking, leaking glass, he saw something in it.
Had the man stood on the deck of the Titanic, he probably would have remarked at the pretty stars.
He is that optimistic, that positive-thinking.
That he was able to retain his optimism in Misery Valley this season — where injury to Tim Frazier predetermined the insult — is stunning.
That he somehow passed it on to his players is a miracle.
Yet there were the Nittany Lions, about to do the impossible and upset the No. 4 team in the nation, huddling close to their coach without even a blink of panic.