Pat Chambers is Having the Time of His Life with Penn State

My fiance was watching the original Dirty Dancing recently on what was probably ABC Famform or whatever they call it now. This isn’t something new in our household. At this point in our relationship, I’m pretty sure that I’ve partially watched Dirty Dancing 30-times or so. I’ve never seen the whole thing from start to finish, but I’ve pieced together the premise. It’s just one of those movies like Top Gun or the original The Fast and the Furious that’s always on cable and it’s a national obligation to stop whatever you’re doing and turn it on... even if there’s only a half hour left.

Now with all of that said, Dirty Dancing isn’t really a movie that I can relate to (I’m built like an outhouse, I look terrible in black, I choose to be bald and my my one dance move consists of a giant frowny face and some weird, semi-twerk/motion-in-the-ocean type action), but I know that my fiance likes it so I hang around, scroll through Twitter and the internet and wait. And wait. And wait until we get to the ending which always, without fail, gives me all the feels... every time... no matter what:

Nowwwww I’veeeeeee hadddddddd the time of my lifeeeeeee

When we finally got to THIS moment the other day, I just so happened to be scrolling through Pat Chambers Twitter feed and it hit me.

Coach Chambers is literally having the time of his life this off-season (yes, I swear, it’s the truth).

He’s commissioned his entire coaching staff to spend actual, team building time to comically teach Davis Zemgulis how to swing a baseball bat:

I’ve watched this video about 15 times at the time of this writing and it will never, ever get old to me. There is just something so great about a 6’6” forward out of Lithuania learning how to swing a bat. It’s equivalent to watching a wrestler shoot a basketball. I hope someone adds them to their intramural softball team just to mess with the opposition. It would be almost impossible to field anything after watching that form.

He’s started a national Cross Fit Holiday with #TireFlipFriday:

He pulled a page out of James Franklin’s off-season team bonding booklet by having his team meet up with Seal Team Physical Training in Virginia for three days worth of mental and physical workouts that almost make me want to pass out from just thinking about it:

Chambers even got to spend some time with one of the smartest strategists in basketball, Kirk Goldsberry (who is now VP of Strategic Research for the Spurs). Here’s to hoping he took notes during that meeting:

But most importantly, Chambers spent some more time in Philadelphia (the ever important hot bed that he’s seemingly/finally broken into) to talk about Penn State hoops, their match up with Michigan State at the Palestra and the soaring expectations that the Nittany Lions have with their Top-25 recruiting class that consists of three former Roman Catholic players:

Penn State hoops, the coaching staff and their media relations department have done one helluva job giving fans of their team and the general Big Ten audience an exclusive peek into the last several months since Penn State has taken one giant step into the national limelight. Their decision to open up the doors is one of those recruiting tools that become more and more important as the days tick by. They have captured inspiring moments from members of the Athletic Department, to “give it 150% and don’t ever let the moment pass you by” pep talks from former Penn State stars like Taylor Battle. They have given us inside looks into some of their players routines. They have shown us the competition that is taking place inside their workouts and practices.

And it’s a brilliant strategy that is unparalleled in the conference right now.

When it’s all said and done, Chambers and the Penn State crew have surely escalated their basketball brand to levels unimaginable just a few short years ago. Chambers is as intriguing as he is entertaining and the program is turning a corner right in front of our eyes...

... and I’m having the time of my life watching them have the time of their lives.

And we owe it all to Pat Chambers.