Pat Chambers Is Out at Penn State And We Likely Don't Have the Full Story Yet

Pat Chambers abruptly announced his resignation as Penn State's head basketball coach on Wednesday after an internal investigation into his conduct. While some information has come out, it's fair to assume we don't know the whole story of why the 49-year-old coach is now out of a job.

The investigation was reportedly launched after former Penn State guard Rasir Bolton revealed that Chambers told him he wanted to "loosen the noose that's around your neck" during the 2018-19 season. Bolton was horrified by those words and decided to transfer to Iowa State in 2019. He relayed the story to The Undefeated in July of this year. After the story broke, Chambers admitted he had said those words and apologized publicly, but at the time of the incident, Bolton says the coach never apologized to him.

Chambers' "noose" comments came just days after he was suspended for shoving freshman guard Myles Dread during an in-game huddle:

Josh Reaves was a captain on the team that season and was told about the "noose" comments at the time. Reaves, who is currently on the Dallas Mavericks, said his initial reaction was disgust:

""I don't know if I'm allowed to curse. It was just f---ed up, to say the least. Saying that, in any type of context, is wrong. Regardless of how you try to make it seem like you're speaking, what type of tone you’re trying to take. Regardless, it's wrong.""

Chambers tried to smooth things over with Reaves but was unsuccessful. The then-senior guard expected to hear from Penn State administrators about the incident after the Bolton and his family told the school about it. But Reaves never heard anything:

"“Nothing happened. That’s a big deal. Just to hear somebody say something like that is a big deal.”"

But the "noose" incident is unlikely the only reason Chambers was let go. The school announced new allegations of inappropriate conduct surfaced after The Undefeated article about Bolton was released in July. There has to be more coming because of this series of tweets from David Jones of Penn Live:

Multiple former players and coaches were interviewed about how they were treated by Chambers and there may have been recruiting issues as well. Whatever is under the surface will likely come out soon and it definitely seems like more is going on here.

Chambers arrived at Penn State in 2011, and in nine seasons posted a 148-150 record (.497). He never took the team to the NCAA Tournament but the Nittany Lions did win the NIT in 2018.