Penn State men’s basketball will open its regular season against Maryland Eastern Shore at the Bryce Jordan Center Tuesday night, and Pat Chambers couldn’t be more excited.

The head coach addressed the media Monday afternoon to share updates on the teams progress and plans entering the 2019-20 season. Chambers said his team is coming off of a “good, solid week of practice” and is confident in their ability to get the season off on the right foot. He also confirmed that Mike Watkins will be in the starting lineup for tomorrow’s season opener.

“I’m going to start Mike tomorrow night because it’s his first, last home game,” Chambers said. “He’s a fifth year senior, I want to reward him for his loyalty.”

When asked if Watkins is where he needs to be going into his last year, the head coach had nothing but positive things to say about how the senior has progressed.

“He’s had a good two weeks of practice, a good two weeks academically. He’s taken everything he needs to take care of off the floor, and on the floor he’s dominating in practice and he dominated against Delaware,” Chambers said. “I look for him to have a really big year.” 

Chambers did make clear, though, that Watkins will be on a “day-to-day” schedule throughout the beginning of the season.

Plenty of Watkins’ teammates are excited to have him back as a consistent option in the lineup. John Harrar is ready for his fellow big man to have a big year for the Nittany Lions.

“There’s something about being apart of something that’s bigger than yourself,” Harrar said. “I would love to see Mike go off every night. That would make me so happy.”

As for the rest of the Nittany Lions, Chambers made clear that they need to be locked in to their task at hand throughout this 2019-20 season.

“It’s so hard. [The coaches] are all talking and coming up with creative ways on how to limit the distractions, how to limit the noise, how to really just stay inside those lines for us,” Chambers said. “Don’t let anyone, or anything, or any tweet deter us from the task at hand. The task at hand is to get better every single day and compete at the highest of levels.”