City of Basketball Love: After a bit of a slow start, Pat Chambers‘ Philadelphia ties are starting to pay off in Penn State’s recruiting. Four days after 2015 Imhotep forward Michael Watkins verbally committed to the Nittany Lions, Chambers and his staff got a big commitment from 2014 Roman Catholic guard Shep Garner.

“Very deserving, very proud of him, hardworking kid and I know he really connected well with the staff,” Roman coach Chris McNesby told CoBL by phone from Penn State, where Roman was playing at their team camp this weekend. “(Associate head) coach (Brian) Daly and coach Chambers both have Philadelphia connections and they recruited him hard throughout the process.”

Chambers, a Philly-area native, is an Episcopal and Philadelphia University graduate who also spent time as an assistant at Villanova in the last decade. He’s clearly focusing on Philadelphia, bringing in Pitt transfer John Johnson (Girard College/Life Center) and Southern Miss transfer D.J. Newbill (Strawberry Mansion), as well as Moore, Watkins and now Garner–though the latter says where Chambers is from didn’t play a role in his decision.

“I had a good connection with coach, we hit it off since Day 1 and our relationship just got better and better as time went on,” he said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with the Philly connection or anything like that.”

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