Kevin Freeman patiently waited for his opportunity.

Eventually, his break would come.

It just took a bit longer than he hoped.

Looking back on it now near the end of his first season as an assistant coach at Penn State, Freeman embraces his journey.

"With anything, you've got to put the time in and you can't lose faith in yourself," Freeman said. "When others say no, you've got to have that belief system in yourself. And I've always had that. I looked at other opportunities that maybe I wasn't ready at that moment.

"Everything happens for a reason. I can't pinpoint why. But I'm grateful for the opportunity now. I put a lot of work in to get to where I was at and I waited patiently." ... It worked out. There's no complaints, no regrets."

A former UConn basketball great, Freeman is thoroughly enjoying his first job as an assistant coach working under head coach Patrick Chambers.

"It's going well,"Freeman said. "Just trying to win games. We've been up and down, so just trying to stay consistent. That's the biggest thing for us. We'll beat some of the better teams and then we lost to some of the lower teams. That's what happens when you've got a lot of freshmen."

After a bumpy start to the season, Penn State has found its stride, winning five of its last six games. The Nittany Lions finished the regular season 14-17 overall, 7-13 in the Big Ten Conference. They'll face Minnesota in the conference tournament on Friday in Chicago.

Freeman sees similarities between the Penn State program and his former basketball home.

"We have a really young core," Freeman said. "We won an NIT championship last year. It reminds me a lot of UConn. It has fans that truly love sports. And we've got to continue to build that up with the basketball program. And I think we're doing a great job with that. With the young talent that we have and the pieces that we have, people are getting excited."

Freeman, 41, arrived in State College after spending seven years at UConn, first as assistant director of basketball administration and then director of basketball administration. He was on Kevin Ollie's staff for the 2014 national championship season.

But he yearned for a bigger role. An 11-year professional basketball career overseas preceded his entry into the coaching ranks.

Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun played a major part in Freeman being hired at Penn State. Former UConn assistant Dwayne Killings, who's now at Marquette, also recommended Freeman. He was once on Chambers' staff at Boston University.

Freeman's meeting with Chambers sealed the deal.

"We just clicked," Freeman said. "And the rest of the staff clicked. I saw his vision and I wanted to be part of it and I was thankful for him to give me the opportunity.

"I'm forever grateful for him taking a chance on a kid from UConn," Freeman said. "There's no ties, there's no roots. It's just him going off my body of work and just connecting as people. It's been a true blessing for me for somebody just to give me an opportunity. And I tried to hit the ground running with it."

His duties are typical of an assistant coach, including recruiting, working with big men, scouting, etc.

Chambers gives his assistants a lot of freedom, something that Freeman greatly appreciates.

"He doesn't put you in a box," Freeman said. "He wants you to experience everything and grow as a coach."

The Penn State players know little about Freeman's playing career beyond that he played for UConn's 1999 national championship team.

An undersized power forward with an oversized competitive heart, Freeman was the ultimate warrior for the Huskies. He often played until physically spent. After an upset win at Stanford, an exhausted Freeman stretched out on the locker room floor.

He laughs when thinking about those days.

"It's just so different now," Freeman said. "They'll complain about a two-hour practice. We had some four-hour practices back in the day before the NCAA rules changed. I joke, but there's a lot of rights for student-athletes now and it's good for the game."

It took some time for Freeman to get used to being a Nittany Lion.

He'll always be a Husky.

"I still have my Husky t-shirts and I still cheer for those guys when we're not playing," Freeman said. "It was a transition period like anything just to get acclimated to a new program and a new style. I loved it because Pat is a teacher. If you have any questions, he's willing to show you. He wants all his coaches to be great."

g.keefe@theday.com