Penn basketball: Quakers’ season in doubt after getting swept by Princeton

Penn basketball has been swept by rival Princeton, and have lost four straight since their 10-2 start. Where does the Red and Blue go from here?

“It left the guys wanting more, hungry for more” AJ Broduer said in an interview published after the Penn basketball’s upset over Villanova in December, in reference to Penn’s 2018 Ivy League championship. “And now that we’ve done that, I feel like going back to that is kind of a cop-out. We gotta find out what it takes to become a second round NCAA Tournament team, a Sweet 16 team and beyond”.

At the time, Brodeur’s comments didn’t seem too farfetched. Penn was looking like a well-oiled machine, using their analytically driven five-man offense to add wins over Villanova and Miami to an impressive resume, to roll to a 10-2 start to the non-conference season. An at-large bid seemed distantly possible, and while they certainly weren’t going to be a popular pick to get out of the first weekend of the Tournament, no one around the program would’ve been shocked if they did.

But things changed for Penn when they suffered two injuries to their starting five; Max Rothschild went down with a back injury, and Michael Wang rolled his ankle against Toledo a few days after Christmas. On top of missing Ryan Betley for the season, a shorthanded Penn went on to lose two straight before Rothschild and Wang found their way back into the lineup. But when the two returned for the Ivy League opener against Princeton on the road, the Quakers couldn’t put the brakes on their skid against their long-time rivals. Princeton won a thriller in overtime, and Penn had lost a third straight.

More from Busting Brackets

But things didn’t seem too bleak for Penn; they had been shorthanded, and even at full strength, winning away at Princeton will never be easy for even the best Penn teams. Wang only produced six points off the bench, perhaps still dealing with a sore ankle, and they had another shot at Princeton, the team with which they shared Ivy dominance for so much of the twentieth century and early 2000’s, a week later at the Palestra.

No one was going to hang their heads about a three-point overtime loss at Jadwin, and the goal from there was clear; avoid the dreaded sweep at the hands of the Tigers, and start to build back that momentum they had before they were hit so hard by injuries. The Ivy still appeared to be theirs to lose.

It was a choppy, ugly game at the Palestra on Saturday, and the visiting Tigers would sink Penn 62-53. The Quakers dropped to 0-2 to start Ivy play and were swept by the Tigers for the fourth time in five years. The teams shot a combined 40-123, totalling only 14 assists between them. The difference in the game was on the boards, where Princeton out-rebounded Penn 55-34, and at the free throw line, where Princeton shot 19-21 to Penn’s 7-13. Michael Wang and Max Rothschild combined for only 6 total points in 38 minutes.

What’s been exposed for Penn during this skid has been their depth. They are one of the best defensive teams in the Ivy and do nothing exceptionally poorly, but when one or two pieces from this already shorthanded team that lost Ryan Betley early in the season are missing, Steve Donahue doesn’t have the bench to make up the offense.

Aside from Rothschild and Wang, who have been alternating starts next to AJ Broduer in the frontcourt, Penn is limited in their options off the bench. Senior guards Jake Silpe and Jackson Donahue are the only others earning consistent minutes, and their offensive contributions have been minimal; Silpe has hit the double-digit mark a few times this season, but Donahue’s season high is 9. They combine for a total nine points per game. While that’s certainly not nothing, Steve Donahue’s short bench provides some limitations when players go down or are targeted by advanced scouting during the rigorous conference season.

Penn’s schedule doesn’t get any easier from here; they take a break from conference play to play the back end of their Big 5 season, traveling to North Philly to take on 13-3 Temple on Saturday and hosting St. Joe’s a week later.

This is as big of a couple of games the Quakers will play all season; while trying to end their four game skid, Penn will also be looking for their first Big 5 title since 2002; at least one win over Temple or St. Joe’s secures them a share of the city championship, both would earn them the title outright. Another couple of losses, and Penn’s focus will turn to simply making the four team Ivy league tournament, a position no one could’ve seen them in just a few weeks ago.