What a rough game to watch, as Penn loses its third game in as many tries. After the overtime loss to Drexel, you had to be pretty confident in the Quakers’ chances of not seeing to drastic dropoff from last season as well as being the favorite in the Ivy League. But two games later, this squad is reeling.

What was most troubling was the defensive effort from Penn.

For a team that allows 29 points per game and 48 percent shooting from the three point line, I can’t imagine how a 1-3-1 defense was the best option defensively.

The Red and Blue played that set - with the point guard up top, big man in the middle with someone on either side of him and an athletic guard or swingman patrolling the back line - almost the whole game. And as a result, the defense allowed Howard to shoot 22 threes, making 12 of them. Many of these came from the corner, the area of the court that is traditionally most succeptible to threes in the 1-3-1 scheme.

Still, some execution would have prevented the onslaught that ensued. The Bison put up 80 points on Penn after averaging 56 in their first two losses to Duquesne (129-59) and Virginia (92-53).

Howard shot 57 percent not only by hitting wide open threes, but also beating Penn defenders off of the dribble. Quakers forwards seemed a step to slow against the small Bison side, and they conversely couldn’t use their size to their advantage. Penn inside was not particularly strong or intimidating, and recorded no blocks (after altering nine shots in the first two games).

And yet what was even more disturbing was the lack of communication.

Howard players were left wide open, and not just for three, but often under the basket. Whenever players screened, or crossed each other, Penn defenders struggled to cope, for example two defenders heading to the same offensive player on an off-the-ball screen.

This miscommuncation manifested itself on the offensive side as well. The Quakers had 14 turnovers from eight different guys - Grandieri was the only player who played over five minutes that didn’t give one away (Howard had four such players). Many of these were not so much bad passes, but bad decisions - throwing a pass into heavy traffic or to a place that a cutter wasn’t heading.

Key stats:

Penn forced only 9 turnovers and had two steals.

The Red and Blue actually shot better than the free throw line than their Saturday night opponents - 56.5 percent for Penn to 54.5 for Howard.

The four freshmen - Jack Eggleston, Tyler Bernardini, Harrison Gaines and Remy Cofield - had nine assists and only five turnovers, while the rest of the team had six assists and nine turnovers. This was mainly thanks to Gaines’ five dimes as opposed to two turnovers, as only Gaines and Bernardini (two) had more than one assist.

Eugene Myatt (36 points), Kyle Riley (19 points) and Kandi Mukole (10) scored 65 points on 28 attempts, while the Quakers scored 65 on their 54 total shots.

Penn shot 28.5 percent from three-point range (4-for-14), it’s highest single-game clip of the season.

Read Monday’s paper to hear captain Brian Grandieri’s strong words following the surprising loss.

Tags: brian grandieri, harrison gaines, jack eggleston, remy cofield, tyler bernardini

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Men's Basketball, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.