Freshman guard Darnell Foreman was named Ivy Rookie of the Week Monday for his nine points, two blocks and two steals in 28 minutes at Navy and 11 points, eight boards and two steals at Binghamton. The Quakers won both games, their first two victories of the season.
Forward Mike Auger and guard Antonio Woods also received Rookie of the Week honors earlier this season, putting Penn in the highly unusual position of boasting three different rookies of the week – just three weeks into its season. In part due to junior guard Tony Hicks’ foul trouble, Woods is averaging the most minutes per game of any Quaker (30.4), and four of the top eight Quakers in minutes per game are freshmen. The ultra-young Red and Blue will have a chance to string together three consecutive wins for the first time in three seasons tonight against Marist at the Palestra.
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An easy victory, 59-42, including time for the bench players to see some action.
Another good game from Sam Jones (19 points – 7 for 10, including 5-6 from 3, and 4 defensive rebounds in 21 minutes) – maybe Penn will get a fourth ROW. Greg Louis (13 points – 5 for 7, and 9 rebounds) had a very good game, as well. Matt Howard, also, had a solid game, (8 points, 3 offensive boards, 3 defensive rebounds, 4 assists, 1 turnover and 1 foul).
The team shot 22-53 (41.5%). Not counting S. Jones, Louis and Howard, the rest of the team shot 7-29 (24.1%). For three pointers, the team shot 6-13 (40.0%). Other than S. Jones, the remainder of the team shot 1-9 (11.1%).
They outrebounded Marist 45 (13 Offensive/32 Defensive) to 31 (10 Offensive/21 Defensive), while playing most of the game with 4 guards and one forward.
The team still turned the ball over 20 times and fouled 19 times. Also, Tony Hicks fouled out for the fourth time this season. Last Saturday against Binghamton, he picked up two quick fouls in the first half and sat most of the time. After picking up a quick foul at the start of the second half, Hicks played great, scoring 18 points the rest of the way. Unfortunately, tonight showed that Tony has got to work harder at avoiding fouls.
The Quakers are rated #238 according to Pomeroy. The first five games were losses to Delaware State (#250), Rider (#187), Lafayette (#135), Wagner (#274), and Temple (#118). The three recent victories were over Navy (#321), Binghamton (#337) and Marist (#293). After the finals break, 13 of the remaining 20 games are against team rated #6 through #183. Only Cornell (#234), Brown (#237), Dartmouth (#270) and Niagara (#282) are around or below Penn’s rating.
While there does seem to be some improvement over the last few weeks, the strength of the recent schedule makes it difficult to truly know where things stand. The beginning of the second half with road games at Vanderbilt, La Salle and Princeton will give a much better evaluation of the team and coach as it enters the heart of the Ivy schedule.