Five takes on the Penn men’s season-opening blowout loss at Iona Monday night, a startling stumble out of the gate for the Ivy preseason favorite against the MAAC preseason favorite:
1. Turnover time
Penn committed 18 turnovers and was outscored 20-4 by the Gaels in points off turnovers. Iona posted 21 assists to Penn’s 14, with leading scorer and junior guard Daniss Jenkins notching five assists to go with his 19 points. Iona sped up Penn, which never looked comfortable after roughly the first quarter of the game.
2. Look before you shoot
Standout Penn junior Jordan Dingle needs to be less of a shoot-first guard. Dingle posted only one assist and launched far too many long-range shots while teammates were open on the wing and inside. Dingle finished 0-for-7 from three-point range, and Penn turned in a woeful 3-for-25 (12%) performance from beyond the arc.
3. Coaching and energy matter
At age 70, Rick Pitino was a bundle of energy and strategy on the sideline. He repeatedly confronted officials on questionable calls. The Penn bench was the polar opposite, sitting on its hands and showing little emotion, even as the game slipped away. Penn tried to run with Iona when conventional wisdom would have dictated the opposite. The Penn substitution patterns seemed odd at a minimum, keeping the team from maintaining any fluidity.
4. The crowd
Fans matter. The crowd of 2,654 at the Hynes Athletics Center was exuberant throughout, energy which was once prevalent in the Ivy League and especially at the Palestra. But in-game enthusiasm has been waning at all eight schools over the last two decades, to say the least, so it’s hard to envision Penn or its fellow Ivies getting the kind of boost Iona got from fans Monday night anytime soon.
5. Scholarship edge
There was a glaring difference in athleticism between the two teams. Penn and the rest of the Ivy League would get far more athletic very quickly if the Ivy League began offering scholarships. There’s new momentum toward that end after Congress allowed a key antitrust protection for the Ivy League to expire earlier this fall.