Penn’s Monday night season opener at Iona, the preseason favorite to win the MAAC, was a generally miserable affair after the under-eight media timeout of the first half. The Gaels used a 36-4 run which spanned the end of the first half and beginning of the second half to put the Quakers away and turn the final 12-plus minutes of the game into garbage time.
Things won’t get easier this week for Penn. The Quakers will be double-digit (potentially 15-point-plus) underdogs when they travel to Columbia, Mo. to face Missouri on Friday. They’ll likely be underdogs at home on Sunday against Towson, the preseason favorite to win the CAA and a potential No. 12 seed when March rolls around.
Here are some questions Penn will need to answer as it navigates a difficult first week of the season (and beyond):
1. What is Max Lorca-Lloyd’s ceiling?
Lorca-Lloyd was one of the few Quakers to acquit himself well on Monday. He generally dominated the glass, picking up 14 rebounds (six on the offensive end) despite a difficult matchup against Iona’s Nelly Junior Joseph, a favorite to win Player of the Year honors in the MAAC.
The only blemishes on Lorca-Lloyd’s night were a missed dunk in the game’s opening minutes and a quartet of missed free throws. Two of those missed foul shots came in the early minutes of Iona’s backbreaking run, when Penn still had a chance to cut the Gaels’ lead into single digits.
Lorca-Lloyd’s most impressive moment came midway through the first half when he swung a pass from the top of the key inside to a cutting Jonah Charles, then collected a return feed from Charles for an easy layup. He looked like a player who could hold his own against high-major competition and dominate Ivy League forwards.
Can he keep that pace up?
2. Which other big man will step up?
Sophomore Gus Larson, who played 10 total minutes in 2021-22, got the opening night honors to play in the frontcourt alongside Lorca-Lloyd. Larson, who has visibly bulked up, had a few nice defensive moments in his 19 minutes of action but was a nonfactor offensively and missed his only shot of the evening.
Larson clearly showed enough progress in the offseason to merit the trust of the coaching staff, but it may take some time until it manifests in game action.
Nick Spinoso looked like the most polished passer out of the forwards who received action Monday, which could put him in line for extended minutes as the season shakes out. Most notably, he saw Jordan Dingle making a baseline cut and found him for a wide-open dunk after the game had gotten out of hand the second half.
Michael Moshkovitz, who got the bulk of Penn’s minutes at the 5 spot down the stretch last season, played just seven minutes. He found Max Lorca-Lloyd for an easy dunk with a nice interior pass when the game was still competitive, but did not take a shot.
Penn will need one of those three players to separate themselves and seize the starting job.
3. Who will step up as a reliable outside shooter?
In 2021-22, Penn had four players attempt more than 50 three-pointers: Jordan Dingle, Clark Slajchert, Max Martz and Jonah Charles. All four of those men shot at least 33% from beyond the arc last season.
On Monday, Dingle, Slajchert and Charles shot a combined 0-for-18 from distance (Martz did not attempt a three). The Quakers won’t beat anybody if they get nothing from beyond the arc from those four players on a given night.
You would have to imagine that Charles, who shot 39% from three last season, will progress to the mean as the season unfolds. There is also little reason to worry about Dingle, whose first step looked as good as ever Monday despite preseason concern about a foot injury.
Slajchert, who had arguably the roughest game of his career on Monday, also missed some time in the preseason due to injury.
It would be a fool’s game to draw conclusions from a sample size of one game. But continued outside shooting woes throughout nonconference play would have Penn fans justifiably pushing the panic button.