Penn avoided a second consecutive disastrous loss thanks to some heroics from its upperclassmen Friday.
The Quakers opened the Cathedral of College Basketball Classic with a narrow 74-72 win over Lafayette after junior guard George Smith buried a go-ahead three-pointer from the right wing with 33 seconds to go on a broken play.
Smith and the rest of the Quakers (4-2) definitely owe senior guard Clark Slajchert a big thank you. Slajchert set Smith up for the game-winning shot after he recovered a deflection in the backcourt and found the open shooter following a mad scramble for the ball.
Slajchert finished with a team-high 18 points and tied a career high with five assists. The senior played 37 minutes, so load management for Slajchert will be something to monitor as the Red and Blue play three games in as many days this weekend.
It’s (mostly) happy Quakeaways for the day, led by how …
Nick Spinoso avoided disaster.
Spinoso had a rough offensive showing on Friday for much of the afternoon but wound up finishing with a KenPom offensive rating of 101 points per 100 possessions.
He again had trouble finishing at the rim. The junior missed his first five shots from the field.
However, there’s absolutely no way the Quakers would have won Friday without Spinoso on the floor. That’s because the junior had two emphatic blocks in the game’s final minutes, including an impressive backside rejection with about 11 seconds to play that effectively sealed the win for Penn.
There have been stretches so far this season when Spinoso looks like he has made the leap from his sophomore season, but there have been longer stretches where he has struggled to protect the ball and struggled more to finish clean looks.
Penn won’t be able to function at full capacity unless and until it’s able to get Spinoso consistently performing to his full capabilities for 40 minutes.
Sam Brown looked like the real deal.
Brown certainly doesn’t look like someone who’s playing his first collegiate games.
The freshman buried three triples on Friday, boosting his season shooting percentage from deep to 63.6% in an admittedly-small sample size. His KenPom offensive rating so far is an eye-popping 176.9 points per 100 possessions.
Brown looks like he can be a more than adequate efficiency monster in coach Steve Donahue’s offense, which is the role that Max Martz used to play before his preseason medical retirement.
An open question is whether Brown will eventually get chances to start alongside Slajchert and fellow standout freshman Tyler Perkins. Cam Thrower has been playing well as the starting “three,” so Brown may wind up being more of a sixth man for the time being.
Elements of the rotation now seem a bit unsettled.
After using a relatively consistent rotation for the first few games of the season, Donahue has begun to mix and match a bit.
Augie Gerhart didn’t see the floor in last week’s Villanova upset but got 13 minutes on Friday as Spinoso’s primary backup. Johnnie Walter, who looked like a key piece of the rotation at the “four” early on, played just two minutes against the Leopards.
Eddie Holland is still starting at the “four” for now but got just 12 minutes of run on Friday.
It’s just another reminder that this team remains a work in progress that is trying to figure out how a bunch of new pieces fit together with one another.