Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 68-53 loss to Elon

There really isn’t too much to say in a micro sense about Penn’s 68-53 home loss to Elon on Sunday, which rounded out a 1-2 weekend at the Cathedral Classic Invitational.

The Quakers (3-5) shot 29.7% from the field and even worse from deep, hitting eight of 37 three-point attempts (21.6%). Penn never led, taking an immediate 8-0 punch to the mouth from the Phoenix (5-3) that forced coach Steve Donahue into a timeout less than 90 seconds into the contest.

It was all downhill from there.

Instead of focusing on Sunday’s contest, these Quakeaways will focus more on macro-level observations about Penn at large. Believe it or not, Saturday’s upcoming game against Drexel will be the one-third point of the Quakers’ season.

So, where does Penn stand?

The Quakers have a true star as their top option. After that …

Penn should consider itself extremely fortunate that Ethan Roberts used a redshirt year while at Drake in 2023-24 after a mysterious stomach ailment knocked him out of playing shape.

If Roberts had been able to play last season, he likely would have shown enough to follow coach Darian DeVries to West Virginia or play at another power conference school.

Instead, Roberts is in Philadelphia, where he has emerged as a versatile offensive weapon, able to attack off the bounce, on the offensive glass and from behind the three-point line. The junior wing is averaging 18 points per game and has a sterling KenPom offensive rating of 117.1 points per 100 possessions while on the floor.

The issue for Penn is that despite Roberts’ overall excellence, the team’s shooting has been generally poor. The Quakers are shooting 29.1% from deep against Division I opponents (291st in the country out of 364 teams) and 47.1% from two-point range (277th).

Sam Brown’s struggles have proven to be the biggest mystery of all on the offensive end of the floor. He shot an atrocious 1-for-12 from the field on Sunday against Elon, 1-for-10 from long range. After finishing 82nd in the country in three-point shooting percentage as a freshman, the sophomore is just 25.5% from three so far.

Penn needs to get Brown right if it wants to have any chance at making Ivy Madness.

It’s hard not to be disheartened by the defense.

The Quakers have five new faces in the rotation, including Roberts, but things have gone backwards from last year’s defense, which ranked 324th in KenPom.

This year, the Quakers are 354th, bottom-10 in the entire country. Opponents are raining in threes at a 42.9% clip, the third-worst figure in Division I. There’s almost no way any basketball team can overcome a three-point shooting differential over 17%.

Penn can’t really protect the paint well either, despite the best efforts of senior forward Nick Spinoso, whose individual block percentage is inside the top 325 nationally. Penn is 339th in block percentage and 327th in offensive rebound percentage, allowing opponents to grab 35.4% of all offensive boards.

Those numbers are downstream of Penn’s limited athleticism, which was best typified by how the team was overwhelmed on the glass by a Saint Joseph’s team loaded with NBA prospects.

One counter to that athleticism disadvantage is zone defense, which Penn deployed successfully on Saturday against Maine. But that won’t fly in Ivy play against teams like Cornell and Princeton that shoot a high volume of threes.

There’s an elephant in the room.

Where Penn currently sits in KenPom — 305th — is lower than any rank the Red and Blue sunk to during any of Jerome Allen’s full seasons as a head coach.

Donahue’s tenure has included plenty of successes, but a second consecutive finish near the bottom of the Ivy standings would be uncharted territory for him at Penn. If things don’t take a turn for the better, Donahue will be on the hot seat.