PHILADELPHIA — The tradition at the Big 5 Classic tripleheader at the Wells Fargo Center is that fans throw streamers onto the court after their team’s first made basket.
When Penn scored first against Drexel on Saturday afternoon, about a half-dozen or so red and blue streamers limped out of a half-empty student section behind the basket. When the Dragons responded, navy blue and yellow paper coated the baseline.
It was that kind of afternoon for the Red and Blue, who took a 60-47 loss thanks to another extended offensive outage.
After getting early buckets from senior big Nick Spinoso and junior wing Ethan Roberts to open up a 34-30 lead a minute into the second half, Penn (3-6, 0-3 Big 5) scored just two points for the next nine minutes and 21 seconds of game time. Drexel (6-4, 1-2) used that stagnant period to go on a 14-2 run.
Unless and until Penn fixes its persistent scoring issues, nothing will change. That’s a shame, because …
The Quakers wasted a good defensive effort.
You can’t blame Saturday’s loss on the defense. Penn held Drexel to just 0.92 points per possession, per KenPom, the team’s second-most efficient defensive performance on the season.
The Quakers also won the turnover battle, 14-11. Most importantly, they did a tremendous job fixing what has thus far been their biggest flaw: three-point defense.
Penn held the Dragons to just 14 three-point attempts out of 53 shots from the floor. Drexel hit just two of those 14 shots from long distance.
Three-point defense is largely about limiting opportunities to shoot. After a rough start, Penn is allowing opponents to take 37% of their field goals from beyond the arc, which ranks just outside of the top 100 nationally, per KenPom, at 116th.
All that effort closing out on shooters was ultimately for naught, largely because …
Penn is a flat-out bad shooting team right now.
After nine games, I am officially pressing the panic button on this team’s shooting woes. Penn did not make a single three-pointer in the second half on Saturday and finished with a ghastly offensive efficiency number of 0.72 points per possession.
The Quakers now rank below 300th nationally in two-point field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free-throw shooting percentage against Division I opponents, per KenPom.
What’s most frustrating of all is that Penn is doing a pretty good job at everything you need to do offensively to succeed except for actually scoring. The Quakers rank inside the top 140 nationally in turnover percentage, offensive rebounding percentage, three-point attempt rate, assist rate and free throw rate.
It’s hard to see where a quick fix to those issues is going to come from.
Penn’s struggles can be in part chalked up to the fact that the team doesn’t have many consistent scoring options.
Spinoso and Roberts have been the team’s two best players by far this season; they were the only two Quakers to score in the second half on Saturday. Both those young men have been excellent, but were forced to shoot in heavy traffic against Drexel — especially Roberts.
Sam Brown’s baffling sophomore slump continued on Saturday. After putting up a quick eight points in the first half, he didn’t make a shot in the second frame and wound up committing four turnovers as he struggled with Drexel’s press.
None of the secondary big man options besides Spinoso have differentiated themselves either, though freshman Michelangelo Oberti did grab nine rebounds on Saturday despite finishing 0-3 from the field and getting stuffed on a dunk attempt.
I take a little bit of umbrage with the idea that Penn is doing everything they need to do offensively. It’s not just the shooting. They shot so poorly Saturday because they had no one who could get past a Drexel defender and create an advantage, particularly in the second half.
It was a bit stunning to see EBo play so pedestrian, unable to drive by guys or get open jumpers, thus forcing contested runners and layups. Spinoso post ups were their most reliable of a series of bad options as Sam and Dylan looked lost. If mildly successful postups are your best offense in 2024, you’re absolutely cooked.
I acknowledge that Penn could look better against a less athletic Ivy squad than they have in noncon play, but oof. Had same thought a year ago, and even when factoring in an injured Clark, last year’s Ivy play proved an extension of noncon play, not a departure.