Jon Rothstein typically describes trips to VCU’s Siegel Center as “life-changing.”
It may not have been a particularly life-changing evening for Penn on Monday, but it went a little bit better than expected. The Quakers competed defensively for long stretches in a 66-47 loss to the Atlantic 10 favorite Rams, which could give them a little bit of momentum moving forward.
Penn (3-7) came all the way back from a disastrous start to tie the game at 21 with 7:17 to go in the first half after a nice steal from freshman guard AJ Levine (more on him later) led directly to a transition three from junior wing Ethan Roberts. The Quakers had fallen into a 14-2 hole right off the bat and went nearly 6:30 without a basket after Nick Spinoso scored on Penn’s first possession.
The Rams (8-2) restored order with an extended 18-2 run that spanned the final four minutes of the first half and first three minutes of the second. In a disturbing replay of the game’s beginning, Penn went 6:37 of game action without a bucket.
Penn’s effort level was there on Monday, but so were a lot of the same issues that have plagued this team all season, leading to some depressingly familiar Quakeaways:
There were more green shoots on defense.
Penn’s first-shot defense against VCU on Monday was very good. The Rams shot just 38.8% from the field and took a ton of contested shots in the mid-range and interior.
However, the Quakers had no real answer for the Rams’ superior athleticism once they forced a miss. Much like in the Saint Joseph’s loss, Penn got crushed on the offensive glass. The Rams grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, which translates to a 42.9% offensive rebounding rate.
Overall, VCU finished with a plus-16 rebounding margin. That was enough to make up for the fact that Penn held the Rams to a pedestrian 1.04 points per possession, according to KenPom.
Despite that structural athletic disadvantage, the Quakers pulled themselves back into the game thanks to their defense. They forced four turnovers in a four-minute span during their 11-0 run that tied the game.
That should be encouraging going forward.
AJ Levine needs more playing time.
Though he’s only a freshman, Levine may already be Penn’s best defender. He was up in the grills of VCU’s guards all night long and finished with two steals, including the intercepted pass that led to the game-tying runout.
The 19 minutes Levine picked up on Monday night before he fouled out were the second-most he’s received all season.
There were moments where Levine reminded you that he is a freshman. He cost the Quakers a chance to tie the game or take the lead late in the first half when he committed a 10-second violation by just walking up the court too slowly without a single VCU player within 15 feet of him. The turnover had Penn coach Steve Donahue as visibly angry on the sideline as I have ever seen him.
But those types of mental errors will fade in time. The best way to eliminate those kinds of mistakes is to simply play through them.
This team is basically playing two-on-five offensively.
Both Roberts and senior forward Nick Spinoso acquitted themselves well on Monday. Roberts finished with a team-high 14 points, while Spinoso stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Spinoso in particular drew praise from VCU’s announcers all evening and delivered the game’s biggest highlight in the second half with a vicious one-handed poster dunk over prized Rams freshman Luke Bamgboye.
Penn’s offense functioned best when Spinoso got the ball in the post or found two-man actions with Roberts.
The issue is that it was pretty much otherwise non-functional. That offensive outage in the first half? It was in part thanks to the Red and Blue chucking up seven missed threes in a row after Spinoso got a bucket in the paint on Penn’s first possession. The Rams announcers were dumbfounded at Penn’s early shot selection.
Penn is now shooting 27.5% from three on the season, per KenPom. That ranks 334th out of 364 teams in the country.
The Quakers also got absolutely nothing from Sam Brown again. He missed all five threes he shot, spent almost the entire first half on the bench after picking up two quick fouls, and finished with a team-low KenPom offensive rating of 32 points per 100 possessions while on the floor in 22 minutes of action.
His regression has been arguably the biggest disappointment of the season.
Sam’s extended shooting slump is baffling. He had nothing close to this a year ago despite decent volume and the wear and tear of a first college season.
Also, lmao, a positive quakeaway is a guy who had a Shavlik Randolph game. It’s fair, but also lol.