Nick Spinoso

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 84-79 overtime loss to Belmont

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Senior guard Clark Slajchert registered 21 points on 7-for-21 shooting and seven assists in 43 minutes in Penn’s 84-79 overtime loss to Belmont Saturday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

PHILADELPHIA — Penn has developed a knack for playing games down to the wire in less than ideal circumstances.

Winning those games? That’s been a different story.

The Quakers rallied from 12 points down in the second half to force overtime against Belmont on Saturday but never led in the extra session en route to a tough 84-79 loss in the Cathedral of College Basketball Classic.

Penn (4-3) had the ball down three points with about 17 seconds to go in overtime but couldn’t get a potential tying three-pointer up in the air after a broken play led to a backcourt violation; junior forward Nick Spinoso, who was mostly brilliant on Saturday, was charged with the turnover.

Close games like the ones Penn has played recently — at Maryland Eastern Shore, versus Lafayette, and now versus Belmont — have a ton of variance, and frankly, are often decided by luck. Penn wouldn’t have even gotten to overtime if not for Belmont’s Isaiah Walker bricking a pair of free throws with 3.3 seconds left to play in regulation in a tied game.

But there are some key signals Penn fans can identify through the noise, such as how …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 74-72 win versus Lafayette

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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 …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 83-80 overtime loss at Maryland Eastern Shore

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Penn followed up one of its best victories in years with one of its worst defeats.

The Quakers failed repeatedly to put away host and KenPom No. 352 Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) in the second half and eventually got burned in a 83-80 overtime loss.

UMES is the worst-ranked team Penn (3-2) has ever lost to in the KenPom era (which has data going back to the 1998-99 season).

Penn’s loss was sealed by a three with nine-tenths of a second to play in overtime from UMES’ Elijah Wilson on a play that strongly resembled Kris Jenkins’ shot to win the 2016 national championship game for Villanova.

The shot spoiled a furious Penn rally that was led by freshman Sam Brown, who buried two three-pointers in an eight-second span to tie the game before the final sequence.

Penn should have sealed up a win easily well before Wilson’s shot, mostly because …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 76-72 upset of No. 21 Villanova

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With a little ball-fake and a half jab step, Tyler Perkins generated just enough space to rise up over Villanova’s Brendan Hausen and create a memory Penn fans will remember forever.

The freshman sensation used those moves to bury a corner three in front of the Penn bench that pushed the Quakers’ lead over the Associated Press No. 21 Wildcats to 11 points with four minutes to play and sent the Palestra into a frenzy. After weathering one last barrage of Villanova three-pointers, Penn sealed a stunning 76-72 upset over the Wildcats.

For the Quakers (3-1, 1-1 Big 5), the win was their first triumph over a ranked team since a nearly identical upset over Villanova at the Palestra in December 2018; that edition of the Wildcats was defending an NCAA title and entered ranked 17th in the AP poll.

The images the upset generated — Perkins throwing the ball into the air in joy as time expired, fans storming the court — are the ones that, in a perfect world, would create a whole new generation of dedicated Quakers fans.

What else can Penn fans hold onto from a magical Monday night?

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Three Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 69-61 loss at St. Joseph’s

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Penn senior guard Clark Slajchert notched 27 points in 38 minutes, shooting 5-for-8 from three-point range, in his team’s 69-61 loss at St. Joseph’s Friday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Penn’s first trip out of the friendly confines of the Palestra ended in disappointment after the Quakers couldn’t quite complete a valiant second-half comeback against Saint Joseph’s in a 69-61 loss at Hagan Arena.

Despite cutting a 19-point Hawks lead to just two points at three instances late in the second half, Penn (2-1, 0-1 Big 5) never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, thanks to a series of bad breaks and mistakes that were reminiscent of last season’s Ivy Madness loss to Princeton.

The backbreaking sequence came with just under four minutes left to play and the Quakers trailing just 61-59. Saint Joseph’s Kacper Klaczek bricked the front end of a one-and-one, but Penn surrendered an offensive rebound and layup to Rasheer Fleming to extend the Hawks’ lead to four.

On Penn’s next possession, normally-reliable free throw shooter Clark Slajchert missed the front end of a one-and-one. Nick Spinoso corralled the offensive board and looked like he had a clear shot at a layup, but got rejected by Klaczek.

There would be other miscues later on, including a blown fast break opportunity with two minutes to go that could have cut the Hawks’ back lead down to one possession, but that sequence hurt Penn the most.

The loss will give Penn fans plenty to mull over, like how …

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Three Quakeaways from Penn men besting Bucknell, 80-61

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Penn is off to its first 2-0 start since the 2018-19 season after a wire-to-wire win over Bucknell at the Palestra by a score of 80-61.

The Quakers had a few nervous moments in the second half after a stagnant stretch on offense allowed the Bison (0-2) to cut what had been a 20-point halftime lead to just nine as the clock neared the under-eight media timeout.

Instead of relying on one player to stop Bucknell’s run, Penn persevered by committee. Junior guard George Smith restored Penn’s double-digit lead by making a nice interior find to sophomore forward Johnnie Walter (more on him later) for an easy layup late in the shot clock.

Sophomore guard Cam Thrower added seven critical points down the stretch as well, including a difficult stepback two-point jumper and a deep three-pointer with 4:45 that pushed Penn’s lead to 21 and effectively iced the game.

Bucknell may not have been the most difficult opponent — the Bison entered Wednesday ranked 349th in KenPom — but the win left Penn fans with plenty of happy Quakeaways:

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Three Quakeaways from the Penn men’s 102-57 rout of John Jay

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Tyler Perkins delivered a strong 15-point performance in his collegiate debut. (Penn Athletics)

Chalk up Penn’s first game in the post-Jordan Dingle era as a success.

The Quakers raced out to a 30-9 lead in the first six-plus minutes against Division III John Jay on Monday at the Palestra and didn’t look back en route to a 102-57 win.

With the second-leading scorer in Division I gone to St. John’s, Penn (1-0) relied on offensive production by committee; five players scored in double figures.

Monday’s contest was, in all practicality, a preseason game. But the Quakers put enough on tape to have some meaningful Quakeaways ahead of Wednesday’s home game against Bucknell.

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2023-24 Ivy men’s media day recap and season preview

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With the season a few weeks away, the Ivy League hosted its Men’s Basketball Media Day on Thursday. the second of two hoops-themed media availabilities. The event was hosted over Zoom for media members and is available on the conference’s YouTube channel.

The preseason media poll was released on Tuesday with Yale, last year’s regular season co-champions, securing the top spot. Princeton, which used its Ivy League Tournament title victory as a springboard to a Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament run, was picked second.

The Bulldogs received 14 of 16 first-place votes, while the Tigers earned the other two top votes.

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Picking up the pieces after Jordan Dingle leaves Penn men’s basketball behind

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Jordan Dingle has entered the NCAA transfer portal, a seismic move that dramatically lowers expectations for Penn’s 2023-24 campaign and suggests the task of getting top talent to stick around could get taller for other Ivy League programs. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

April 28, 2023 will go down as one of the darkest days in recent Penn basketball history.

That was the day news broke that reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Jordan Dingle had opted to enter the transfer portal instead of returning for his senior season and making one last run at an Ivy title and NCAA Tournament appearance with the Red and Blue.

This writer frequently looks for some sort of silver lining or happy takeaway, even after the worst Penn losses. There is none this time.

If you’re pessimistically inclined, Dingle’s departure arguably closes the book on Penn’s 2023-24 season, six months before it even begins.

Bart Torvik’s preseason 2023-24 rankings had Penn ranked 80th initially and 98th earlier this week as talent began to flow through the transfer portal. Sans Dingle, Penn now sits 150th, fifth in the Ivy League and only 36 spots clear of seventh-place Dartmouth.

With Dingle, Penn could reasonably have been called co-favorites for the Ivy title alongside Yale and an outside contender for a NCAA Tournament at-large bid with aggressive scheduling.

Now? It will be a battle to even qualify for the Ivy League Tournament.

The effects of Dingle’s exit — just a small handful of which are listed below — will be felt through not just the program but the Ivy League for years to come.

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Road to redemption: A look ahead to 2023-24 for Penn men’s basketball

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Penn gets to benefit from Jordan Dingle’s dynamic scoring prowess again next season. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

March is defined by thin margins.

Penn’s season collapsed with the blow of a referee’s whistle with 90 seconds to go in its Ivy League tournament semifinal against Princeton. If Nick Spinoso’s charge on the Tigers’ Keeshawn Kellman in a one-point game had been ruled a no-call or a flop, would Penn have advanced?

Yale can ask itself a similar question. If August Mahoney — the third-best free throw shooter in the country — converted his one-and-one with 2:18 to go in a three-point game in the Ivy League Tournament final against Princeton, would the Bulldogs have completed their furious second-half rally?

Both those teams could only watch as Princeton went on to go on a magical run to the Sweet 16, the deepest an Ivy League champion has gone in the NCAA Tournament since 2010.

Plenty of Penn fans are probably still bitter, and could you blame them?

But a look at the Quakers’ returning roster indicates that fans’ high expectations for redemption in 2023-24 will be well-justified:

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