City of Basketball Love

Daniel Hughes (@dan1el_sun)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2016-17 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 11. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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A.J. Brodeur’s transition into the Ivy League is going very smoothly.

The 6-foot-8, 225-pound freshman forward from Northborough, Mass., is poised to make a big contribution on the court this year for Penn.

Brodeur’s decision to come to Penn reunites him with two of his former high school teammates, guard Jackson Donahue and center Collin McManus, both sophomores on the Quakers.

While McManus played sparingly as a freshman, Donahue took half a season to get settled in, but averaged more than 13 ppg over the final 17 games of the season as the sharpshooting guard found his rhythm.

Now they welcome on a third member of the NMH crew, and the reconnection was instant.

“I think one of the most important things in any sport, any competition, is team chemistry,” Brodeur said. “Knowing that I already have that with a good amount of the players here made it easier to bond with the other guys here.”

So far, he feels this Quakers team has formed strong bonds.

“Everyone on our team is really good friends,” Brodeur said. “We all hang out on and off the court.”

Coming out of Northfield Mount Hermon School, a boarding school in Mt. Hermon, Mass., Brodeur knew he wanted to play for an Ivy League team, and he narrowed his choices down to Penn, Harvard and Yale before deciding to become a Quaker last fall.

Not only did Penn have two former NMH grads on their roster, but Quakers coach Steve Donahue has a strong relationship with Brodeur’s former high school coach, John Carroll.

“It definitely helped make my decision easier, knowing that these guys are here and I’m comfortable playing with them,” Brodeur said. “I value their opinion, and they chose Penn, so I thought that made it easier for me.”

At Penn, Brodeur enters a system that has much in common with the one he used to run in high school.

“I’m going to be used here similar to how I’m used to playing,” Brodeur said. “I’m very comfortable with my back to the basket around the hoop, but I’m also pretty comfortable from the mid-range.

“That was where I got a lot of my points in high school,” he continued.

As a senior, Brodeur averaged 15.6 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game for the Hoggers.

Many of his teammates are already excited for what he will bring to the table, especially if they have already seen him play.

“He puts the ball in the basket, plain and simple,” Jackson Donahue said. “It might not be pretty or it might not be orthodox, but he puts the ball in the basket.”

“His ability to get up and down the court for a big is a lot different than any other bigs I played with so far,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Brodeur has been trying to add yet another facet to his game.

“I’m still trying to extend my range,” Brodeur said. “I anticipate I’ll be shooting threes this year, so I’ll be around the perimeter.”

Whether or not Brodeur’s outside shot will be ready by the start of the season will not change the amount of playing time he gets, as Donahue plans to use him heavily right from the start.

“I think A.J. Brodeur is pretty clearly ready to help us immediately. I think he’s going to be one of the better frontcourt players in this league,” Donahue said. “He is very talented and skilled but he also has a natural ability to compete and it means something instinctively right away where some kids are trying to fit in.”

“I don’t think there’s that much transition for A.J. in that sense,” Donahue continued.

This will be Donahue’s second year as head coach, and Brodeur will headline his first recruiting class, one that’s six players deep.

Donahue and the Quakers will try to improve on last season, where they finished 11-17 overall and fifth in the Ivy League with a 5-9 record.

However, this year will be slightly different, as for the first time in the history of the Ivy League, there will be a four-team playoff to determine the conference champion.

“I fully expect us to be in the top four this year, just seeing what we have, all the competitors we have on this team,” Brodeur said. “I think top four is more than doable for us as a group.”

To put some additional pressure on the Quakers, the tournament will be hosted at the Palestra, giving Penn a potential unique home-court advantage if it can finish in the top half of the Ancient Eight.

Brodeur says this doesn’t change his or the team’s motivation to go out and win every single game. But the concept of playing elimination games at the Palestra at the end of the season is very exciting.

“It would be awesome,” Brodeur said. “It’s such a historic location, such a great atmosphere.”