City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Zach Drapkin (@ZachDrapkin)
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It hasn’t taken A.J. Brodeur long to show why the Penn coaching staff was so high on his arrival.

The physical-yet-mobile forward out of Northfield Mt. Hermon (Mass.) was widely seen as a potential high-impact freshman when he committed to be a Quaker last summer, but potential is often left at the door as first-year players can struggle to adjust to the college game.

Not so with Brodeur. Just seven games into Penn’s season, he’s already established himself as a go-to scorer in the Quaker offense.

That much was apparent at the Palestra on Wednesday, as Penn’s guards continually fed their big man to run away to an 81-52 win over Lafayette.

Brodeur’s 22-point performance was his second time getting to that mark already this season, one off the career high he set in a season-opening win at Robert Morris.

Through the opening stretch of the season, he’s averaging 13.7 ppg and 6.5 rpg.

“He’s just a really good basketball player,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said. “To nitpick, he’s going to get more poised, but he competes and he doesn’t let mistakes bother him, he’s skilled, he runs rim to rim, he never gets tired.

“His impact was immediate,” senior wing Matt Howard added. “He’s great with the ball, he’s quick, he’s a matchup nightmare, and that’s what really makes him so good. And we trust him already and he doesn’t play like a freshman at all, he’s ready for anything.”

Brodeur had only six points in the first half against Lafayette, as Penn held a 34-25 lead at the break.

It was still a nine-point game early in the second half when Brodeur took over. He scored three baskets in a row as Penn mounted a 19-2 run, effectively securing the win with a growing lead already past 20 points.

Brodeur was scoring baskets, finding teammates, and looking more comfortable than he had in the first half. On top of his impressive scoring mark, which came on 10-13 shooting from the field, he finished with seven rebounds and a career-high five assists.

“Offensively, the first half, I noticed that they started doubling down and they started to dig a little bit and the second half I think I really started to actively think about that and I think I started to exploit that,” he said. “If they throw the ball in the post and our guy cuts through, they’re smart enough to know that our shooters are good shooters and will make those shots -- but unfortunately for them I’m also pretty smart, so I know they’ll cut through, I’ll be able to take my defender 1-on-1 once they realize they have to get on the shooters and I was able to do my work down low.”

Brodeur’s elevated basketball IQ was on full display on the defensive end, as he shut down Lafayette’s top scorer, Matt Klinewski, who was coming of a career-high 30-point performance.

Klinewski, averaging better than 19 points per contest entering the game, didn’t score a basket until there were 16 minutes remaining in the second half, and finished with a total of just four points on 1-10 shooting and five turnovers.

“(Stopping Klinewski) was definitely a point of emphasis on our scouting and our practices,” Brodeur said. “Locking him down, making sure we always have a body on him, both on and off the ball and making sure we check him out because he’s a good rebounder too, so every time the ball went up, finding him, making sure he doesn’t get easy second-chance points -- all of those together contributed to holding him to the amount of points he had.”

None of this came to the surprise of Donahue, who has been incredibly pleased with the Brodeur has started his career as a Quaker.

From the moment Donahue began scouting Brodeur early in his high school career, he knew that the 6-8 big man -- though Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon thought he was closer to 6-10 -- would become an impactful player at the college level, wherever he ended up.

When he locked up Brodeur’s commitment last summer, Donahue had a good idea of what he’d gotten, guessing he’d been to “100 or 200” of the young athlete’s games between his time at Algonquin Regional (Mass.) and then at Northfield Mt. Hermon.

Even though freshmen can, ultimately, play like freshmen.

“There’s always (doubt),” Donahue admitted. “But pretty quickly, day one, day two, I was like man, this kid’s a handful, he’s really good.”

With such a young skilled big man in the middle, Donahue’s rebuild of Penn is certainly one step further along as he continues his second year with the program. After an 11-17 (5-9 Ivy League) season last year, expectations are slowly raising around 34th and Chestnut.

The hopes for Penn are that the addition of Brodeur will help the team towards its eventual goal, an Ivy League title.

Coupled with the additions of juniors Caleb Wood and Matt MacDonald this season, Brodeur’s presence ensures that goal will be well within reach if the Quakers can continue to develop as a unit and build off their successes thus far.

“I’m definitely happy with the way I’ve been playing lately. Obviously there’s always room for improvement, my game’s still not where I want it to be or where I think it needs to be for us to be a championship team this year,” Brodeur said. “Eventually, we will develop as a team to get to that level, and I definitely think that’s a level that’s attainable this year, a championship level.”