skip navigation

Penn boasts age, but not necessarily experience, on deep roster

10/15/2021, 9:00am EDT
By Ty Daubert

Ty Daubert (@TyDaubert)

(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2021-22 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

~~~

The referee tossed the ball in the air at midcourt at the Palestra last Thursday, tipping off five-on-five intrasquad play between Penn men’s basketball players. With officials in the building and managers keeping stats on the sideline, the Quakers were moving at full speed. 

It wasn’t quite the feel of a real game, but these practice runs are the closest they've had to one since March 2020. After the Ivy League canceled its season last year, Penn is just eager to be back on the court in preparation for a full 2021-2022 campaign.


Lucas Monroe (above), now a junior at Penn, is one of the Quakers' most experienced players, despite just one season of action. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“Everyone’s in the gym, just because we haven’t been able to get that competition,” junior guard Lucas Monroe said. “Everyone’s got a little more motivation than normal. The energy is really high at practice and extremely competitive. We go a lot faster. It’s been awesome.”

Head coach Steve Donahue, entering his sixth season and seventh year leading the Quakers, began holding these scrimmages multiple times per week with his players when the team was allowed to start working out together again this past spring. With a majority of the Penn roster participating in the spring, Donahue saw this as an opportunity for Penn to both stay engaged and build chemistry on the court.

As the Quakers have moved into fall, the intensity in their scrimmages has gotten even higher. Under a month remains until the season begins and they haven’t played an actual game in a long, long time. Still, Penn believes the work it’s put in has the team on the right track.

“I’m not as concerned as I thought I may have been if someone told me, ‘You’re not going to have a game in 20 months,’” Donahue said. “It just doesn’t feel that much different.”

That’s a credit to the players in the Penn program that have shown the effort since last season. While most Division I teams played last year, Ivy League squads like the Quakers did not have the opportunity. Staying locked in during those spring workouts was a challenge for Penn players, but they embraced it, according to Monroe.

“When you know you’re not playing games, especially when everyone else in the country is playing games,” the Abington grad said, “mentally, that can be very tough on you. But we did a good job of staying motivated and having extremely competitive practices, despite the fact that we did not have an immediate end goal.”

With a majority of the team on campus in the spring, Penn got a head start and has continued to improve as it ramps up for the season. 

“We have a lot of veterans in our program that have been here for four and five years,” Donahue said. “Older guys. And I think that’s allowed us to really progress quickly.”

While it’s true those veteran players are present, they do not bring a ton of on-court experience for Penn along with them ahead of this season to follow up a 16-11 (8-6) record in 2019-2020.

Fifth-year senior Jelani Williams is perhaps the best example of that. Due to three ACL tears and the pandemic, he hasn’t played in a regular-season basketball game since midway through his senior year in high school in 2017. Now, the once highly-touted point guard with a knack for getting to the rim is healthy and ready to contribute. 

“It’s funny,” Donahue said. “Even though you guys haven’t seen him play games, he’s played a lot, and he’s had semesters where he’s at practice and a foreign trip (with the team). He’s always around. So, it’s not that different for us -- more for the fans for the first time seeing him.”


Michael Wang (above) impressed as a freshman in 2018-19 but then struggled with injuries. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Michael Wang, a 6-foot-10 senior, averaged 8.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in 26 games as a freshman, but a knee injury prevented him from playing his sophomore season. He’s since undergone microfracture surgery on that knee to get fully healthy, and has trained with the Chinese senior national team since last playing for Penn. 

Senior guard Bryce Washington played 30 games and started 22 as a freshman, but only appeared in nine as a sophomore due to injury. He made 51 3-pointers on 39.8% shooting in his first season, and the return of his spacing can be a huge help.

Juniors Jonah Charles, a 6-foot-4 guard, and Max Lorca-Lloyd, a 6-foot-9 center, are also older players who can be key contributors, despite not having many minutes logged for the Quakers. Charles missed his entire freshman season due to injury, while Lorca-Lloyd played nine games.

“Just being around the program -- obviously, we work out together in practice all the time -- we know how good we are and we know every teammate,” Wang said of his fellow veterans who haven’t played much for Penn. “We just have to prove to everybody else that we can help the team win.”

Monroe is an older player with some experience as the only freshman to play all 27 games for the Quakers two years ago, coming off an Abington career where he was a four-year varsity starter. Guard Jordan Dingle and Max Martz each took a leave last school year, so both are still considered sophomores; due to the Ivy League’s policy against graduate students on varsity teams, Monroe and others in the 2019 recruiting class will have to play their final year of eligibility elsewhere. 

Dingle was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2019-2020 after averaging 13.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in 25 games and 20 starts. Martz averaged 7.9 points and 3.7 rebounds in 26 games and 14 starts. His 43.2% 3-point clip was second in the Ivy League. 

Newcomer Michael Moshkovitz, a 6-foot-7 forward is a transfer from Kankakee Community College in Illinois. Freshmen Gus Larson, a 6-foot-10 big man, and 6-foot-9 Nick Spinoso have impressed in practices, but have older players to compete with for minutes in the rotation.

Penn, intending to be more defensive-minded this season, will have some tests early in the upcoming season. Just in November, the Quakers will open their season at Florida State, travel to Myrtle Beach for an invitational and take on Arkansas in Fayetteville. Big 5 matchups then start the first week of December. They’ll certainly have their work cut out for them ahead of Ivy League play, which begins after the new year.

“They just had a year where they sat and watched college basketball,” Donahue said of his players. “So, I want to give them as much excitement in the non-conference as we can.”

There was once a point when the Quakers were NCAA tournament regulars, appearing 22 times from 1970 to 2007. They’ve made it one time since: Donahue’s third season in 2017-2018. Penn lost in the Ivy semifinals in 2019 and had a chance to go back to the NCAAs the next year despite a slightly less successful regular season, but the pandemic canceled the Ivy League tournament and March Madness.

This season will be pivotal in determining the direction of the program. Penn will take on a number of tough opponents, but a strong showing -- and a potential trip to the tournament -- can help keep the momentum that started building three seasons ago.

“I think we can win (Ivy League) championships and advance in the NCAA tournament consistently,” Donahue said. “That starts with this year.”


D-I Coverage:

HS Coverage:

Small-College News:

Tag(s): Home  2023-24 Preview  College  Division I  Ty Daubert  Penn