City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Mike McLaughlin’s month-long roster management issue is finally in the past. Now the Penn women have to figure out how to move forward, with the Ivy League quickly approaching.

Over the first eight games of the season, every junior and senior on the Quakers’ roster had to serve a four-game suspension due to a “violation of University policy”, though the Philadelphia Inquirer reported it was due to hazing. McLaughlin’s November was spent determining lineups and rotations, accounting for opponents and games played, figuring out how to keep a competitive squad on the floor while ensuring everybody served their punishment. 

“The last thing I want to do is put them in more categories,” McLaughlin said. “I’m over charts, I’m over categories. I had categories of who was playing, who needs to sit one more game, who needs to sit two more games — I’m over charts and categories.”

Despite the difficulties of not having a consistent rotation (on top of returning from an 18-month layoff following the cancellation of the 2020-21 season), the Quakers went 4-4, getting almost all of their rotation significant playing time along the way. It might not have been the start they wanted, or were capable of with everybody available, but it wasn’t a disaster, either. 

“I’m going to look at it as a positive,” McLaughlin said, “but I’m not going to sit here and say it was a lot of fun.”

So it wasn’t until Dec. 5, when Kara Lawson and Duke rolled into the building, when the full Penn squad finally took the court for the first time — the regular season already more than one-quarter over, even though it feels like for the Quakers, it’s just beginning.

There were women who hadn’t spent a minute on the court together this season (or ever in their careers) having to suddenly play crucial stretches against a high-major opponent playing some terrific ball to start off the season. No easy task, indeed.

“I think we tried to keep as much consistency in practice, hoping that turns over into the game, but nothing’s like real game simulation type of stuff,” junior guard Kayla Padilla said. “I think it’ll take a few more games, with practices, to get back to our normal flow.”

Sunday’s result, a 77-55 loss to a Blue Devils squad that’s almost certain to be ranked this week, wasn’t a reflection of the Quakers’ abilities with their whole team together.

Full squad or not, the Blue Devils (8-0) were going to be a major problem for the Quakers, who lost for the fourth game in a row. The ACC opponent rolled into Philadelphia fresh off a 15-point win over top-10 Iowa, with a significant size and athleticism advantage up and down the roster. 

The talent disparity was clear early on, as Duke jumped out to a 22-5 advantage after one quarter, Kara Lawson’s group shutting down the Penn offense almost entirely while getting whatever shot they wanted at the other end. Whether it was freshman sensation Shayeann Day-Wilson (14 points) draining four 3-pointers or a variety of Blue Devil post players working inside for layups, the Quakers looked outmatched out of the gate. 

But Penn didn’t fold, playing Duke within five points over the remaining 30 minutes. The Quakers actually got within 11 points near the midpoint of the third, but the Blue Devils ended the period on a 15-3 run to rebuild the advantage.

Both teams finished with 15 turnovers, but Duke shot 49.2% (32-of-65) and Penn just 31.8% (21-of-66), bothered by the Blue Devils’ quicker-close outs and defensive presence forcing them into some uncharacteristic bad shots or passes straight into the hands of a Duke defender.

Penn junior Kayla Padilla (above) led the way with 16 points and five assists in the loss to Duke. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I thought we fought pretty hard,” McLaughlin said. “The first quarter got away from us a little bit, we missed a couple — I don’t want to say easy ones, but ones that could have got us going a little bit. So we struggled there.

“There’s certain things out here tonight we knew we had to give away, we had to give them that mid-range game, anything inside the 3 or nothing at the rim. I thought there was a couple times if, out of a timeout, if we’d executed better, we could have had another basket and maybe another run.”

Padilla, making her first Palestra appearance of the season, finished with 16 points (7-20 FG), a bit below her season average (22.5) coming into play. Seniors Kennedy Suttle (11 points, 12 rebounds) and Mia Lakstigala (11 points) joined her in double figures in only the third game this season where they were all available at the same time.

Sophomore Michaela Stanfield scored six points and grabbed a career-high six rebounds (three offensive) in 16 minutes off the bench, during which she put up the best plus/minus (-3) of anybody who saw more than three minutes of court time. Stanfield, who scored a career-best 10 games in Penn’s last game against Bucknell, was mentioned by both Padilla and her coach as someone who took advantage of the increased playing time she might not have otherwise gotten.

“I thought Michaela Stanfield did really well,” McLaughlin said. “She had a nice little fourth-quarter spark for us tonight, she’s really responded well.”

Suttle, Lakstigala and Padilla, along with sophomore Jordan Obi, are four who are likely not going to see much of a role change with the shift back to a full rotation; those four, along with senior point guard Niki Kovacikova, started on Sunday, and will likely continue to do so going forward. 

But Kovacikova will suddenly have to split time at the point with Mandy McGurk, who started four games and played 16 minutes off the bench against Duke. Others like freshmen Lizzy Groetsch and Marianna Papazoglou will be relegated to deeper on the bench after playing big minutes or even starting several games ago.

It’s going to be an adjustment period for many.

“I hope over time if I get into situations, I can say ‘hey listen you played 20 minutes at Bucknell, let’s draw on that,’ that’s where we’re at,” McLaughlin said. “I obviously think it can’t hurt; time will tell if it will help, but I think it will.”

Before Ivy League play begins Jan. 2 at Brown, the Quakers only have three more games to get situated. That starts with their third Big 5 game against Saint Joseph’s (2-6, 0-1 Big 5) on Tuesday at the Palestra, followed by a trip to Stony Brook on Friday. After that it’s 20 days off for finals and holiday break before a visit to Morgan State (Dec. 30) closes the main portion of the non-con; Penn also hosts Temple on Jan. 11 in their Big 5 finale. 

For a program that hopes to build off its 20-7 (10-2) season two years ago, even with a largely changed roster, the clock’s ticking to be ready.

“I understand it’s going to take some time,” McLaughlin said. “It’s the first time we’ve had this entire group together [...] we don’t have an established rotation, we don’t have any of that because every game was totally different than the last one of who was playing. But hopefully we handled it in a way that does not hold us back.”