City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2023-24 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 6. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here.)

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This wasn’t the offseason Steve Donahue envisioned.

The Penn head coach thought he had a team that was on the precipice of returning to the top of the Ivy League. They had experience and depth, the top scorer in the league, momentum after a strong second half of the Ivy slate last year. 

Then Jordan Dingle, the nation’s second-leading scorer (23.4 ppg), hit the transfer portal in May, ending up at St. John’s in his hometown. In the fall, Donahue received a second unwelcome surprise when three-year starter Max Martz (career 9.6 ppg) announced his retirement from playing due to ongoing medical issues. 

It was especially surprising considering both Dingle and Martz had taken the 2020-21 COVID year away from school to preserve their Ivy League eligibility, the Ancient Eight not allowing redshirt seasons or graduate students on their teams. Those who didn’t, like Lucas Monroe (Drexel) or Max Lorca-Lloyd (UMBC), had to finish their college careers elsewhere.

“It was hugely impactful for us, to have two guys leave as late as they did,” Donahue said. “In the Ivies you can’t just go out and get players, there’s a very strict (admissions) process. You can’t [immediately] replace those guys.”

Fortunately for Donahue, it seems like he and his staff have found his future in a strong freshman class, with enough veterans and production remaining to keep the Quakers intriguing for the 2023-24 season.

Two starters return: junior forward Nick Spinoso and senior guard Clark Slajchert. Slajchert, a 6-foot-tall guard from California, was the team’s second-leading scorer a year ago (13.6 ppg), a talented ball-handler who can get his shot off from all three levels. 

Spinoso, a versatile 6-9 junior post, led the Quakers in assists (3.1/game) while averaging 8.8 ppg and 5.6 rpg as a sophomore, splitting time in the post with the more defensive-minded Lorca-Lloyd. He’s being counted on to take another step forward and play closer to 30 mpg, his abilities as a facilitator at the ‘5’ something Donahue’s offense relies upon. 

“Me and (Donahue) have been working on a lot of things,” he said, “just trying to stay disciplined on defense and just not getting to the point where I need to foul. Just staying solid, having good team defense and finishing the play with a rebound. Doing the simple stuff.”

Key to this year’s Quakers is the growth of a group that’s seen some action in their college careers, but (mostly) haven’t yet needed to produce in a significant way. Junior wing Ed Holland III (3.5 ppg), a 6-6 wing out of Friends’ Central, was a name that kept coming up, as were senior Andrew Laczkowski (2.3 ppg) and sophomore guard Cam Thrower (2.8 ppg). Throw junior George Smith into the mix, though the 6-4 wing is already an established part of the rotation, averaged averaging 5.6 ppg and shooting 46.3% from 3-point range (25-of-54) in about 20 mpg a year ago.

“I think there’s a lot of guys, which I would hope, that have been in our program, who have improved,” Donahue said. “Good programs, even though you lose as much as we’ve lost, if you’re a good program, those kids have waited their turn and are ready to step in.”

That group will give them a nice veteran core. But it’s the freshmen to really keep an eye on: 6-4 guard Tyler Perkins (Landon School, Va.), 6-3 guard Sam Brown (Lower Merion, Pa.), 6-9 forward Augustus ‘Augie’ Gerhart (Hill School, Pa.) and 6-6 wing Niklas Polonowski (Lyons Twp., Ill.).

Of the quartet, the freshman who’s drawn the most attention in the preseason has been Perkins, who won MVP of the Capital Classic All-Star game in the spring at the tail end of a breakthrough senior year. Brown called his classmate “a bad boy,” praising Perkins’ work ethic, talent and competitiveness; Donahue highlighted his ability to impact the game in various ways outside of scoring.

“There’s a lot of bad words I could use to describe Tyler, but I love that kid to death,” Spinoso added. “He plays so hard, his mindset is right. I love him. He’s great.”

While Perkins seems slated to start, the other three could all factor into the rotation, especially Brown and Gerhart, who both impressed at the team’s Red & Blue Scrimmage in October. Brown, a 6-3 lefty, has impressed with more than just the shot-making he displayed as a four-year starter at LM. Gerhart looks ready to back up Spinoso at the ‘5,’ and he’s perhaps a little bouncier and a better shooter than the veteran.

Throw in 6-10 sophomore forward Johnnie Walter, a transfer from Cal-Northridge who looks ready to contribute in the frontcourt, and Donahue has no shortage of pieces to work with.

“I think we can be a good team,” Donahue said. “Clark and Nick are, in this league, two of the better players, if not the best at their position, so how good can you be around them? I’m pretty confident we have a lot of pieces that could gel and give us a good team in the Ivy.”