Big 5 basketball wasn’t at full strength with Penn’s season getting canceled last November because of the pandemic. But now the Quakers are back with a loaded roster. Palestra pandemonium is set to return once again.
“The best thing I can say is that it feels pretty normal,” coach Steve Donahue said. “After all we’ve been through, that’s like an incredible accomplishment, that we go to practice, we compete, kids are going to class, there’s frustration, there’s joy. The overall thing for us is that I think we’re all incredibly grateful that we’re playing college basketball, in particular after what our league had to do last year.”
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Penn was picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League preseason poll in voting by the league’s coaches. Yale is the favorite, followed by Harvard and Princeton. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell and Columbia round out the league.
Now that the Ivy League Media Day festivities have ended, here are six quick takeaways on the Quakers with quotes from Donahue and Lucas Monroe. For more coverage, here’s a story on how Penn navigated its canceled season, and a Q&A with Donahue on the team’s return to practice.
Still on a high from Practice #⃣1⃣ yesterday! #Whānau | #FightOnPenn 🔴🔵🏀 pic.twitter.com/oug9Fc2g04
— Penn Men's Basketball (@PennMBB) October 2, 2021
1. This year’s Penn team will showcase a different form of experience
“In a league that’s really unique in terms of not playing last year, I think we’re even more unique,” Donahue said. “We have older guys who have been in our program for three and four years, in Jelani (Williams’) case five years, who have not played a college game who are very experienced basketball players. I would argue that Jelani Williams has played more basketball than anybody over the last five years, just hasn’t been with an NCAA uniform on. And then Michael Wang, who did play one year but has been out two years. And Jonah Charles, a third-year guy who has not played in a game but has played a ton of basketball. And then we have other additions like Michael Moshkovitz who was a junior college transfer, he’s going to be 24-years-old. He’s also an upperclassman, to go along with obviously Lucas (Monroe), Jordan Dingle and Max Martz. So in a way I feel like these guys have been in our program. We’ve been through so much together that we do have great experiences, and I have great trust that those experiences that we’ve had, even though it hasn’t necessarily been in games, is something that’s going to benefit us.”
2. After a difficult year off, the Quakers are locked in and ready to return to play
“If you come and watch a Penn practice right now, you’d see how excited everyone is,” Monroe said. “One, to get back in the Palestra, that’s the best gym in the world. But two, we have a bunch of guys that have never played college basketball before, guys that haven’t played in multiple years. I think a lot of us are coming in with that freshman kind of attitude, just excited to play their first college basketball game. And it’s translated onto the court in terms of how we’re practicing. I think every single practice so far has been extremely high energy, super competitive. So I think we’re using that excitement in a positive way and translating it over. And you’ll be able to see that on Nov. 10 when we start playing.”
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3. Multiple ACL tears won’t keep Jelani Williams down as the senior captain gets set to make his collegiate debut
“I think back to when I first got the job,” Donahue said. “Jelani had already been on this campus probably as a sophomore in high school, so I think about his feeling with Penn. And we made it a priority, number one, to recruit him our first year. We really went all in, got to know him well. Went down to Sidwell Friends and followed his journey there. Obviously the incredible amount of disappointments for him. But to see him persevere through it all, I’m just extremely happy, more than anything else, that he’s playing basketball. He’s going to have that uniform on Nov. 10 when we go to Florida State. All the things we expected from him, honestly, it all came true because he’s an incredible leader. He was unanimously voted by his teammates to be captain even though he hasn’t played a game. It just tells you the immense impact he has in our program without ever having played a game. For him to finally get the joy of going out there and wear the Penn jersey and feeling what he’s always worked for, I can’t tell you how excited I am for him.”
4. Michael Wang, a 6-10 senior center, still has the potential to play at a high level
“You go back to the 2018-19 season, he’s a freshman and he has a four-game stretch versus La Salle, Villanova, Miami and New Mexico, and to me he was essentially our best player at that point,” Donahue said. “We won those games because of a lot of the things he does. He got hurt. His knee was always bothering him. He was never really the same after Christmas of that year. The journey he’s been on, he had two major operations on his knee, finally got back. I don’t know if he would’ve played last year but he was with the Chinese national team, and he worked out with them pretty extensively right up until the Olympics. He was with a pro team in China working out with them. And now he came back, and I think these guys will attest, it’s hard to imagine somebody more talented that’s 6-10 in our league. He can do multiple things. Yesterday he was an elite passer. He just has so many things he does at that size. And now he’s a different player, you’ll see him. His body is stronger, bigger, better. I do think there’s some transitional things that he has to get used to the intensity of the college game and things of that nature. But I’m excited for a healthy Mike, I think his teammates are excited to have him. I think you’ll see a really productive season out of him.”
5. Clark Slajchert stood out in spring practices and is expected to be a valid offensive threat. Also, keep an eye on the rest of Penn’s sophomore class and newcomers
“He’s come back here, he’s probably a little more inconsistent because we have a lot more size on the court,” Donahue said of Slajchert. “But he’s someone I feel that’s going to be a very good scorer. He plays really hard. He defends at a high level. He’s just a good all-around basketball player. With him in that class, Andrew Laczkowski, he was a little injured but he has played well. Michael Moshkovitz as mentioned earlier, a junior college transfer from Israel. He’s someone who’s an elite defender, rebounder, passer, just a jack of all trades. And he’s a good shooter, just hasn’t taken advantage of it yet. And then we have our freshman class, five new guys and they’ve all played well. George Smith, Gus Larson, Nick Spinoso, Eddie Holland and Reese McMullen who’s been out with an injured back. But those guys, I think through them all, have really bought into the culture here at Penn. They’ve worked really hard, they’re a fun group to coach and they’re really talented. So we’re excited about their futures as well.”
6. This season the Quakers will have a different look offensively, but the most significant changes will be seen on defense
“I do think with our depth and our positional size that we can be way more aggressive on the defensive end, more from a full court standpoint, play more bodies, pressure the ball, getting rotations better, protect the rim at the same time,” Donahue said. “I think it’s been fun for me to coach and I hope these guys have enjoyed that change in our style of play as well.”
(Photo of Michael Wang: Kyle Ross / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)