Penn Weekend homestand a must-win

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Last year, it only took three losses for the Quakers to lose the Ivy League title. This year, it has taken just three Ivy games for the Red and Blue to pick up two losses.

As a result, it is an understatement for Penn to call this weekend?s matchups must-win games.

?Every game for us is a must-win at this point,? junior captain Miles Cartwright said.

Tonight, the Quakers (4-16, 1-2 Ivy) will take on Yale at the Palestra at 7 p.m. Saturday, the Red and Blue will face off against Brown.

The Quakers will be missing two of their best players, Fran Dougherty and Steve Rennard, both of whom are likely to miss the rest of the season with injuries.

?Nothing?s going to change schematically for us [without them],? coach Jerome Allen said. ?We?re going to continue to play the way we?ve been playing and trying to get better on the defensive end.?

Penn has swept its home stand against the Bulldogs (7-14, 1-3 Ivy) and Bears (8-10, 2-2 Ivy) the past two years and will likely need to do so again to keep its Ivy hopes alive.

But Allen is not looking too far ahead just yet. ?I?m only worried about one game, and that?s Friday?s game,? he said. ?It?s the most important game because it?s the next game.?

Allen believes that Yale will be a formidable opponent for the Quakers.

?They?re big, they?re strong, they?re athletic, they defend,? Allen said.

Against the Bulldogs, he emphasized that the keys to victory are ?playing a full game and keeping guys out of the paint.?

Rebounding, a struggle for the Quakers all season long, will be critical against Yale. The Bulldogs are first in the Ivy League in rebounding margin, while the Quakers are last. The Red and Blue will certainly miss Dougherty, who leads the Ivy League with 8.1 rebounds per game.

?[Yale] coach [James] Jones?s teams always play hard defensively, they always compete on the backboard,? Allen said. ?We gotta keep them off the offensive glass and outrun them a little bit.?

Saturday?s game will also mark the return of former Penn assistant coach and current first-year Brown head coach Mike Martin to the Palestra.

Cartwright expects that Martin will try to catch the Quakers off guard defensively.

?We have to be ready for anything,? Cartwright said. ?Coach Martin is an offensive genius. He?s going to draw up a lot of things we haven?t seen on tape.?

The Quakers? scoring defense is ranked just seventh in the conference, but defense is still the team?s cornerstone. In fact, Allen expects to allocate minutes to his players based off their defensive effort.

?[Defense] has been my stamp since I got here from day one,? Allen said. ?If you don?t defend or attempt to defend, you won?t play for this program.?

Offensively, Miles Cartwright expects more of the scoring load to fall on his shoulders with Dougherty and Rennard injured.

?Without Fran, I have to be more aggressive,? Cartwright said. ?I?m going to try to be assertive and I know the team?s going to need me late in games because I have the most experience in those types of games.?

Though the Quakers will be shorthanded, Allen claims that ?you can?t make excuses not to go and get it done.?

Still, there is no doubt that the two crucial injuries will make it harder for the Quakers to ?get it done? this weekend against Yale and Brown.

 

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Fran and Rennard likely both out for year


Oh, what a difference a week makes.

Heading into the Columbia game, junior forward Fran Dougherty was back from his bout with mononucleosis, and the Quakers were well-rested after an eight-day break from game action.

It hasn?t taken long for the injury bug to bite back.

CSNPhilly has reported that Dougherty will likely miss the rest of the season with the dislocated elbow that he sustained against Cornell on Saturday. Coach Jerome Allen reportedly taped a segment for CSN?s Big Men on Campus in which he said that Dougherty was likely out for the year. Dougherty was still sporting a sling at Wednesday?s practice.

And now you can add junior guard Steve Rennard to the injured list.

Rennard injured his right foot at Monday?s practice, and his foot is now in a walking boot. Allen declined to comment to the DP on either injury at practice Wednesday, but he told CSN that Rennard had torn his plantar fascia, the tissue of under the arch of the foot.

What we also know is that Penn?s injuries couldn?t be more ill-timed. The Quakers had more momentum than they had enjoyed in a long time after playing Temple tough on the road and trumping Columbia at home.

The consequences of Dougherty?s eight-game absence before returning last weekend have been well-documented, but what will Rennard?s absence mean for Penn?

Rennard had been having a disappointing season, shooting less efficiently from beyond the arc and averaging more turnovers per game than he did a year ago. His 4.2 points per game this season are also just 0.5 more than his 2011-12 scoring average, indicating that his role within Penn?s offense hasn?t expanded much even with an additional year of experience.

These injuries, while unfortunate, could actually be just what the doctor ordered.

Rennard?s potential absence should only encourage the Quakers? offensive aggressiveness going forward. Penn has relied too much on the three lately, and Rennard has always been a part of that problem ? 72 percent of all shots Rennard has taken this year have been threes.

Meanwhile, Penn launched 24 treys against Cornell, 18 at Temple and 21 against St. Joseph?s. Even if sophomore guard Patrick Lucas-Perry can continue his hot streak from downtown, that?s not a winning formula for everyone else, since Penn still ranks just sixth in the Ivy League in three-point field goal percentage.

?Some days the ball?s going to go in, some days it?s not,? Allen agreed Saturday after the Cornell game, when the Quakers shot 12-for-24 from beyond the arc. ?I think our three-point field goal percentage is kind of like fool?s gold.?

But enough about Rennard. Let?s talk about Fran.

Losing Doc is probably the last thing the Quakers needed, and yet it?s familiar territory for them. What does Penn need now that Fran the Man is out of commission?

Penn needs the Miles Cartwright who looked fiercely aggressive at Temple and against Columbia.

Penn needs the Tony Hicks who made his patented left-hand side drives through the paint look easy at Princeton.

Penn needs the Henry Brooks who has emerged as a more efficient offensive weapon and more disciplined defensive presence in Fran?s absence than he ever did with Fran at his side.

In other words, if Fran?s absence forced the Quakers? other major players to attack the hoop more in Penn?s motion offense before his all too brief return, then it should do the same now.

So the answers to at least some measure of Ivy success for the Quakers in 2012-13 aren?t stuck on the bench. They?re waiting in the paint for whoever has the playmaking gumption to go get them.