Soriero misuses bench

Marc Edelman, Commentary But don't be deluded into thinking that this year's edition of the Quakers do everything perfectly. For Penn to compete for the Ivy League title, changes will have to made. And no alteration would have as profound an effect on the Quakers as a revision of Penn coach Julie Soriero's distribution of minutes between her players. Penn has the talent to finish at or above the .500 mark in the Ivies this year. The combination of forward Maldonado's inside game and the outside shooting of guards Chelsea Hathaway and Colleen Kelly anchor a strong offensive attack. Still, I fear that the Quakers will not meet this goal -- Soriero's distribution of minutes among her players will hold the Quakers back. Soriero likes to play her starters for the entire first half, and the second half, too, when she can. Guards Chelsea Hathaway and Colleen Kelly average an extremely high 35.8 and 35.6 minutes per game respectively. Power forward Michelle Maldonado plays 35.5 minutes per game. Center Deana Lewis averages 34.5. And freshman small forward Shelly Fogarty averages 30.3 minutes per game. I have no opposition to a starter playing this many minutes. This isn't Little League. Coaches should play their best players for as long as they can go. But if the starters are on the floor for the first 30 minutes of play, they better be on the floor for the final ten, as well. I have a problem with Soriero using her starters for so many minutes, not because the bench doesn't get much playing-time, but rather because the bench's limited minutes always come during crunch-time, when the starters foul out. Since Soriero will ride her starters through fatigue and foul trouble, the Penn coach is forced to throw her reserves, such as junior Hope Smith and senior Amy Tarr, into the line of fire in the games' closing minutes -- a time when the players with the hot hands should be on the court. The first time that Soriero's decision to leave her starters on the court for too long cost the Quakers was December 4 against St. Joseph's. The Hawks held a two-point lead at the half, but pulled away from Penn in the final minutes to win by 11, 69-58. This trend reared its ugly head again on December 6 at Lehigh when Penn blew a 20-point second-half lead. Three Penn starters fouled out, and the Quakers lost in overtime, 88-83. The overtime period was a disaster for Penn, as players who did not see any playing-time in the first half, were thrown on the court cold to play the final minutes. But never were rotational problems more pronounced than last Tuesday against Villanova. Soriero's bench played no minutes in the first half. But with under three minutes to go in a two-possession game, reserves Smith and Tarr were out on the floor together. Neither player took a shot in the closing minutes and both appeared to be out of the game's flow. There two reasons why Soriero's substitution pattern will prevent the Quakers from reaching their potential. The first, and most obvious, reason is the fatigue factor. I don't care how many windsprints the Quakers run in practice. If the starting five plays the first 35 minutes of a game, and the opponent starters play just 25, the opponents will have more energy left in the closing minutes. Even tired, the Penn starting five may be able to hang on to defeat weaker opponents. But what will happen when Penn faces the stronger Ivy League teams, such as Harvard and Brown? If Soriero's substitution pattern does not change, the result will probably be the same as when Penn met Big 5 rivals St. Joseph's, La Salle, Temple, and Villanova. The Red and Blue put up a fight for the first 30-minutes, but at the 30-minute mark their opponents begin to pull away. A second reason why Soriero should expand her rotation early in the game is to show opponents different looks, so if one Quaker struggles, Soriero can replace her in the line-up. If either senior Amy Tarr or junior Hope Smith had seen playing-time in the first half, either player could have made a contribution to the line-up in the closing minutes. But since neither played in the first half, they looked lost when Soriero inserted them late in the game. Maybe my prognosis on Soriero's rotation is a little harsh. I don't expect her to use a 10-player rotation like Villanova coach Harry Parretta. And I realize that it is not always the coach's fault that she must insert a reserve player in the game's closing minutes. From time to time, things happen, like injuries and unexpected foul trouble. All I ask is that any player who Soriero puts on the floor in the closing minutes of a game be good enough in Soriero's opinion to see first-half playing time.