Dan McQuade: A season to build upon

It seems like forever until the next basketball season, but fans of the Penn men's basketball team have reason to be bullish about the future.

In the 82-75 loss to California in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a majority of the Quakers' lineup was playing in its first NCAA Tournament game, and it showed.

"We needed to make better decisions with the ball," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said after the game. "There were many turnovers when we tried to feed the ball to the post."

The Quakers also spent much of the game in foul trouble, as four players had two or more fouls at halftime, and guards Jeff Schiffner, and Tim Begley eventually fouled out.

Many times against the Golden Bears, Penn looked tentative and perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the more experienced Cal unit.

Next season, however, the Quakers could be the team with all the experience.

Penn not only returns its entire starting five for next season, but also brings back its top 10 players. The only players lost to graduation will be Jon Tross and Dan Solomito.

And while Tross and Solomito proved to be effective leaders of this year's 25-7 squad, that loss will most likely be offset by the team's gain in experience.

Early this season, the Quakers had trouble putting away opponents and closing out games. They lost tight contests to Illinois, St. Joseph's, Davidson, Harvard, Columbia and Yale -- in each game, the Quakers had realistic chances at winning near the end of the game.

But the Red and Blue came back, avenging the losses to St. Joe's, Columbia and Yale in contests just as tight as the first meetings between the teams. Penn improved tenfold in closing out games -- as well as blowing out opponents -- in the final weeks of the season.

And winning 10 straight games down the stretch in the Ivy League -- when one loss would have shattered any hopes at a trip to the NCAA Tournament -- will prepare the Quakers for what appears to be an equally grueling Ancient Eight lineup next season.

The improvement of younger players is another aspect that should help the Red and Blue.

Most notable was the progress of freshman center Jan Fikiel during the year. The Ulm, Germany, native averaged single-digit minutes and only 1.2 points for the first 10 games of the season.

But, in the last eight contests, Fikiel averaged 13.5 minutes and 5.5 points, including an eight-point performance on perfect shooting in the Ivy League playoff final against Yale on March 9, a 77-58 Quakers victory. There is no reason to believe that Fikiel cannot continue this improvement throughout next year.

And with the added motivation of senior year for Ugonna Onyekwe, Koko Archibong, Andrew Toole, David Klatsky, Duane King and Andrew Coates, the Quakers should return as the Ivy League favorite next season.

And although an even younger Yale squad -- who will also gain experience from two impressively contested NIT games -- and an always-pesky Princeton team will probably once again be near the top of the league, the Quakers have an excellent chance of winning the Ivy League and returning to the NCAA Tournament.

As for their outlook in a tournament game next season, perhaps Toole put it best after the loss to Cal.

"Who knows, you know?" he said. "If we come back to the tournament next year, we'll hopefully be more focused and prepared than we were this year."

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