The rebuilding process has officially begun, and it sure isn't pretty. In fact, the first several weeks of this season could get very ugly, especially when the Tar Heels come to town.
But I'm not ready to write the Quakers off just yet.
Since the men's basketball team has enjoyed so much success over the past several years, the Penn faithful has almost started to take winning Ivy titles and getting to the NCAA tournament for granted.
Now, for the first time in a while, nothing seems clear or set in stone - not even to coach Glen Miller and his players. But what do you expect from a freshmen-laden team with only one returning senior starter and a starting lineup with one freshman and two players that have played only garbage minutes?
If you thought that this team would be clicking by December, last weekend was a rude awakening. But judging from Penn's performances against Drexel and Loyola, the Quakers do have the players they need to win the league again - it will just take a lot longer than usual for them to start playing like contenders.
Despite how poorly the offense looked in the first half against Drexel and in a full 40 minutes against Loyola, both losses were indicative of the team's inexperience and resulting lack of confidence.
At the Palestra on Friday, no one wanted to take the big shot when Penn needed it most. With senior captain Brian Grandieri on the bench for much of the first half in foul trouble, the host of freshmen and inexperienced sophomores and juniors called on to pick up the slack didn't seem to know that they had a half-court offense, much less how to run it.
On Sunday, Loyola's fullcourt press forced Penn's youngsters to make quick decisions with the basketball - decisions that they were not ready to make quickly enough. The Greyhounds ripped Penn apart because they went in with the right approach. There's no better way to prey on inexperienced players than to apply constant pressure to them.
"Their fullcourt pressure rattled us," Miller explained after that debacle. "We're very inexperienced and indecisive with our decision-making. We don't have guys playing with any confidence."
And of all the problems that Penn could have, inexperience is an interesting one - it fixes itself naturally and easily, but there's no telling how long that process will take.
Still, for all of the mistakes that Penn's underclassmen made, they also showed many encouraging signs. Freshman Jack Eggleston saved the day, at least for a few minutes, against Drexel and drained all of his shots, including two threes, against Loyola.
Junior Cameron Lewis, who was thrust into a starting role after rarely playing in his first two years, led Penn defensively and kept Drexel's Frank Elegar in check.
Throwing all of these inexperienced players into the mix right away leads to dreadful outcomes in the short term. But the more these guys play now, the faster they'll grow up. So have some patience.
With 15 more to go before the Ivy opener, they should have plenty of chances to work out the kinks. All the Quakers need is time.
Andrew Todres is a junior Political Science and History double major from New York. His e-mail address is todres@sas.upenn.edu.
