WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.
Moments after his team finished an admirable comeback down the stretch at Monmouth, Glen Miller reflected on an adjustment he made which looked dumb if all you saw was the box score.
Freshman Conor Turley had played 19 total minutes before Saturday; on Saturday he played 17. He scored one point.
"He has some fire, and we needed that," Miller said of the choice to give Turley his first real showing on the big stage, if you can call the Hawks' Boylan Gym that.
"He's been away from basketball for two years" - on a Mormon mission - "and it's taken him a little bit of time to get comfortable, knowing what he's supposed to be doing out there," Miller said.
That's probably true. But it wouldn't be the worst thing if the "fire" he mentioned was becoming a more important criterion for playing time, as captain Brian Grandieri alluded to when he called out his team's effort last month.
On that front, at least, Miller has been leading by example.
When a Monmouth pass clicked off its recipients' hands and crossed over the center line, he sprang up from his courtside crouch like a cat, hollering and pointing, so desperate for a win that he was reduced to making 110 percent sure the referees called an utterly obvious backcourt violation.
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A bit patronizing towards them, to be sure. But perhaps necessary in a close road game like this one. Nothing is a sure thing in basketball, and few decisions are black-and-white.
That much was evident from the losers of Saturday's contest.
"We didn't play to win as a group. Each guy thought they were gonna do it by themselves," Monmouth coach Dave Calloway said - an explanation that didn't come close to doing justice to the complexity of Penn's 69-61 win.
"No one on our team is good enough to do it on their own. No one. Not one guy on our team. Not one. Just want to make sure that's clear."
Now there's a guy who really believes in teamwork.
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Turley's inexperience came through loud and clear a few times. He drew an arms-out 'what-are-you-doing?' look from Miller after taking a long two-pointer with a defender in his face, a shot that even Grandieri should never take. Turley winced.
But at the 2:45 mark, he drew a key offensive foul with a windmill arm motion that could have earned him an Academy Award for acting. His reward was being slapped on the backside as he was subbed out.
The man who replaced him was Justin Reilly, who looks maddeningly nonchalant every time he gets backed down in the post. On the face of one player, steely resolve. On the other, resignation. It's becoming a metaphor for this team.
The complex part is balancing the need for that fighting spirit with the need to knock down shots of the kind Turley missed. How will the year shake out? Don't expect the answer to be something as simple as teamwork. Sometimes it depends on things that make no sense if all you see is the box score.
Andrew Scurria is a junior Political Science major from Wilmington, Del., and is Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is scurria@sas.upenn.edu..
