CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- With freshman point guard Harrison Gaines on the bench against Miami and Florida Gulf Coast with a hamstring injury, something has become clear: The Penn basketball team needs Gaines back in the starting lineup.
Sure, there are many other things that need to be fixed from Penn's two losses by a combined 56 points, but there seems to be an answer to the Quakers' floor general problems.
It looked like Gaines was settling into the starting point guard role, getting the nod in seven of the Quakers' games.
And even when junior Aron Cohen got the start, Gaines still saw double digit minutes.
His absence in these last two games hurt perhaps more than Miller would admit.
"Certainly he has something to add that's a positive, so it's a change with him not at least coming off the bench," Miller said. Gaines has "been averaging somewhere around 20 minutes a game, so any time you have someone who contributes and has played good basketball for you at times out of your lineup it hurts."
Without Gaines on the floor, the Quakers lose a force that can drive to the basket and go for the layup or stop and pull up for the jumper. Both Cohen and Kevin Egee seem tentative to do so.
Cohen can deal out the ball and Miller seems to value the experience the junior gives. Cohen had five assists against Florida Gulf Coast, but added just one in his 16 minutes during the Miami game.
Egee, who saw 30 minutes against Miami, forced too many passes inside and often lost the ball in transition.
"I could have done a lot better on shooting," Egee said. "I don't know what my numbers are, but they weren't good, especially from three, so I gotta work on that."
Egee finished 2-for-7 on the night, and took five of those shots from beyond the arc. Cohen went 0-for-3.
Gaines had added over five points a game for the Quakers.
That's the difference between Egee and Cohen and Gaines.
And the struggling Quaker team needs all the help it can get offensively. Gaines has provided a spark before and has shown he can dish the ball out, tallying twelve assists and nine points against Citadel.
"I'm not saying either of these guys are great players," said Miller, referring to Mike Kach who was out with a back injury, "but it hurts us when we lose guys like that."
But when Gaines gets healthy, it will still hurt if he's not seeing significant time at point guard.
Krista Hutz is a junior History and Economics major from Philadelphia and is Sports Editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian. Her e-mail address is hutzkm@sas.upenn.edu.
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