The season's first three games have provided three fundamental takeaways: UNC without Hansbrough is still UNC, Drexel coach Bruiser Flint should have his own reality show and the Red and Blue still haven't found that one, central voice to lead their young squad.
They've found three.
To be sure, veteran leadership was a chief concern coming into the year, with four underclassmen and a hitherto inconsistent senior, Cam Lewis, in the opening night starting five.
But through 120 minutes of basketball, seniors Brennan Votel and Kevin Egee - who averaged 7.5 points per game combined last season - have parlayed their consistent play into starting roles, stabilizing the center and shooting guard positions with ball-hawking defense (four steals and a block between them on Saturday night) and an infusion of offense (a combined 27-point average on the year) on a team in dire need of complementary scoring options for sophomore sharpshooter Tyler Bernardini.
"Whatever I can do, whatever coach needs me to do, that's what I do," Egee said.
Sure, it's quite the unabashed party line, but it's also music to Glen Miller's ears.
So is this: 18 assists and three turnovers through three games for freshman point guard Zack Rosen, who is quickly establishing himself as a bona fide floor general.
"He's just so in control," Miller said. "He's a high assist to low turnover guy, despite not scoring a lot of points."
But the box score hardly conveys the extent of the freshman's contributions.
After all, it was Rosen, consistently the loudest player on the floor Saturday night, directing traffic on offense and calling out screens and switches at the other end. It was Rosen who, following a questionable offensive foul call against Bernardini late in the second half, slung an arm around the Quakers' go-to man and led him away from the men in stripes.
And it was Rosen, long since removed from the action in a 25-point game with three minutes left, who charged off the bench during a timeout to dole out the first pounds and chest bumps to the Human Victory Cigar squad.
Rosen also finally netted his first collegiate field goal on Saturday, a three from the corner early in the second half, after struggling mightily with his shot in the season's first two contests. On the very next possession, the change in Rosen's gait was palpable, as he exploded past a defender at the top of the key to get to the rim for a driving layup with his off hand.
"Tyler's been getting on me," Rosen said of the early season dry spell. "I can score the ball, but other guys are hot. I'm gonna get them the ball first, look for my shot second."
Rosen's back-to-back buckets came in the heart of a 22-7 run over the first seven minutes of the second half, in which Penn's stagnant, Bernardini-centric offensive scheme of the first half gave way to a far more balanced attack to put the game away.
Of those 22 points, Rosen, Egee and Votel poured in 19, highlighted by two absolute bombs from Egee on consecutive possessions to put the Quakers up 21 with 14 minutes to play.
"They've led by example," Bernardini said of the senior starters. "There's no question about it. They're our captains."
Indeed, with those two residuals of Penn's last Ivy champion in tow - and the redheaded southpaw from Jersey proving a quick study at the point - the Red and Blue are not looking so green after all.
Matt Flegenheimer is a sophomore Economics major from New York. His e-mail address is mfleg@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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