“Set the screen and come back hard to the ball!”
The entire Penn women’s basketball team is cramped into a small visitor’s locker room, staring up at their coach, Mike McLaughlin.
It’s 6:40 p.m. on Feb. 25, just 20 minutes before the Quakers take the court against Columbia. McLaughlin is delivering his pre-game speech.
“Someone is going to have to step up and have a huge effort tonight,” he says. “I want to see a team that has learned a great deal.”
The players and coaches come together into a huddle after McLaughlin says his piece. They raise their hands up and shout, “Together!”
The coaches give the players a couple of minutes to talk amongst themselves before the team takes the floor.
Tipoff. The game begins. It’s a back and forth affair. Every time the Lions do something well, the announcer plays a “lion’s roar” clip, which really sounds more like a violent toilet flush. Penn plays well at times, but commits too many turnovers, falling 61-54.
As Sinatra’s “New York, New York” blares over the loudspeakers at Levien Gymnasium, the disappointed Quakers jog back to the visitor’s locker room.
Adding insult to injury, some of the showers have no warm water and Columbia doesn’t provide the players with towels.
Back on the bus, the mood is subdued. The drive to Cornell, Penn’s next opponent, seems much longer than the four hours it actually takes.
Everyone enjoys a dinner on the go: sandwiches from the uniquely named restaurant, “Subconscious.” Junior Jess Knapp’s parents provide dessert for everyone: brownies, in both regular and nutty varieties.
Some players talk, others do homework, still others listen to music or sleep.
“We do our homework until our battery runs out,” Caroline Nicholson says, referring to the lack of power outlets on the bus.
Bernadette Laukaitis, Kara Cassidy and Kelly Killion, the team’s assistant coaches, crowd around a MacBook Pro near the front of the bus to analyze film from the season’s first matchup against Cornell. Besides their astute observations regarding the Big Red’s offensive scheme, the bus is quiet.
Finally around 2 a.m., the big blue Starr bus pulls into the driveway of the Courtyard Ithaca Mariott. With breakfast scheduled for 10 a.m. sharp, many players will only get six hours of sleep.
The next morning, as they eat — or attempt to eat — rock-like French toast and eggs that smell like fish, senior Jerin Smith, junior Jourdan Banks and freshman Meghan McCullough fondly remember a breakfast at Brown that featured strawberries and whipped cream.
It’s 10:10 a.m. Saturday, and this subpar breakfast forebodes another long day of preparation for that night’s game against Cornell.
During breakfast, senior Erin Power muses, “I love when Coach lays into the refs and uses their first names! ‘You’re better than that, Debbie!’” she mimics.
For Power and fellow seniors Smith and Nicholson, this roadtrip will be their last as Penn basketball players. Their emotions are a mix of relief, sadness and urgency.
After breakfast come team meetings. Guards first, then post players and then the whole team together.
Each game, the coaches compile and print a scouting report with the opponent’s top players, the keys to the game and the overall plan of attack. Atop each report is a quote. This morning’s quote is courtesy of Laukaitis: “It is our last road game together… need I say more?”
The coaches ask sophomore guard Katie Davis to read the quote aloud, in an effort to set the tone for the day.
A shootaround at Cornell follows the meetings. Then it’s back to the hotel for a couple of unstructured hours. Many players take advantage of the time to nap or catch up on homework.
The day flies by, and suddenly the team is on its way back to Cornell’s Newman Arena.
On the Big Red’s senior night and Pink Zone game, Penn struggles early to score. They never lead, and fall, 57-51, to an energized Cornell squad.
Knapp struggles to explain the loss. “They’re home, it’s the Pink Zone game, they were playing for a lot tonight,” she says. “Not to say that we weren’t, but I just think they sort of wanted it a little more.”
Both the players and the coaches are disappointed.
“Our kids wanted this real bad. They’re hurting right now,” McLaughlin said. “I knew both of the games were going to be like this. We played well at times, but not well enough to win both of these games.”
Nevertheless, the players handle the weekend with a resilience that has come to define their season. After all, this is the team that has already pulled off the biggest turnaround in program history.
Over the course of the weekend, the team shows that it’s nothing if not closely knit. Whatever triumphs or challenges await these players and coaches in years to come, they’ll meet them head on — together.
