Hoops Supplement | Soisson: No top-level opponents? This season, no problem

This season, there will be no Duke. No UCLA, no Kentucky, no UNC.

Barring a second-round matchup with Virginia or an unexpected run through the NIT tip-off tournament, Penn basketball’s biggest opponent of the non-conference slate will come Jan. 2 on a road trip at Butler.

No staple high-major game is on the schedule, and that’s just fine.

The 2011-12 schedule was particularly grueling with road trips to Duke and UCLA and a home game versus Pitt. But that squad could handle it. Jerome Allen and Zack Rosen were adamant all throughout last year’s non-conference slate — where the Quakers went 8-9 — that they could compete with those teams and it would help them come Ivy play.

And all signs pointed to the success of the schedule when the Red and Blue finished with an 11-3 Ancient Eight record and played meaningful games through March. The leadership and experience on that team carried them through the tough early losses and gave them lessons to use when it really mattered in the Ivy race.

This year is a different team with a different level of experience and a different set of non-conference needs. Penn needs to be challenged, sure, but the young squad — which returns only 43 percent of its minutes from last year — also needs confidence. A softer schedule gives the Quakers a shot at both.

Penn doesn’t need to be blown out of the water and Penn doesn’t need to walk away from games feeling like there was no benefit from the matchup.

This slate gives the Red and Blue a chance. A chance to work together, gel, mold and figure out what works and what doesn’t. Better yet, it gives them a chance to make a statement against some weaker teams and learn how to win without Zack Rosen, Tyler Bernardini and Rob Belcore.

Much of the current roster knows how to win. But all together? And with gaping holes from a season ago? This team has some work to do.

But that’s exactly what they’ll do, and the schedule couldn’t better fit their needs. There’s no reason to spend the time and energy traveling to play a top-25 team that will likely run right over them. That’s not a good use of resources.

Challenges against Butler, Penn State and Wagner? Definitely an effective way to prepare for a 14-game conference tournament.

The glitz and the glamour of a nationally broadcast game against a powerhouse program can be fun, but it’s not necessary. This team will settle for the brother of the Palestra, Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Nothing fancy. Nothing overstated. Just purposeful basketball.

MEGAN SOISSON is a senior health and societies major from Mechanicsburg, Pa., and is senior sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Her e-mail address is soisson@theDP.com.

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