Coach Mike McLaughlin (left) and coach Jerome Allen (right) have had contrasting results this season, as McLaughlin’s women’s hoops squad is 12-9 while Allen’s men’s hoops team is 6-18.
Having been hired just a year apart from each other, it’s hard not to compare Mike McLaughlin and Jerome Allen, who lead basketball teams going in seemingly different directions.
In McLaughlin’s first season, the Penn women’s basketball team was 2-26.
Since that point, they have only gone up: from 11-17 to 13-15, and this season, with seven games left, they already have a 12-9 record.
For Allen, after two seasons, things seemed to be heading in the same direction. He finished his first year with a 13-15 record, an improvement of seven games from the year before.
The following year, his team came within one game of an Ivy League playoff in the Quakers’ first 20 win season since 2006-07.
But then Zack Rosen, Rob Belcore and Tyler Bernadini waved bon voyage to the program, leaving Allen with a team lacking in upperclassmen.
Perhaps understandably, this season, with Allen’s Quakers floundering in poor assist-to-turnover ratios and spotty offense, Penn hasn’t sniffed last season’s success.
Yet the difference between Allen and McLaughlin isn’t in the past or the players that they inherited when they were hired.
The difference lies in their recruits.
Every year that Mike McLaughlin has been head coach, he has recruited an explosive player. Junior Alyssa Baron, sophomore Kara Bonenberger and freshman Keiera Ray can all take control of contests, as this year’s results have shown.
Not only have McLaughlin’s recruits been solid contributors, but he has at least one player who has proven to be even better than was suspected when she put on a Penn uniform for the first time.
Everyone knew that Keiera Ray could ball, but not like she did last weekend. She put up 50 points against two quality Ivy opponents, and is the main reason why Penn finds themselves second in the Ivy standings.
Of Allen’s two recruiting classes, players have proven themselves enough to get consistent playing time, but even though sophomore Henry Brooks and freshman Tony Hicks are on the floor every night, neither has shown the ability to take the team to the next level.
Only Hicks’ classmate, center Darien Nelson-Henry, has consistently produced on the offensive end of the floor, with the downside of being a virtual nonentity on the defensive end.
Of course, you can say that some talent takes time to develop, and that Tony Hicks could — by his senior year — lead this team to an Ivy title.
But that’s the difference between where these programs find themselves currently if we’re differentiating McLaughlin and Allen.
McLaughlin’s talent has produced immediate results. Alyssa Baron didn’t win Ivy League Rookie of the Year based on her potential. Potential didn’t net Keira Ray 31 points against Harvard.
But for Allen, potential seems to be the only thing keeping this team from flatlining.
JOHN PHILLIPS is a junior English major from Philadelphia and is an associate sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at dpsports@theDP.com.
SEE ALSO
Phillips | Penn men’s basketball still in search of signature win
Tydings | A bright future ahead for Penn women’s basketball
Penn basketball blows by Dartmouth, 67-57
Tony | Penn basketball can beat Harvard’s small ball with smart ball
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