Penn men's basketball looks to run in season opener

Penn was in position to win it — its first Big 5 victory in a year, coming against Temple on the Owls’ own home floor.

With a 52-45 lead and 11:05 left to go at the Liacouras Center, the Quakers looked primed to end their Big 5 drought.

Then Khalif Wyatt happened.

Wyatt exploded for 14 points in the last 11 minutes of the contest to end Penn’s hopes. The Quakers ultimately lost, 76-69.

But now, Wyatt has graduated, while Penn’s core is intact — and the Quakers are hungry.

“We have a chance to come out with a bang,” sophomore Darien Nelson-Henry said. “We went 0-4 in the Big 5 last year. And now we can get one big win to start the season and set the tone for the rest of the year.”

The tone the Red and Blue hope to set is a quick one.

“Coach doesn’t really care who brings the ball up, whether that be me or [senior Miles Cartwright],” sophomore Tony Hicks said. “We want to play a lot more in transition this year.”

Wanting to up the tempo is a logical move for the Quakers. Both Cartwright and Hicks are fantastic athletes that work best in transition, and other distributors — junior Camryn Crocker and freshman Tony Bagtas — have great court vision as well.

The shift in offensive philosophy comes off the tail of Hicks’ breakout Ivy performance last season, where he showed his ability to take over as the main producer for weekends at a time.

“I feel like that’s where my style of game flourishes the most,” Hicks said. “We can get a lot of easy baskets if we commit to running.”

While Hicks, Cartwright and the other guards fit into that style quite well, the big men are left behind.

Both senior Fran Dougherty and Nelson-Henry have been putting in extra time in the gym to be in shape to run the floor.

“He’s been working really hard at picking his wind up,” Nelson-Henry said of his front-court mate.

“Their overall focus in the weight room, since last spring, carried on through the summer — those guys were in the gym on their own,” coach Jerome Allen said. “Darien is a pretty unique player in that I don’t think anyone in the Ivy League has his size or this strength.

“And from Darien on down, we’ve held the guys accountable for doing what needs to be done off the court to be champions.”

Penn’s ability to aim for Harvard comes from having an entire core return this season.

While last year, Allen had to rely on freshmen often — Hicks started the first three games last season — this year, the group is different.

Freshmen Tony Bagtas and Dylan Jones, among others, will be in Allen’s rotation, but he doesn’t need to rely on them early.

“The beauty of it is that the large part of the freshman I don’t think we’ll have to depend on them right away, as opposed to last year where we started three freshmen,” Allen said.

Overall, the Red and Blue has had a renewed energy since returning from Italy and starting fall practices.

“They have a different pop about them,” Allen said.

And that’s why the Quakers may be primed for their first Big 5 win since defeating St. Joe’s on Jan. 21 of 2012. While Penn has all its pieces in the right place, Temple has many question marks following Khalif Wyatt’s graduation.

“I think we’re still an unknown product,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “We’re going to have to have games like this on Saturday to let us know where we are.”

In addition to Wyatt, Temple also lost the likes of Scootie Randall, Jake O’Brien and Rahlir-Holis Jefferson. Combined, those players accounted for 54 percent of Temple’s offensive production last season.

With all of those factors combined, Penn at last may have its best chance to take down Temple since 06-07.

And a part of that extra pop around the Palestra these days is getting to start off against a Big 5 foe.

“We’re really excited, like right now,” Hicks said. “It’ll be a sellout crowd, Big 5. It means a lot.”

SEE ALSO

Trick or Treat: What’s scary about Penn basketball in 2013-14?

Remembering Penn basketball: former DP sports editor Jeff Shafer

Remembering Penn basketball: former DP sportswriter Andrew Todres

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