Penn basketball pre-season begins

 

Four weeks. Four short weeks from today the men's basketball season will officially tip-off (on the road, unfortunately) and another winter in the Palestra will commence.

For the team, though, it begins today, as preseason practices begin in full. Team policy keeps the first few practices closed, but until then we'll bring you up to speed:

  • The Red and Blue finished an even 7-7 last year, putting them fourth behind Princeton, Harvard and Yale. It was a modest improvement over the disastrous 2009-10 season, when Penn finished 5th at 5-9 after an 0-10 start to the non-conference schedule. And yes, a 5th place finish is disastrous for a program as historically successful as Penn.
  • The Ivy League this year has all but been written off to Harvard, which returns its entire team, including Player of the Year Keith Wright, and his paint-mate, junior Kyle Casey. While the Crimson split the 2010-11 title with Princeton, the Tigers have since lost their coach Sydney Johnson and key seniors Kareem Maddox and Dan Mavraides.
  • The Quakers have arguably the best backcourt in the league with the trio of Zack Rosen, Tyler Bernardini and Miles Cartwright. But their depth in the frontcourt is a major vulnerability. The key questions for Penn will be whether senior forward Mike Howlett can stay healthy, whether sophomore big men Cam Gunter and Fran Dougherty can step up to replace graduated seniors, and whether the freshmen forwards can make an immediate impact.
And some more on the upcoming year:
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