Eggleston's take: Unsung hero

I had barely made it out of post-game press conferences by the time Jack Eggleston had sent us his thoughts on the game. His player of the game? Rob Belcore.

After the UCLA game, much of the reaction will focus on how a scrappy Penn team led by Tyler Bernardini's impressive outing almost pulled out the win despite Zack Rosen's off night. To me, the story of the game was the confidence Rob Belcore displayed on the offensive end. What he displayed against the Bruins should give Quakers fans a reason to be optimistic about the rest of the season.

Before Rob came to campus in his pre-freshman summer, I happened to watch a DVD of Belcore scoring thirty-seven points in a high school game (most of which came against Danny Monckton's little brother, Trent). Don't ask me how or why this happened but it did. Belcore scored in about every way possible: deep threes, midrange pull ups, and even some post ups. Truly, he put on a show. Every preseason, it would seem like Rob could never miss as the Loyola Academy version of himself would appear on the Palestra and Weightman floors.

But at some point in each season, Rob would pigeonhole himself into that familiar role of glue guy. Make no mistake, he always made tremendous contributions with his defense, hustle, and intelligence, but another dimension sat beneath the surface. Against UCLA Penn fans got a glimpse of what Rob has had in his game all along. The difference was confidence. When he's playing like he can, Belcore picks his spots and never hesitates.

This development could give a much-needed offensive spark to the front court. What we have seen so far and I imagine we will see for the rest of the year is a big man by committee system. Within the Brooks, Dougherty, Gunter, Howlett quartet nobody has truly emerged to cement their role in the rotation. I believe that their minutes will fluctuate based on practice and game performance.

Lastly, I don't mean to downplay what a stellar night Tyler Bernardini had. The problem is I've probably been in the gym more with him than anybody else I know, so the revelation that he can shoot the eyes out of the ball is not much a revelation to me. It was only a matter of time before a night like this happened. And to anybody worried about consecutive un-Rosen like nights from Rosen you can stop worrying. UCLA was game number eleven in a month and the captain has played just about every minute. Once he gets through finals and gets some rest he'll be back to his spectacular self, I promise.