Your George Mason Patriots are looking to move to 8-4, facing the 4-7 Penn Quakers of the Ivy League.
The Quakers are coached by Steve Donahue, who previously coached at Cornell and Boston College, and has been with Penn since the 2015-16 season. Donahue made the tourney three times with Cornell, and once with Penn. He has an overall record of 327-322, and a 127-118 record at Penn. In the Ivy, he has a conference record of 137-115, and during his Penn stint, Steve has a conference record of 59-59.
Penn By The Numbers
Penn is the 301st ranked team on KenPom, with the 249th offense and 325st defense.
Donahue has his guys playing at a fairly slow pace, 65.4 possessions per game, which is 318th fastest.
It seems like the Ivy League school might have a size problem, as their second, third, and fourth most common lineups in their last five games have a 6’5 195 Ethan Roberts playing the four. If they run that and he has to go up against Jalen Haynes, they will be scrambling to sub him out.
On offense, the Quakers really struggle to put the ball in the basket. They have an eFG % of 46 which is 323rd. On the “bright” side, Penn turns it over at a slightly below average rate (in a good way), and gets offensive rebounds at a slightly above average rate.
A massive problem for Penn is that they take the 73rd most threes at 44.4% of their shots, but only make 29.1%, which is 322nd.
The Quakers’ top option seems to be 6’5 wing Ethan Roberts, who is taking 29.3% of the shots when he is on the court. The Army transfer is averaging 17.2 points on 51.7% eFG. Not bad, but a lot of his points have come against some BAD teams.
The offense runs through 6’9 Nick Spinoso, their center, who has a 30.9% assist rate. This feels like more of a Haynes game than Emejuru, as Haynes plays better on the perimeter than Gio.
Penn doesn’t have the greatest shooters, as Ethan Roberts at 36.7% and Dylan Williams at 36.8% are the only two guys above average. Sam Brown has taken 60 at 23.3%, Spinoso 17 at 23.5%, Michael Zanoni 31 at 25.8%, Polonowski 22 at 27.3%, and George Smith taking 21 at 28.6%.
That is just so much blue. They’re okay from straight on and the right corner I guess.
On defense, the Quakers are not very good at ending possessions. They only force a turnover on 14.5% of possessions, 324th, and give up a 35.2% offensive rebound rate, which is 333rd.
Penn only blocks 4.5% of shots, 353rd, which kind of shows how two-point defense isn’t all about getting blocks, as their two best defensive attributes are not fouling, only 22.5 free throws per 100 shots, 10th, and holding opponents to 46.6% from two, 64th.
The defense falls apart once the other team starts taking threes, as Penn’s opponents are shooting 39.3% from three, 352nd, which is just insane. On the bright side, opponents don’t take too many threes, with only 36.2% of their shots coming from behind the arc, which is 89th lowest. Altogether, the percentage going in is too much, because they allow 35.8% of the other team’s points to come from threes, which is 55th highest.
Mason might be able to take advantage of guard AJ Levine and backup center Augustus Gerhert, who commit 6.1 and 5.4 fouls per 40 minutes.
They defend the rim pretty well, but everywhere else is kind of a nightmare.
Penn Scouting Report (First Half vs. VCU)
I picked VCU since it’s full of players that I am pretty familiar with. There weren’t any teams that were similar in ranking while also being similar in playstyle.
On offense, it looks pretty similar to how Richmond runs things, with the center holding the ball while the team plays five out with off-ball movement.
Penn chucks up the first ok three they see. I watched Sam Brown chuck up a deep three, which is something you probably should not be doing if you are shooting in the low 20s from outside the arc.
The Quakers are looking for shooters in transition.
Spinoso looks like a big wing out there, and is not afraid to pull it from three if the defender sags off.
Roberts is a bit of a movement shooter, running around off-ball screens and such.
Since they have a big man playing point forward, if Penn faces a zone press, it can get pretty rough.
Lastly, they got an unforced 10-second violation. That doesn’t say too much, but it was odd to see.
On defense, Penn plays more of a matchup zone.
If Mason can make cross-court passes, they will probably get open threes. Guys help inside on the weak side. The Quakers also have some slow-ish rotations. They also go under screens. It explains why teams shoot so high from three.
Penn can lose shooters in transition.
If the Quakers view your center as a non-shooter, their center will stay in the paint.
Spinoso did not look too good on the perimeter, but he was covering Joe Bamisile, so that is a tough evaluation. The big man did look pretty good playing drop coverage.
What Does This Mean For Mason?
This will be good practice for when Mason plays Richmond, as they run similar Princeton systems. Richmond is more Princeton than Penn, but there are some overlapping concepts.
Haynes and Emejuru might have a field day with the lack of size that Penn has.
Prediction: Mason wins 80-60. Mason’s three-point defense has been pretty good this season, and I feel like Penn is going to be stuck chucking up threes for the whole game if they go down early, which is pretty likely.
After this, it is just Mount St. Mary’s, who just went to Miami and beat them. Miami isn’t top 100, but that is still a bit scary.
