M. Hoops' trip to MSU an 'invaluable' exercise

Winning on the road with a young team is not an easy task for any squad.

Penn found this out on Saturday when they traveled to East Lansing, Mich., to face the Michigan State Spartans.

Playing the then-No. 3 team in the nation with a young and relatively inexperienced team, on the road, makes it nearly impossible.

After splitting two games at the friendly confines of the Palestra, losing to Wisconsin and beating Drexel, the Red and Blue had to travel to a hostile environment to play the Spartans.

For a team that has only two returning starters from last season's Ivy League championship squad -- senior Jeff Schiffner and junior Tim Begley -- the Quakers responded nicely to the challenge.

"Michigan State is a first class organization, a beautiful program with great facilities and spectacular stuff," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I think our kids appreciated it, [the game was] a different look to what college basketball is about."

Despite the seemingly lop-sided score, Penn played a good game and came away with many positives from its performance.

"I think if we would have played the way that we could have, we would have had a chance to win," senior center Adam Chubb said. "It definitely helps [to play road games], it prepares you for all the different obstacles we will face later in the year."

"It helps to build a lot of team character after you go on the road against a team like [Michigan State]."

Besides the difficulty of playing on the road, Penn caught Michigan State fresh off a loss to Kansas and in the midst of a streak of games against some of the top-ranked teams in the nation -- including upcoming matchups with Duke, Oklahoma and Kentucky.

The experience of this first big road trip should also help the Quakers later on in the season as they head into Ivy League competition.

"We came out of the game with good experience and [the game] offers [our team] good preparation for later on in the year," Chubb said.

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One of the biggest concerns for the Quakers at the start of the season was how much the freshmen and transfer players would contribute.

So far, the new players have gotten a good amount of playing time and opportunities to help their team.

Saturday's experience may prove extremely valuable later on in the season.

"I think they did pretty well especially for their first big time game away from home," Chubb said. "It's not easy, getting used to playing on the road in a college atmosphere and against a big name team like [Michigan State]."

"I think they came in [to the game] with some confidence but there was some awe as well."

Against the Spartans, freshman Ibby Jaaber and junior transfer Eric Heil were the only two newcomers to score points, five and three respectively, but just being out on the court was learning experience enough.

"I think its invaluable, that's why we [play these games]," Dunphy said. "When [the players] stop playing basketball in 20 years and they get to look back on playing a top-five team, it will be a great experience."

In the second game of the weekend against Indiana State, a confidence boost in the younger players was evident.

"I thought [the freshmen] did very well," Dunphy said. "Whatever their apprehensions were on Saturday were relieved on Sunday."

Again, Jaaber led the way off the bench, scoring 11 while Heil helped by dropping eight points.

Other newcomers such as Steve Danley, Eric Osmundson, Ryan Pettinella and Mark Zoller also contributed solid minutes off the bench for the Red and Blue.

Junior Pat Lang was also able to make the only field goal he attempted against Indiana State, which kept his career shooting percentage at a perfect 100 percent (3-3).

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