When Ibrahim Jaaber stood up with a noticeable limp after being called for an offensive foul in the closing minutes of Penn's loss to Villanova Saturday, the Palestra faithful held its collective breath.
Already resigned to losing the Big 5 opener to the Wildcats, Quakers fans did not want to see their reigning Ivy League Player of the Year go as well.
But Jaaber, who first sprained the ankle against Syracuse in early November, practiced with the rest of the team on Monday after tweaking it in Saturday's collision. Although the persistent injury will not be keeping him off the floor anytime soon, he admitted it has been pestering him.
"It's been a little sore, but it's nothing I can't handle," the senior guard said.
Coach Glen Miller called it "a good sign" that Jaaber was able to go through all the drills.
"We don't make a big deal out of it," he said. "You can tell it's a little tender, but he's resilient, he's tough."
Marathon men. While injuries aren't sending Jaaber to the bench, neither is his coach. Miller elected to leave the senior in Saturday's game for all 40 minutes, while giving Mark Zoller, Stephen Danley and Brian Grandieri three, four and five minutes of rest, respectively.
These numbers reflect what is fast becoming apparent for this year's Quakers: they rely heavily on their seasoned starters.
Jaaber currently leads the team in minutes per game, with 36.1. But ignore the loss to UTEP - where foul trouble limited the senior to just 23 minutes - and his average inflates to 38.3.
Grandieri is not far behind, with 35.3 per contest. In all, Penn's starters are accounting for 158.5 of 200 possible minutes a night.
"I'm a little concerned about how many minutes some of the guys are playing," Miller said. "I've said it time and time again that we want to play more players. But it's a matter of those players being able to be productive on the floor, and I think that will come in time."
Though the year is just seven games old, the Quakers would be wise to figure out that rotation sooner rather than later. Penn opens its Ivy schedule - consisting of six weekends of back-to-back games with two midweek Princeton contests sprinkled in - on Jan. 12 at Cornell.
And if Jaaber, Zoller and company aren't getting viable support off the bench by then, they're more likely to be run ragged by the grueling schedule.
Balanced playing time in Ivy play "is more critical," Miller said.
But Jaaber would just as soon keep up his torrid pace.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm willing to play 40 minutes," he said. "I don't really like to come out of the game at all."
Raining threes. Last year, the Quakers never got comfortable from beyond the arc and finished sixth in the league with a .323 three-point percentage.
But this year's team has turned that weakness into its greatest asset, and is now streaking out in front of the Ancient Eight with a .398 long-range percentage. Compared with the first seven games of last year - in which Penn sank 39 of 153 from deep for a .255 percentage - the team has so far made 53 of 133 threes.
"It's part of our offense, where we move all of our guys around to different areas of the floor," Miller said. "Guys have taken well to it, and you've got to give them a lot of credit."
This year has seen each of the five starters raise his three-point shooting percentage, but the improvement has been the most pronounced for Zoller. Through seven injury-plagued games last season, he shot 2-of-13 (.154) for three. This year, the senior is a blistering 13-for-29 (.448), and credits most of the progress to the offseason work he put in.
"Coach Miller said when he came here last May that we were going to have our post players playing outside a little bit more," Zoller said. "I took that as getting a lot more open shots from the outside, so I worked my tail off to try and become the best three-point shooter I could be."
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
