Cohen | Yet another sober Miller time

While listening to Penn basketball coach Glen Miller speak, it was pretty easy to figure out what the fourth-year head-man thought had gone wrong in his team’s embarrassing 78-60 loss to Albany at home last night.

In a word, defense.

“They scored, and we couldn’t stop them,” Miller said. “That was the ball game.”

Well, it sounds simple enough.

But where exactly did the Quakers slip up?

Again, Miller seemed to recognize what his team could have done better defensively in the game, but not why it did so poorly protecting the basket.

“We didn’t make the adjustments we needed to make defensively at halftime,” Miller said. “We talked about it — just couldn’t get a hold of it.”

As to the reason the Quakers “couldn’t get a hold of it,” Miller seemed baffled.

Part of the reason, undoubtedly, was the explosiveness of Albany’s wing players.

Senior forward Will Harris found his touch from three-point land after halftime, and junior guard Tim Ambrose slashed through the lane with the precision of an Iron Chef.

With man-children like those prowling the perimeter, one can’t expect the undermanned Quakers to match up on size and speed.

The fact that Penn lacks the physical assets to compete with top-tier players makes Miller’s adjustments and system that much more important.

“I don’t know that we’re going to go into too many games with a decisive advantage physically, or from a talent standpoint,” Miller said. “It’s imperative that we play a complete basketball game.”

And the game the Quakers play was far from complete.

The first half looked like the Red and Blue would execute a definite game-plan.

Ill-advised three-point attempts were traded for inside passes to Mike Howlett in the first twenty minutes, who dropped four of his seven shots before halftime.

Harris was held to just six points on 3-of-8 shooting as the Quakers swarmed to the ball and prevented any dominant inside play.

It looked like Miller’s system — offensive and defensive — was clicking.

And poof! The system went out the window during the second half.

After a 7-0 run made the score 54-42 Albany with 15:01 left, the Quakers appeared to change the philosophy that had kept them close in the first half.

Easy inside looks turned into contested jumpers, and swishes turned into bricks.

Just like that, the game was over; the Quakers would never get closer than 14 points.

The more the deficit grew, the more the Quakers looked like a frantic team without direction.

And the more misdirected Penn became, the more helpless Miller seemed.

It appeared that abandoning what worked, instead of stopping Harris and Ambrose, was the Red and Blue’s biggest problem.

So, why try to fix what ain’t broke?

Although Miller maintained that defense was Penn’s biggest failure in the second twenty minutes, the Quakers held the Great Danes to the same point total in both halves.

The major difference was the Quakers offensive production in the second frame.

Whatever defensive adjustments Miller made didn’t seem to have much effect, other than crippling the offense, which limped to just 28 points after halftime.

The Quakers were reacting to what the Great Danes were doing, instead of imposing their own will on the opponent.

Obviously, coaches need to make adjustments in order to deal with unexpected problems.

But at what expense?

“We got down a little bit,” Howlett said, “And we just started rushing threes.”

According to Howlett, a misused offense played a big part in the loss as well.

So Miller’s claim that defense decided the game is more than a bit disingenuous.

It’s just an excuse.

“There comes a time in the season,” junior forward Jack Eggleston said, “When excuses don’t matter anymore.”

ELI COHEN is a sophomore philosophy major from Washington, D.C. He can be contacted at dpsports@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.