Just one week after being hired as an assistant at Penn, men’s basketball coach Rudy Wise was already thinking about his new players getting to work.
“The foundation starts now,” he told The Daily Pennsylvanian last week, “with guys getting back into the gym and taking care of themselves during the summer.”
The first pieces of that foundation were laid this week at the Competitive Edge Sports complex in King of Prussia, Pa.
That’s where six members of the current Quakers team spent Sunday, Monday and Wednesday nights participating in the opening games of the Delaware County Pro-Am Men’s Basketball Summer League, which runs through July on those three days.
The Red and Blue are well represented in the DelCo league, with upperclassmen Jack Eggleston and Zack Rosen joining incoming freshmen Fran Dougherty, Dau Jok and Steve Rennard on team Trad Jazz and rising junior Tyler Bernardini playing on team UNUM.
“The chemistry is already there,” Jok said. “We just play hard, we play together and in a way, if you start playing like that, it’s contagious.”
The results are already there, too. Trad Jazz blew out its first two opponents, West Chester University’s MAWBY and HiFi House from St. Joseph’s, by 15 points and 29 points, respectively (though the league does not keep official statistics).
But summer leagues are mainly used to “work on your game,” as Jok put it.
“You improve from a skill standpoint in the offseason,” head coach Jerome Allen said. “Summer’s are big in terms of making that next step forward in whatever aspect of your game that needs improvement.”
Jok said that he is working on spacing, strength, defense and making sure his jump shot will be “deadly” by the fall. It’s been so far, so good for the six-foot-three guard — he’s scored 38 points in two games.
It certainly helps to be playing alongside a veteran All-Ivy point guard and forward in Rosen and Eggleston. The upperclassmen have already made an impression on Jok, who is living with Rosen this summer and “trying to follow him as much as I can and learn from him.”
“They’re leading us,” Jok said. “They’ve sacrificed a lot to be in the position they are.”
Bernardini in particular is looking to recover from last season’s bump in the road, when a foot injury cost him Penn’s final 26 games after he led the team in scoring as a sophomore.
Despite having over 50 collegiate games under his belt, the wingman is learning a lot this summer, as well, from UNUM teammates and ex-Quakers Brian Grandieri, Michael Jordan and Mark Zoller.
“They play basketball a different way, really intelligently, and … I think that’s the part of the game that I need to work on the most being away from it for a year,” said Bernardini, who declared himself healthy.
“They’re all old, though, so we’ve just got to play a lot slower,” he added with a laugh.
With freshmen Miles Cartwright and Casey James joining Trad Jazz soon, the heralded Class of 2014 will get a chance to develop the same chemistry that the vets already have.
“You learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and [how] to pick each other up if that’s what it takes to win,” Jok said.
The freshman class is showing early signs of development, with 22 points, 20 rebounds and 7 blocked shots from Dougherty and 6 steals from Rennard through two games. But Jok wasn’t ready to call himself and his classmates saviors just yet.
“It starts with the current players, to have that mentality of turning the program around,” he said. “All we’re trying to do is come in and try to fit into the puzzle where it needs fixing so we can win. It’s that easy.”
The hard part comes during the countless hours in the gym before the Palestra lights turn on.
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