VILLANOVA, Pa.—The most complete player in the Philadelphia Big 5 does not play for Villanova.Penn’s 6-8 senior center A.J. Brodeur, a two-time All- Ivy selection who scored 16 points when the Quakers snapped the Wildcats’; 25 game City Series winning streak at the Palestra last December, threw another scare into the talented, but young 23d ranked Big East Cats here Wednesday night. Brodeur scored 18 points on 8 for 13 shooting, grabbing 14 rebounds, contributing six assists and blocking three shots in 38 minutes before Villanova (6-2) finally took control of a close game and pulled away in the final two minutes of an 80-69 victory at Finneran Pavilion on the Main Line.
Brodeur left quite an impression after recording his 34th consecutive double- double.
“It doesn’t matter who we play—Arizona, Alabama, Providence, Villanova—at the end of the night, I look at the box and he’s 20 and 12 and 6,’’ Penn coach Steve Donohue said. “He’s been the best player in the Ivy League. I may be a little bias, but I think he’s the most complete player in the country.’’
Brodeur is not your typical Ivy League player. When he played for Northfield-Mt. Hermon, a prep school in Massachusetts, he received multiple high major offers but chose Penn because he wanted to attend the Wharton School of business.
“I knew who he was,’’ Donohue said. “When I was coaching BC, I started recruiting him in eighth grade. When he was a senior, he played against Omari Spellman, Villanova’s big man on the 2018 national championship team who is now in the NBA, and Jay Wright called him after the game and told me, “Your guy just got 25 and 17 on my guy.’
“When we got him, I felt he was the type of guy we could ride for four years.’’
Brodeur is an old school player who has excellent footwork, a pivot, reverse pivot, pivot back game that keeps defenders off balance and allows him to score in the paint. He has become the beneficiary of the efficient half court sets that Donohue runs for his team. He is the catalyst for a team with three senior starters that Donohue says is the best he has coached in his five years at Penn.
“Brodeur had 42 assists on the season before this game,’’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “He’s as good as any point as any point guard you play against and he’s playing the 5. How many 5 guys can guard him? I don’t know what he had. It doesn’t matter. He’s a killer.’’
The Quakers (5-4) will need to be at their best if they want to beat Harvard in this academic league that has only gotten one NCAA tournament bid in the past.
But they seem willing to take on all comers. “it’s definitely challenging, and that’s what I love about these non-conference games is that when we play Villanova or Arizona, we’re going to see that type of athleticism that we don’t see in our league. If we can stay down and guard those guys, it’s going to set us up great for when we get to the league.’’
Donohue pushed the Cats to the limit, getting 18 points from his freshman point guard Jason Dingle and 16 from senior guard Devon Goodman. The Quakers, who have never won at the Pavilion, made a conscious decision to guard the three- point line, limiting Villanova to 10 attempts from beyond the arc and were able to take advantage of the fact Villanova’s starting point guard Collin Gillespie only played 22 minutes with foul trouble.
But they had no answers for Villanova’s 6-8 sophomore forward Saddiq Bey, who torched the Quakers inside for 27 points or 6-8 versatile freshman Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, who finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and was the primary defender on Brodeur down the stretch. “We just weren’t ready for their physicality,’’ Brodeur lamented.
It was a typical gritty Big 5 rivalry game with Goodman nailing a three to cut the Penn lead to 68-64 with Bey on the bench with four personals. But the Quakers only scored five points in the last four minutes.
“Three minutes to go, I thought the plan was working,’’ Donohue said. “We just kind of ran out of gas.’’
