Freshmen Tyler Perkins and Sam Brown help fuel Penn’s strong start heading into Kentucky game

Like most coaches, every time Penn’s Steve Donahue finishes a recruiting cycle, he thinks he’s constructed a great class. As he puts it, though, “It rarely works out, and sometimes it works over time.”

But Donahue knew he had something different with this year’s freshman class.

“I just sensed a level of maturity about them that they can make the transition to this level easy,” Donahue said.

As such, Donahue has relied on his rookies in a big way. Three players on the team are averaging double-digit points per game — and two are freshmen.

Guards Tyler Perkins and Sam Brown have scored 15.7 and 11.2 points per game, respectively, and have been huge contributors for a 6-4 Penn team heading into its toughest matchup of the season on Saturday (noon, ESPN2) against No. 16 Kentucky.

Coming into the season, Donahue and senior guard Clark Slajchert flagged Perkins as the standout of the freshman class. For Donahue, the preseason confirmed much of what he saw in Perkins as a high schooler in the D.C. area — a team-first player with a whole lot of ability.

“What I admired about him, he played on one of the top-flight AAU teams, and sometimes his role wasn’t the headline role on the team, but his attitude never changed,” Donahue said. “He was about the team winning. … He played every aspect of the game, defends, rebounds, and is just a really great competitor.”

When Donahue was recruiting Perkins, he told him to be ready early and be able to produce. Perkins has started in all 10 of Penn’s games, and he’s produced, as Penn’s second-leading scorer and rebounder (6.2 per game).

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“I knew coming in that the ball was in my hands, it was in my court, and I just had to either do something with it or [Donahue will move] on to the next guy,” Perkins said. “So [I] just try to capitalize every time I step on the court and make it known that I belong here.”

Perkins has starred in the big moments, an impressive quality for a freshman. Against Villanova, he scored a team-high 22 points and had six rebounds in Penn’s upset 76-72 victory on Nov. 13. Perkins scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and overtime last Saturday in a 93-92 loss to La Salle in the Big 5 Classic.

“I put in the work behind the scenes, so I just know when it’s time and the lights are bright, I just gotta hoop and gotta compete,” Perkins said. “I trust myself, and I trust the work that I put in, and it’s nothing but good that can happen out of those big games.”

Brown had it tough as a Lower Merion freshman. The Aces faced Harriton, where hundreds of kids in the opposing crowd were chanting to fire his father, former 76ers coach Brett Brown.

Because of those types of experiences, Brown has built a level of toughness that’s served him well in the early stretch of his college career.

“There’s a definite resilience that has grown since high school,” Brown said. “I’m thankful for every opportunity and event similar to that that’s happened to me, because at the end of the day, it allowed me to grow. Being able to feel comfortable with people watching, and not being too serious about yourself and taking things a little lighter, something like that has allowed me to grow a lot as well.”

One of those people who was often watching: Donahue, who went to almost every game of Brown’s junior season after recognizing not just his strong shooting ability but his understanding of the game, his athletic ability, and defensive prowess.

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“The way that Coach recruited me impacted me a lot and made the decision really easy,” Brown said. “To have the coach of the University of Pennsylvania make an effort like that, it speaks volumes, and it’s really hard to say no to something like that.”

Brown finished as Lower Merion’s all-time leading three-point shooter and came to Penn — like Perkins — slated to have a big role as a freshman. Though an ankle injury kept Brown on the sidelines during the first four games, he had the opportunity to learn about the physicality, intensity, and speed of the college level.

“In some ways, it gave me perspective on college basketball,” Brown said. “It was good for me to learn what it really was like, and, in hindsight, it did help me, just being able to have some perspective and have some experience without being thrown out there.”

Since his injury, Brown has worked his way into the starting lineup and has played at least 26 minutes in each of Penn’s games, excluding the most recent one against FDU-Florham, a tune-up for Saturday.

Next up for Penn is its toughest opponent on the schedule: Kentucky (6-2).

On Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, Penn will face a Wildcats lineup loaded with NBA prospects, including a trio of local talent in Imhotep’s Justin Edwards and Camden High’s DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw. Kareem Watkins, Wagner’s brother and also a Camden native, is a senior on the team.

DJ Wagner, who is averaging 13.1 points and 3.3 assists, injured his ankle Nov. 28 against Miami, and his status for Saturday is uncertain. Edwards is one of six players averaging double-digit points with 10.3. Seven-footer Bradshaw made his season debut on Saturday, scoring three points in 12 minutes against UNC-Wilmington after a foot injury kept him out of Kentucky’s first seven games.

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“The fact is, they’re very young,” Donahue said. “They’re super talented. What we hope to do is play our best game and you hope that you do enough things that bother those talented kids and that you play your game, and with four minutes to go, you’re in the game because you competed really well.”

Penn has one win over a ranked team this season with their victory over Villanova on Nov. 13.

“I feel like they’re pretty good,” Perkins said about his team’s chances against Kentucky. “It’ll be a fun game. They’re good. It’ll be exciting. The energy will be crazy.”

Added Brown: “We feel confident. I don’t think that there is a team that we can’t compete with. And at the end of the day, it’s another game. I don’t think we should think differently than anything we’ve experienced in the first place.”