M. HOOPS NOTEBOOK: M. Hoops returns to Philly focused

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. While the Penn men's basketball team has grown accustom to playing on the road, this past Saturday's game had the Quakers clicking their high-tops together and hoping their journey to Boston was all just a bad dream. No, the Quakers did not have to deal with Lions, Tigers or Bears (oh my), rather it was the Crimson of Harvard that had the Red and Blue seeing spots. Trailing by three points in the late going, Penn was forced to rely on a late six-point run to overcome the feisty Crimson and keep their unblemished record intact. For Penn the trip was a success as far as the standings are concerned. However, many of the players returned home only marginally satisfied with their efforts. "It was a slap in the face. After the weekend, guys were a little frustrated," junior guard Scott Kegler said. "We came in [Monday] and had a great practice. I think we are going to play a lot better this weekend." Kegler cited the Harvard game as the reason the Quakers are so focused this week in practice, noting any minor "slip up" could cost the team a trip to the NCAA Tournament. While the team eventually won the Harvard game, the difficulty it experienced in doing so suggests the Quakers simply ran out of gas over their five-game road trip. The scores from those games corroborate this possibility. In the Buffalo game, Penn trounced the SUNY hoopsters by 25, shooting a solid 44 percent from the floor. In the Quakers next two games, at Brown and Yale, the victory margins fell to 20 and 10, respectively, as the team shot 43 percent against the Bears and 42 percent against the Elis. Last weekend, the trend continued. At Hanover, the Quakers shot an abysmal 38 percent as they still managed a 77-67 win. At Harvard, of course, the team eked out a one-point victory. Interestingly, the Quakers' shooting percentage rose to 43 percent, but that includes a 5-for-5 night from Shawn Trice, all inside the paint. Clearly, the Quakers are arriving back at the Palestra just in time. "You just get so tired," Kegler said. "For the last three weeks it seems like we've been in Philadelphia for a couple of days and then we're on a bus or a plane and in another city. It really starts to wear you down. It's just nice to settle back home and play in front of the home crowd." Of course, 21 games into a season and fatigue is something that becomes inevitable, particularly for a team whose three leading scorers average 33 minutes a game. As a result, coach Fran Dunphy has rearranged his team's practice schedule in order to keep his players fresh. "The coaches realize that at this point in the season you get tired a little quicker than usual," Kegler said. "So, instead of doing a lot of the drudgery in practice, we've cut practice down to an hour and a half a day. We still do drills but we work on a lot of game situations." · Sophomore forward Tim Krug, who has been a consistent scorer for the Quakers off the bench, seems to be comfortable with his role as Penn's stopper down the stretch. For the second time this season, Krug managed to put his 6-foot-9 frame between a would-be scorer and the basket. The first time Krug blocked a last-second shot he preserved a 79-77 Quaker victory over St. Joseph's. On Saturday, Penn's leading shot-blocker managed to get a paw on Tarik Campbell's desperation layup at the buzzer to seal the latest victory. · With just five games remaining in the 1993-94 season, the Quakers are in position to duplicate their success of a year ago. Interestingly, while their league record has remained the same, their per game statistics show a sharp contrast between the two teams. Last year's Quakers were shooting a blistering 49 percent from the field through their first nine Ivy contests, including 48 percent from beyond the three point arc. This year's team has seen a decrease in shooting percentage of nearly five percent, while its long-range accuracy has fallen off to 34 percent. Points per game for the Quakers are also down, although the difference is slight -- from 76.8 to 73.8. Equally surprising, with the re-emergence of the frontcourt is the fact rebounds are down by three per game since last season. The only stat the Quakers have improved on is free-throw percentage, which has risen from 67 to 69 percent. Ironically, in the wake of all the talk about players taking on new roles for the Quakers, the scoring distribution has remained relatively constant over the two seasons. Leading the team once again is Matt Maloney (15.3 ppg in '94, 15.1 in '93), followed by Jerome Allen (14.9, 12.2). Barry Pierce has remained the picture of consistency contributing 13 ppg during both seasons. Only Trice significantly increased his output from 5.4 ppg in '93 to 8.3 in '94. This, however, was at the expense of fellow forwards Eric Moore and Krug, who have dropped a combined three points off their cumulative output.