M. HOOPS NOTEBOOK: Allen will be back for Yale-Brown trip

The Penn men's basketball team has been shouldering great expectations all season. That will not change, but Jerome Allen's shoulder will be healthy to meet them. Penn coach Fran Dunphy expects Allen to be completely healed for this weekend's trip to Ivy rivals Brown and Yale. During the past three games, Allen's minutes and effectiveness have been diminished by a strained muscle in his right shoulder. He suffered the injury lifting weights last Wednesday. He started Friday night against Columbia, but only hit 1 of 8 field goal attempts. Saturday against Cornell and Monday against Buffalo, Scott Kegler started in his place. "There was a stretch in the second half where he went up and made a great block with his right hand, and certainly extended that shoulder pretty good," Dunphy said of Allen's effort in Buffalo. "And he didn't seem to have any after-effects. At that point I felt pretty comfortable he is close to 100 percent." · It might have been a break from the Ivy schedule, but a road trip to Buffalo in February wasn't Fran Dunphy's first scheduling choice. Dunphy was left in a bind when Holy Cross backed out of its scheduled game with Penn. So, Monday night's date with the Bulls was the college basketball version of hooking up after last call. "Holy Cross said that they had too many games and that we could not play," Dunphy said. "At that point, we probably called 20 or so schools over the course of about a week. None of those schools wanted to play us for whatever reason, either they didn't want to or they didn't have the opportunity to. I called [Holy Cross coach] George Blaney back and said, 'I need some help here.' A couple days later [Buffalo coach] Tim Cohane called and said they had an opening and they would play us. That is the only way it happened." When they finish battling Brown and Yale this weekend, the Quakers will have played five games in nine days. Penn plans to host Buffalo at the Palestra next year. · The Quakers can thank their defense for their 15-2 start, the school's best since 1971-72. Take Monday night against Buffalo as Exhibit A. The Bulls did not score in the second half until the 12:32 mark, and did not hit a field goal until 9:45 remained. Even more so, Penn has held its last four opponents under 60 points. The last Quaker squad to do that was the 1981-82 club which did so for six straight games, and 12 of 14. That squad won all 14 of those games. In those days, however, college basketball did not have a three-point shot. "I think our man-to-man defense has improved throughout," Dunphy said. "We threw in a little zone at Buffalo, which proved to be effective against what was not a great shooting team, so that helped. I am not sure whether it was our defense or their poor shooting." Quick point guards, however, have given the Quakers trouble. Columbia's C.J. Thompkins repeatedly slashed through the Penn defense for 18 points in his first career start. Then Buffalo's 5-11 Modie Cox tallied 19, although many of his hoops were in transition. Are Penn's troubles just an annoying paper cut that will quickly heal, or do the Quakers have a defensive weakness? "I think Matt [Maloney] is very good at keeping people out of the lane and stopping them from penetrating," Dunphy said. "I think the kid from Columbia did it more on Jerome and a couple of other guys rather than on Matt. Matt is as good as it gets, I think, in terms of stopping the penetration." · Last year Maloney was the Quakers' three-point ace. This year's marksman is Scott Kegler. Of Kegler's 31 baskets, 23 have been from behind the arc. The Quakers' leader in steals might also come as a surprise. Forward Shawn Trice's 34 thefts pace Penn, two better than Maloney. Trice also tops the Quakers' rebounding charts at 6.1 per game, and he leads Penn in field goal percentage, connecting on a blistering 62 percent of his shots.Surprisingly, both Trice and Tim Krug shoot better from the field than they do from the free throw line.