Transfer of Power

After transferring fromAfter transferring fromProvidence three years ago,After transferring fromProvidence three years ago,Penn's Ira BowmanAfter transferring fromProvidence three years ago,Penn's Ira Bowmanhas become a forceAfter transferring fromProvidence three years ago,Penn's Ira Bowmanhas become a forcein the Ivy League Then-Providence coach Rick Barnes was calling with a simple message -- he didn't want Friars sophomore Ira Bowman to transfer to Penn. "He was a good person -- I'll never forget him," said Barnes, now at Clemson. "I hated to see him go. He had a good basketball IQ and was a fierce competitor." After sitting out part of his sophomore year at Providence with an injury and having trouble breaking back into Providence lineup, Bowman and Barnes sat down together to talk about the future. For Barnes, that meant the possibility of taking a job in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And knowing that the Friars program might soon be in line for an overhaul, Bowman thought his future might be elsewhere as well. "I didn't want to be left going into my senior year with a new coach coming in and bringing in his own regime and players," Bowman said. With Bowman looking to start anew, his godfather beseeched him to look for a more academic-oriented program. "I think it really bore down to either Penn or Stanford," the 6-foot-5 senior said. "But my high school teammate goes [to Stanford], Brevin Knight. We did a lot of talking, and I didn't want to go into a situation where he had done well for himself and disturb it. "He deserved all the credits and accolades he got out there, and I didn't want to dampen that. So I felt like I needed to go somewhere else. But I would've loved to continue to play with him." And so the decision was made to don the red and blue. Before his Providence days, Bowman helped his Seton Hall Prep squad improve from an above-average program to a New Jersey powerhouse. The team finished with a 17-7 record in Bowman's freshman season. During his senior year, with Bowman serving as team captain, Seton Hall Prep won its first 31 games of the season, before falling to St. Anthony's in the state championships. After high school, Bowman was recruited by big-name schools like Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia and Wake Forest, before choosing Providence. "I think that I got caught up in growing up on the East Coast -- all I saw was Big East basketball, and I wanted to be a part of that," Bowman said. "I knew a couple of people who went there. I wanted to have the same success that Eric Murdock had." After transferring to Penn, Bowman had to sit out one year to comply with NCAA regulations. But instead of rusting away without any real-game action, Bowman accepted the advice of last year's starters and turned the whole year into a positive experience. "It was real productive," Bowman said. "I learned a lot about the system, a lot about Penn, the coaching staff. My teammates and I think it was a productive year as far as ethics, working with Jerome [Allen], Matt [Maloney], Shawn [Trice] and Scott Kegler. It was very helpful for me to understand what it was going to take to keep the success level here." The transition from Barnes's system to Dunphy's was not that difficult, Bowman explained. The only major difference was that Barnes was more of a "drill sergeant." In his first year back on the floor last season, Bowman came off the bench, usually replacing Kegler at the small forward position. With a backcourt of Allen and Maloney -- arguably one of the best in the nation -- Bowman played the role of defensive specialist, creating dazzling fast-break dunks and amazing no-look passes off steals and quickly became a crowd favorite at the Palestra. With the graduation of all five of last year's starters, Bowman moved into the starting lineup, playing at both the shooting guard spot and his usual small forward position. But when point guard Jamie Lyren injured his foot December 6 against Penn State, Bowman was asked to move over and run the offense from the point. It was not an all together new position for Bowman, who played a little point guard at Providence. But his role with the Quakers did drastically change. "He stepped into the breach as it were, and I think he has done a good job," Dunphy said. "There are times when he tries so hard that some mistakes are made -- but to be quite honest, I'll live with those mistakes." "I was really comfortable at the beginning of the year playing the swing position -- having the balls come to me rather than dishing them out," Bowman explained. "As the year progressed, I took pride in getting my teammates open -- trying to get them open shots. "Scoring doesn't really wire me up that much. I think that what's important is the team getting the opportunity to better themselves. If you have the opportunity to make other people around you better, you're that much of a better player." Bowman has struggled at times in his new role. He has 72 turnovers during the season and is shooting about 30 percent from behind the arc. He also leads the team in personal fouls with 70. The biggest disappointment for Bowman, however, was his missed free throw with three seconds left against Dartmouth on February 9. With Penn down one point, Bowman needed to make the front end of a one-and-one, but rimmed it out. The Quakers' 48-game Ivy League winning streak was snapped, and Bowman was so shaken that he didn't make it to the press conference. "It was real big. It hurt me because all summer long I stayed around here and worked out," Bowman said. "At the end of workouts, you practice your free throws when you're tired. "A lot of times I've imagined that situation, because you want to practice as if it were a game. More times than not, in practice, I've made those free throws. It was just a situation when I didn't. But if I was going to sit and wallow in despair, I'd be no good for the rest of the season." But with the Quakers now fighting to stay in the Ivy League race with Princeton, which leads Penn by one game, Bowman's 16.0 points per game, second best in the Ivies, and 5.0 boards, 10th best in the league, will sorely be needed. With college basketball magazines across the country predicting a fall of the Penn dynasty this year, Bowman -- a two-time Ivy Player of the Week -- has proven the critics wrong. "Obviously you can't be too happy with your performance unless you're undefeated," Bowman said. "But I'm not going to sit and complain. Hopefully, at the end of the season we'll sit back and be looking at hopefully a fourth consecutive Ivy League championship." While most Penn fans know Bowman for his fast-break explosiveness and defensive ferocity, many overlook his remarkable knowledge of the game. In a Red and Blue intra-team scrimmage at the end of practice yesterday, Bowman was on the sidelines acting as as the Blue coach, getting a different view of the game than from his usual point guard position. "I like him thinking the game from that point too," Dunphy explained, "because sometimes you can watch from the sidelines and get a better feel for what's going on. It's nice to see him out there and have that kind of enthusiasm and energy to try to get his team to win." It is no wonder Barnes didn't want to let Ira Bowman go.