COLUMN: Rezek should have won, too

The Quakers lost their first 22 games of the season before finally upsetting Dartmouth on February 24 -- three months minus one day since Penn opened its season. For a while, it appeared the Quakers might go oh-for-the-season before they won three of their final four games to finish at 3-23. Even still, Penn was the last Division I school to record a victory this season. The season's defining moment didn't even come on the hardwood. The incident that will stand out from the 1995-96 season was starting point guard Erica McCauley's decision to quit the team in December for reasons that are still not clear. Heading into the season, the Quakers were not expected to be among the nation's worst. In fact, Penn coach Julie Soriero predicted a middle-of-the-pack finish in the Ivy League. In November, a third-place conference finish did not seem so far-fetched. But with the disappointment of unfilled expectations, Soriero has come under fire. The talent was supposedly there -- at least to be a .500 squad. And the cloud of mystery around the McCauley incident had fans wondering what really happened. It is hard to find anything positive about the Quakers -- except for the play of center Natasha Rezek. Despite facing double- and triple-teaming, despite having no consistent perimeter players around her, despite the buzz of incessant questioning, Rezek has thrived. She led the Ancient Eight in both scoring (18.4 points per game) and rebounding. Her 11.6 boards per contest were seventh best in Division I basketball. Although it is hard to separate the team's failures from the player's successes, the Ivy League coaches should have rewarded Rezek with the conference's Player of the Year award. Instead, Harvard forward Allison Feaster was given the honor. It was a much less controversial choice to give Feaster the nod. After all, her Crimson squad ran away with the Ivy championship, and the "best player on the best team" voting philosophy is hard to dismiss. Feaster certainly had individual numbers to match up with Rezek. Her 17.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game aren't far behind Rezek's marks. And like Rezek, Feaster was a four-time Ivy Player of the Week selection. But there is a key difference. While Feaster had a deep and talented group of players around her, Rezek was often forced to work alone. Where Feaster had the league's ninth leading scorer, Elizabeth Proudfit, to take some of the offensive burden off, Rezek made do without a secondary scoring force. While Feaster was flanked by the conference's best outside shooting corps, Rezek's teammates hit an Ancient Eight worst 19.8 percent of their three-point attempts. While Feaster was the best of a great bunch, Rezek was merely a target. And despite having two, three, sometimes four bodies draped over her in the paint, Rezek averaged a double-double on the season, the only Ivy player to do so. Player of the Year awards are usually reserved for great players on great teams. But although a Harvard squad without Allison Feaster probably would not have won the Ivy crown, it would have still been very strong. A Penn squad without Natasha Rezek would have been 0-25.