COLUMN: Can Jordan save the Quakers?

Five years ago, Jerome Allen came to town, bringing with him the street smarts and cross-over dribble that led to three straight NCAA appearances for the Quakers and landed him a high-paying job sitting on the bench of the Minnesota Timberwolves. A half-decade later, the man with the golden name of Michael Jordan -- who is considered by some to be the top guard coming out of the Philly area and is already being compared to Allen -- will attempt to bring the magic back to the Palestra as Penn faces an uphill battle to return to the top in the campus's most celebrated of sports. The Quakers lost five seniors after the 1994-95 season, including Allen and backcourt mate Matt Maloney, the 1995 Ivy League Player of the Year, and were still able to compete for the NCAA's automatic bid, losing out to the arch-rival Princeton Tigers in a overtime playoff game. However, this year's losses, although less heralded, may be more deadly. Penn loses the Ivy League's top player last year in its acrobatic point guard Ira Bowman. Coach Fran Dunphy's program also loses first-team all-Ivy center Tim Krug along with second-team guard Don Moxley. Someone will have to emerge for Penn to compete with the always-disciplined Tigers, who return nearly everybody, besides curmudgeonly coach Pete Carril. But the Quakers do not seem to have a go-to guy and that will inevitably be costly since Ivy League games have been going down-to-the-wire at an ever-increasing rate. The Quakers top returning scorer is sophomore shooting guard Garett Kreitz, but he averaged barely nine points a game. Kreitz showed nice touch from behind the three-point line, but unlike Bowman or Krug, cannot create his own shot. Last year's highly touted recruits -- Frankie Brown, who left his shot at Beverly Hills, and Jed Ryan, who took his shots off the court -- were erratic, to say the least. Rice transfer George Mboya looks promising as a Shawn Trice-type at power forward, but he is still a mystery. And for that matter, so is smooth-shooting George Zaninovich, who left Penn for personal reasons last year. It is yet to be known if he will be back. Freshman Paul Romanczuk did all anyone could ask last season when asked to fill in for the departed Nat Graham. But he, along with point guard Jamie Lyren -- fresh off foot surgery -- are still complimentary pieces to any championship puzzle. Of the three recruits, Jordan is the only one who will likely make an immediate impact. Matt Langel, a 6-foot-4 guard from South Jersey, who ironically is being compared to Allen's partner Maloney, is expected to need a year or two before he will become a scorer for Penn. And 6-foot-11, 180-pound center Geoff Owens is, in the truest sense, a project. Look for Dunphy to feed Owens 1500-calorie shakes until he vomits. David Benezra of Recruiting USA magazine says Jordan is among the top 100 to 150 recruits in the country and is "a steal for Penn." In high school, Jordan led Abington Friends to three straight league titles. He has already stated that his goal is to take the Quakers back to the NCAAs. On the comparison to Allen, Benezra said: "In some ways, Jordan may be more skilled than Jerome Allen, but probably not as athletic." One cautionary note: For all of Allen's talents, it wasn't until his sophomore year that he brought the Ivy championship home to the Palestra. But Jordan will probably not wilt under having to live up to the Allen comparisons. After all, it's easier than living up to his name.

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