COLUMN: Quakers avenge loss to Florida

Luke DeCock, Commentary Jerome Allen, Matt Maloney and company carved out a healthy swath of the Penn record book on their way to the NBA, and last season's Tim Krug-Ira Bowman-Donald Moxley crew was a legitimate extension of that era. To speak of the team on the court this year as the beginning of an era does not do anyone any good. But what this motley crew did on a warm December night in Arizona was what its esteemed predecessors were never able to do. On Dec. 28, Penn beat Florida. On March 19, 1994, Florida beat Penn 70-54 as the Gators tore through the East Regional on their way to the Final Four. Jamie Lyren is the only player still on the roster from that game; he didn't play. The Gators have only three players on their roster that were there on that fateful night in Long Island: forward Jason Anderson and backups Greg Williams and Joel Reinhart, the latter being a 6-foot-6 forward who first-year Florida coach Billy Donovan consistently berates for lackadaisical play. Both teams are merely a shadow of the teams they were back in the good old days, but on Dec. 28, the Quakers outlasted the Gators in the second half for the 71-63 win. The key player for Penn? On the surface, it was Jed Ryan's 20 points. While Ryan was certainly the go-to guy for Penn -- in an interesting twist of fate, Florida had no answer for Ryan the same way the Quakers had no answer for Dametri Hill back in 1994 -- it was Lyren, the semi-veteran of the first clash between these two teams, who scored seven of Penn's first nine points, keeping the Red and Blue in the game. Lyren finished with nine assists to go with his 10 points. Ever the pragmatist, Penn coach Fran Dunphy said revenge for the tournament loss never entered his mind. "Not a factor," he said. "This is a completely different team." Truer words were never spoken, but having vanquished Florida, the next step for this young Penn squad in pursuit of its dearly departed elders was matching the feats. Allen, Maloney and Co. did when they beat St. John's and Michigan, topping ranked teams on their own floors. The highly-ranked host du jour was Arizona on Dec. 30, but all this game showed was how far the Quakers are from competing in the Pac-10. This is not overly relevant, as Penn should treat the imitation basketball teams that fill out the Ivy League like a stable of red-headed stepchildren, again. But then-USC coach George Raveling said Allen, Maloney and Co. would battle for the top in the Pac-10 after a Quakers defeat of USC in 1994. Not that losing 93-51 to Arizona at home is anything to be ashamed of -- the Wildcats have a potential Pac-10 Player of the Year in Michael Dickerson (21 points), a potential Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in Mike Bibby (12 points) and a bench that goes on and on. In fact, both Michael Jordan (11 points versus Arizona, 16 against Florida) and Paul Romanczuk (a team-high 13 against the Wildcats) made the all-tourney team, joining MVP Dickerson, Arizona's Bennett Davison and Jason Terry and Florida's Kenyan Weeks. Terry in particular damaged the Quakers, scoring 19 points and dishing out nine assists. Ten of those points came during a 26-3 second-half run that doomed Penn, which had come within eight points with 1:00 to play in the first half. Had the Quakers not missed a few easy baskets in the first, who knows what might have happened? "We had only six turnovers [in the first half] which I was extremely pleased with," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. In the end, it was Jordan who dazzled the crowd with his athleticism, creating a couple of nice shots in the second half after things were well out of hand. Whether the masses will someday speak of Jordan, Ryan and Co. is a fuzzier matter.