COLUMN: Quakers haven't learned a thing

With the Penn men's basketball team being so young this season, there were bound to be growing pains. Instead, the Quakers have seen a lot of pain, but very little growth. And with only five games left in the season, that lack of growth could very well translate into another lackluster season in 1997-98. The Red and Blue are indeed the same team that racked up a cheesesteak-worthy 100 points against Lehigh, the same team that beat Florida in the Bank One Fiesta Bowl Classic, the same team that looked unstoppable against Towson State and in the exhibition games. They are exactly the same team. While Penn remains as stagnant as the Bio-Med Pond, other teams are going through the normal season-long improvement processes. Penn's weaknesses have been apparent from the beginning of the season. The Red and Blue have had very little frontcourt offense, consistently getting out-rebounded, panicking with under 10 seconds on the shot clock, having a tough time avoiding traps and presses and looking indecisive when trying to get out of or avoid pressure situations. In addition, the Quakers looked unsure of themselves on offense, committing plenty of turnovers on miscommunications. On both Friday and Saturday, the same problems were still there -- and very prominent. Although Penn forward Paul Romanczuk has stepped his game up a notch and Geoff Owens had a stellar game against Brown, the frontcourt has been nothing short of inconsistent. Romanczuk has found the confidence to handle the rock and take it strong to the hole (and look very impressive doing it), but the sophomore seems to pick his moments instead of keeping the same amount of intensity over the course of a game. Owens received a well-deserved standing ovation on Friday night, scoring six points, grabbing 11 rebounds and swatting six balls. That was the first time all year he has played with confidence. That will also probably be the last, as the referees made very limited use of their whistles that night. Despite the ref's hesitancy to call fouls, Owens still racked up four of them. And, for the record, he fouled out against Yale in only 23 minutes of play. Owens's limited minutes give the Quakers no true 'big man' and directly leads to Penn's -5.43 rebounding margin in the Ivy League. That's second-worst in the Ancient Eight, only better than Princeton, who, ironically, out-rebounded the Quakers on Tuesday. The fact that the Quakers generally tend to tense up in pressure situations means that they have gone nowhere in terms of chemistry on offense. Asked where he thought his team had improved thus far in the season, Penn coach Fran Dunphy hesitated to answer, and then said, "I see certain things that we do better." He paused some more and said he was pleased with how the Quakers ran their offense against Princeton. If Dunphy's hesitation and inability to come up with a season-long improvement can be interpreted as anything, it's that there is nothing. Individually, just about everyone has improved. Shooting guard Garett Kreitz has found that he can shoot inside the three-point arc. Point guard Michael Jordan's point production is nothing short of amazing for a freshman. Romanczuk, at times, looks very impressive when he finds his power and ball-handling. The truth is, that with the exception of captain Jamie Lyren and forward George Mboya, every player who sees significant minutes has gotten better. But chemistry-wise, there has been no change in the Red and Blue. Despite improved numbers, offensive production is down from the beginning of the season, and the defense still has yet to show that they're quick enough and intelligent enough to avoid being faked out and to contain their opponents. At this rate, the only hope for next year is that chemistry and confidence builds over the summer or simply with maturity. If Penn were to play Lehigh again, it is a sure bet that the Engineers would be much more competitive this time around, simply because Lehigh has learned more about themselves and improved while Penn has not. Grow up, already.