M. BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK: Lyren injures other foot, listed as day-to-day

Jamie Lyren had a solid game versus Dartmouth Friday night chipping in five points and a couple of assists. But as things looked up for Lyren, an injury to his right foot forced him to sit out Saturday night's overtime 76-67 loss to Harvard. According to Penn coach Fran Dunphy, his floor leader needs to rest his foot, and he will not make a decision on whether Lyren will play this weekend until Friday. Dunphy went on to say that the problem occurred last week in practice and after Monday's X-ray and Lyren's problem is muscular and not skeletal. Despite the negative diagnosis, Lyren has said his foot is still tender -- hurting as much yesterday as when he injured it, claiming he feels the same pain he felt when he broke his other foot in the fourth game of last season. Lyren has yet to practice this week and is listed as day-to-day. "Certainly his presence was missed Saturday night," Owens said. · As hard as it might be for some die-hard Quakers fans to believe, in less than one week the 1996-97 men's basketball season will be but a memory. In a season riddled with plenty of question marks, the Quakers, despite a sub-.500 record, have quieted many of their critics. To begin with, the play of Penn's three freshmen -- Michael Jordan, Geoff Owens and Matt Langel -- has been entertaining, if somewhat erratic. The campus has been dazzled for the entire winter by Jordan and his acrobatic moves on offense and his quick hands on defense. The point guard with the Ivy League's highest three-point shooting percentage (.450) in conference games still feels the biggest adjustment for him was the "competitiveness" of college hoops. Having recorded seven Ivy League Rookie of The Week honors, Jordan is also near the top in scoring, averaging 14.5 points-per-contest against conference foes. What has made the Philadelphia native such a tremendous asset is his ability to go to the hoop and grab rebounds. Overall Jordan is the third-leading rebounder (89) on the Quakers -- only two behind Jed Ryan who is a solid seven inches taller than he is. · From the smallest starter to the biggest, Geoff Owens had a monster weekend for Penn. The 6-foot-11 center proved versus Dartmouth and Harvard that he can be a force. In his 61 minutes, Owens snatched 17 rebounds, scored 20 points and, in what has become a custom for the rookie, blocked seven shots. "I was a little more aggressive coming out this weekend," Owens said. "Maybe in the past I was trying more to see where I fit in with the team. But now I see that I fit the team better when I am aggressive offensively." Owens has had his fair share of problems this season, none bigger than his tendency to get into foul trouble. But even with this nagging Owens for most of the year, the big man has still managed to record 34 blocked shots, leaving him only five stuffs short of Penn's all-time rookie record set by Hassan Duncombe in 1987-88. · The third part of the Red and Blue's puzzle for the future is Langel, who, after experiencing success with the his three-point shot early this season, has struggled both offensively and defensively. The freshman from Moorestown, N.J., has still stroked the second-most treys for Penn, but feels that he could improve his overall game. "I think my total game has to improve," Langel said. "I am not satisfied offensively with my production. So it is not necessarily my defense I have to work on, I think it is everything." · The stat line of the weekend belongs to Quakers forward George Mboya. The junior transfer from Rice failed to put up a shot in 36 minutes although he did haul down nine rebounds.