COLUMN: W. Hoops' offense must go

Marc Edelman, Commentary When the Quakers took the Palestra floor in their season opener against St. Francis (Pa.), there were three new faces in the starting line-up, six rookies on the bench and a new assistant-coaching staff. All-Big 5 center Natasha Rezek -- who took 100 more shots than any other Quaker -- graduated this past May. Replacing Penn's offensive leader was a strong nucleus of talent, led by captains Deana Lewis and Amy Tarr. Despite the changes in personnel, the Quakers finished at 2-14 -- sole possession of the Ivy League basement. Penn's season ended with an 11-game losing streak which includes Wednesday night's season-ending blowout loss to Princeton, 76-46. It seems the more things change for Penn, the more they stay the same. So maybe the problem really isn't the players, but their playbook. Next year's edition of the Quakers will be armed with the same core talent as this year's squad -- Chelsea Hathaway and Colleen Kelly in the backcourt and Shelly Fogarty and Michelle Maldonado up front. It will also feature Street and Smith's Honorable Mention All-Americans Diana Caramanico and Chandra Nelson. If Penn wants a shot at breaking their losing pattern Soriero needs to first assess exactly where things broke down this season. One of the biggest problems for the Quakers this past season was their sub-40 percent field goal percentage. On the surface, this problem seems like a function of poor shooting touch. The Quakers shooting woes, however, delve deeper than a matter of shooting touch. In practice, Penn nails jumpers with precision. But inmost games -- especially during the closing minutes -- nobody can put the ball through the hoop. The Quakers repeated scoring drought late in games is attributable to weak ball movement. Offensively, no one wanted to step up and take the ball to the basket. Too often in the closing minutes, Penn's guards would set up along the perimeter and pass the ball around until the shot clock hit single digits. One may consider this a tribute to the Quakers' patience. But when no one sets picks or drives to the hole, the offense is reduced to long three-point shots by Kelly and Fogerty. Often the duo are well-covered when they throw up the shot. It is shots like these that contribute heavily to Penn's low shooting percentage and continually leave the Quakers on the short end of close games. The only way to mitigate this problem is to change the offensive strategy. Penn's current offensive style is not uncommon in the Ivy League. Five of the Ancient Eight teams play the perimeter game. But these teams -- Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale -- each have one legitimate scorer and a weaker supporting cast. For them, this offense works since the halfcourt set allows them to set up isolation plays for their star player. This offense may have worked well for Penn as well during the Rezek era, but it no longer matches the team's strengths. The Red and Blue no longer have a single player that can step up and dominate a game offensively, but all five of this season's starters were able to catch the ball, dribble it and score with some consistency. A motion offense will exploit Chelsea Hathaway's ability to penetrate to the basket. It also allows Kelly and Fogerty to use their all-around skills, rather than just throwing up threes. And with Maldonado's strength, the forward can rise her game to the next level by setting picks and rolling to the basket. With these abilities, the Quakers would have been better off in a motion offense. Instead of the guards hanging out on the perimeter like they did this year, they could instead drive with the ball and make cuts to the basket. A motion offense would change things immensely for Penn. It would prevent stagnation on the offensive end and create open looks closer to the hoop. Motion would also minimize the importance of the three-point shot by which Kelly and the Quakers lived and died. If the Quakers adopt this offense, closer shot opportunities should translate into a better shooting percentage from the field. Obviously, in turn this would translate into more points per game. This past season, Penn has played in so many close contests. If the Quakers could add just five more points to each loss within the Ancient Eight, they would have finished with a more respectable six victories. There is precedent for a motion offense working in the Ivies. If Penn's coaches look at Princeton -- a team without a single player averaging 10 points per game -- and see how well a motion offense worked for them this season, they'd realize this offense is also the perfect fit for the Quakers. There's no point looking back on what could have, should have or would have been. Penn did finish 2-14. The coaching staff now has to put their minds together and figure out how to improve things for next season. Instituting the motion offense looks like the best place to start.