Ramanczuk addresses free-throw shooting woes head-on

Perhaps Paul Romanczuk should have gotten hit in the head a little earlier this season. Romanczuk, who scored 14.0 points per game last year, struggled offensively the first few games of theseason, averaging only 7.4 points before this weekend. But the Penn men's basketball team's starting power forward has been a major asset to the Quakers the last few games -- scoring on sharp cuts to the basket, drawing fouls and finding teammates with crisp passes. Coincidentally, most of Romanczuk's offensive firepower has come after taking a nasty spill in last Tuesday's game against Lafayette. With time running out in the first half against the Leopards, Romanczuk went up for a rebound and came down on his head. Shaken by the fall -- although not seriously injured -- Romanczuk re-entered the game with 15:33 remaining and went on to score seven second-half points to help Penn hold off a Lafayette comeback. Since then he is back to playing like the second team All-Ivy Leaguer he was last season. "Our trainer talks about how ever since I got hit in the head, I'm 12-for-13 [from the foul line], so maybe that's it," Romanczuk said. "I don't know if it's a coincidence or not." Regardless of the cause of his recent performance, it cannot be denied that Romanczuk's play in the low post was integral to the Quakers' success this weekend. Although Penn, as a team, played poorly against Yale on Friday night, Romanczuk scored 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds. His defense was also instrumental in stopping Yale's frontcourt players. Against Brown on Saturday, he was 4-for-6 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line, finishing with 14 points. But one of his biggest contributions this weekend was his ability to draw fouls on the opposing big men. Last season, Romanczuk set a Penn record with 233 free throw attempts, or eight per game. Entering the Lafayette game, he had hit 8-of-21 free throws in six games, an average of just 3.5 attempts per game. This weekend he was back to his old form, taking the ball to the hole and drawing fouls. "When the ball goes inside to me, I'd like to try to get [Brown center] Kamal Rountree out of the game -- I mean, he's their best player," Romanczuk said. "The night before, I'd like to get [Yale forward] David Tompkins out of the game, to foul him out of the game." Romanczuk was successful at getting both players to take a seat on the bench. Although Tompkins fouled out with just five seconds on the clock and Rountree finished with four fouls, both spent time on the bench in foul trouble. When he was not drawing fouls, however, Romanczuk was often looking to find other Quakers. With four minutes remaining in the first half against Brown, he hit Michael Jordan with a bullet pass from the top of the key. Jordan then scored on an easy layup under the basket. Also in the Brown game, Romanczuk found Geoff Owens several times for easy scores, and the two big men showed they can work together effectively on offense. This was not apparent in the Yale game. Against the Elis, Owens often got the ball in the low post and turned it over or missed an easy layup rather than taking the ball strongly to the basket. "I want to see him be aggressive," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said about Owens after Friday's game. "I want to see him be the best player he can be." Owens was a better player on Saturday, due in part to his ability to work with Romanczuk down low. "[Brown] doubled a little bit and every now and then, me and Geoff were able to find each other open underneath the basket," Romanczuk said. "I love working with this guy inside." While Romanczuk had three assists against the Bears, Owens finished with four, and both players seemed to be comfortable working with each other. Whether this comfort between the Penn post players will be a consistent aspect of the Quakers' performance remains to be seen. If it doesn't, however, maybe someone could hit them on the heads.

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