M. Hoops deals with foul troubles

Life is not easy right now for the Penn men's basketball team. The Quakers were at the Palestra practicing until 9 p.m. yesterday, still trying to work out the kinks that have sent them to the first 0-4 start in coach Fran Dunphy's career. Penn is actually outshooting its opponents from the floor right now, making 42 percent to their foes' 40. But the difference has been from the free throw line. Penn has been outscored 326-297 in its four games, a margin of 29 points. That difference comes from free throws --ÿthe Quakers have made just 64 to their opponents' 119, a margin of 55. "The biggest thing is us allowing teams to shoot way too many foul shots," Dunphy said. "We're holding and grabbing too much. The rules have changed, and we haven't adapted." It's not just a matter of fouling opponents too much, it's been that the Quakers have not made enough free throws. Penn is shooting a meager 56 percent at the line, while opponents have made 76 percent of their free throws. "We try to push ourselves to work on our free throws every day," Penn forward Koko Archibong said. "I personally am very disappointed in my own free throw shooting because I am a good free throw shooter." For the season, Archibong is just 4-for-13 at the line, a 31 percent clip. Last year, he made 68 percent of his free throws. * One member of the Red and Blue who hasn't struggled at the free throw line is sophomore point guard David Klatsky, who has made six of his seven foul shots this year. Klatsky has been impressive running the offense. He is averaging 5.8 assists per game to go along with his 8.8 points per contest. And it's not as if Klatsky has had a favorite target with those assists -- four of the Quakers are averaging 10 or more points per game, and Penn has had at least four players in double figures in each of the last three games. "I think our offense is doing alright," Klatsky said. "Lamar [Plummer] is playing great. I love looking for shooters and he's been shooting well. Ugonna [Onyekwe] and Big [Geoff Owens] down low -- Big's starting to step it up the last few games. [We'd love to have] Ugonna have one of those breakout games we all know he's capable of having. I just try to make the right decisions out there." Klatsky has made more right decisions than wrong ones so far. He has 23 assists compared to 12 turnovers. He also leads the Red and Blue with nine steals so far. * Adam Chubb's decisions have been less good. The freshman forward leads the Quakers with 16 turnovers this year even though he has only played 61 minutes. The future looked bright for Chubb when he led the Red and Blue with 17 points against Fordham in Penn's second game. But Chubb has scored just one point in the two games since then, and has seen his playing time decrease significantly. "He didn't play well," Dunphy said. "Rocket science this is not. He turned it over a couple of times, took a few bad shots, was not in the right spot defensively, so we made a different adjustment." Chubb played just seven minutes against Penn State on Saturday. * The Quakers are eagerly awaiting the return of sophomore guard Duane King from ankle surgery. King is still not practicing with the team, but is active on the side. Yesterday, he shot around, skipped rope, and did sit-ups while the Quakers ran drills. "It hurts [to watch the 0-4 start] because I'm the type of person that hates to lose more than I like to win," King said. "I come from a winning high school, and this program's a winning program. In Dunph's years here, there's never been an 0-4 start. For me and the other players, we do feel like this is ridiculous and it shouldn't keep going this way. So hopefully we get a win this Thursday." King won't play this Thursday, though. He and Dunphy project a return date of December 29 when the Quakers host Temple.

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