Guard ignoring the Copp-killers

Charlie Copp might just be one of the least-liked people on Penn's campus. Standing barely six feet tall, and speaking with a quiet, unassuming nature, one would never guess that this very ordinary- looking 19-year-old could generate so much controversy among the student body in such little time. But Copp is no ordinary Penn freshman. Last year, he was a basketball star at Tulpehocken (Pa.) High School who averaged 26 points per game to earn second-team All-Pennsylvania honors. Now, he's a valuable college-level reserve who has a better assist-to-turnover ratio than four of the Quakers' starters. Copp, however, is probably more notorious for his mistakes than his successes. He is the player that most Red and Blue fans blame for a pair of last-second losses to La Salle and Seton Hall that occurred during Penn's eight-game losing streak -- the worst season-opening skid in team history. When the Quakers squandered the 59-51 lead they had held with just a minute remaining in their home-opener against La Salle on December 7, fingers immediately pointed at the freshman guard. While his two missed free throws and his unforced turnover were just a part of a cavalcade of Penn errors in an unfathomable final minute of play, Copp's mistakes stood out from the rest to the Penn faithful. Needless to say, in the first home game of his collegiate career, Copp did not make a favorable impression. "I was coming out of a high school where I was used to having the ball, so I don't know if my instincts took over, but I just kind of took it," Copp said. "I'm not afraid to try to make something happen at the end. I'm not the type of person to just watch other people do it. "I mean, I made a mistake, and at this point in my career, I should have let someone else handle the pressure. But I'm just kind of that way. I want to make something happen, even though this time it was the wrong thing." Unfortunately for the Quakers, the wrong thing happened again for Copp just a week later. On December 13, Penn was on the verge of upsetting then-No. 9 Seton Hall at the Meadowlands in front of a nationally televised audience, tied at 78 with 21.7 seconds left and the ball in Quakers' possession. Copp walked onto the floor as the third option in Penn's three-guard set, but the ball somehow found its way into his hands to begin the Red and Blue's final play. And again, Copp drove the lane in the closing seconds, again he turned it over, and again he was deemed solely responsible for a completely avoidable loss by the Quakers afterthe Pirates' Samuel Dalembert threw down the game-deciding alley-oop on the ensuing transition play. This harrowing sequence of events, in the early-season and in less than a seven-day span, could have scarred many a player -- especially a freshman on a squad struggling to find its first victory. But not Copp, who has had support to fall back upon. "Obviously he was feeling bad that we had lost those games, but I just let him know that he didn't lose any game, it's a whole team effort," Penn sophomore forward Koko Archibong said. "When the team loses, it's the whole team and not just one person who loses the game. "He understands that -- he's just a big-time player who wanted to make the play, and who wanted us to win." Copp's freshman mistakes and his somewhat overly-aggressive nature could very well have driven him into the coach's doghouse. But Penn coach Fran Dunphy has not lost confidence in his freshman point guard. "He was in a very difficult situation, and he's got to make the best possible decision he can make," Dunphy said. "He tried to win the game all on his own. He didn't trust in his teammates then, and I think now he's a little different basketball player. "It was early in his freshman year, and he's allowed to make mistakes. But now those mistakes should be over and done with and he should be ready to go." The diminutive freshman may only be firing at a 22-percent clip from the field, but Dunphy continues to look down his bench and call his number time and time again. For Copp, the vocal support of Dunphy, as well as the coach's unflagging insertion of him into the lineup, says a lot. "Coach Dunphy said some things to me after those games -- he just said that you have to be smarter, and he's right," Copp said. "You have to learn to know what you can do, and what you can't do -- that's basically what he said to me. "And I kept the confidence, because he kept playing me. And now I'm moving on, and trying not to make the same mistake." From Dunphy's vantage point at least, Copp is nowhere near a liability to the team, and instead is a valuable asset to a youthful Penn squad. "He's our third guard, and he's got to be out there making good decisions with the ball, being as solid as he can be," said Dunphy, who has seen his share of successful guards in 11 seasons at the helm of the Quakers. "Charlie is a tough kid who is getting better and is improving every day." * It's late this past Tuesday night, and Copp is doing something he's not used to doing -- sitting. Technically he's at work, manning the desk at a lower entrance to Weightman Hall, but actually he's catching up on reading for an anthropology class. Now this in itself wouldn't be interesting, except for the fact that he's sitting. Through 16 games this winter, sitting is one thing Copp has not been doing a whole lot of. One of seven Quakers to see action in every game this season, he is often the first man off the bench, and is often still on the court in the closing seconds. Statistically speaking, the 2.4 points that the Tulpehocken, Pa., native puts up in 12 minutes per contest are not overwhelming. Statistics, though, can be misleading. In this case, they don't begin to show the full impact that Copp has had in his brief tenure with the Quakers. He can probably hear the whispers from his doubters and critics when he's warming up before tipoff. And he can probably hear them every time he takes off his warmup jersey and approaches the scorer's table. But he's not letting the nay-sayers get to him. Copp has 1.2 assists for every turnover that he's committed. He knocked down 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute of a tight 82-74 win at Lafayette last month. He keeps getting a hand in the face of his man on defense, and he keeps putting his shoulder down as he drives the ball up the court. Copp appears to have circled the wagons and tightened up his play. "He's always been really relaxed," Archibong said. "It's like he's been here before and he's done this before. Nothing really bothers him, he's just a solid person." The sophomore forward should know -- in addition to being Copp's roommate, Archibong was also the recipient of two of the freshman's four assists in the win against the Leopards. Even with the odds stacked against him, Copp seems to be on his way up. And with sophomore swingman Duane King now sidelined with his second injury of this season, Copp's position as the Quakers' first baller off the bench has been further solidified. After an 0-8 start, Penn has won five of its last eight, and whether people realize it or not, Copp has played a role in each win. Now that the Red and Blue are entering the all-important Ivy stretch of the season, Copp seems ready to go. "Now we know we're expected to win every game, and then we also expect ourselves to win every game," Copp said. "I'm new to this so I don't really know the whole process, but I can tell from the way that everyone talks that we should expect to win." He was the man on his Tulpehocken High School team, and though he's taking on more of a supplemental role here at Penn, he's still in the thick of things -- on the court, at work, and anywhere else. And while you may occasionally find Copp sitting and reading at work as he was this past Tuesday, rest assured you won't find Copp sitting too much on the next two Tuesday nights. Instead, you'll find him standing, jumping, and running up and down the court, right in the middle of things -- playing his usual part as Penn contests two of the most important games of its year against Villanova and Princeton.

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