More than just money from the charity stripe

Gary Buchanan may not be Villanova's only threat, but he is definitely a menacing one.

If the Penn men's basketball team has any hope of victory in their first Philadelphia Big 5 contest of the season, it must shut down the scoring powerhouse.

On paper, Buchanan is just about as good as it gets for Villanova, and the Quakers know it.

Since his freshman year, he has steadily improved from Villanova's sixth man to become a free-throw shooting record breaker, and now, is the Wildcats' leading scorer.

"Gary Buchanan's really playing well right now," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "He's gonna be a force to be reckoned with."

Unfortunately for the Red and Blue, there's no easy way to go about defending Buchanan. He can shoot jumpers, three-pointers, and he knows how to mix things up down low.

One thing is for sure, in a close game, Buchanan is not the man to foul -- free throws are his specialty.

Last year, Buchanan obliterated the NCAA Division I record for number of consecutive free throws by hitting 73 straight from behind the charity stripe. He shot a blistering 94 percent from the line.

But what makes Buchanan so threatening is his versatility. In the 2000-01 season, he was the Wildcats' second leading scorer behind Michael Bradley -- a first-round draft pick of the NBA's Toronto Raptors.

The statistics keep going. Buchanan started all 31 of Villanova's games last season, tallying 46 steals, 103 assists and 149 rebounds -- 31 of which came on the offensive end of the court.

And Buchanan certainly hasn't plateaued. If anything, he's only gotten stronger and is backed by solid teammates this season.

"They have a lot of good players," Penn junior Andrew Toole said. "Gary Buchanan shoots the ball incredibly well. They play real hard and they're active defenders."

This season, Buchanan is the focal point of the Wildcats' offense -- leading the team with an average of 21 points per game through Villanova's first four regular season games.

Originally from St. Louis, the 6-foot-3 guard signed with the Wildcats after one year at St. Thomas More prep school, where he averaged 18 points, six assists and six rebounds per game.

Villanova teammate guard Reggie Bryant also hails from St. Thomas More.

In Buchanan's four years at Valley Park High School in St. Louis, Buchanan scored 2,330 points and led his team to an overall 71-30 record as a four-year starter.

Penn's defense will be hard-pressed to shut Buchanan down, especially since the Wildcats are loaded with formidable players.

"I wish he was the only person on that team that we had to worry about, then maybe we could just concentrate all our efforts on him," Dunphy said. "But I think they have a good balance."

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