M. Hoops Notebook: Former guard plans on making a comeback

The Quakers lost their all-time winningest coach in Fran Dunphy this week but could get a player from last year's team back. Sophomore Mike Kach quit the team in December 2004 but plans on making a comeback next season. "I won't deny the fact that I've been thinking about it," the guard said. Kach was the sixth man in his freshman year, averaging 3.7 points. After the first few months of the season, he lacked the desire to play and was criticized for it; as a result, he ended his career - for the time being. But Kach says that with the time off, his mindset has changed. "I didn't really realize how much I had until it was gone," Kach said. "The complaint [against] me was that there was something missing, and I think the answer to that question was that I just wasn't all there. I was playing on my athletic talent, and that was it; I didn't have the passion. "I think if I [were] to play again, - I'd bring a lot more passion and a lot more heart than I ever did." Kach has just begun to play seriously again.

Right hand man

If it were up to junior Mark Zoller, this year's search for a men's basketball coach would end up the same way it did 17 years ago - with a Penn assistant. Dave Duke, the Quakers' top assistant, would like to be a candidate for the vacancy, and, according to some players, he would be a great fit. "Coach Duke, I think, is a pretty qualified candidate," Zoller said."We would love to see him get the job. Who knows what's in the cards, but he should be one of the top guys up there as a candidate." Zoller also feels that a coach who knows the program and the players is a big factor. "All the guys are comfortable with coach Duke," he said. "He's somewhat recruited all of the players that are in the program today." Duke was the head coach of Lehigh from 1989 to 1996.

You gotta have Hartford

Last year, Fran McCaffery was the only Penn alum that was a Division I head basketball coach. Next season, there will be two. Dan Leibovitz, a 1996 Penn graduate, will be the new coach at Hartford, according to several published reports. But this move has many more ties to Penn. First, it means that Leibovitz, Chaney's former top assistant, will not be joining Dunphy as an assistant at Temple. Also, it has been widely reported that Leibovitz was not Hartford's top choice, and instead it wanted Brown coach Glen Miller. But he pulled out of the running when it became clear that the Penn job would be available.