Seven games into the season, there is no doubt who Penn's most valuable player has been. That honor belongs to senior Mark Zoller, who yesterday was named the Big 5 and the Ivy League player of the week - and the Big 5 award was Zoller's second of the season.
You tend to win awards like that when you set career-highs for points in consecutive games, as Zoller did with his 29- and 33-point performances against Monmouth and Villanova, respectively.
On the season, Zoller has averaged a team-high 22.9 and 7.4 rebounds per game, and has picked up three double-doubles. What is most striking about Zoller's performance this year is his shooting.
Here's a list of his shooting percentages from the field, three-point range and the foul line for each of his four seasons at Penn.
Freshman: 56, 33, 79
Sophomore: 51, 30, 64
Junior: 48, 36, 63
Senior: 63, 45, 82
Easily career highs in each of the categories. Part of this is because Zoller has suffered through several injuries in his career, and while he tweaked his ankle in the preseason this year, he had a full, healthy summer to work on his game.
Zoller also transitioned to Glen Miller's system, which is somewhat different than what he was used to under former coach Fran Dunphy. Miller encourages forwards to shoot and move all over the floor, and Zoller has taken advantage.
Zoller, Miller and senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber all agreed that Zoller was playing with more confidence offensively, a result of his offseason work and early-season success.
Meanwhile, Zoller's ascension to the main scorer has coincided with a scoring dropoff by Jaaber, the reigning Ivy Player of the Year.
After averaging a team-high 18.2 points per game last season, he is now down to 13.7 points per game.
This is mostly due to his move to point guard this season, a position Jaaber has, by his own admission, "never played . on really any level at a serious rate."
"I've been a little bit frustrated," Jaaber said. "But it wasn't anything I didn't expect."
But perhaps more telling is Jaaber's comment about learning Miller's offensive system. Jaaber feels that practices are still devoted to teaching the system rather than getting him necessary game-situation experience.
"Right now we're still learning the offense and doing a lot of things that we should pretty much be done with right now," Jaaber said.
Despite the learning curve, Miller correctly pointed out that Jaaber is still producing from the point with a 5.86 assists per-game average, 29 percent better than teammate Brian Grandieri for the Ivy League lead.
But we in the media are not the only ones to notice Jaaber's diminishing point production: Jaaber said he received a text message from Drexel's Bashir Mason before the Quakers met the Dragons on Nov. 21, that said, "You haven't been scoring that much, so I don't have to guard you."
I also think that opponents are making sure that Jaaber does not beat them. Therefore he has had to pass more.
And I think the same thing will happen with Zoller if he continues his torrid play.
It is then that Jaaber may be counted on to score more.
But Jaaber said that he enjoys playing point guard despite his struggles, and has no problem continuing in that role. And he does not think that double-teams on Zoller will necessarily force him to be the scorer.
"The responsibility will be shifted to the entire team," Jaaber said.
But as a senior captain and arguably the team's most-talented player, Jaaber will have to take on more responsibility, either scoring or otherwise.
Josh Hirsch is a senior urban studies major from Roslyn, N.Y., and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.
