Just because Ibrahim Jaaber doesn't flirt with double-digit steals in a weekend, it doesn't mean that he's not making the opposing offense skittish.
The Ivy League's all-time leader in thefts has made a name for himself by taking the rock away from his counterparts - particularly those within the conference. But any coach that has played against him will admit that the senior guard helps Penn take the ball away, even when he's not the one doing the taking.
"They get in you. Jaaber starts it, and the other guys feed off it, and it's very contagious," said Cornell coach Steve Donahue after the Big Red turned the ball over 20 times in a 83-71 loss on Saturday. "If he's not there, none of those other guys - and this is no offense to them - can defend the way they defend."
While Jaaber's steal tally this weekend was not on par with his season average of 3.1 - he had three steals against Columbia and two against Cornell - he was part of a collective defensive effort that caused 35 total turnovers over the weekend, almost four per game more than Penn's league-leading season average.
Cornell point guard Louis Dale looked particularly lost, as he gave the ball up six times in just 24 minutes.
And if taking a quick look over the stat sheet can tell anything, it's that Donahue may be on to something. His assertion is reflected in the performance of Penn's other star senior.
Forward Mark Zoller did a spot-on impression of his co-captain this weekend by tying his career high in steals with five on Friday. It didn't last long: The captain set a new high 24 hours later by pestering the entry pass into the post and notching six steals against the Big Red.
"I think we just played good pressure defense," Zoller said after the Cornell game. "Denying the passing lane, I think, caused a little bit of havoc for them."
And this havoc eventually turned into offensive production for the Quakers. The Red and Blue were able to turn these turnovers into 42 points over the course of the back-to-back, compared to just 33 for the Lions and Big Red combined.
This marked Penn's second consecutive weekend of winning the turnover battle by a healthy margin - the Quakers bested Dartmouth and Harvard by a total of 37-30 a week ago. While that is due in part to the relative ineptitude of Ivy League offenses, head coach Glen Miller thinks there are other factors at play in Penn's recent uptick on defense.
"I just think the total effort has picked up," Miller said after the Columbia game. "And we certainly had some time where we focused on it.
"We probably spent more time at the beginning of the season getting into the structure on offense and not enough time on defense," he added, "but it's certainly picked up and it's paying off for us now."
