Zachary Levine: This duo shouldn't need a marquee win

In the final minute of two careers filled with so many graceful steps, it was time for Mark Zoller and Ibrahim Jaaber to take their final ones.

It was time for the keystones of the Class of 2007 to leave the hardwood and make the longest steps of their career.

Where those steps led is still up in the air.

Did Jaaber and Zoller step into a prime spot in the annals of Quakers basketball history, or did they step into oblivion?

The latter would be a shame, considering that these were the most talented players, not just in the Penn program, but in the entire league.

But history isn't always fair.

History doesn't always remember talent; it remembers the wins.

In a program history that is so often told as the story of duos like Jaaber and Zoller, everybody's had their moments to remember.

Bilsky and Wohl will always have their 1971 team, considered the best in Penn history, even better than the 1979 Final Four team. They'll always have that Elite Eight group whose only defeat was to a Villanova team with an ineligible player.

Maloney and Allen will always have Nebraska. Nobody will forget the guys who still have the Quakers' most recent NCAA Tournament win, something that was three times out of the reach of this group.

Onyekwe and Archibong will always have their Big 5 title, which also eluded the Class of 2007.

Jaaber and Zoller will always be two stars on a team that could never win the big game.

Both agreed after yesterday's Tournament loss, and rightfully so, that the signature victory for the program under their four-year watch was their comeback win against 1-3 Princeton in 2005.

But really, what else was there? There was the Temple game this year; another instance of a team they were supposed to beat that they managed to squeak by in exciting fashion.

Over the last four years, Penn has gone 3-13 against Tournament teams, with wins over two eventual 14 seeds (Princeton in 2003-04 and Bucknell the following year) and one 12 seed (Manhattan in 2003-04).

This is not to say that Jaaber and Zoller should be tossed aside when future generations remember Penn basketball history. By contrast - it is up to those who follow to remember these names.

It would be an utter shame if, just because there is no tournament win or major upset to remember from this group, Jaaber and Zoller were forgotten.

If nothing else, they are two of the greatest stories ever to hit the Palestra hardwood in recent years. The kid who was too lanky to play college ball became a star, setting the Ivy League record for career steals and becoming one of the best scorers in Penn history. And the forward who was barely recruited at all out of high school became one of the toughest players in any gym he ever entered.

For one man, at least, the duo will not be forgotten.

"They had outstanding careers," coach Glen Miller said. "They're winners. They're everything you want in kids that you coach."

So here's to hoping that history will be kind to Jaaber and Zoller, one of the best tandems at a program with a long history of great tandems, will never be forgotten.

Zachary Levine is a senior Mathematics major from Delmar, N.Y., and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is zlevine@sas.upenn.edu.

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