Hutz | Wanted: a reliable leader

Ib-by Jaa-ber!

I can still hear it. The chant, followed by five quick claps, would echo off the Palestra walls after Ibrahim Jaaber delivered one of his devastating fast-break dunks, sending a buzz through the crowd.

And before that, "UUUU," for Ugonna Onyekwe.

And before that "Mic-hael Jor-dan!" No, not that Michael Jordan, but Penn's own basketball star who graduated in 2000.

They have been one of the many things missing this year, reflecting something else the Penn squad itself is missing.

That playmaker. That leader who would energize the team and the Palestra fans.

Last year, the Quakers' problem was that they needed someone else besides then-senior Brian Grandieri. This year the team can't even find one emerging force.

"I mean, it's a very good question. Who's going to step up?" senior captain Brennan Votel asked. "Who is going to step up? I mean I'm answering your question with a question. Who is going to step up? I don't know what to say."

The "we're going to win as a team" approach doesn't seem to be working. Penn has had four different players lead in scoring in its seven games, but that hasn't made for a winning formula as the team is just 1-6.

Yet in its 76-65 loss to Navy on Friday, Penn saw the exact ingredients it was missing.

"They have three guys that every single time they step on the floor are going to make plays for you," Penn coach Glen Miller said of Navy. "Two years ago we had two guys in particular that were going to make plays for you for 40 minutes - Mark [Zoller] and Ibby. So we have to find a couple of guys that can do that and other guys need to keep on improving."

Kaleo Kina paced the Midshipmen with 28 points. And it wasn't just a lucky night - the senior has averaged over 20 points per game this season. With the contributions of senior Adam Teague and junior Chris Harris, who added 10 and 18 points respectively, Navy, at 7-1, is off to its best start since 1983-84 when it went 8-0.

After sophomore guard Tyler Bernardini dropped 26 points against No. 1 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, many thought he would be the face of the Quakers this year. But he hasn't really taken his team on his shoulders in any other contests, as the Tar Heel game remains his best outing of the year. On Friday he was held to just six points on 2-of-12 shooting.

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Grandieri was far from the best player to come through the Penn program. He worked better as a compliment to Zoller and Jaaber, but after they graduated in 2007 and the team needed him, he carried it.

He led the Quakers in scoring and also challenged them off the court. On one occasion, he provoked the squad in a postgame press conference after an early loss to a struggling Howard squad ("Apparently we don't have a lot of guys that, when they get hit around, that gets them pissed off," he said after the Nov. 17, 2007 game).

"We're kind of searching for our niche, maybe something to lean on, and I don't have a lot of say about it," Votel said. "We don't have [an identity] right now, we're looking for how to be the team that we want to be."

The way to get there is to rally behind one player. And there are a few possibilities.

Kevin Egee or Votel could take a cue from what Grandieri did. Out of necessity he transcended his "role player" tab.

Or Bernardini and freshman Zack Rosen have the ability to carry the team in the capacity that Jaaber did and may just need time to get there.

I can imagine chants of "Bern-ar-di-ni" or "Za-ck Ro-sen" electrifying the Palestra. But they must earn them first.

Krista Hutz is a senior History major from Philadelphia and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Her e-mail address is hutzkm@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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