Four-year all-bench team

In this morning's paper, we gave you the best of the best. Our four-year All-Ivy, All-Big 5 and All-Penn-opponents teams. Now it's time for that list that didn't quite make the print edition starting lineup.

The four-year Penn all-bench team.

Before we get started with the best of the bench, let me first tell you how important this role is to me. Simply because this was me. In high school, I was the guy who scored five points all season, the guy who would only see the floor if we were up 20 or down 20. So on a personal level, here's to the guy who's the first one at practice, the guy who lightens the mood and the guy who busts his butt for that few minutes a game when he does see the spotlight.

Here are the four categories by which we scored the nine nominees from the last four years on a scale of 1-5.

1. "Captain of the bench" -- A term coined by my high school volleyball team (the one sport where I wasn't a scrub), captain of the bench refers to the guy who seems to really want to be there. He embraces his role and doesn't let 40 minutes of pine get to him. Automatic 0 if you quit the team.

2. Fan support -- Is he the guy who everybody in the crowd cheers for when the Quakers are wiping the floor with Dartmouth? Or is he the guy that makes the fans hold their breath every time he comes in? Or is he the guy who sends everyone in the crowd leafing through their program?

3. Memorable scrub moments

4. Bonus points at our discretion

Thanks to Matt Meltzer and Josh Hirsch for their input on this list.

Your candidates in alphabetical order.

1. Aron Cohen
Captain of the bench: 1
Fan support: 1, Doesn't seem to receive that much love from the Red & Blue Crew.
Scrub moment: 5, He lived every bencher's dream when he took the shot to take the lead in the final seconds against UTEP, but he missed on the 23-footer.
Bonus points: 4, Big bonus points for never having attempted a two-point field goal in his career.
Total score: 10

2. Adam Franklin
Captain of the bench: 3, Always seems to be having a good time down there.
Fan support: 5, Has gotten the most chants during garbage time since Solomito.
Scrub moments: 1, His seven-point outburst in two minutes up in Syracuse gets him a well-earned point.
Bonus points: 5, A handful for being able to touch the ceiling of the Palestra on the broad jump.
Total score: 14

3. Joe Gill
Captain of the bench: 5, The undisputed captain of the bench. We wish we could have given him more for his role of patting down and directing Brian Grandieri in every pregame handshake. And for being the team's social director. Embraces every bit of what being a bencher is all about.
Fan support: 5, The people's champion.
Scrub moments: 1, for never having made a field goal in his career. But the team-first guy does have some assists.
Bonus points: 2, for his excessive lank.
Total score: 13

4. Eric Heil
Captain of the bench: 2, got a bit of a late start with the transfer
Fan support: 2
Scrub moments: 1, Not too many memorable ones.
Bonus points: 5, Another full handful awarded. This one for being engaged while playing on the team.
Total score: 10

5. Greg Kuchinski
Captain of the bench: 4, Was only on the team one year, but was certainly one of the guys right away.
Fan support: 1, Didn't have much time to develop a relationship with section 115. He was the "who's that" guy.
Scrub moment: 4, Barely played all year until he was put in the Princeton game in overtime. Welcome to Penn basketball.
Bonus points: 1, for checking my ID at Blarney's.
Total score: 10

6. Pat Lang
Captain of the bench: 0, Automatic for defecting.
Fan support: 5, Automatic for hitting the cheesesteak shot against Harvard back in 2004.
Scrub moment: 5, Ditto. The moment that can turn any bencher into a hero.
Bonus points: 2, One for being jacked. One for being attached at the hip to Conor Tolan.
Total score: 12

7. Cameron Lewis
Captain of the bench: 3, Always a hard worker. Always has a smile on his face.
Fan support: 3, Gets his fair share of cheers as the crowd hopes for that big garbage time block.
Scrub moments: 4, Every time he steps to the line, it's a great moment.
Bonus points: 1, For being able to send a shot into the upper deck.
Total score: 11

8. Nameir Majette
Captain of the bench: 4, Another guy with a smile on his face all the time.
Fan support: 3, Not the fan favorite, but always got a good cheer.
Scrub moment: 5, For perhaps the greatest moment by a scrub of all-time. Majette had the entire crowd cracking up when he went up for a dunk, bounced it 15 feet in the air off the front rim and watched it go back down for the deuce.
Bonus points: 3, For the height alone.
Total score: 15

9. Lorenz Manthey
Captain of the bench: 0, Automatic for quitting the team.
Fan support: 0, Lorenz who?
Scrub moments: 0
Bonus points: 3, For being German.
Total score: 3

10. Conor Tolan
Captain of the bench: 0, Automatic.
Fan support: 5, Who wouldn't want to see a 7-foot-tall Irishman in the basketball game?
Scrub moments: 1, for never making a field goal in his career.
Bonus points: 5, for being able to do pull-ups at the gym starting from his knees.
Total score: 11

So here are your top five totals, making up the four-year all-bench team:
Majette: 15
Franklin: 14
Gill: 13
Lang: 12
Tolan: 11
Lewis: 11

To break the tie in a very scientific manner, we declared Tolan the fifth. Frankly, we'd be scared not to.