'NOW IT'S OVER' Penn falls to Gators

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- There's some guy who has a drawing of the basketball court. He writes players' numbers where their shots were taken. Saturday night at Nassau Coliseum, the shot-chart specialist may have asked for a raise. He had to record 65 shots by the Quakers and 44 for the Gators. He was probably denied the extra pay. He only had to circle the player's number if the shot went in. And for the Quakers, he didn't need to expend too much extra effort as only 20 of Penn's shots fell. The chartmaker may have thought there was a magnet keeping his pen outside the three-point arc. Thirty-seven shots lined up outside the arc while his hand only made it inside the arc 28 times. Coach Fran Dunphy can explain that seemingly magnetic phenomenon. "We made some decent decisions on slipping some of [Florida's high] screens and getting the ball in the middle of the floor sometimes," he said. "But that's not our game anyway. I wish we had a guy who was absolutely proficient all the time at scoring [inside]?but we're going to take our chances on every one of our post players down there?.We're not a great interior scoring team, so we're not going to go away from the things we do best." Perimeter shooting is what the Quakers do best. But not Saturday. "We played fairly well, we just didn't shoot the ball," Dunphy said. "We had a number of good looks. The ball just didn't go in the hoop. It was one of those nights for us that the same shots that fell on Thursday did not fall tonight." After the shot-chart specialist made the chart, he got to pull out his calculator and sort it all out. Penn's total field goal percentage: 30.9. Eight of 28 in the first half, 12 of 37 in the second. All those numbers behind the arc added up to 8 of 37 for 21.6 percent. Those 37 threes were the most ever attempted by a Penn team in one game. Then he assigned each of those numbers on the chart to a player. No. 12: junior guard Matt Maloney -- 4 of 21, 2 of 16 from three-point land, 0 for 1 from the line, total points 10. No. 53: junior guard Jerome Allen -- 7 of 15, 4 of 9 treys, total points 23. No. 34: senior forward Barry Pierce -- 0 for 2 in the first half, 4 for 12 on the game with 1 of 5 three-pointers, total points 10. Pretty dismal numbers. The chartmaker must have wondered what was up with that. Especially from a team that averages 45 percent from the field and 36 percent from three-point land. And that point guard Maloney. The one who owns every conceivable three-point record at Penn. The one who in the regular season was 61 of 178 in treys and shot 41 percent from the field. The one who during the entire season hit 61 of 68 free throws, good for the second-highest season free-throw percentage (89.7) in Penn history. The one who went 0 for 1 at the line after missing the front end of a one-and-one opportunity. The one who threw up some airballs but kept shooting. The one who had made only three of them all night but then swished a "three" with 16 seconds left in the game. What was Maloney thinking? "I made a couple of bad decisions in shot selection in the second half," Maloney said. "I wasn't shooting too well. I had confidence that the next shot was going in. A couple of shots if I could take them back in the second half, looking back I really would take them back and make a better decision." And did his coach ever think he should tell Maloney to give it a rest and concentrate on his excellent defense and playmaking abilities? No. Most definitely no. "He's a shooter and he's had tough nights before during the course of the season and we've reacted in the same way in those games," Dunphy said. "He just had one of those evenings." He's had two of those nights before. At Ohio State for 4 of 19 and 1 of 10 from downtown. At Temple 5 of 21 (3 of 18). Those nights resulted in the Quakers' only regular-season losses. The chartmaker probably doesn't know that Dunphy doesn't tell him not to shoot. He doesn't tell any of his players not to shoot. The philosophy is if they're open, they shoot the ball. If they're not open and they shoot -- then watch out. Sometimes that works. Against Nebraska it certainly did as junior center Eric Moore was open and hit a trey that shocked many. Sophomore guard Donald Moxley was open and hit a long field goal that shocked the world. Versus Florida, junior forward Shawn Trice took his only three-point attempt of the season and missed. And Allen almost caused the chartmaker to go off the page when he let one go from at least 30 feet out. Dunphy takes it all and it's the same philosophy for everyone. "A couple of months ago, Jerome took that shot and we won that game [against St. Joseph's]," Dunphy said. "He can shoot that shot all day in all honesty. It's not the best shot, but I live and die with that kid?.We got a little ragged at that point [down by four with under three minutes left] and we needed someone to step up and make a shot. Jerome said, 'Let me try, I want to do it.' It wasn't the best decision, but again I'll live and die with that kid and everybody else in the group."

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