COLUMN: All over in Hanover: Big Green snaps Penn's

48-game league winning streak in 54-53 thriller HANOVER, N.H. -- After Garett Kreitz's desperation chuck from halfcourt, following Ira Bowman's missed free throw, fell well short of the hoop, the Quakers' undoing was completed. It has been a long time since the Quakers had this much turmoil surrounding the program. After Paul Chambers graduated following the 1991-92 campaign, the starting lineup would consist of Jerome Allen, Eric Moore, Barry Pierce, Shawn Trice and Matt Maloney, with the rare Andy Baratta fill-in -- a starting five which lasted through the 1993-94 season. After a monumental win over Nebraska and a second-round loss to Florida in the 1994 NCAA tournament, Pierce graduated, and Scott Kegler stepped comfortably in as the small forward last season. Through three undefeated Ancient Eight seasons, Penn lost nary a key player for more than a few games. Compared to the relative consistency of the past, this year's lineup looks like utter chaos. Since the preseason exhibition game against Russian Select in November, the Quakers have seen six different starting lineups comprised of 11 different players. Penn coach Fran Dunphy began the season experimenting. But by the time the Quakers opened Ivy League play against Princeton on January 6, it appeared Dunphy had settled on Garett Kreitz, Donald Moxley, Tim Krug, Ira Bowman and Nat Graham as the starting five. By then, not one but two players -- senior Bill Guthrie and sophomore Vigor Kapetanovic -- who had each started at least one game, hung up their uniforms for academic reasons. When added to starting point guard Jamie Lyren's season-ending injury in early December, the number of one-time starters lost for the season climbed to three. But then Graham's unexpected departure in the final week of January -- which he attributed to losing his love of basketball -- brought the Quakers bon voyage crew to four. And that number does not even include sophomore long-range threat George Zaninovich, who was originally slated to start at shooting guard before leaving the team in the preseason for personal reasons. Add to that the Jed Ryan-Sigma Chi sideshow -- a controversy that not only distracted the team, but left the Quakers another man short against La Salle -- and suddenly half the bench was lined with players who were in junior varsity uniforms only a month before. Now that the streak is broken and the much-anticipated loss is finally in the books, perhaps there is a positive that will come out of all of the turmoil. For six straight games, the starting five has been the same five faces, and will probably remain that way throughout the rest of the season. There are no more foreseeable shakeups likely to come. Furthermore, any team who loses all five starters to graduation and still sits atop the Ivy League deserves a lot of credit -- especially when coupled with preseason predictions of the crash of the Penn dynasty. With other teams in the Ivy League boosting their programs, basketball gurus predicted an all-out war this year for the Ivy title between four potential candidates. With this in mind, an undefeated season was probably an unfair expectation from the start. The schedule could not be more conducive to a loss, as both Princeton and Dartmouth -- Penn's top two challengers -- would host the Quakers before the streak would hit 50 games. Playing on the road and battling boisterous crowds is never easy to do, especially when the competition is more competitive than past Ivy League fare. Penn has not lost focus of its ultimate goal -- the NCAA tournament berth that goes free of charge to the Ivy champ. Although Quakers co-captain Tim Krug may have had a tremendous scowl on his face trying to downplay the streak in the press conference after the loss, he did make a point by saying the streak was a load placed on the team's back, thanks to media hype. With that load finally lifted and roles finally being established, the Quakers can stop worrying about when The Streak will end and start remembering how it began.

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