COLUMN: Grading the Penn players

Jordan Smith, Commentary Paul Romanczuk: A Romanczuk has gone from runt of the class of 1999 litter to its star. The West Chester, Pa., native has expanded his offensive game so that he can shoot jumpers, but his bread and butter is driving to the hoop for layups and drawing fouls. He picked up a lot of fouls on the other end, too, but those were often because he was asked to guard players taller than his own 6'7". Romanczuk was the main man in shutting down Harvard's Kyle Snowden in Cambridge, Mass., but when he fouled out with over six minutes to play, Snowden went nuts, scoring 12 points in the remainder of the game, including overtime. Michael Jordan: A What can you say about the Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Jordan is the center of attention when Penn goes on the road, constantly harassed because of his name and number (23). Nonetheless, the freshman from Philadelphia has established his own identity and, as in his career-high 24-point performance in the home loss to Dartmouth, carried the Penn offense. No freshman has ever had this much responsibility during Penn coach Fran Dunphy's eight-year tenure. His quick hands made him a defensive pest, seen when he recorded a steal in the backcourt from the Ivy League's best point guard, Dartmouth's Kenny Mitchell at the end of Penn's victory in Hanover, N.H. For the season, Jordan also rebounded well (3.9 rebounds per game) from the guard slot while scoring 12.1 points per game. Garett Kreitz: A- Kreitz has come a long way in a year, from being a one-dimensional jump shooter to a legitimate, all-around offensive threat as Penn's leading scorer (12.7 ppg). At Princeton, the junior managed 14 points without making a three-pointer, an impossibility a year ago. A better defender, Kreitz is still susceptible to the league's quicker guards -- a point brought home by Cornell's Michael Roberts who burned Kreitz for a game-cinching layup in Cornell's home victory. Geoff Owens: B+ Owens was on his way to a C in January, but he took his game up a notch after Penn was eliminated from Ivy contention. At times, the 6'11" center set the tone on defense, such as his two big first-half blocks in the home rout of Columbia. Owens finished with a Penn rookie record of 40 blocks. All too often, however, he found himself confined to the bench with foul trouble, which caused problems for the other forwards. Still, Owens is already a serviceable center in the league and with continued growth will be a good one. Jed Ryan: B Ryan is the dictionary definition of gunner, taking vastly more shots per 40 minutes than any other Quaker (13.5 shots per game). That said, he is much more valuable to the Quakers now than a year ago, when he was the dictionary definition of a non-factor, playing only two minutes in Penn's last four games. Like the other Penn forwards, the 6'7" Ryan handled difficult defensive assignments adequately. Matt Langel: B- Sort of the opposite case of Owens, Langel got his college career off to a flying start, scoring a career-high 18 points in the second game of the season. His play eroded as the season wore on, and the swingman is in much the same position Kreitz was in a year ago. Langel's game is peaks and valleys and no one can know if his jump shot will be working on a given night. Jamie Lyren: C- George Mboya: D-

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