M. Hoops looks for a new Jordan

When the Penn men's basketball team plays Lehigh tonight, they will again be without Michael Jordan. The Penn men's basketball team is going to have to find a way to win without its all-Ivy League point guard, Michael Jordan. For the second straight game, the Quakers' floor-leader will be sidelined with a sprained ankle as the Red and Blue (2-2) travel to Bethlehem, Pa., to face off against Lehigh tonight at 7:30. The red-hot 3-1 Engineers have already amassed more wins this fall than all of last year, when Lehigh was an unimpressive 1-26 in coach Sal Mentesana's rookie season. The Engineers are lead by point guard Brett Eppehimer, who through four games is averaging 27.5 points per game and has dropped in nearly 60 percent of his three-point bombs. "This is a huge game for us," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Because we are coming off a hard weekend and we know we are probably not going to have Mike." Dunphy later stated that he hoped he would have Jordan back in time for the Franklin National Bank Classic this weekend. "We didn't play particularly well against Evansville. We have got to decide who it is we are going to be. So all of these contests are huge and this next game is the biggest game," the ninth-year coach continued. In Jordan's absence, Dunphy will employ a committee of Quakers assigned to cover the diminutive Eppehimer (5'11''). Matt Langel will head up this group of guards, sharing time with Garett Kreitz and Lamar Plummer. Langel said Penn will have to play Eppehimer the same way it did last year, when the Engineers' guard was held to 4-14 shooting and 0-4 from downtown. "We faced Brett last year and he was a similar player in that he was coming in averaging a lot of points," Langel said. "But Michael, Jamie [Lyren] and Garett did a great job on him. We are just going to have to go out there and concentrate on him -- know he likes to put the ball in the basket -- and shut him down like last season." Dunphy believes the Quakers' defense will have to do more than just contain Eppehimer. It will be necessary for Dunphy's charges to "pay better attention to details" against Lehigh. One area in particular Dunphy would like Penn to improve is the play down low. Obviously, with the loss of 6'11'' center Geoff Owens to hyper-tension for the season, Dunphy expected his Quakers' would struggle early in the year with their interior defense. Junior George Mboya is one player who Dunphy would like to see "get more physical" when facing bigger opponents. "I think George is playing defense very well when he has to guard people on the perimeter," Dunphy said. "But he has to a better job on his interior defense once he gets up against players 6'7'' and taller." By asking Mboya to play better interior defense, Dunphy pointed out he will have to work on a combination of things, such as positioning, anticipation, strength and blocking off cuts to the basket. Another player Dunphy feels could use some fine tuning in these categories is guard Frank Brown. Despite leading Penn in rebounds with 4.8 boards per contest, Dunphy said Brown would be the first to admit on defense "he has got to do better than he is doing." Even though Brown has "struggled" defensively, Dunphy has been pleased with the Beverly Hills, Calif., native's touch from the outside. Now, the Penn coach feels Brown needs to focus on having a better shot selection. In general, Dunphy wants to see a more consistent effort out of each Quaker against Lehigh, especially without the benefit of Jordan's team leading 14.7 points and 13 assists. "Impatience on offense is one problem we need to curb," Dunphy said. "We can't count on outscoring a lot of people, so we have to be patient on offense, understand who we are, and I think we get away from that on occasion." Junior forward Paul Romanczuk, who hit the game-winning shot against Washington State for Penn's only win in Puerto Rico, said he would like to see the Quakers implement Dunphy's offensive game plan in the low-post area. Since early in preseason, Romanczuk has been drilled about Penn's inside-out offense, but through four games, the Quakers' scoring has primarily come from guards Jordan, Kreitz and Langel -- the teams three leading scorers. The last time Penn traveled to Stabler Arena, Kreitz was a freshman on the junior varsity squad, while the rest of the Quakers were still in high-school. On Nov. 28, 1994 it took a last second shot by ex-Penn guard Jerome Allen to preserve a Quakers 82-79 victory in overtime. Although Romanczuk was not around for that eventful contest he does remember traveling up to Lafayette last fall to take on an overachieving Leopards club similar to the present group of Engineers Penn will face tonight. The Quakers eventually lost that game 83-79 after blowing a late lead to the Leopards. The West Chester, Pa., native thinks this road trip will produce a different result. "I believe that we were the best team in every single game I played this season," Romanczuk said. "Every time I step on to the court, I go out with that mentality. And of course the loss of Owens hurts, but we have to move on from that. "We got everybody pretty much back together. Now Michael goes down, and that is tough. It's a loss. But we have to learn how to step it up without him. Lehigh should be a good test for us, and I think we are up for the challenge."

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