Quakers' offense was silky smooth

Penn posted 21 assists on its 27 made field goals against Harvard. Poetry in motion. That might be a stretch, but it sure comes close to describing the efficiency of the Penn men's basketball team on offense against Harvard Saturday night. "I thought it was very impressive," Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said of the Quakers' offense. "I think any time you have 27 field goals and 21 assists you are doing something right." No kidding. For the first time since early January, the Penn offense eclipsed the 20-assist barrier -- the Red and Blue's season high in assists came versus Rhode Island back on January 2 when the team dished out 22. Nearly every possession in the final half of Saturday's contest was a demonstration in how important making the extra pass is. Penn point guard Michael Jordan, who led the Quakers with seven assists, rebounded from his seven turnovers the previous night against Dartmouth to guide Penn with the maturity of a fourth year starter. Recognizing his game from the outside was not clicking, Jordan made one precision pass after another (only two turnovers) while shutting down the Crimsons' lethal outside shooter Tim Hill -- who made only six points for the game after netting 21 against the Quakers two weeks ago. "[Penn assistant] coach [Steve] Donahue said to just take him out of the offense and make the other guys beat us," Jordan said. "He also played real good defense getting through screens, so I just figured since he is going to face guard me, I should get the ball to the other guys. My teammates were helping a lot when I penetrated, so I was looking to dish." Jordan, who finished the game without dropping in a field goal, didn't seem to mind much as long as Penn "gets the 'W'." But with greater attention to detail -- finding the open man, making the extra pass and taking good shots -- the Quakers' 'O' looked in full effect against the Crimson. It helped that Penn shot 63.6 percent from the field in half two -- and 55.1 percent for the game -- but again this was primarily due to the fact that each Quaker was focused on carrying out Penn coach Fran Dunphy's offensive strategy of an inside-outside game. Six out of the nine Penn players finished with an assist, a stat that represented the accuracy of the Quakers' offense Saturday evening. "When we are moving the ball like we did tonight it produces open looks," Dunphy said. "Garett [Kreitz] was lighting it up there for a while and we got several good opportunities from down low." The player who benefited from the constant motion offense was the Quakers' Paul Romanczuk who finished the contest with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 10 rebounds. As the high scorer for the Red and Blue both nights this weekend, the junior low-post threat credits coach Dunphy for his recent success. The strong offensive output was nice to see out of a Penn team that played rather ho-hum against Dartmouth the previous evening. And like so many times this season (with the exception of Princeton), when Penn has needed a big win the Quakers have risen to the challenge. "I hate losing," Jordan said when asked about having two big wins following a disappointing game versus the Tigers last Tuesday. Apparently he is not the only Quaker who feels this way. From the moment Penn found itself down 28-17 with 8 minutes remaining on the clock, the Quakers regrouped and realized a fourth consecutive Ivy weekend sweep was on the line. "This group hates to lose as much as any team I have ever coached," Dunphy said, adding that, "The success of our offense has more to do with them stepping up than with any one thing I have said or done." Slowly but surely the rag-tag offense Penn threw together in New Haven over a month ago has been eradicated. Now on display is a finely tuned machine that looked silky smooth at the Palestra Saturday night.

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