U

he Penn basketball fans that were in Princeton's Jadwin Gym that night last winter were shocked, astounded, delirious. What did he just do? Christ, did you see that? Quakers forward Ugonna Onyekwe, a freshman, had just punctuated the Quakers' huge mid-February win in the first of their two annual showdowns with the Tigers by finishing a Penn breakaway with a 360-degree one-handed dunk. A 360 one-handed dunk. In the Ivy League. "They were in a press, and I guess they missed an assignment," Onyekwe said, recalling the play. "It was the end of a tough game, a big game, and I guess it was just instinct that kicked in." Instinct? Conventional wisdom says that Ancient Eighters don't play by instinct -- they play by the book. Conventional wisdom won't let Ivy teams exhibit actual athletic talent. No, the teams have to run safe, predictable offenses to compensate for a lack of natural talent. Pandemonium followed Onyekwe's slam, as Penn fans streamed onto the Jadwin floor, slapping him on the back and congratulating all of their Quakers, who were halfway through their second straight Ivy championship season. Maybe that play wasn't a punctuation mark at all, but an underline. Onyekwe's dunk didn't certify the Quakers as champs; they had seven games left to play. And it's not as though Onyekwe burst onto Ivy radar screens with that play. He'd been entrenched in the starting lineup and recognized as a formidable player ever since a solid off-the-bench performance in the Quakers' season-opening loss at Kentucky. And Penn fans had seen him dunk before. They'd seen him slam two home in their first-ever glimpse of the much-hyped freshman, who quickly established himself as the cream of coach Fran Dunphy's bumper crop. But the question from Red and Blue fans to their team always remains -- Can you beat Princeton? If so, can you embarrass them? That's what Onyekwe did with his effortless, floating, spinning, NBA-style dunk. He'd embarrassed the Tigers, on their home court. And for that, he earned the undying gratitude of thousands of Quakers fans, for whom "that dunk" became a sort of instant legend, with a video clip of it flying around the Internet to Penn alumni all over the country nearly as soon as the game ended. Discussion around Onyekwe almost always centers on the superlative. People have said all kinds of things: He's going to be the first player to leave the Ivy League early. Before he's through, he'll be the best player the league's ever seen. He's a major-conference player at a minor-conference school. All the talk is nice, but the hype is even more impressive when one considers that Onyekwe picked up this game relatively late in life. Not until he was 14 did Onyekwe play organized basketball. And that was in London -- where Onyekwe had moved with his parents from their native Nigeria. It was while playing on club teams in London that Onyekwe decided he might have a future in basketball, and it was there that he asked his coaches to help him pursue his options. So, Onyekwe took his senior and post-graduate years at Mercersburg Academy in central Pennsylvania, and worked toward honing his immense athletic talent into serious basketball skill. A pure stroke of luck brought Onyekwe to Dunphy and the Quakers, who had not recruited him. Onyekwe's coaches in England had been able to find a place for him to come to the States and learn basketball thanks in large part to connections they had with coaches at Long Beach State. Onyekwe signed a letter of intent to play with the 49ers before really finding out much about the school's academic rigor or reputation. When he did do some checking, Onyekwe wanted out. To avoid sitting out a year, he had to sign with a non-scholarship school, and he eventually chose Penn. Onyekwe arrived in West Philly as a member of a stellar six-man recruiting class with David Klatsky, Koko Archibong, Duane King, Harold Bailey and Andrew Coates, but at the end of the season, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year stood head and shoulders above his classmates. Onyekwe averaged 11.7 points and six rebounds a game last season, and started 28 of the 29 games the Quakers played. The only game in which he wasn't on the floor for the tipoff was Penn's first-round Preseason NIT game at Kentucky. But Onyekwe played, scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds in his first 19 minutes of collegiate basketball, at Rupp Arena, on national television. Onyekwe has brought a new brand of basketball to Penn and the Ivies, because he plays above the rim. He can just as easily dunk as lay the ball up, and he had the fifth-best season for blocking shots in Quakers history, with 47 swats. It's not hard, then, to figure out why Onyekwe became a fan favorite so quickly. But it is hard to tell how much -- or even if -- the adulation affects him. On the court and off, Onyekwe is about as mild-mannered as they come. Even when he's throwing down dunks or sending opponents' shots screaming into the stands, Onyekwe remains expressionless, business-like. All this while fans scream "UUUUUUUUU..." when Onyekwe makes a shot, gets a rebound or does anything right. They even wave signs with "clever" plays on his unusual first name (example: "Ugonna lose"). How does this affect his game? It doesn't. "Whatever the fans want to do to have a good time," Onyekwe said. "It's cool to have fans supporting you like that, I really appreciate it." Onyekwe -- a devout Christian -- speaks softly, rarely breaking from a monotone soaked in quiet humility and reserve. He's quiet on the court, too, usually reluctant to speak unless something needs to be said. "He doesn't say a lot," said Onyekwe's frontcourt mate, senior center Geoff Owens. "So you know that when he does say something, it's important." What's important for Owens and Onyekwe -- the Quakers' two returning starters -- is to become the leaders on a team that will be playing with a relatively inexperienced backcourt after the loss of senior guards Michael Jordan and Matt Langel. "There's definitely more pressure on [the frontcourt] this year than last year," Onyekwe said. "I think I have a lot more responsibility to the team this year. "Matt and Mike were the focal point of the team last year, and for me, it was a matter of trying to fit in with everything. But I feel a lot more comfortable because I have a year's experience under my belt." Dunphy thinks Onyekwe could do with even more seasoning. "There's no question that he's a very talented athlete," Dunphy said. "But he's still learning the nuances of the game. I think that is something he can definitely improve on." While Dunphy is quick to point out that Onyekwe still has a lot of room for improvement, the coach also knows that his star forward will have a new problem to contend with. "The other issue that I think he's got to be aware of is that he is now a marked guy," Dunphy said. "He was a newcomer last year, he wasn't the main focus of our basketball team. Now, people are going to look at him and say, 'This guy's getting a lot of ink, he's getting a lot of attention.' "They're going to put some people on him and really challenge him greatly, and it's up to him to rise to that challenge, and that's a whole different way of playing the game and a whole different way of preparing to play. So that's what he's going to have to work on." Owens, for one, thinks that Onyekwe has developed new weapons that will allow him to deal with the added attention. "[Onyekwe] had such a great season last year," Owens said. "Since then, he's really expanded his outside game. Now, if the [defender]'s a little bit taller than him, [Onyekwe] can go by him and take it outside." But can he take the Quakers to a third straight Ivy championship? Can he, as all the preseason prognosticators would have him, be the best player in the Ivies as a sophomore? Is he the best player in the Ivies? "I can't answer that," the ever-humble Onyekwe said, smiling and shaking his head.

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