Andrew DeLaney: Benching won't fix all problems

Following the Penn men's basketball team's (5-4) worst performance of the season -- an 80-57 drubbing at the hands of Colorado -- a bold move was needed by coach Fran Dunphy. And a bold move was made. Starting forwards Ugonna Onyekwe and Koko Archibong were benched against American on Jan. 8. While Archibong returned to the starting lineup for his homecoming game at Southern California, Onyekwe came off the bench again. The Quakers won both games, a dull 66-55 affair against American, followed by their best game of the season, a 99-61 trouncing of USC. Problem solved, right? Not quite. Two straight wins do not make up for a season of inconsistent play throughout the roster. First of all, 72-percent shooting, Penn's mark against USC, is an incredible and laudable performance, but it is not one that can be expected too frequently. A basketball lifer like USC coach Henry Bibby knows what he's talking about in this regard. "I don't think we are going to ever play against a team for the rest of my career that shoots it like that," Bibby said. "I won't say this year. I said the rest of my career." So what can we expect from the Quakers the rest of this year when they're not shooting at historic rates? Nearly two months after the start of the season and with the Ivy League schedule fast approaching, we still have no idea. Two problems are immediately apparent and need to be curtailed before the start of league play. Quick guards, like American's Glenn Stokes, who torched the Quakers' defense for 27 of American's 55 points, present Penn with matchup problems on the perimeter. Too frequently, senior guard David Klatsky is forced to come off the bench to take these difficult matchups for extended periods due to a lack of better options. While he has stepped up his offensive game this year, he is still not the consistent perimeter threat that the starters, Andrew Toole, Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley, are. This problem could be a fatal flaw against Yale, which has the guards in sophomores Edwin Draughan and Alex Gamboa to exploit the Quakers' achilles heel. The second problem is more worrisome but fortunately more curable -- Archibong and Onyekwe are committing bad fouls and getting into foul trouble early and often, forcing Dunphy to take them off the court for long stretches. No team, particularly one like the Quakers, who are reliant on the inside game opening up threes for the guards, can survive well while its two-headed post monster lingers on the bench. Even when left out of the starting lineup against American, Onyekwe picked up four fouls in 14 minutes of playing time. Surely this problem would be ameliorated if opponents' guards were denied access to the lane -- however, it would be surprising if Penn's guards gained the step necessary to do so. Therefore, the impetus lies with Archibong and Onyekwe, who each have had four years of significant playing time, to not foul all comers in the paint. Their presence on the court is significantly more important in any given game than the two points that going for a block on a slashing guard would provide. The story is hardly all gloom and doom. The Quakers have enough talent to beat any team remaining on their schedule. Despite Onyekwe's poor showing against Colorado -- and Providence immediately before that -- he still is the same versatile talent that was worthy of the NBA draft buzz he got before the season and until proven otherwise, he is the best player in the Ivy League. The supporting cast of Archibong, Toole -- both first team All-Ivy selections a year ago -- Schiffner, Begley and Klatsky are also good enough to win the Ivy League. That's the good news, but then again, that this team is talented enough to win the Ancient Eight crown was hardly in question. The question was if they would in spite of the presence of improved Yale and Princeton teams. Take note that Penn needed to win its final nine regular season games just to finish tied with these two a year ago. After nine games of inconsistent play, your guess is as good as mine as to whether the Quakers can do it again.

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