Penn halts three-game skid with win over Manhattan

JEROME ALLEN may speak quietly. He may even look sedate on the sideline. But a fire burns inside him, the same fire that was there when he led Penn to a 42-0 Ivy League record in his final three seasons. In case anybody did not get it, it is now very clear the Penn coach is not playing around this season. He wants results and he wants them right now.

Through the first seven games, the Quakers were getting all-world play from Zack Rosen, all-world hustle from Rob Belcore and not nearly enough from anybody else. So, starters Tyler Bernardini and Fran Dougherty went to the bench for the start of last night's game with Manhattan at the Palestra. When the coach did not like what he was seeing in the first half, as his team fell behind by nine points against a team that had been buried in its own gym Saturday by Columbia, he started putting in players who hardly had played.

Allen was looking for someone to do something. He eventually got what he was looking for, as Marin Kucoc (Toni's son) was terrific in 33 minutes off the bench with 11 points, three assists, 3-for-3 from the arc and one smart play after another.

Time after time, Penn got a short second-half lead, but no stop. Finally, with his team leading by only a point and the clock ticking toward a minute left, Bernardini came open at the top of the key when Rosen drew a double team. The point guard found him. And Bernardini buried the shot that finally got the Quakers a two-possession lead that they held to the wire, winning, 75-72.

"I won't be blinded by a W," Allen said. No, he won't.

Penn (4-4) probably could have seven wins. But you can't go back. The best news last night was that Rosen finally missed a few shots and his teammates were there for him as Penn finished with five in double figures. Rosen was 7-for-8 before missing his final four shots. In the final 13 minutes, Rosen's teammates scored all but two of Penn's 27 points.

Kukoc missed last season with a lower-back injury. His father was there over the weekend to watch him play.

"He said to stay aggressive, that my time would come, got to show the coaches something and when I get on the floor, stand out a little bit," Kukoc said.

The coach had not planned on playing Kukoc so many minutes, but he earned them.

"I thought Marin was big tonight," Allen said. "If he doesn't knock down the shots that he did, I'm not sure if we have the same result."

Rosen finished with 20 points, five assists and no turnovers in 40 minutes. Bernardini (12 points), Belcore (10) and Miles Cartwright (14) made big hoops and big plays.

"It feels good," Bernardini said. "We got the win, but we can't be happy the way we went about that."

The game-changing shot?

"I sat at the free-throw line," he said. "Whatever way Zack went, I was just going to pop out. Hopefully, Rob's man was going to roll and take my man with him."

It went exactly that way. And the shot went down.

This probably should have been easier, but it was Penn's eighth game in the season's first 18 days. They actually get 3 days off before going to Villanova Saturday night.

The coach was not unhappy with the win. He was not happy with exactly how it went down.

"We can't stand around and hope 50-50 balls fall in our hand," Allen said.

He would like to see his team diving on the floor after the ball, not reaching for it.

First-year Manhattan coach Steve Masiello, a former Rick Pitino assistant at Louisville, gave his team a chance by running two and sometimes three defenders at Rosen, switching between man and zone and trying just about everything in the manual.

"They're a little unorthodox," Allen said. "They keep you off balance. They keep you guessing. I thought they did an excellent job of doing that to us tonight."

The coach made the lineup changes because he wanted everybody to understand the stakes.

"We lost three in a row," Allen said. "We were trying to point out some things if people don't change behavior or habits, and I expect for them to be different once the game comes on. I guess I'm a little insane. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results."

This result was different from the previous three. So, it turns out the coach really is not insane at all.