Ivy stretch run begins on road for M. Hoops

Penn plays its first of five straight Ivy weekends as it hits the road to face Cornell and Columbia. Now the real fun begins. Big Five and non-conference games aside, the Penn men's basketball team's real season begins this weekend as the Quakers travel across New York State to take on Cornell and Columbia in the first two of its 12 remaining Ivy League matchups. The last time the Quakers (10-3, 2-0 Ivy League) traveled to Ithaca, NY, they were dealt a wrenching 73-70 overtime loss by the Big Red (6-10, 1-3) on the final Ivy weekend of a year ago. That defeat saw the Quakers out-rebounded 48 to 25 by the Big Red and suffering eight blocks at the very active hands of the home team. "I think it's on everyone's mind, what happened last year," Quakers junior tri-captain Michael Jordan said. "I think we would have had a shot to go to the NIT if we'd have won that game, and we kind of blew it. And just the way that they celebrated after they beat us, with their band [storming] the court, it's on everybody's mind." Against Cornell, the Quakers seek to extend their current winning streak to eight -- which would be their longest in four years. But despite the fact that his team has taken two straight from the Quakers in Ithaca, Big Red coach Scott Thompson is not quick to call an end to the Quakers current streak. "We are so inconsistent it's hard to know which team is going to show up here," Thompson said. "And we know that whenever we play them, we've got our hands full." In tonight's key matchup, Big Red center Jeffrion Aubry clashes with Quakers junior center Geoff Owens under the hoop. The 6'11" Cornell senior leads the Ivies in blocks, having recorded 40 blocks -- 2.5 per game -- in '98-'99. But taking nothing for granted, Aubry expects the 6'11" Owens -- second in the Ivies in rejections with 27, or 2.1 per game -- to be a worthy adversary. "I remember Geoff from my sophomore year. He's a big guy who can move and block shots and he's long and athletic," Aubry said. "I haven't seen him play since then, but I've heard through people who have seen him play during the summer that he's worked a lot and he's gotten a lot better. Obviously it's going to be a tough matchup." Big Red sophomore forward Ray Mercedes, who averaged 17.5 points in the two meetings of a year ago, bolsters Cornell's inside attack with a team-high 13.1 points per game. The return of senior forward Frank Brown after two games out with a stomach virus should help counter Mercedes and bolster the Quakers scoring from the forward position. Following tonight's meeting with Cornell -- which will be televised live on DirecTV -- the Quakers head to the Big Apple to tame the Columbia Lions (7-9, 2-2). The Quakers have not lost to the Lions in their last 12 meetings, but against the league's third-best defense, strange things are bound to happen. Lions coach Armond Hill -- a four-year assistant to former Princeton coach Pete Carrill -- has modeled his team's slowed-down tempo after the Tigers -- allowing but 64 points per night. The Quakers are 1-3 this year when they don't reach that number. "Although the philosophy might be the same, its not necessarily the same -- we cannot run the Princeton offense because we don't have the Princeton players," Hill said. The Lions, not folding by any means, are led into battle by Second-Team All-Ivy selection Gary Raimondo. The senior guard leads the Ivies with 2.44 steals per game, and also leads the Lions with 16.8 points and 6.3 rebounds. The 6'2" do-everything Raimondo, though, believes that having four starters back is more a key to success than his play alone. "With a senior point guard, and two senior forwards -- it's kind of like we know each other well enough where our options are unlimited," Raimondo said. For the Quakers, this is their first true road trip of '98-'99, and it is by no means an easy one. Two arenas half-a-state apart, combined with two styles of play -- Cornell tops in the Ivies in rebounding, Columbia tops in steals -- half-a-world apart, present an early Ivy test for the Penn team. "[Coach Dunphy] has actually put some of Columbia's sets in during the week and some of Cornell's sets in too, so we're working on both teams throughout the week," Romanczuk said. "They're both good teams, and we know we've got to look to play our best basketball here in the Ivy League." Over the next two nights, the Quakers need to fight off the sluggishness that back-to-back road games inherently brings, and play their best basketball if they are to extend their winning steak and plant themselves firmly atop the Ivy standings.

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