M. Hoops never gets a vacation

Although most of the Penn community may be enjoying a peaceful Winter Break in the upcoming weeks, the men's basketball team has other plans on its agenda. The Quakers intend on continuing their quest for national respectability. Penn's schedule is set up like the perfect Christmas dinner – the appetizer in the form of Haverford warms the palates of the Quakers before they have the main course in the form of Washington and Georgia. After the meal, Penn returns home to the Palestra for dessert – the Ivy League season is ushered in with games against Harvard and Dartmouth. "After seeing the Penn scores from the beginning of the year, I'm not sure if we're going to show up for our game," Big Green coach Dave Faucher said of his scheduled contest at the Palestra (January 8, 7 p.m., WXPN 88.5-FM). "I'm serious. They beat USC by 15 on the road and now USC is tearing everybody up. They lost by only three to Ohio State. They beat a good St. Joe's team." But before Dartmouth can forfeit its chance to knock off the defending undefeated Ivy League champions, the Quakers (3-1) will play three contests. Penn's first opponent is its home season-opener against Division III Haverford (Saturday, 4 p.m., WOGL 1210-AM). The Red Wave will enter the hallowed halls of the Palestra just to give Penn a break during finals. "We wouldn't be able to play them except that they are a Division III team," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said about Haverford. "Haverford expressed an interest in playing against us at the Palestra. The game is a good situation for us at this juncture." Although the Red Wave (3-5) do not appear to be the greatest challenge for the Quakers, the U.S. West Cellular Air Time Tournament will present Penn with numerous obstacles. The first challenge will be host Washington, which hails from the Pacific-10 conference. The Huskies have achieved tremendous levels of success on the football gridiron, however they have not matched these performances on the basketball court to date. In fact, Washington (0-3) is coming off a 13-14 season and is under the reigns of a new head coach, Bob Bender, who is still looking for his inaugural win. If the Quakers are able to get by the very athletic, albeit not very tall Huskies (they start four players 6-3 or shorter) on December 28 (11 p.m., WXPN), Penn will most likely face the tournament's favorite, Georgia, for the first-time ever on the following day. Most likely, two Quakers will reach career milestones during this tournament. Senior captain needs only 60 points to reach 1,000 turns of the scoreboard for his career. Also, junior guard Matt Maloney needs to make just five more three-pointers to set the Penn career record. The Bulldogs (4-1 before facing Georgia Tech last night), who returned all five of their starters this year, have been literally destroying their competition so far this season, winning by an average of 34 points per game. Georgia's offensive attack is led by sophomore guard Shandon Anderson, who is scorching the opposition to the tone of 18.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists per contest. Anderson, the younger brother of San Antonio Spurs guard Willie Anderson, may be able to dish out so many assists because he is surrounded by so many quality players. The Bulldogs' starting center and a second-team all-SEC selection last season, junior Charles Claxton, is a big target at 7-0, 265 pounds. Claxton (9.3 points per game) is having little problem putting the ball in the basket so far this season. To go with his scoring touch, Claxton also leads Georgia on the glass with seven rebounds per game. Claxton may provide the undersized Quaker frontcourt with some problems. However, the Penn big men have been able to contain most of the opposing centers so far. The Quakers may have some help by late December when senior center Andy Baratta should be healthy enough to re-enter the Quaker forward-center rotation. "[The tournament] is in another part of the country and there's excellent competition there," Dunphy said. "Washington has good athletes and they're 12 deep with scholarship kids. Georgia, according to many of the preseason prognosticators, is a very athletic team as well." But the Penn "vacation" does not end with this Christmas tournament. In fact, after just a few days of rest, Penn will return to the Palestra to host Lehigh (Jan. 3, 8 p.m., WXPN). The Engineers finished one of the most anemic seasons in the school's history last year as they finished 4-23. However, Lehigh was and still is a young team which has returned four of its five starters this season, including Patriot League all-Rookie member Rashawne Glenn and junior captain Jason Fichter. But this is not the contest that Penn is worried most about. After the tournament in Seattle, the Quakers will be most anxiously awaiting the opportunity to defend their Ivy League title when Harvard and Dartmouth both visit the Palestra. "They'll be ready like crazy to play us," Dunphy said. "The league games are always tough. We, especially after going 14-0 [in the Ivies] last season, will be a marked target." The first team the Quakers face will be Harvard (4-2) on January 7 (7 p.m., WOGL). The Crimson are led offensively by sophomore forward Darren Rankin (16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game). Rankin has received considerable support from the newcomers to the team, most notably freshman forward Kyle Snowden, who is averaging over nine points while also grabbing over seven rebounds per contest. After the Harvard contest, the Quakers will play their final contest of the break against Dartmouth. The Big Green, led by senior guard Gregg Frame, know that this contest will present some challenges for them, most notably historically. The Big Green have not beaten Penn at the Palestra in 10 years. Furthermore, Dartmouth already lost to Fairleigh Dickinson at home by 12 points this season. However, the Quakers beat the Knights on the road by a margin of 15 points. "I expect a really tough game," Faucher said. "We will have to play so well just to stay close to Penn. I've never been involved in a win at the Palestra, and this is the best Penn team I've ever faced. There's no question that Penn is the class of the league." But the Quakers have higher goals than just winning the Ivy League. They don't want to open their Christmas presents and just find underwear –Ethey want national respectability. And that only comes from winning.