Challenges await Penn over break

First, the mob gathered on the Junior Balcony of the Quad sang the Red and the Blue. Then it started the premature rallying cry of "Ivy Champs". Then, within one half hour of Jerome Allen's drainer of the lost arc, the crowd ignored the chilling December drizzle and started the chant -- "We want U-Mass! We want U-Mass!" "Yeah, we want U-Mass," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "After we want Colgate, and after we want the St. John's-Manhattan winner, and after we want Harvard, and after we want Dartmouth." Before they return to the prime-time national spotlight against the Minutemen Jan. 14, the Quakers will face at least one (and possibly two) of the most highly regarded freshmen in the country in the ECAC Holiday Festival Tournament in New York's Madison Square Garden. Then they will log some serious bus time travelling to Harvard and Dartmouth with a chance to break the record of 30 consecutive Ivy League victories. Colgate is first on the Quakers' holiday schedule. The Red Raiders shocked the college basketball world last year when they signed 6-10, 260 pound Adonal Foyle, the most highly touted high-school center in the nation. Foyle playing for a school as small as Colgate is like the Rolling Stones playing in a moose lodge. So, of course, there is a story behind it. Foyle grew up on Union Island in the Carribean, without electricity and running water. His football-player frame is the result of carrying buckets of water on his head from the ocean, and he developed his fine footwork by climbing barefoot up mountains. Foyle played some soccer and cricket, but the 16 year-old had never seen basketball until a friend urged him to play one day after school. The first time Foyle touched the ball he sprinted down the court -- without dribbling. Soon Foyle would be doing even more travelling. And it was a referee who helped him get to the United States. Jay Mandle, a professor at Colgate, was on Union Island doing research for a book when he met Foyle. Mandle moonlighted as a referee, and quickly befriended Foyle. When Mandle learned the massive Foyle was only 16, and not in his 20's like he had assumed, Mandle asked Foyle if he had ever considered going to school in the United States. Jay and his wife Joan, also a Colgate professor, are now Foyle's legal guardians while he is in the United States. They are also key reasons why Foyle spurned Duke and Syracuse to attend the bucolic Patriot League school. Foyle has been impressive, averaging over 14 points per game. Against Texas Southern he tallied an incredible 32 points and 25 rebounds in just his fifth collegiate game. "I know he is a very good athlete, and he doesn't have a lot of bad habits," Dunphy said. For all the excitement Foyle has created, though, Colgate is still winless, thanks mostly to a brutal opening schedule. Maryland thrashed the Red Raiders by 60 in Colgate's last outing. Tucker Neale was ejected in that game for fighting Joe Smith, and while that may not be the brightest move for a 6-3 guard, Neale is fearless. Last year Neale ranked fifth in the nation in scoring with 26.6 points per game, and before the Maryland fiasco he was pouring in over 23 per contest this year. If Penn defeats Colgate, it will play the St. John's-Manhattan winner Dec. 29. The Red Storm boast the nation's most highly coveted freshman in Felipe Lopez, who made the cover of Sports Illustrated before he ever played a collegiate game. Lopez, already hailed as the Latino Michael Jordan, is an explosive 6-5 guard who is averaging 19.6 per game, and he has led the Red Storm to a 5-0 start. Freshman center Zendon Hamilton has also sparked St. John's. The Quakers will open the 1995 portion of their schedule Jan. 6 in Cambridge to take on the Crimson. Last year at Harvard Tim Krug's final-second block of a Tarik Campbell shot allowed Penn to escape with a 66-65 win. This year, the pesky Campbell is gone. Harvard is led by forwards Darren Rankin and Kyle Snowden. The next night the Quakers bus north to Dartmouth for the back-end of the season's most grueling road trip. Waiting for Penn will be Sea Lonergan, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year last year who has a deft touch from the outside. Then a week later the Quakers are back in New England for a game that ranks just a wee bit higher on the degree of difficulty chart. "On January 8 we will start thinking about U-Mass," Dunphy said. U-Mass (3-1) vaulted to No. 1 in the polls, but then lost its first-ever game as top dog to Kansas. Even in the Minutemen's loss, though, the 6-7, 220 Roe was brilliant, notching 33 points and 10 rebounds. A six-point outing against Maryland Saturday brought him back down to this stratosphere, but U-Mass is not a one-man show. Penn will also have to contend with 7-0 center Marcus Camby, who scored 15 points and swatted five shots in the Minutemen's 85-74 win Saturday against Maryland. Dunphy hasn't started scouting U-Mass yet, but odds are the Quakers will employ more of the zone defense they used against Michigan. And even then it could get ugly. U-Mass has won 35 games in a row on its campus. And while Penn is playing in the Big Apple over break, the Minutemen will be jetting off to France for a couple of exhibitions and a chance to really gel as a team. To top it off, the Minutemen have senior leaders in Williams, Roe and point guard Derek Kellogg. At the end of Maryland's romp over Colgate last week, the Maryland fans started the chant, "We want U-Mass! We want U-Mass!" John Calipari was watching the game at home and was taken aback. This was the highest honor a program could get. He couldn't believe his program had come so far that fans of an ACC school would start up the chant. Well, Maryland got U-Mass. So will Penn. Be careful what you wish for.