Big boys are up next for Quakers

M. Hoops travels to No. 9 Villanova Tonight, Penn gets another chance to knock heads with a top-10 opponent. Last time, Penn travelled to Amherst to face No. 1 Massachusetts and ended up with a headache, getting battered from the opening tip This time the opponent is Big 5 rival Villanova, and the Wildcats will provide a good measuring stick to see if Penn has improved in the last month. Tonight's contest at duPont Pavilion (7:30 p.m., WXPN-FM 88.5) will also give Penn's seniors a chance to own eternal bragging rights over a Big 5 rival other than La Salle. When these teams last met two years ago Penn defeated Villanova 71-59 at the Spectrum. At that time Kerry Kittles was only a freshman seeing limited minutes. Now he is one of the most potent scorers in the nation. Saturday, Kittles smashed then-No. 1 Connecticut to bits. He poured in a career-high 37 points to lead Villanova to an upset. The junior all-America candidate, and potential NBA lottery pick, has earned Big East Player of the Week honors four times. Penn guards Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney will switch off against Kittles when Penn plays man-to-man defense. "For us to contain him, we have to limit how many times he touches the ball," Maloney said. "Because he is not the point guard, someone has to get him the ball in a scoring area." The win against the Huskies capped Villanova's 11-game winning streak and vaulted the Wildcats to the No. 9 spot in the country. "They beat the No. 1 team," Penn forward Tim Krug said. "We had our shot. And we lost by 30. They took advantage of their opportunity, and we were not able to do that." The Wildcats, though, crashed back to reality with a thud Monday night, losing 77-52 to Georgetown. After that loss, a surprise guest walked into the Villanova lockerroom and told the Wildcats he had gone through plenty of days worse than the one they had just experienced. Not even meeting President Clinton could console the 'Cats. For the Villanova locker room to be that gloomy tonight, the Quakers will have to stop not only Kittles, but also Villanova's frontcourt duo of 6-foot-11 Jason Lawson and 6-9 Chuck Kornegay. "I think they are similar players," said Quakers forward Shawn Trice, who will primarily defend Kornegay. "They are pretty decent down low if you let them get down low. We have to keep them off the block and keep them off the boards." Small forward Eric Eberz adds a deadly shooter to the Wildcats mix. In the backcourt, Alvin Williams starts at point guard in place of the injured Jonathan Haynes. "His style is kind of awkward, but he gets it done," said Krug, a high school rival of Williams. His rival at the point, Maloney, has anything but an awkward style. Saturday he torched Harvard for an Ivy League record 10 three-pointers. Tied with Jerome Allen for the Quakers' scoring lead at 14.6 points a game, Maloney is making a serious bid for Ivy League Player of the Year. The Quakers, though, will need a better effort than they displayed this weekend to beat the Wildcats. Monday, Fran Dunphy ran a spirited practice, and the Quakers seem to be paying attention. They do not want to miss this opportunity. Fans hoping to watch the game better buy a ticket. ESPN has the rights to broadcast the game but does not intend to broadcast it. The game will therefore not be televised.