In the bonus

A victory over Princeton in playoff willA victory over Princeton in playoff willsend Quakers to the NCAA tournament Pearl Jam's "Alive" blared in the near-empty Palestra after practice yesterday afternoon. As forward Paul Romanczuk practiced free throws at one end of the court and forwards Cedric Laster and George Mboya shot jumpers at the other, Eddie Vedder sang "I'm still alive." And so are the Quakers. The Penn men's basketball team has displayed an uncanny ability to overcome any obstacle tossed in its path, from injuries to Ivy League losses. Tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. at Lehigh's Stabler Arena, the Quakers will find out if they can overcome their biggest challenge yet, beating Princeton for the third time this season. The Ivy title has already been decided. Penn will have to share the championship with the Tigers this year. Tomorrow's game will decide something even more important to the players -- which team gets to represent the Ivy League in the NCAA tournament. For the Quakers, failure is not an option. "The way we view it, we didn't really win the title," Penn center Tim Krug said. "We're not going to feel as if we're Ivy League champs unless we beat them on Saturday. What good is it going to be to say we tied them for the Ivy title if they're in the NCAA tournament? Whoever wins this game is going to have the best claim to being the Ivy champion." Following Tuesday's game, Princeton coach Pete Carril questioned his squad's heart. According to Carril, Penn simply wanted the win more, and with the Palestra crowd squarely behind the them, the Quakers ran faster than Princeton did, beat the Tigers on the boards and pulled away with a victory. "I tried to impress upon my team about how tough it was to play this game -- this crowd, this place, all that stuff.," Carril said. "I tried to impress that it was going to take a tremendous effort on their part. I don't think we got it." The Tigers might have tripped over their own egos Tuesday night. Unaccustomed to being atop the Ivy League, Princeton came into the game thinking this would be the year the Tigers could dethrone Penn. "We came in here expecting to win," Princeton center Steve Goodrich said. "We wanted to win the title. We wanted to win the league." But when the final buzzer sounded, the Quakers had beaten Princeton for the eighth straight time. Goodrich summed up the contest in two words: "We failed." The Quakers passed a major test Tuesday night, overcoming the added pressure of a must-win game to eliminate Princeton's safety cushion. Now everyone is in the same position, watching film and making small adjustments, hoping to take advantage of whatever small mistakes they saw Tuesday night. The game could be decided quickly. Both teams stressed the importance of an aggressive start. "We want to come out and get on top early," Penn guard Ira Bowman said. "They're not going to sit back and let us run over them. We're going to have to go out and play at the top of our game." "We've just got to double our efforts and come out and take it to them," Goodrich said. "We need to get off to a better start out of the gate so we're not down and climbing back into the game. If we contain them, we have a chance to win." Defense will once again be the driving force behind the game. Princeton boasts the best scoring defense in the country, allowing only 51.5 points per game. The Quakers are the top offensive team in the Ivy League, averaging nearly 70 points per game. But Penn is also proud of its defensive abilities, having moved ahead of the Tigers in field-goal defense. Penn will have to stop both Goodrich and the Tigers' three-point shooters tomorrow night. Goodrich's 26 points in the last meeting was more than half of Princeton's total offense. The Quakers intend to switch the defensive duties on him tomorrow night, employing Krug, Laster and Romanczuk to keep Goodrich from being as effective in the paint. "You've got to pick your poison," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "If you shut down the three-point shooting, typically you're going to count on one-on-one guarding of a guy like Goodrich. We'll try to beat him to his spot and be more solid when he does catch the ball." Most of the Tigers' squad is comfortable behind the arc. Guard Brian Earl has been most effective, hitting 41 percent of his attempts. However, Princeton has made only three of its last 27 long-range attempts, including just two of 14 against the Quakers. "There were some looks they got they just didn't knock down," Dunphy said. "You can't count on them missing the same percentage of shots they did the other night." The biggest challenge for the Quakers may be winning the game without the home-court advantage. Both Penn and Princeton players commented on the Palestra atmosphere and the effect the fans had on the game. From signs like "Cheer or die" and "Extra Snobby Princeton Nerds" to the extra-loud play of the Penn Band and the chairback fans who never sat down, the Quakers obviously had the crowd on their side. Though Penn will be wearing the home white uniforms, no one really knows who will have the home-court advantage, if anyone, at Stabler Arena. "The atmosphere Tuesday night was crazy," Penn guard Frank Brown said. "I've never experienced anything like that before, playing in front of all these people and after every basket the crowd going crazy. I don't know how Lehigh's going to be, but it's not going to be like the Palestra." The Quakers are no strangers to postseason play, having gone to the NCAA tournament for the past three years in a row. And the Penn seniors do not want to end the season without one last trip to the NCAA tournament. The underclassmen just want the experience of playing in another big game. "My perspective is the same that it's always been -- we're going in to win the game," Krug said. "It means I get to keep playing basketball." And the Quakers are still alive, one win away from a fourth-straight NCAA appearance.

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