COLUMN: It's 1999 and Princeton's still overrated.

From Eric Moskowitz's, "An Obstructed View," Fall '99 Sound familiar? Maybe you uttered these words. Or thought them. Don't be embarrassed. There's no shame in a little college hoops overzealousness. Step back to November 29. Quakers fans had spent six days savoring a 73-70 Penn victory over then No. 6 Temple. The Red and Blue had shocked the basketball world to the tune of a No. 29 ranking in the just-released Associated Press poll. The naysayers who picked Princeton to win another title were forced to see the Ancient Eight light; former Penn assistant Fran O'Hanlon's Lafayette troops declawed the graduation-depleted Tigers and sent them hobbling back to Old Nassau, 63-47. My, how things have changed since reading week. Penn crumbled in the second half of a close game at Penn State -- which has since lost to Florida International -- losing 71-55. But Princeton stayed well behind even as Penn returned to earth. The Tigers lost to Western Illinois and Rutgers in addition to an 81-58 defeat at Maryland -- the most points surrendered by Princeton since UMass burned the Tigers for 88 in 1994. Then winter break hit. At the ECAC Holiday Tournament, the Quakers struggled to beat then 4-5 Iona before falling to Hofstra, which lost to Maine and Vermont last week. Fast forward to January 11. In yesterday's AP poll, the Temple squad that was supposed to finally take John Chaney to the promised land failed to crack the AP top 25 for the fifth week in a row. The Owls (9-6) were also conspicuously absent from the list of 32 schools also receiving votes. But that's hardly the least disconcerting fact about this week's poll. Left-for-dead Princeton made a reappearance, garnering two votes. In the USA Today/ESPN top 25, Princeton scored nine votes, good enough for No. 33, after making an appearance with one vote in last week's poll. At the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, Princeton reeled off nationally televised wins over Florida State, Texas and North Carolina-Charlotte. The Tigers effectively controlled the tempo of all three games, holding each of their opponents under the magic 50-point mark in winning their fifth in-season tournament in four years. After dominating both Brown and Yale this weekend for consecutive Ivy wins Nos. 29 and 30, Princeton (10-4) had convinced almost a dozen voters that they were back. But are they? Is the Quakers' stranglehold on the Ivy title, as predicted by so many court-stormers after the Temple game, a forgotten memory, washed over by a Princeton team riding its customary backdoor cuts to a five-game winning streak? Brown coach Frank Dobbs has a unique perspective on the situation. His Bears are the first team this year to get smoked by both Penn and Princeton, losing by 22 to the Tigers before coming up 31 points short at the Palestra. "The two things that they have in common are one, they both can shoot the ball," Dobbs said. "The second thing is both of them have a big man that they can go to inside, so that takes? pressure off the shooters." Penn center Geoff Owens, a nonentity against Yale with two points and four fouls, had 14 points and nine boards against the Bears. But Princeton's Chris Young has emerged after a slow start to claim the past three Ivy Rookie of the Week awards. On Friday he dumped 19 points on Brown. So who has the advantage? "You have to give Penn a little bit of an edge because they're a bit more experienced," Dobbs said. "[That's] very similar to the advantage that Princeton had last year." All is not lost on 33rd Street. Frank Dobbs, for one, is not ready to leap onto the Princeton bandwagon. And with good reason. Penn starts three juniors and two seniors, while the Tigers start two freshmen and a sophomore, including the still-unproven Chris Krug, averaging 2.1 points per game. That's not all. Three days after Christmas, Princeton received a tailor-made gift -- an experimental 45-second shot clock at the Rainbow Classic, which allowed the methodical Tigers offense to break apart more athletically talented opponents. Temple may have fallen from the ranks of the vote-getters. But don't let Princeton fool you behind the smoke-and-mirrors of a 10-4 record. Take away the 45-second shot clock games and the most impressive notch on Princeton's belt becomes a 12-point win over Alabama-Birmingham, a team which lost to Indiana by 37. While the Ivy title is still very much up for grabs, Penn's edge has hardly evaporated. Just don't shell out money for NCAA tickets quite yet.