Streaking M. Hoops looks to Ivy play

The Penn men's basketball team is concentrating on maintaining a consistent level of early second-half play. One-half of the way through its 26-game schedule, the Penn men's basketball team (10-3) is sitting pretty in the midst of its best start in four years. Undefeated in both Ivy League (2-0) and Big 5 (3-0) play, the Quakers have improved by five games over their standing at this juncture last season and are currently riding a seven-game win streak. "I would think that we were pretty successful," Quakers coach Fran Dunphy said when asked how he might have reacted in November had he been told of his team's forthcoming success in the '98-'99 season. "As I look back on it, I don't know that we've played our best yet, and I think that's the most encouraging thing," Dunphy added. "But to win some of the games we have, I'm pleased with that. We have, obviously, a long way to go, and hopefully we can continue to get some victories." Dunphy's players, seconding his views, are happy with what they've accomplished so far, while also agreeing that more work is in order for the second half of the year. "For the team, I think we're pretty happy, especially with the way we've been playing lately," junior center Geoff Owens said. "We had a couple of losses at the beginning of the year that we'd like to forget about, but the way we're playing now -- we've won seven in a row -- we're happy with that. And we're happy to get on a roll like this to go into the Ivies." · The Quakers, now in the midst of a seven-day layoff, remain undefeated since the beginning of the new year. The last time a Penn team won more than seven straight was four years ago, in the 1994-95 season, when the Quakers won eight in a row en route to an undefeated Ivy season. · One key aspect that the Quakers must focus on in their remaining 13 games -- 12 Ivy matchups and a Big 5 game at Villanova -- is maintaining a consistent high level of play early in the second half. "We haven't figured out how to put it away," Owens said. "[If we could] just keep the run going for a little bit longer, or just get a couple of more shots? it seems like we're maybe a steal and a layup away from [putting the game away]." At times during their recent winning streak -- as in the Brown and St. Joseph's games -- the Quakers have come out of the 15-minute intermission strong and increased their leads and put the game away. But in closer matchups against Yale and Drexel, Penn seemed flat and allowed a statistically weaker opponent to cut into the lead and get back into the game. "We work on every possession every day," Dunphy said. "The Yale game, we weren't playing a lot of games [back-to-back] then. And the Drexel game? I knew they were going to guard us pretty well and pretty hard. But you always work on those lapses during the course of the game and you don't want to have any mental lapses [that let the other team back in]." · With a basket late in the first half of the Drexel win last Thursday, Quakers senior forward Paul Romanczuk became just the 26th player in Penn history to surpass the 1,000 point plateau. Quakers junior guard Michael Jordan, with 918 points, looks to be the next Penn player in line to surpass that historic figure. · Of special interest for the Quakers this weekend is the play of senior Frank Brown. The forward, who had been averaging 6.1 points per game and was shooting 47 percent from beyond the arc through the first 11 games this season, missed the last two games with a stomach ailment. Now fully recuperated and ready to play, he will see action against Cornell and Columbia for the first time since his freshman campaign three years ago. · This weekend's swing through the state of New York represents the first time during the 1998-99 season that the Quakers play an official away game outside the state of Pennsylvania. The ECAC Holiday Festival in the neutral Madison Square Garden aside, the Quakers have played only three games outside the confines of the Palestra this season -- falling at Penn State in December and defeating Lafayette and 19th Street foe La Salle earlier this month. · If the drive of senior tri-captain Jed Ryan -- meticulously mopping the floor of the Weightman Hall gym before practice on Monday afternoon -- is any indication, the Quakers are fully ready to plunge into the heart of their upcoming Ivy schedule.

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