COLUMN: M. Hoops hits its stride in '99

From Marc Chodok's, "That's what I'm Talking About" In the Penn men's basketball team's first weekend road sweep of its New York state rivals in three years, the Quakers (12-3, 4-0 Ivy League) never flinched. In Friday night's 86-62 victory over Cornell (6-12, 1-5) and Saturday's 67-51 victory over Columbia (7-11, 2-4), the Quakers never trailed during the second half. "We went up to Cornell, a place we had not won the past two years at, and we won pretty handily," Penn guard Michael Jordan said. "Against Columbia, we didn't have our best game, and we still won by 16. That says a lot for our team." Penn's largest deficit came against Columbia, down 10-5 just over three minutes into the game. The Quakers' weekend sweep brought their current winning streak to nine, the longest by a Penn team since the 1993-94 season. While this is an impressive feat, Penn had yet to put together convincing, consistent victories before this weekend. In both New York games, Penn maintained double-digit leads with 10 minutes remaining. With the majority of the team having played together for more than 2 1/2 seasons, the Quakers take comfort in their familiarity with each other. Over the weekend, Penn demonstrated this teamwork and experience through a balanced scoring attack. Offensively, each of the Quakers' staring five -- Jordan, Matt Langel, Geoff Owens, Paul Romanczuk and Jed Ryan -- averaged double digits in scoring for the two games. "We're getting great balance in terms of scoring," head coach Fran Dunphy said. "Everybody is getting to touch the ball and see what they can do offensively." For the first time this season, the Quakers did not struggle when their top offensive player, Jordan, was off his game. "We had balanced scoring," said Jordan, who averages 14.4 points per game but hit just one field goal against Columbia. "That will help us out in the long run, so teams can't think that if they take me out of the game, they're going to win. We showed that when I was not playing my best, everyone else stepped up." On his off night, Jordan received a lot of help from his big men. Romanczuk and Owens combined for 22 points and 24 rebounds. "We may not have one particular facet of the game go our way," Dunphy said. "In the Columbia game Mike did not shoot the ball particularly well. Geoff kind of took the game over for a stretch. He got a lot of rebounds and a couple of emotional baskets." On Friday night, Penn's synchronized play was evident. The Quakers exhibited little trouble handling the ball as they committed a season-low six turnovers. Over the weekend, Penn's defense was equally impressive. Of the 20 players that stepped onto the floor for Cornell and Columbia, only two were effective enough to score in double digits. While the four Ivy opponents the Quakers have defeated thus far may not be contenders, Penn will soon have an opportunity to prove itself to be the leader in the Ivy League race. Over the next week and a half, Penn will host both of the remaining undefeated Ivy League teams, Dartmouth and Princeton. For Penn, this is a period of eager anticipation. The last time the Quakers kicked off their Ivy League season with four straight wins was 1995-96, the last year Penn won at least a share of the Ivy League crown.