COLUMN: Red and Blue a cause for excitement

From Rick Haggerty From Rick Haggerty There was the usual exodus after the third quarter. The toast was still hitting the ground as the stands were emptying. It was nothing unusual for a Penn football game.From Rick Haggerty There was the usual exodus after the third quarter. The toast was still hitting the ground as the stands were emptying. It was nothing unusual for a Penn football game. Then with six minutes left in the game, most of the remaining crowd decided to hit the road as well.From Rick Haggerty There was the usual exodus after the third quarter. The toast was still hitting the ground as the stands were emptying. It was nothing unusual for a Penn football game. Then with six minutes left in the game, most of the remaining crowd decided to hit the road as well. You can make the argument that these people missed the best part of Saturday's game: Gavin Hoffman driving the Quakers to two touchdowns in the final minutes as Penn closed the gap on Brown. Or did they? As the Franklin Field bleachers were emptying, the seats in the Palestra were starting to fill up. And most of the people there would tell you that they did not miss any action at all. Minutes before 5 p.m. on Saturday, about a thousand people were sitting in the Palestra, waiting for their first glimpse of Penn basketball this year. Any excitement happening next door was certainly not missed. It was the annual Red and Blue Scrimmage on Saturday -- the event that officially kicks off the the Penn basketball season. It was a first look for the fans, a first look at the team that will tip off against Kentucky in the Preseason NIT on November 17. And these fans have good reason to be excited. With three returning starters in the self-proclaimed "Triple Threat" of Michael Jordan, Matt Langel and Geoff Owens, the Quakers have an obviously talented veteran base. With these three and its other returning veterans, Penn brings a wealth of experience back this season. From the action seen on Saturday -- the absences of Owens, out with a slight ankle injury, and Josh Sanger, sidelined with a more serious knee injury, aside -- there was nothing to suggest these veterans will disappoint in the 1999-2000 season. The real reason to check out the action, though, was to see the new faces. Everyone has heard about this recruiting class, how it is Penn's best in 20 years, how some of the freshmen will play right away, how they will keep Penn at the top of the Ivies for the next four years. These seven first-year men, including transfer Oggie Kapetanovic, were the main reasons fans wanted to see this game. They wanted to see if these guys were for real. Well, from what I saw, they are. And one of them certainly stood out. Ugonna Onyekwe, a Nigerian native, was the most highly touted member of the freshman class. But prior to Saturday, no one knew much about him. Was he really as good as people said? Can he be a star in the Ivy League? If Saturday was any real indication, then the answers to both of those questions is yes. In the first 15-minute scrimmage, this freshman who never played one minute of college basketball was the best player in the building. The game opened with an alley-oop layup from Jordan to Onyekwe. Onyekwe then came back several minutes later with a forceful dunk right over Frank Brown. The highlight of the afternoon, however, had to be U's reverse jam on a breakaway in the second scrimmage. This is one player who will cause the Palestra crowd to go wild quite often. But he did more than score on Saturday, getting his hands -- often, just one hand seemed to be needed -- on every loose ball or rebound near him, playing tough defense and even showing range by burying a 16-foot jumper. And he wasn't the only kid playing well against the veterans. Point guard David Klatsky, forward Koko Archibong and shooting guards Duane King and Howard Bailey all had their moments. (Forward Andrew Coates didn't play.) In fact, the five frosh teamed with Dan Solomito to beat the older guys 17-10 in the second game. But Saturday was just a scrimmage. Fran Dunphy didn't even coach. Assistants Steve Donahue and Gil Jackson led the squads while Dunphy took notes from press row. Penn still has a lot of work to do before starting the seaon. The freshmen still have a lot to learn. But Saturday showed that this team has the potential to be very good. Replacing forwards Paul Romanczuk and Jed Ryan will obviously be difficult, but this year's Quakers could be even better than last year's Ivy championship team. Saturday also showed that the freshmen may indeed live up to the hype. Yes, it was just a scrimmage, but it was fun. And it was a preview of what we may see at the Palestra in January and February. For anyone who missed the Red and Blue Scrimmage, Penn and the five other Philadelphia schools will practice for an hour each on Saturday at the Palestra for Coaches Versus Cancer. It is that time of year again, the time when teams across the country start getting their hopes up, when students start lining up to buy season tickets, when Dick Vitale starts jumping up and down like a little kid who's had too much caffeine. It's time for excitement. And as was seen on Saturday, this campus has a lot to get excited about.