M. Hoops dips into Ivy waters in N.Y. weekend

The Quakers visit an upstart Columbia squad tonight in Manhattan. Perhaps the Eurythmics put it best: "Sweet dreams are made of these." After finishing up all but one of the games in its hellacious non-league slate, the Penn men's basketball team (6-7, 0-0 Ivy League) is letting out a discernable sign of relief as it heads north for its first Ivy weekend of the season. The Quakers visit Columbia (8-7, 2-0) tonight at 7:30 p.m. before traveling to Cornell (6-8, 0-2) tomorrow for another 7:30 p.m. game. And while the likes of Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas on the Quakers' schedule have already passed the team by, Penn is still in high gear preparing for the arguably more important Ivy season. "Columbia has been playing pretty good basketball right now," Penn guard Matt Langel said. "They hit 11 threes a couple of games ago, and hit 11 threes another game as well. It's a tough matchup for us -- they're not real big, but they've got a lot of guys who can shoot the ball. "And Cornell is a tough team. They've played us tough a few years in a row. It seems like they always get up to play us." After losing all five starters to graduation, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Lions. A 99-52 drubbing at Duke, a heartbreaking 60-58 loss to Seton Hall and a 3-7 start reinforced that notion. But led by an all-sophomore front line -- forwards Craig Austin (15.1 ppg) and Joe Case (10.4 ppg), and center Mike McBrien (8.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg) -- Columbia has won five straight, including 75-58 and 69-66 Ivy wins over Cornell. "We're pretty confident right now, but we're still trying to prepare for each game like we did before this streak -- with hard work," McBrien said. "I think we've definitely improved as the season has gone on, and you can obviously tell from game one to our last game at Cornell that we've improved a lot both defensively and offensively." On the flip-side, this season has been little short of one big unhappy surprise for the Big Red. Returning two big-game ballers in junior forward Ray Mercedes (15.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and 5'9" sparkplug point guard Wallace Prather (13.4 ppg, 3.4 assists), Cornell expected to better its 6-8 Ivy campaign of last winter. But an early-season four-game slide, compounded with back-to-back losses to the once-lowly Lions, have pushed the Big Red up against the wall already in the '99-00 Ivy race. "We have to play our best basketball," Cornell coach Scott Thompson said. "Last year we played a great game at Penn, but they beat us pretty good up here." Last January in Ithaca, Penn handled Cornell easily, 86-62. But in February at Penn, the Big Red gave the Quakers a scare in their penultimate Ivy game. Led by 28 points from Mercedes and 22 more from Prather, Cornell led almost the entire way before succumbing to the clutch rebounding of Penn's Paul Romanczuk and falling 83-81. This scoring ability demonstrated by Mercedes worries the Quakers. "It seemed like last year everything that he throws up goes in," Langel said. "We're going to concentrate on Mercedes, no question," Quakers coach Fran Dunphy said. "But there are other guys who can jump up and bite you as well, so you can't just totally concentrate on him." Penn hits the road three days after its 54-46 win over Drexel. Senior Michael Jordan led the way with 16 points in the victory, but Langel, David Klatsky and Ugonna Onyekwe contributed to a balanced offense -- each scoring in double figures. Center Geoff Owens added 13 boards against Drexel and will be counted on to come up big against two opposing centers who measure just 6'8". Complicating the best laid plans, Penn starting forward Koko Archibong suffered a concussion in the Drexel game and spent Tuesday night in the hospital for observation. Archibong should see action in the Ivy openers, but the Quakers are prepared for all contingencies. Senior Frank Brown should be ready to return from a recent injury, and Dunphy suggested using more of a three-guard set. When Penn takes the court tonight, it will finally lose -- along with Princeton -- its title as the last Division I team not to have played a league game yet. It will be interesting to see how the inconsistent Quakers execute. But if history is any indication, Penn's trip may well be sweet -- the Quakers have won 14 straight from Columbia. "Penn-Princeton is the toughest weekend combination," said Hill, a former Princeton star. "The only thing you can do is try to prepare as much as you possibly can for it. There's no secrets; we don't have any secret weapons or anything like that to add. "It's extremely difficult. Both teams are very good and have been winning the league for the last 40 years."

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