M. Hoops enjoys calm after storm

Geoff Owens is closing in on Penn's all-time shot-blocking record. You can't say they didn't earn it. Fresh off a heroic 55-46 victory at Princeton on Tuesday night, the Penn men's basketball team had its once-a-week mandatory day off from practice yesterday. Quakers center Geoff Owens, who pulled down five rebounds and blocked three shots in Old Nassau, was using his downtime to rest. "I'm pretty much enjoying the day off," said Owens, who has battled through a heart defect, a broken jaw and shin splints at Penn. "It's tough this time of year with all of the games and not having much time off. But we're playing very well right now." One might think that Penn guard Michael Jordan, who had 14 points and six assists at Princeton, would follow his housemate's lead and take yesterday off to sleep in and savor his squad's big win. Instead, the co-captain hit the weight room and shot around for a while this afternoon, already looking forward to this weekend's home games with Columbia and Cornell. · With four sterling blocks against Princeton, Penn forward Ugonna Onyekwe now has 32 for the season -- and he's not even the team's leader. With 34 rejections of his own, including three at Jadwin, Owens is at the top of the Quakers ranks, and second in the Ivy League. First in the league is Princeton's Chris Young, with 61 swats. But on Tuesday night, while Onyekwe and Owens combined for seven crowd-rousing rejections, Young and his unusually lethargic teammates were unable to block a single Penn shot. "We have two very good shot-blockers this year," said Jordan, restating what every Penn fan has seen over the course of 21 games this year. "It gives the guards more confidence since we're in there and can block more shots," Owens said. "They know they can be more aggressive on the outside." · With 132 blocks in two-plus seasons for the Quakers, Owens now stands second only to Tim Krug (138) on Penn's all-time list. And if Owens can maintain his torrid pace of late through the Cornell and Columbia games, a new sultan of swat may be crowned by Saturday. Owens, however, was humble about his ability to use his gangly appendages to prevent the rock from reaching the net. "I try to not look at those things," the 6'11" Owens said. · Blocked shots are only one part of what is arguably the most improved facet of Penn's game -- defense. The Quakers are allowing a paltry 48.7 points per game in their nine-game winning streak -- a testament to all-around defensive prowess. "We're playing great defensively right now," Jordan said. "We're getting good pressure on the ball, and we're helping each other out a lot this year." · The Quakers are halfway through their Ivy season, and have emerged unscathed thus far. There are no broken jaws or other debilitating injuries to speak of, and more importantly, no hard-to-swallow defeats. Winning their seven Ivy games by an average of 20 points, the Quakers have seemed to cruise at times. But, of course, Penn's players do not want to get ahead of themselves. "We're still going to take it game by game," Jordan said. "We're not overconfident at all right now." Comparing this season's Ivy competition to that of the past few years, the Quakers' seniors feel this year is an improvement upon seasons past. "Record-wise and playing-wise, it's very similar to last year," Owens said. "We're happy with the position that we're in now. But this is just the halfway point of the season, and a lot can still happen." Still, this year's crop of seniors can at least relish the fact that they stand 7-0 in the league for the first time while at Penn. · A clash of styles was evident two nights ago across the Delaware. Princeton successfully completed two back-door cuts at Jadwin, their first against Penn in the schools' past three meetings. In sharp contrast to Princeton's classic offensive attack, Onyekwe's crowd-pleasing 360 degree two-handed dunk with 10.3 seconds left made the first clip on SportsCenter Tuesday night. · Penn has won 14 consecutive Ivy games. This is the most since the Quakers' league-record 48 straight victories from 1992-1996. · So exactly how tough was it for the Quakers to play in the "Jadwin Jungle" two nights ago? Even aside from bottles thrown by Tigers fans following the game, the environment was surprising difficult for the Quakers. "It's pretty tough to play at Jadwin," Owens said. "There's this space behind the backboard, and the fans were kind of hostile. They were definitely into it, and I can appreciate it when fans get involved. "I just hope our fans will be that into it when Princeton comes here." Jordan, lurking in the background, heard this remark on fan support and immediately piped in his own opinion -- he hopes Penn fans will give visiting Tigers fans an even more hostile welcome to the Palestra on March 7.