Double trouble: Two sets of Tigers visit

Having already clinched the Ivy League championship, M. Hoops hopes to cap a perfect league slate tonight. When the men's basketball teams from Penn and Princeton meet for the 202nd time tonight at 8 p.m., the fact that the Quakers have already clinched their second straight Ivy League title and trip to the NCAA Tournament goes right out the Palestra's ancient, paint-covered windows. The Quakers (20-7, 13-0 Ivy League) know that the Tigers (19-9, 11-2) will come with everything they can muster and that a Red and Blue win will bring something that Penn's senior trio of Michael Jordan, Matt Langel and Frank Brown have never experienced -- an undefeated season in the Ancient Eight. "It's nice to have won the championship," Langel said. "But being undefeated in the Ivy League has been a goal of ours from the beginning of the year." The Penn Class of 2000 has history on its side. Tonight marks the eighth time since the inauguration of official Ivy play in 1956-57 that Penn and Princeton have met in the final game of the regular season when one of the teams has already clinched the title. The league champion has emerged victorious from each of the seven previous meetings. That fact is somewhat misleading, however. On March 3, 1998, the last time this scenario came about, the roles were reversed and coach Bill Carmody's Tigers sported a near-perfect 26-1 record and a staggering No. 8 national ranking. Penn was 17-11, 10-3 in the Ivies and, on the surface, an obvious underdog. Forty minutes of basketball later, the score was knotted at 66. It took Princeton an overtime period to finally put the Quakers away, 78-72. What was supposed to be a coronation turned into a mutiny, further reinforcing the fact that the drama of this 97-year-old rivalry transcends wins, losses and league championships. "You can never call a Penn-Princeton game meaningless," Penn center Geoff Owens said. "You can almost throw out any incentive, any NCAA Tournaments, the Ivy League championship? and it's still going to be seriously intense." Penn currently boasts a 15-game winning streak -- the second longest in the nation -- and has won 20 consecutive Ivy games, dating back to a calamitous 50-49 collapse at the hands of the Tigers on February 9, 1999, at the Palestra. There have been a few shaky moments along the way in this Ivy campaign, the most notable of which was Penn's narrowest of wins at Harvard, 62-61, on February 26. Still, the Quakers, who have pretty much been healthy throughout, have tripped but never fallen. The Tigers, on the other hand, were decimated by injuries earlier in the season. With their second-leading scorer, freshman swingman Spencer Gloger, and sole senior, Mason Rocca, out of the lineup, the Orange and Black fell to lowly Yale, 44-42, before facing Penn for the first time. A 55-46 Quakers victory gave Princeton its second Ivy defeat and virtually sealed their bridesmaid status. Since that loss at Jadwin Gymnasium on February 15, the Tigers have disposed of their Ancient Eight competition in very convincing fashion. Princeton has beaten each of its six subsequent Ivy foes by double digits. The Tigers average margin of victory in this span is 21.5 points, compared to just a 14.7 average margin for the Quakers. Even if this is all too little, too late for Princeton, the Tigers' recent exemplary play makes tonight's Penn senior night all the more intriguing. Although fifth-year senior Brown was part of a 1995-96 squad that managed to beat the Tigers at home, Jordan and Langel have yet to notch a Palestra victory over Princeton. Tonight's game gains added significance because of this string of bad luck. "We would like to go out on a positive note," Jordan said. "I'm gonna miss playing college basketball. I'm gonna miss playing with these guys. Obviously, this is going to be a special night." The past decade of this rivalry has not been kind to the home team, however, as the visiting Ivy power has won 11 of the last 19. Still, this crop of Quakers has a better chance than most to break the mini-slump at home. Jordan sits comfortably in third place on the all-time Penn list with 1,571 points and is second in career assists with 463. Meanwhile, Langel has compiled 1,169 career points and has a very good chance to move into 19th position tonight, as he needs just 11 points to move past Paul Romanczuk. In addition, with just four three-pointers, he can tie Garett Kreitz at second place with 199 treys. Brown, who is ending his five-year Penn roller-coaster ride in style, is also coming off a 16-point barrage in the Quakers' victory over Yale this past Saturday. Barring an NIT bid for the Tigers, tonight will mark Rocca's final contest in a Princeton uniform. The rough-and-tumble big man was able to play 33 minutes against Penn in February, scoring 16 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, but has played a grand total of 28 minutes since then. Youth will complement the outgoing experience of both of these teams tonight as well. Particularly interesting will be the showdown between Gloger (12.1 ppg) and Penn's Ugonna Onyekwe (11.2 ppg), two of the league's premier rookies.

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