Brown hoops: the new kid on the block

The Penn men's basketball team will bring a 9-0 Ivy League record into this weekend's games, but somehow that's not the main story. The Brown Bears, who have won only one Ancient Eight championship in the 47-year history of the modern Ivy League schedule, enter Friday's game against the Quakers boasting a 9-1 league record. A victory at home over the Red and Blue would put Brown in excellent position to secure its first title since the 1985-86 campaign. In the following 16 seasons, only Cornell in 1987-88 has interrupted a championship string in which either Penn or Princeton has claimed the league every year. At 7-2 in the Ancient Eight, it appears that the Tigers will not be roaring into the NCAA Tournament. This means that Brown has a real opportunity at least to set up a one-game playoff to determine the title if it can sweep its games at home this weekend against Penn and Princeton. When the ball is tossed in the air on Friday night, the Bears will have more pressure on them because they are a game behind Penn in the loss column, but the situation could easily have been reversed. The Red and Blue had an especially difficult time against Brown at the Palestra on Feb. 15, as the home team overcame a 66-61 deficit in the closing minutes to earn a 73-66 victory. Without two clutch David Klatsky three-pointers and an absolute meltdown by the Bears, the burden of catching up in the Ivy race would be on the Quakers' shoulders as they prepare for their second New England tour in as many weeks. • In the first meeting between the two teams, Klatsky ignited the crowd with his late-game heroics, but Brown coach Glen Miller offered up his own brand of fireworks afterwards at the press conference. Refusing directly to answer any reporters' inquiries, Miller instead chose to discuss at every turn what he perceived as the three referees' bias against any Ivy League road team playing in Princeton or Philadelphia. "That's why there's such an imbalance in this goddamn league, because you can't go to Penn and Princeton and get a fair shake," he vented. "Our guys outplayed them the whole freakin' game." Miller insisted that his squad played the equivalent of a five-on-eight game all night due to the officials' penchant to blow the whistle only against Brown. He also fell just short of predicting that the Bears would top Penn in this week's rematch in Providence. "We don't care about respect," Miller said. "We're good enough to beat this team. When they come to our place, we'll tee it up again. We're not taking a backseat to anybody in this league." • Penn forward Ugonna Onyekwe shot a sizzling 11-for-15 from the field at Dartmouth on Saturday night, scoring 25 points. In the process, he surpassed Kevin McDonald's 1,644 points to become the Quakers' second all-time leading scorer. Onyekwe, entering this weekend, has 1,650 career points. McDonald starred for the Red and Blue from 1975 to 1978. Ernie Beck, who graduated in 1953, is Penn's all-time leader with 1,827 points. Onyekwe had a disappointing nine-point performance against the Crimson on Friday before dominating the Big Green.

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