Sports Briefs

Onyekwe named Ivy Player of Week After being benched earlier in the season, senior forward Ugonna Onyekwe came into his own the past week, dominating Princeton, Yale and Brown and earning Ivy League Player of the Week honors. The reigning Ivy League Player of the Year dominated the post in the week's three games, pouring in an average of 20 points, 11.7 rebounds and two blocks per game. Onyekwe led the Quakers in scoring and rebounding in all three of the performances and leads Penn on the season with 15.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. The senior also leads the team in blocks with 16 on the season. He is currently in third place in Ivy League scoring behind Brown's Earl Hunt and Harvard's Patrick Harvey. However, Harvey's numbers will quickly decrease because he was declared ineligible last week. Onyekwe is currently second in the Ancient Eight in rebounds per game behind Harvard senior Sam Winter. Last year Onyekwe was a unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection and led the Red and Blue with averages of 17.6 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game. Penn is one of three teams in the country with an undefeated record in conference, after defeating each of the other seven Ivy League teams once thus far. -- Zachary Silver Media sees Penn as No. 13 seed Penn basketball fans might want to save their money and not splurge on Tijuana or Tahiti over Spring Break, because they might need to travel to Boston the following week. Both CNNSI.com and Joe Lunardi, a noted "bracketologist" for ESPN.com project the Quakers to be a No. 13 seed in the NCAA tournament should they hold on to their one game lead and win the Ivy League's automatic berth. The first game in Boston will be played Friday March 21. Lunardi projects that No. 13 Penn will play No. 4 Syracuse in Boston. Penn's RPI -- one of the quantitative tools used to compare teams -- rests at No. 74 as of Sunday night. Besides for Saint Joseph's at No. 29, none of the Quakers' opponents this year are in the top-100, with Drexel standing at No. 122. Last season Penn was a No. 11 seed and lost to California in the first round with an RPI in the mid-30s. While the internet predictions are preliminary and may serve as a marketing ploy, the Quakers will not have much of a chance to improve their standing before March Madness begins. Princeton is the second-highest ranked Ivy school at No. 150, with Yale following at No. 164 and Harvard is third at No. 173. -- Andrew DeLaney