It's early in the season and yet Penn already finds itself in a bit of a hole.
After losing their first two Ivy League games last weekend to Yale and Brown, the Quakers (7-8, 0-2 Ivy) have little room for error this weekend as they host Harvard and Dartmouth.
"For us, every game is a playoff game," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We talked about it even before the season started -- 14 playoff games, and now we're down to 12 playoff games.
"We have no margin for error."
Harvard (2-15, 1-3) has a relatively inexperienced roster. Of the Crimson's five starters, junior Jason Norman is the only player who had started a game before this season. Norman -- Harvard's team captain -- is also the first junior to captain the Crimson since 1991.
"They are young, but Coach Sullivan does a great job coaching them," Dunphy said. "I think they knew they would be inexperienced ... but they've been right there in a lot of games and they beat Dartmouth."
Penn senior guard Charlie Copp isn't focused on Penn's edge in experience, however.
"You can have a lot of experience and not come out and play well," he said. "It doesn't mean much."
Harvard's leading scorer is junior Kevin Rogus, who averages 16 points per game.
"He's a dead-on shooter," Penn junior Tim Begley said. "He's a lefty, which is a little awkward guarding him.
"He shoots with more confidence than anybody we've played all year."
Indeed, 141 of Rogus' 228 field- goal attempts this season have been from behind the arc, but his three-point percentage is a mere .305.
Harvard's Matt Stehle averages 13 points per game, along with 6.4 rebounds. The sophomore forward ranks third in the Ancient Eight in field-goal percentage (51.0).
Penn is focused on defeating the Crimson, hoping to secure its first Ivy League victory of the season.
"We have to get our first 'W' before we can say anything," Begley said. "We need to get out of the cellar."
The last time Penn opened the Ivy League with an 0-2 weekend was 1982, when the Quakers rallied to win 12 consecutive games and the Ivy League championship. In 2001, Penn opened the season 2-3, but won its 11 remaining Ancient Eight games. Penn finished in a three-way tie with Princeton and Yale for the Ivy League championship, and ended up defeating Yale in a playoff to earn an NCAA Tournament bid.
"A lot of us have been through this whole process," Begley said. "Two years ago we were down and out and then last year we got to see what it feels like to win every game."
For Dartmouth (4-16, 1-3), freshman Leon Pattman leads the team in scoring, averaging 14 points per game. In the Big Green's loss to Cornell last weekend, Pattman scored 21 points and pulled down 12 rebounds during his full 40 minutes on the floor.
Dunphy pointed out Big Green junior guard Steve Callahan as someone to which Quakers will have to pay extra attention. Callahan notched 14 points against the Quakers last season at Leeds Arena.
"He's given us some trouble in the past," he said.
Like Harvard, Dartmouth has a young team; 10 of its 15 players are underclassmen. Its lone Ancient Eight victory came over Harvard on Jan. 10.
"They're a very solid defensive team," Dunphy said. "They're going to make us work really hard for any good shots that we're going to get."
Yet while both Dartmouth and Harvard possess younger and more inexperienced teams than the Quakers, Penn cannot afford to overlook either team.
"If we want to reach our goal," Copp said, "we need to win every game."
"And this point, anybody's a tremendous threat for us," Dunphy added. "We have no margin for error so we're going to treat Harvard and Dartmouth just like we would any other opponent."
