After an eight-month respite, Ivy League basketball teams will finally start playing games again tomorrow night.
Princeton will take on Bucknell and Brown will face off against Missouri.
Penn fans will have to wait until Tuesday before the Quakers tip off in the Preseason NIT against Quinnipiac.
On the eve of Ancient Eight hoops, here are the five storylines fans should watch for at the beginning of the season:
1. Can Princeton establish itself as a national power?
Much to the chagrin of Penn fans, the Tigers are the talk of the Ivy League this season -- returning every player but one from last year's Ivy championship squad.
Princeton received a vote in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and many are predicting that the Tigers will crack the top 25 sometime this season.
They will be tested early, most likely facing off against No. 6 Syracuse on Friday. This is a game that the Tigers can definitely win, as the Orange will have less than a day to prepare for the Orange and Black's confusing offense.
On Jan. 5, the Tigers will face off against No. 11 Duke. The relatively weak Blue Devils squad will have less than three days to get ready for the Tigers (although they did play Princeton just last season.)
If the Tigers win one of those two games, given their hype, expect to see them crack the national rankings at some point in the season.
2. Can Penn return to Madison Square Garden?
In order to make it back to New York, the Quakers need to win two games in the Preseason NIT.
The first should not be a big problem, as Quinnipiac was recently picked to finish eighth in the Northeast Conference.
But if the Quakers win that game, they have to take on either Providence or Niagara. The Quakers will be the underdogs no matter who their second-round opponent is.
In senior forward Ryan Gomes, a first-team All-American selection last year, the Friars have a legitimate favorite for National Player of the Year.
Niagara also boasts one of the nation's best power forwards in Juan Mendez and is considered to be one of the best mid-major programs in the country this season.
While these programs are not unbeatable, don't book your tickets to New York just yet.
3. Can Brown rally around Jason Forte?
The Bears return just two starters this season. Luckily, one of them is Ivy Player of the Year Jason Forte.
Brown has given perennial Ancient Eight powers Penn and Princeton some troubles in the past few years, but the quick Forte has been surrounded by other good players. This year, he'll have to carry the load more than ever.
If the Bears are able to compete with perennially solid squads like Providence, Rhode Island, Wagner and Holy Cross, they will be able to make waves come the Ivy League season.
4. Will Yale be back this season?
The Elis were picked to compete for the Ancient Eight title last season, but they finished with a 7-7 league record.
Again, expectations are high for Yale this season, as it returns its top three scorers from last year's squad.
No matter how good the Elis will be this season, they will definitely not win their Nov. 22 game against No. 2 Wake Forest.
However, if Yale is back to 2002 form -- when it tied for an Ivy League title -- it will beat several of these good non-conference opponents: Boston College, Massachusetts, Bucknell, Niagara, Charlotte and Fairfield.
If Yale wins four of these games, it will be very good this season. If the Elis win five or six, they might just win an Ivy title.
5. Will Columbia be the best team in the Big Apple?
One thing's for sure in New York this season -- nobody is good.
St. John's returns only four scholarship players from a dismal team that lost to Penn last season.
Last year's Cinderella story Manhattan lost star guard Luis Flores to graduation, as well as starting forwards Dave Holmes and Jason Benton.
Perennial NEC powerhouse Wagner is rebuilding this year in Staten Island.
In Brooklyn, St. Francis must cope with the graduation of its top two scorers and leading rebounder, while Long Island University's team boasts just one senior and no juniors.
The Atlantic-10's Fordham squad must account for the graduation of three seniors who combined for 44 of its 62 points per game last season.
In fact, Columbia seems to be the only school in the city that is not rebuilding this season. It returns four starters, including leading scorer and All-Ivy selection Matt Preston.
Coach Joe Jones' squad also boasts one of the best recruiting classes in the Ivy League.
If Dragutin Kravic and Jeremiah Boswell can overcome preseason injuries, this team could continue to build on its much improved 2003-04 season.
But before the Lions are crowned kings of New York, they must beat LIU, Hofstra and St. Francis. They also need to beat Lehigh and Lafayette. And if they beat No. 19 North Carolina State, a promotion is in Jones' near future.
David Burrick is a junior urban studies and philosophy, politics and economics major from Short Hills, N.J. His e-mail address is dburrick@sas.upenn.edu
