At this point, it looks like the Penn men's basketball team is going to have to try really hard not to win the Ivy League championship. After all, the Quakers are three games ahead in the loss column of the rest of the field with only seven games to play.
However, do not let this 10-game winning streak fool you into thinking that Penn can win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers still have some serious work ahead of them.
Their goal now should be to complete the Ivy League season undefeated and ride the positive momentum into the tournament.
I know that no player or coach on the team would ever say that they will ease up on the throttle for the second half of the Ivy season, but it is something that happens to a number of teams.
So here is what Penn needs to do for the rest of the year in order to win that tournament game for the first time since the 1993-94 season:
For much of the last two seasons, the Quakers have failed in close games down the stretch.
But against Saint Joseph's, Princeton, Columbia and Cornell, Penn has shown that it can win games that are not blowouts, and even come from way behind. The Quakers have shown a confidence, especially in the last three games, not to panic when they fall behind and come back to win games.
However, Penn has virtually no chance to win a game against the caliber of opponents that it will meet in the first round of the NCAAs if it plays with the attitude that one or two big runs are enough to win.
The Quakers cannot afford to play for only 15 minutes against the likes of Louisville or Syracuse.
Instead, Penn needs to get out to a hot start early, like they did against the Hawks and even in the loss to Rider.
The Quakers should continue to try to dominate games in the Ivy League like they did in the first weekend of conference play.
The win over Brown on Jan. 29 was the most complete game Penn has played all year.
Jason Forte, arguably the best player in the Ivy League, was held scoreless in the first half. The Quakers jumped out to a big lead early, and never let the Bears within 12 points the rest of the way.
It is that kind of game the Quakers should continue to strive for the rest of the year.
While Tim Begley's performance over the weekend and especially Saturday night was fantastic, it will be very hard to count on him, or for that matter any other player on the team, to bail the Quakers out.
One of the strong points of this year's team is its balanced offense. Opponents cannot key on one man because they never know who will have the hot hand on a given night.
The bottom line is that Penn looked sluggish over the weekend. Coach Fran Dunphy correctly pointed out that the Quakers had just completed a stretch of five games in nine days, and were probably tired.
That may be true, but when the calendar turns to March, only your best is acceptable every night.
Josh Hirsch is a sophomore in the College from Roslyn, N.Y., and is Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.
