At six o'clock sharp, the various conversations around tables inside the World Cafe Live came to a close. The assembled Penn players and fans put down their shares of the impressive buffet food, and all eyes turned towards the projection screen above the stage.
Up came the music, the CBS theme song which has come to define March the way Hank Williams Jr. defines Monday nights in the fall.
As he has for so many years, Greg Gumbel introduced himself not only to Penn's players and fans but to Selection Sunday parties across the country. Gumbel lords over this month like perhaps no one else, seeming at times to hold the fate of the free world in his hands at that desk in New York.
When it was finally time to announce the Field of 65, an uneasy quiet set in. The Chicago bracket came first.
"Thursday-Saturday games to take place in Cleveland," Gumbel said.
"Number five seed Alabama -- the Crimson Tide out of the SEC ..."
The room drew a collective breath, with some minds flashing back to Antonio McDyess almost singlehandedly beating Penn a decade ago in Baltimore.
"They'll meet the 12th-seeded Panthers of Wisconsin-Milwaukee."
Exhale.
"Boston College is the number four seed ..."
Now there was pin-drop silence, and anticipation.
"They will meet the 13-seed Quakers of Penn."
The crowd roared, with cameras rolling and flashbulbs popping as quite a few players leapt out of their seats.
This was the buzz-word matchup -- Penn playing the team on the lips of many when asked who they wanted to see. No game against a top-20 team is easy, but this seemed to be the most palatable one -- even more so when compared to the other four-seeds, Louisville, Syracuse and Florida.
Then again, the nation was talking up the Eagles as a potential top seed in the tournament not long ago.
They started the season with a 20-game winning streak, tying for the regular season title and clinching the top seed at last week's conference tournament in New York.
But the bright lights of Madison Square Garden can be a considerable burden --as they turned out to be for the Eagles last Thursday. BC fell hard, 78-72, to a West Virginia team which outpassed and outshot the supposedly-better Eagles.
Penn is certainly capable of out-passing and outshooting almost any team it plays, whether or not it actually does so. So it's no surprise that former La Salle coach Speedy Morris, now the head coach of St. Joseph's Prep, sounded a lot like his close friend Fran Dunphy on Sunday.
"I think if Penn goes in and makes their shots -- and that's a big thing, making shots -- I think they'll get shots against a good defensive team."
So which Boston College team will Penn see? The 20-0 team or the one that has only won four of its last eight?
The question was posed to Villanova head coach Jay Wright yesterday morning at the Coaches vs. Cancer breakfast.
"I think everyone has to realize that Penn is playing a very, very good team," Wright said. "But I think that Penn's toughness will give them a chance to match them physically, and I think if Penn shoots the ball well, they have a good shot [to win].''
Sound familiar? It's been the refrain all season. Make shots and win games, no matter the arena or the date on the calendar.
Wright would know -- his talented Wildcats lost a 67-66 heartbreaker to Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., then stamped their authority on this season with a 76-70 win at the Pavilion.
He also got to watch the Eagles play West Virginia from his team's locker room in the Garden, before Villanova played Pittsburgh in the second game of Thursday's afternoon doubleheader.
The elements seem to be there for Penn to make a bit of history -- a close venue and a familiar opponent, one which has slid this March instead of peaked.
But it always seems this easy on paper, doesn't it?
Jonathan Tannenwald is a junior Urban Studies major from Washington, D.C. His e-mail address is jtannenw@sas.upenn.edu.
