Looking out for No. 1

Penn matches up with No. 1 on the basketball court, and it's a big deal. The Quakers face the nation's top dogs on the wrestling mats -- for the second time this year -- and it's just another day.

But if you have the will power, I strongly encourage you to watch or listen on Saturday at 9 a.m. for the Quakers' National Duals match against No. 1 Missouri. And if you're not an early riser, the consolation match is at 1.

When the basketball team faced No. 1 Duke last year, fans had little reason to expect any sort of upset. Compare that to the grapplers, who beat No. 3 Iowa State as an unranked team three years ago at the Duels.

One of the fine writers who trained me at the DP, Ilario Huober, wrote last year about how the wrestling program was turning into a very "likeable team." I'd go one step further: the team was always likeable, and the rest of the season will tell whether or not they already have the talent to make students attend the Palestra for something other than basketball.

Penn will never be like Lehigh, where wrestling matches are campus-wide events, and that places a huge burden on the team to perform well enough to garner any attention at all.

But this weekend, your attention is deserved.