Penn basketball memories: The players

We had two former Penn stars contribute their favorite hardwood moments to our collection. Andy Toole, now head coach at Robert Morris, and Mark Zoller both share stories from their time at Penn.

Your favorite Penn Basketball memory?

I have so many favoirte memories from being a basketball player at Penn it is hard to pick just one. If I was forced I to pick, aside from all the times i just enjoyed being with my teammates, I would say the Ivy Championship game against Yale in 2002. It was the first time the Ivy league had a three-way tie for the championship and we played Yale for the Championshipp at Lafayette College. It was extremely gratifying because we came off a sub par year the year before. We had a great pre conference season, going undefeated in the Big 5 as well as beating Georgia Tech and Iowa St. Then we started Ivy play and three of our first five games.

Everyone was skeptical of our chance to win the league and we rattled off 10 straight wins to finish the season including that win vs Yale. Going into the game there was just no way they were going to beat us, we had such a focus and belief in our teams ability. Koko Archibong and Ugonna Onyekwe got us off to a great start and Yale could never recover. Once again the Quakers were going to the NCAA tournament!

-Andy Toole, College '03

I have so many terrific memories going through Penn, but I would have to say my favorite memory(ies) was making the NCAA Tournament. In my opinion it is the greatest event in all of sports. The Selection Sunday festivities are unlike no other experience I've ever had, it is the culmination of all your hard work coming to fruition. It makes all the time in effort going into the season all worth it.

-Mark Zoller, College '07