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Dan McQuade: Hunting the Golden Bears

(03/10/02 10:00am)

Members of the Penn men's basketball team said they didn't know much about California, the Quakers first round opponent in the NCAA Tournament. "I haven't seen them play at all," Penn guard Tim Begley said. "But Koko [Archibong] is from around there, he's my scouting report -- I'll be asking him a lot of questions." When Begley asks Archibong about the Golden Bears, he will be pleasantly surprised at how well the Quakers match up against the No. 6 seed. The Golden Bears, ranked No. 25 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25 polls last week, appear to be paper tigers. Sure, they were 22-8 overall, including a 12-6 record which tied them for second place in the ultracompetitive Pac-10. They have an RPI of 29. They have wins over UCLA, Oregon and USC. Make that home wins -- plus an additional victory over UCLA at a neutral site -- over those three teams. The Bears are a pitiful 4-6 in road games this year, with their biggest losses coming at South Florida and Washington. On March 2, Cal suffered its second-worst loss ever, a 99-53 drubbing at Arizona -- a squad that has been up and down all season. Conversely, Penn is 10-2 on the road, and has won in tough places, such as Temple's Liacouras Center, Princeton's Jadwin Gym and Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Colosseum. In fact, before Penn's 79-74 win over the Yellow Jackets, Tech was 118-5 at home in non-conference games since 1981. Outside the Pac-10, the Bears faced zero teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers did lose to both Tourney teams they played -- Illinois and Davidson -- but their home loss to the latter was without point guard Andrew Toole. The Golden Bears only scheduled one non-conference road game -- and lost. Although they were 9-1 out of conference, all nine wins were played at California's home gym. The Quakers, however, were 14-3 in non-conference play, and were undefeated on the road outside of the Ivy League, including tough Big 5 wins against Temple and La Salle. In terms of overall out-of-conference play, the Quakers' non-conference RPI is 29 -- two spots ahead of the Bears. The Quakers do have a history with the Bears. Two seasons ago, Penn defeated Cal, 74-71, in the finals of the Golden Bear Classic. Penn's Michael Jordan scored 14 points and dished eight assists in that contest -- ending California's 14-game home winning streak. Three starters on California remain from that squad -- junior forward Joe Shipp, senior center Solomon Hughes, and junior point guard Shantay Legans. "I remember the game very vividly, it was a great win for us," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We hit like every shot we took, -- we shot over 60 percent. "But that's what it took to win the game, because we didn't do a great job of defending." In their current 10-game run, the Quakers have played excellent defense, holding their opponents to 55.7 points per game. Cal works the defensive end as well, holding opponents to 66.4 points per game, and the Bears notch eight steals and block four shots a game. "I hope that we're a little bit better defensive team this year than we were then," he said. "I think we've played better defensively in the last 10 games of the year." Cal starts a pair of 6-foot-11 players in the frontcourt. But the Bears are not great on the glass, getting outhustled on the boards, 35.5-33.9. All in all, with the way the Quakers have been playing in their last 10 games, they should not have any trouble taking down the Golden Bears on Friday.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2002/03/dan_mcquade_hunting_the_golden_bears

M. Hoops back in NCAA Tournament after routing Yale

(03/09/02 10:00am)

EASTON, Pa. -- Andrew Toole said he transferred to Penn to get to the NCAA Tournament. On Saturday night, he got his wish. "It's unbelievable," Toole said. "I almost had an asthma attack after the final buzzer went off." The Penn men's basketball team received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday after defeating Yale, 77-58, in the Ivy League playoff final at Lafayette's Kirby Sports Center. Yale reached the finals by beating Princeton, 76-60, on Thursday at the Palestra. The three teams finished tied atop the Ivy standings at 11-3 to force this unprecedented three-way tournament. The Quakers received the bye in the mini-tournament due to their 3-1 record against Princeton and Yale during the regular season. Penn (25-6) jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back. The Elis (20-10) missed their first five shots of the contest en route to a 29 percent shooting performance overall. "I thought we had good looks at the basket early that didn't go in," Yale coach James Jones said. "[The referees] allowed us to be physical inside, called it fair both ways, and we didn't take advantage of it." Koko Archibong had his best game of the season for the Quakers at just the right time, scoring 21 points and pulling down a career-high16 rebounds -- seven of which came on the offensive glass. In all, the Quakers dominated the inside game, outrebounding the Elis, 39-30, and outscoring them in the paint, 36-20. "I think [Archibong and Ugonna Onyekwe] did a very good job, especially setting the tone tonight," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "They just decided they were going to be a force inside." Onyekwe had 16 points and five rebounds on the night on 6 -of-14 shooting. The junior helped lead a Quakers' offense that not only reigned inside, but also shot 54.7 percent, including 7-of-17 from three-point range. After leading, 23-8, midway through the first half, Penn was able to withstand any Yale attempts at a comeback. The Elis could never get any closer than 10 the rest of the way, even with Onyekwe on the bench with a pair of fouls late in the first. Freshman Jan Fikiel was Penn's leading scorer at halftime, scoring eight points on 4 for 4 shooting from the field. The Quakers led, 37-25, at the break. "I felt pretty good [at halftime], because we hadn't played well yet," Jones said. "I thought if we could get a little bit of momentum we'd be OK." But the Elis could not overcome their first-half woes, shooting worse -- a measly 9-for-32 -- in the second half. The Elis had a nightmarish time from the field overall on Saturday. Captain Ime Archibong shot 1-for-8, second-team All Ivy Paul Vitelli went 1-for-6, and freshman guard Edwin Draughan was 1-for-9. Backup center Josh Hill was the only player in double figures with 14. In all, Yale's bench outscored its starters, 30-28. The Quakers will go into the NCAA Tournament on a 10-game winning streak. On Feb. 8, Penn lost to Yale, 83-78, and was stuck at 2-3 -- sixth place in the Ivy League. The Quakers haven't lost since. "I'm proud of our guys, coming back from where we were a couple of weeks ago to finish this thing out strong," Dunphy said. Penn will now wait for the NCAA Selection Show at 6 p.m. on Sunday on CBS. It will be the Red and Blue's 20th appearance in the Big Dance, and their first since 1999-2000.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2002/03/m-hoops-back-in-ncaa-tournament-after-routing-yale

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