By Zachary Levine Senior Staff Writer zlevine@sas.upenn.edu Think of it as a warm-up for the Ivy League season. After blowing out Navy 79-58 in Annapolis last night, the Quakers will have less than 48 hours to prepare for a team that presents vastly different looks and challenges from the ones they faced against the Midshipmen.

Fordham's offense was in a rut coming into last night's game. The Rams were shooting only 39 percent from the field and 31 percent from three-point range, but all they needed was a visit to the Palestra.

Before Dirk Nowitzki took the NBA by storm, basketball was barely on Germany's radar screen. Fortunately for the Fordham hoops team, one young German with American roots wasn't content with just playing soccer.

Monica Naltner keeps on getting better. For the third time this season, Naltner set a new scoring high. Last night, she scored 37 points - 30 in the second half - to propel the Quakers to a comeback victory over Lafayette, 78-74. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for Penn (3-3), while Lafayette (2-6) lost its fifth in a row.

Glen Miller has not been in touch with former Brown guard Keenan Jeppesen since Jeppesen left Brown earlier this week, the coach said yesterday. Miller coached Jeppesen for two years at Brown before coming to Penn. Jeppesen nearly followed his coach, but his application for transfer was not considered this summer.

The last time an Ivy League basketball team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament was in 1968, when three -time All-American Jim McMillian was a star for Columbia. Anyone who thinks an Ivy postseason tournament will end this drought is optimistic, but wrong.

Just three-hundreths of a second. That was the difference at last year's meet between the Penn and Columbia women's swim teams in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Columbia's narrow victory, the final one of that meet, gave the Lions just enough points to beat the Quakers in a 153-147 decision.

By Matt Conrad Senior Sports Editor mlconrad@sas.upenn.edu The Big 5 is distinctly a Philadelphia entity, but its disciples range far and wide, from the NBA to college coaching staffs across the nation. Billy Lange is one such displaced Philadelphia guy whose career has brought him to the helm of the up-and-coming Navy basketball program.

Five days after allowing 14 three-pointers to Villanova, the Ivy League's sixth-ranked three-point defense is in for another tough night. When the Quakers (4-3) travel to Annapolis, Md. to face Navy (7-2) tonight, they know exactly what they'll be in for.

These Quakers are hoping that this season does not turn into a repeat of last. Despite winning its first two games, the women's basketball team has struggled in the face of tougher competition, losing three straight games. Penn (2-3) will try to right its ship when it tips off tonight against Lafayette (2-5).

When commercial timeouts end during radio broadcasts for WXPN, the producer says "cue" to tell the announcers they are back on the air. In Dallas for the NCAA tournament, the producer said "cue," but Penn senior and play-by-play Quakers announcer Brian Seltzer was silent.

There's no mystery surrounding the main challenge for the Penn men's track team, at least to its coaches. "We have a lot of top-end people who are really national-class guys," assistant men's coach Jamie Cook said. "We just need some of the younger underclassmen and supporting staff to step up.

Seven games into the season, there is no doubt who Penn's most valuable player has been. That honor belongs to senior Mark Zoller, who yesterday was named the Big 5 and the Ivy League player of the week - and the Big 5 award was Zoller's second of the season.

Recruiting international athletes to come to Penn is like reaching into Forrest Gump's box of chocolates: coaches never know what they're going to get. Whereas American high school athletes are very visible due to highly-publicized national competitions, it's harder to find and recruit international athletes.

By Ilario Huober Sports Editor ihuober@sas.upenn.edu When Ibrahim Jaaber stood up with a noticeable limp after being called for an offensive foul in the closing minutes of Penn's loss to Villanova Saturday, the Palestra faithful held its collective breath.

Only the electric atmosphere in the Palestra made it apparent that Saturday night's match-up between Penn and Villanova was a Big 5 contest. The game did not feature the grind-it-out defense and physical smothering of opportunities that have long characterized Big 5 games.

The Ivy League's distinction of being the only conference in the country without a postseason basketball tournament may be coming to an end.