Early in the Ivy League season, Penn basketball nearly lost one of its freshman phenoms to injury.

Staring at the ultimate humiliation of a 20+ point loss to Brown, Penn basketball relied on an unlikely group of characters to give itself a chance. It still wasn’t enough.

Five consecutive losses. A combined scoring deficit of 98 points in this five-game losing skip. A dismal ranking of 303rd in the most recent Pomeroy rankings. Most importantly, a league-worst 2-7 Ivy record thus far this season. These are just a few of the most blatant indicators of the team’s recent misgivings that Penn basketball will need to ignore this weekend on the road against Brown and Yale. Of course, leaving these sorts of statistics at the door and focusing solely on the game at hand is easier said than done, but they are hoping to do so by looking towards the future. “This year in so many ways was about more than wins and losses,” assistant coach Nat Graham said.

When Penn basketball met Dartmouth at the Palestra on Jan. 30, the Quakers picked up their first Ivy win of the season largely because they limited Big Green guard Alex Mitola to six points. On Saturday, the Red and Blue were nowhere near as lucky. In a game that featured 11 lead changes, Dartmouth rode 15 second-half points from Mitola and managed to surmount Penn's largest lead of the game with a clutch 17-6 run late in the contest, one that allowed the Big Green to pull away with a 67-62 win.

Looking into the eyes of a four game road streak against a crew of Ivy foes, Penn men’s basketball — owner of the longest active losing streak in the Ivy League — is hoping a change of scenery will improve their fortunes. While a loss to Yale last weekend was not unexpected, a 75-48 point loss is always hard to chew and a defeat at the hands of cellar-dwelling Brown the next day didn’t ease the Quakers’ pain. Since Penn’s thrilling victory over Cornell on Feb.

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel once said that the opposite of love was not hate, but indifference.

What’s the cure for a hangover? Penn basketball is in  need of some relief after following up big Friday victories on its first two Ivy weekends of the season with equally deflating losses the day after. The Quakers (7-12, 3-6 Ivy) will take a crack at finding a cure on their own floor when they host Yale and Brown for a back-to-back at the Palestra. Last Friday, the Quakers took advantage of a second-half rally to stun Cornell in Ithaca, winning, 71-69, on a floater by junior guard Tony Hicks with only four seconds left. Saturday, though, Hicks and pretty much all of his teammates — save for freshman forward Sam Jones — went MIA.

It's Tony Hicks' world and the rest of us are just paying rent. Despite falling behind by 12 to begin the game and never leading until under a minute remained, Penn basketball rode the junior guard's 20 second half points and game-winning jumper with four seconds remaining to its sixth consecutive win over Cornell, 71-69. The Red and Blue looked overwhelmed from the onset.

It's been awhile since Penn basketball played a game away from the Palestra. But after putting together a stretch of the team's most respectable games this season, the Quakers are looking to continue to piece wins together in the Empire State.

The Crimson handled Penn men’s basketball on Saturday night from start to finish, cruising to an 63-38 win over the Quakers. Led by guards Siyani Chambers and Wesley Saunders, Harvard put together a complete game at both ends of the floor.

The Red and Blue held off Dartmouth, 58-51, on Friday night at the Palestra to mark their second-straight tight victory.

If the Quakers are lucky, their youthful squad can force their way into the Ivy race by capitalizing on home court advantage this weekend and sweeping the Big Green and Crimson for the first time in three years.

The Red and Blue battled their Big 5 rival St. Joseph’s like their lives depended on it, earning a hard-fought 56-52 victory.

For a moment, it looked as if Penn basketball had turned a corner when it gave then-No. 5 Villanova a serious scare at home on Saturday. Apparently not. Playing to a mostly-empty Palestra crowd, the Quakers came out sleepwalking against Monmouth and paid dearly.

With Ivy League play looming, the Quakers (4-9, 0-1 Ivy) look to continue their success against MAAC teams - they are 2-1 this season with wins over Marist and Niagara - with Wednesday's game against Monmouth (9-9).

For Thomas Munson's photo recap of Penn men's basketball's game against Villanova: http://www.thedp.com/gallery/villanova-escapes-penn-mens-hoops

Going into Saturday’s matchup, things weren’t exactly looking up for Penn basketball. Despite completing the squad's first three game winning steak in over two seasons earlier this year, the outlook for the Red and Blue looked decidedly bleak after blowing a 15-point lead to Princeton last Saturday. And, as most expected, the Quakers fell to No.