Penn's game against Drexel may have been featured on ESPN this week, but the Ivy League hasn't been turning any heads thus far: Ancient Eight squads have gone just 4-12 to open the men's basketball season. That said, they looked more than respectable against some quality opponents in their season openers.

Trinity, Princeton, Yale and Harvard. Since 2005-06, the men's squash team's view has been unchanged: Above the Quakers, that elite quadrumvirate. Below, every other team in the nation. Penn - fifth-place finishers at the past two national championships - is tired of sitting on the outside looking in.

Mathematically, at least, three of this weekend's four Ivy matchups have title implications. The one exception is Dartmouth at Princeton - but there's something even larger at stake. The Big Green (0-9, 0-6 Ivy) are on the verge of their first winless campaign since 1883.

Sophomore Kim Adams, who started Friday's opener and was second on the team in scoring in 2007-08, became the fourth player to leave the team since the end of last year. "She approached me on Monday; she has decided to leave the team for personal reasons," Penn coach Pat Knapp said.

The Dragons weren't more talented, more athletic or more prepared than Penn in their 66-64 home win at the Daskalakis Athletic Center yesterday. No, the difference came down to defensive intensity - Drexel had it, and Penn didn't. "Just disappointed in our performance tonight," senior guard Kevin Egee said.

Last time Villanova senior Lisa Karcic made a visit to the Palestra, it was a dark day for Penn women's basketball. "Two years ago she shot the lights out here," coach Pat Knapp said. Unfortunately for Knapp and the Quakers, the scene at Villanova's Pavilion last year was even drearier.

After a loss to Princeton spoiled her first ever Ivy League match, sophomore Megan Tryon sensed what the Penn-Princeton rivalry was all about. "It's a pride thing," she said. "I'm still really bitter about that and I definitely want to avenge that loss." In two chances to get the revenge she so desperately covets, the Quakers came up short.

Bruiser Flint got his wish. With it came pressure. "My boss told me, 'Now look, man, we got this game here, so you better win,'" the Drexel coach said. "So I said, 'OK. All right. Appreciate it.'" The Dragons pleased their head honchos with a 66-64 win over Penn in its first-ever visit to the Daskalakis Center early yesterday morning.

The women's squash team has it all. After winning their first Ivy League title since 2000 and finishing second in the nation, the Quakers return with three All-Americans and plenty of confidence. "We are good, not to sound cocky," senior co-captain Emily Goodwin said.

Last season the women's basketball team only mustered 26 points in a 40 point rout by Villanova. In their home opener this year, the Quakers bounced back to nearly pull off a stunning upset. Instead, Sioban O'Connor hit a huge three-pointer with 36 seconds left to propel Villanova to a 45-43 victory.

Who knows what Bruiser Flint's politics are, but on matters of college basketball he is a registered progressive, and a loud one at that. Damn the torpedoes and the status quo, he says what he thinks and treats reporters not as annoyances but as sparring partners and useful tools in getting his point across.

Christina Matthias and Brittany Hebden have only gotten closer as the years have gone by - literally. From growing up a block apart in Philadelphia to attending Penn Charter School together for 12 years to sharing an off-campus house with seven other people, the two Penn squash players are "almost like sisters.

Zack Rosen had his chance to prove his mettle in Red and Blue. With under four seconds remaining and Penn trailing Drexel by three, the freshman guard drew a foul on one-handed prayer from beyond the arc. But his first free throw clanked off the rim. A visibly dejected Rosen made the second, but he was forced to intentionally miss the third.

By ASHLEY HUMIENNY Staff Writer humienny@dailypennsylvanian.com When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of being a "big man on campus" in his novels, the famed author's idealization certainly did not include 7 a.m. practices, iffy dining hall food and a pre-season prognosis of failure.

The grapple doesn't fall far from the tree. That might be a slight misspelling of the true maxim, but for Penn wrestlers and Holland, Pa., natives Rick and Mark Rappo and their three brothers, it's quite accurate. "It's just kind of a thing that's really part of our family," Rick said.

When crafting his offense this preseason, Penn coach Al Bagnoli conceived of a backfield that utilized the shifty Bradford Blackmon in tandem with the powerful Mike DiMaggio. "I think we've got a really nice one-two that hopefully are gonna cause people some problems," Bagnoli said in early September.

Most schools would consider sending eight wrestlers to the NCAA tournament a success. Not Penn. The Quakers did that last year, but because none of the eight became All-Americans, they wrote off the 2007-08 campaign as something of a disappointment. "We had a great [regular] season, but it didn't culminate in the success that we wanted," said first-year head coach Rob Eiter, who was a Penn assistant last year under current USA National coach Zeke Jones.