LEXINGTON, Ky., March 13 - When Penn's chartered plane landed here yesterday, it was probably the first time in the Bluegrass State for most of the passengers. "I don't know about Kentucky, I really don't," Ibrahim Jaaber admitted after the selection show Sunday.

How does Penn baseball plan on ending its recent slump? Easy. Look no further than coach John Cole's desk. "We're bringing it into the dugout tomorrow," Cole said, pointing at a bona fide Easy Button from the Staples commercial. After migrating to Florida for its first eight games, Penn returns north, looking for an win in its home opener against Temple this afternoon at Meiklejohn Stadium.

Here's a riddle for you: What do you get when a possible lottery pick guard teams up with a pair of uber-athletes, a 6-foot-10 Lithuanian paint-clogger and an all-Big 12 defensive first-teamer? Not a lot of leeway. Penn faces quite a conundrum as it prepares to take on heavily favored Texas A&M; in the first round of the NCAA Tournament tomorrow, but Quakers fans shouldn't give up on their team just yet.

Penn's December 2003 basketball game against St. John's may be remembered for a thrilling double overtime and former player Friedrich Ebede being punched in the face. However, it should be marked as the beginning of the Class of 2007 era, when Mark Zoller started his first career game.

The worst losses are the games that slip away. It seems more like your opponent did not really win, they just did enough not to lose. Fortunately in sports, a new season brings second chances and an opportunity at redemption for the ones that got away.

VILLANOVA, Pa., March 11 - The room full of Villanova faithfuls got a serious scare from Greg Gumbel on Sunday. "Maryland will play the Wildcats of ." What?! ". Davidson." Whew! The fans quieted down quickly during Sunday's NCAA Tournament selection broadcast when they realized their Wildcats were not the 13-seed forced to play the No.

History put Glen Miller in an unfortunate spot. Win, and he did what he was supposed to do. Lose and he was the second coming of Joe Scott. Get your seniors to roll with the changes, and it was just another Ivy title. Suffer a mutiny, and it was a disappointment of historic proportions.

After a week long tour of the Golden State, freshman Marissa Rosen emerged as Penn's top competitor. Although Penn (192.95) fell just short of Sacramento State (193.925) in its first meet over break, the highlight of the meet was Rosen's win in the all-around with 39.

It was a roller coaster affair Sunday evening at World Cafe Live - a far cry from the last two years, when Penn's seeding in the NCAA Tournament was quick and painless, over within a few minutes. This time, there were more than a few teams that Greg Gumbel called that got very different reactions from the assembled crowd, as the Quakers were among the last teams placed in the field of 65.

Over a month ago, as its league title hopes evaporated in a matter of one weekend, the future of the Penn wrestling team's season appeared grim. That weekend seems like a long time ago. Under the guidance of coach Zeke Jones and the team's seniors, Penn has admirably bounced back from losses to Columbia and Cornell, recording a third-place finish at the EIWA Championships over spring break to continue an impressive run.

A fired-up women's basketball team entered Jadwin Gymnasium last Tuesday evening just off its second Ivy-weekend sweep this year. It left as devastated 61-51 losers to rival Princeton in the final game of the season. "We don't like losing to Princeton," a sullen coach Pat Knapp said.

Coming into the 2007 season, Penn women's lacrosse coach Karin Brower believed that this year's freshman class was the team's best ever. Led by Ali DeLuca's team-high 13 points and 10 goals, the Class of 2010 hasn't disappointed thus far. The No. 15 Quakers went 1-1 over spring break, with a 15-7 win over Towson (2-1) on March 3, and a 13-4 loss to No.

Spring Break brought some mixed emotions for the Penn golf teams last week. Both the men's and women's squads were in action, with the men's team competing in the Braveheart Classic in Beaumont, Calif., and the women's team travelling south to Florida for the Springlake Invitational.

Maybe it wasn't the shot heard 'round the world, but junior Kyle Armeny's home run propelled Penn to what coach John Cole called its biggest win in years. In the fourth contest of Penn's eight-game Florida trip, Armeny dug in against Boston College closer Dan Houston.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - They lived by the three-pointer all season long, but the Hawks died by it Thursday night. A team that shoots a blistering 38.4 percent from deep, sixth-seeded Saint Joseph's went cold when it needed to make a few, and fell to No. 3 George Washington, 58-48 in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

March 2 - This was just the way it was supposed to happen for Penn's seniors. On their home floor, seniors Ibrahim Jaaber, Mark Zoller and Stephen Danley led the Quakers to an 86-58 victory over Yale to clinch a third-straight Ivy League title and NCAA Tournament berth, and avenge their lone conference blemish of the season, a nine-point loss in New Haven a month ago.

The next George Mason? Well, Drexel won't get a shot at replicating that Cinderella run - at least not in the NCAA Tournament this year. The Dragons instead garnered a 3-seed in the NIT tournament and will face No. 6 North Carolina State tonight at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.