Jesse Spector: Favored Quakers won't have easy time

The last time that the Princeton basketball team's margin of defeat was as wide as it was on Tuesday night at Duke, Tigers coach John Thompson III wasn't even a glint in his father's eye. In fact, legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson was still a toddler himself. The year was 1946 when Cornell defeated Princeton in a 77-34 romp. The Ivy League did not exist yet when the Tigers suffered through an 0-8 season in the Eastern Intercollegiate League. Fifty-five seasons later, a lot has changed. Simply the departure of Princeton's No. 55, Chris Young, would have made the Ivy League plenty interesting this season. The mass defection that followed Young out of Old Nassau has made it seem as if Penn will win the Ivy League in a walk. But the Quakers have questions of their own. While they unquestionably have the Ancient Eight's strongest frontcourt, the Red and Blue come into the season wondering who will take the big shots down the stretch; who will bail them out of games the way that Michael Jordan and Matt Langel did last season in a one-point squeaker at Harvard. Up and down the Ancient Eight, everyone has questions, which means that it's impossible to count anyone out. "Everybody's gonna make some noise in this league," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I don't think you can ever discount Princeton just because of who they are and the winning tradition that they have." Still, the Tigers' personnel problems are clearly there. Penn still has to figure out its final backcourt plans. Yale and Brown will try to win for second-year coaches with very young teams. Columbia returns four starters, but it's not as if those four starters were carrying a contender. Harvard also has plenty of experience, but not necessarily all positive experience. Dartmouth has to be wondering whether its 1999 team that only lost to Penn and Princeton will show up, or if last year's debacle will repeat itself. Then there's Cornell. Led by former Penn assistant Steve Donahue, and with players who are fueled by a great desire to play their best games at the hallowed Palestra, they could make a run. "I think that Cornell will be improved," Dunphy said. "I would hope that if those guys at Cornell buy into what coach Donahue is teaching them, that they will have a good team there. They have some pretty good skill guys." This basketball season could then end up a lot like the Ivy League's football season. The football season was set up by the favorite's stumbles. Yale probably had the most talented team on paper, but a one-point loss at Cornell kept the Elis with the rest of the wide-open Ivy pack, and the league's attrition finally ended their hopes for a title. The Penn basketball team has one way to avoid a similar fate -- don't stumble. The Ivy League is now unique to Division I basketball in that there is no second chance for a good team that struggles during the regular season -- there is no conference tournament. And there's plenty of opportunity for good teams to falter. The Ivy schedule is made up of back-to-back games played on Friday and Saturday nights. Last year's Penn game at Harvard was a Saturday night affair. Two years ago, when Ray Mercedes and Cornell paid a nearly disastrous visit to the Palestra, that was on the final Saturday night of the season. The 1988 Big Red were the last team other than Penn or Princeton to win the Ivy League, and they'll have a chance to send the Quakers an immediate message this season -- Cornell visits the Palestra on January 13, the first Saturday night of the Ivy League schedule. Penn hasn't lost a home game to a non-Princeton Ivy foe since 1997, and Cornell hasn't won at the Palestra in over a decade. The expectation going into that last night of Penn's winter break will certainly be for those trends to continue. "Pressure is what you make of it," Dunphy said. "We have a winning tradition here, so there's always that sense that you're expected to do well. That's the case again this year." The Quakers are expected to do well. But had the exodus not occurred at Princeton, they might not have been the favorites. It would be foolish to believe that there is any such thing as a lock in a league where just 14 games determine the winner, and it seems like the unbelievable is somehow structured into the league schedule. There are no second chances in this league, and all stumbles are costly. Penn is probably the least likely team to stumble in this league. But they're the team that everyone will be actively trying to trip up to make the title hunt even wilder.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.