M. Hoops celebrates Thanksgiving with 2-1 mark in Sin City

This wasn't the usual Thanksgiving dinner.

Sure, there was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes -- all the traditional holiday fare.

But the Penn men's basketball team ate this Thanksgiving dinner on a Wednesday night.

And they ate it at a Las Vegas restaurant inside a hotel noted for the 50-foot Eiffel Tower replica on its property.

Didn't much matter to these Quakers, though. They ate together, and then they went out and beat two NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago and nearly upset Illinois, the No. 2 team in the nation.

Not a bad three-game stretch for Penn (3-1 overall) in the Las Vegas Invitational.

It was good enough to get the Red and Blue six votes in the Associated Press top 25 poll, good enough to get them out to their best start since 1994-95.

And as the Quakers, a 12-17 team a year ago, will tell you, the success they had in Vegas stems from the type of chemistry that makes a Wednesday night Thanksgiving dinner on the Vegas strip not only bearable, but enjoyable.

"I think a lot of [the problems we had last season] was due to chemistry," Penn junior Ugonna Onyekwe said.

"We go out a lot as a team, we do stuff together... All that kind of little stuff just helps to build chemistry and camaraderie among the team," he added. "We're a much closer unit, and I think it shows out there."

Onyekwe, for one, has been a big beneficiary of the increased Penn chemistry. Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 1999-2000 but a disappointment last year, the Quakers' forward is tied for 11th in the nation with 24.0 points per game and was an All-Tournament selection last week, along with frontcourt mate Koko Archibong.

Archibong has averaged 18.0 points per game, and scored 20 of his career-high 26 in the first half of Friday's game against Eastern Illinois (2-3).

Penn won that contest rather handily, 77-60, and beat Iowa State (2-2), 84-77, the next night to finish third in the eight-team tournament.

But the biggest game for the Quakers in the tournament was on Thanksgiving night against Illinois. Penn got out to a 45-34 halftime lead, but the Fighting Illini (5-0) stormed back, shooting 71 percent in the second half en route to a 78-71 win.

"In the second half, they showed why they're the No. 2 team in the nation," Penn sophomore Jeff Schiffner said.

But the Quakers gained some national recognition for the near-upset, and they ended up topping Illinois in several statistical categories, including assists (20-14).

That edge is no anomaly. Penn has 71 assists this season, 23 more than its opponents. And the reason for that? It goes right back to team chemistry.

"I think that we've realized how important it is to play together," Penn senior Dan Solomito said. "I think we've realized how much fun basketball can be when you win. It took a while last year -- eight games -- to finally get that first 'W', and there's nothing fun about that."

But there's plenty of fun this year. The 3-1 start certainly hasn't hurt, and neither has playing three of those games at a gym 25 minutes away from the glitter of Las Vegas.

And that Wednesday night Thanksgiving dinner in a French restaurant?

Just another camaraderie builder for a team that has now played four games against 2001 NCAA Tournament teams, and won three of them.

"It was the best Thanksgiving I've had since I've come to Penn, because I never get to go home for Thanksgiving," said Penn junior Andrew Coates, a Seattle native. "It was a lot better to spend it with the team, who I'm very close with, rather than spending it with someone else."

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