Undefeated M. Hoops leaving for Las Vegas

Read this next phrase aloud:

The undefeated Penn men's basketball team.

Go on, say those six words, because you probably won't be able to do that two days from now.

The Quakers, 79-74 winners over Georgia Tech on Monday night, face Illinois in their second game in the Las Vegas Invitational tomorrow.

And Illinois, in case you didn't know, is a pretty darned good team. The 2-0 Fighting Illini are ranked second in the nation in both the Associated Press and the ESPN/USA Today polls.

It's not like Penn hasn't beaten ranked teams before (the Quakers bested top-10 Temple in 1998), but the Fighting Illini are a different sort of ranked team. A year removed from advancing to the Elite Eight, Illinois returns what is probably the best backcourt in the nation in Frank Williams (last year's Big 10 Player of the Year) and Cory Bradford.

But Penn isn't likely to be fazed tomorrow night. Nervousness didn't seem to be a problem Monday, even in a season-opener in an ACC gym. An example: Tim Begley had no problem taking Penn's first shot of the year, a three-pointer just 12 seconds into the game.

"You're supposed to be taking shots," Begley said. "Just because I'm a freshman, I can't be passing up the first shot of the game."

And Penn didn't show any rookie-like reaction to its upset win over the Yellow Jackets either. When the final buzzer sounded, the Quakers exchanged some hugs and pumped some fists, but they weren't exactly ready to dump a cooler of Gatorade on coach Fran Dunphy.

"We're not getting too excited about this," said Penn junior Ugonna Onyekwe, who scored a career-high 30 points on Monday. "We have 29 more games to go and none of them are guaranteed."

Certainly not the Illinois game. And not Penn's next game, on Friday against Eastern Illinois, either. The Panthers may have been crushed by the Fighting Illini, 93-53, on Monday night, but they do return the nation's fourth-leading scorer, Henry Domercant. And they did make the NCAA Tournament last year.

The Quakers end the Las Vegas Invitational portion of their schedule on Saturday. They will face either Hartford, St. Louis, Iowa State or Southern Illinois.

Monday's game at Georgia Tech was technically part of the Las Vegas Invitational. But Penn's remaining three games in the Invite will take place at Valley High School in the Silver City.

The Quakers are in Las Vegas now, but they've certainly taken a circuitous route to get there.

The Penn Athletic Department was concerned about the team members missing too many classes, so yesterday morning at 6:45 A.M., Penn departed from Atlanta. The Quakers arrived in Philadelphia at around 8:45 a.m., and then presumably attended class before heading back to the airport for a 6:30 p.m. flight.

Ironically, that flight had a stopover in Atlanta.

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Official numbers have not been released, but according to the Athletic Department, ticket sales for Penn games were up yesterday, following the Quakers' surprise win.

"There was no significant increase in student ticket sales," Penn Athletic Department spokesperson Carla Shultzberg said. "But we had a very busy day on the phone for season-ticket and single-game sales."

The increase may be due in part to an advertisement Penn ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, but the Quakers' upset victory also likely played a role.

"It helps when they win," said Jerry Kelly, an employee in the Penn ticket office.

Ticket sales had been down, as the number of participants in The Line decreased from 275 last year to just 75 this year.

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More stingers from Monday's game: Neither of Penn's seniors, Dan Solomito and Jon Tross, played. Solomito did stand for much of the game, however, waving his towel.... Freshmen Conor Tolan and Nameir Majette didn't make the trip.... Andrew Coates had four fouls, three turnovers and zero points in seven minutes.... Dunphy said two weeks ago that freshman Jan Fikiel needs work defensively. Fikiel entered the game with 12:16 remaining in the first half, and Tech center Luke Schenscher promptly hit a baby hook over him.... Penn's top returning big man, Adam Chubb, will be out at least three more weeks with a stress fracture in his right foot.

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