M. Hoops ready; Big 5 test tonight

Andrew Toole must be wondering what he's done to offend the basketball gods.

Tonight, the point guard for the Penn men's basketball team (5-1, 0-0 Big 5) will take the floor against Villanova (3-1, 0-1) for the 7 p.m. start at the Palestra.

Tomorrow, he will have surgery to repair the stress fracture in his right foot and will be out of commission for the next five to six weeks.

After sitting out all of last year as a transfer from Elon College, frustration is completely understandable, considering that he's only played seven games since his return. Yet the Red Bank, N.J. native is trying to keep a positive outlook on his current predicament.

"Yeah, it's extremely frustrating," he said. "Every chance you get, you want to be out on the court. But right now, the best thing for me to do is to get this fixed. It's best for the team, I think, best for myself, and that's what I'm going to do."

The Quakers are shooting for a Jan.11 return for Toole, who has helped to reinvigorate their backcourt play. Not coincidentally, Toole's target date also happens to mark the beginning of Ivy League play, as Penn will be taking its annual Dartmouth-Harvard road trip that weekend.

"Luckily, it's happening at this time of year, and maybe he can come back healthy and be ready to go against Harvard and Dartmouth," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said.

Filling in for Toole will be David Klatsky -- whom Dunphy and the rest of the Quakers coaching staff have described as the one player that Penn cannot live without. Based on this and past seasons, Klatsky's play will be solid, though Dunphy is unsure of how the team's on-court dynamic will be affected by the change.

"Time will tell," he said. "You have to look at it as an opportunity for some other guys. Somebody else now has a chance to step up, and we'll see who does want that chance."

While tonight's game marks the exit of one player due to a stress fracture, it might also mark the return of a player from a similar injury.

Sophomore Adam Chubb, who dressed at American on Saturday afternoon, might return to the Quakers front court in a limited role tonight.

"I think we could use him [tonight] if we felt the right opportunity was there," Dunphy said. "I don't know that we want to rush Adam back, but at the same time, if he gets out there tomorrow and gives us some good minutes, then his minutes obviously will increase."

Dunphy added that he's been pleased with the performances of Andrew Coates and Jan Fikiel up front.

"I'm pretty sure [Dunphy] will ease me in," Chubb said of his return to the Quakers' lineup. "I think it's the smart thing to do right now. I don't want to mess up the chemistry that the team has built. And also just in terms of myself -- practicing and playing games... it's two different things. I have to get used to it again."

The Villanova team that Chubb might face is physical and talented, though it will be missing Michael Bradley, who torched the Quakers for 21 points in last season's 80-51 debacle at the First Union Center. Bradley, a second team All-American last season, declared for the NBA draft after his junior season and was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the first round.

The Wildcats' leading scorer this season is Gary Buchanan, who broke the NCAA record for consecutive free throws in last season's game against Penn.

Villanova also sports athletic forwards Ricky Wright, Brooks Sales and Andrew Sullivan.

Not surprisingly, the Wildcats pose yet another obstacle in a season that has seen the Quakers meet all of their challenges head-on.

For its efforts thus far, Penn has begun to receive national attention. The Quakers received eight votes in the most recent Associated Press poll, and the column in which ESPN.com college hoops analyst Andy Katz praises Penn -- titled "Write it down in Penn: Quakers are for real" -- was featured as the lead story on ESPN.com's men's college basketball web site yesterday.

"It's something nice for a scrapbook or something, but it doesn't really mean anything more than that," Toole said, adding that the rest of the team had seen the column. "Writers can write anything they want, but it's up to us to make it to the NCAA tournament and prove them correct."

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