Infamy just one year ago

January 7, 2001: a date which ended a early season of infamy for the Penn men's basketball team.

It was exactly one year ago today that the Quakers of old took their dismal, 0-8 season-opening record to Miami to face equally struggling Florida International, a team that had managed only a pair of wins in its first 13 games.

Penn, low on both confidence and time with the start of Ivy League play looming less than a week away, desparately needed a win over the underdog Golden Panthers to atone for the debacles of the past weeks and avoid extending what was already the worst-ever start in team history.

Playing with a newfound intensity -- usually reserved sophomore forward Ugonna Onyekwe earned the first technical foul of his career less than three minutes into the game -- the Red and Blue stretched a 27-23 halftime lead into a 69-59 win that afternoon before a surprisingly Penn-friendly crowd.

The result allowed a collective sigh of relief for the Quakers -- after nine games, they finally had that elusive first victory.

How things have changed in just a year.

Tonight the Quakers celebrate the anniversary of last season's first win by reuniting with the Golden Panthers for a 7 p.m. tipoff in the Palestra, and Penn's confidence now is far higher than at this point last year.

Instead of 0-8, the Red and Blue's record coming into today's Florida International matchup is a hefty 8-3, with gutsy wins over quality opponents like Georgia Tech, Villanova and Temple.

In fact, things are so different between Jan. 7, 2001 and Jan. 7, 2002 that Penn coach Fran Dunphy all but dismissed any comparison between his team's status on either date.

"What transpired last year really has not a whole lot to do with this year's team," Dunphy said yesterday. "I don't think we've thought two minutes about last year's schedule, last year how we've played, or any of those things... in terms of our preparation for this year."

Part of the reason behind this disregard for last year's victory over the Golden Panthers is the fact that Florida International has a new look this season.

Second-year coach Donnie Marsh added eight new names to the Golden Panthers' roster in the preseason, including two freshmen and a junior transfer who have become the team's biggest scoring threats.

"They have three starters back from last year, but they're all basically coming off the bench," Dunphy said. "They have an almost totally different team than they had last year."

Leading Florida International with 14.3 points per game is 6-foot-9 freshman forward Taurance Johnson, a product of Philadelphia Christian Academy's vaunted basketball program who also leads the Golden Panthers in blocked shots (1.6 per game) and turnovers (3.8 per game).

The Quakers will also keep an eye on junior transfer Rodrigo Viegas, a 6-5 forward who is Florida International's leading rebounder (6.1 per game) and three-point shooter (0.8 per game) and freshman guard Carlos Morban, who's not only good for 9.5 points per game but is also a "tremendous defensive player," according to Dunphy.

These new additions on the floor have helped Florida International to a 7-9 overall record.

A win over the Golden Panthers would mean almost as much to the Quakers tonight as it did last year. Currently on a run of two straight wins, a victory would give Penn a legitimate winning streak heading into next weekend's Ivy opener at Dartmouth.

Beating Florida International could also send a strong message to reigning Ivy champion Princeton, which lost to the Golden Panthers, 49-44, just before Thanksgiving.

But the future implications of tonight's game are of no concern to Dunphy. Just like last year, all he wants out of this Florida International game is to put a tally in the win column.

"I don't think many coaches are a plan-ahead type guys," he said. "That's not what we do. We want to make sure that we put ourselves in the best situation to win the game."

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