Lance Stier: Gotta cheer on the Tigers

Red and Blue Crew, it is time to get out your Orange and Black.

Eight days ago, the Penn men's basketball team headed into Princeton's Jadwin Gym with a 3-3 conference record. The Quakers -- in the midst of a tailspin -- practically needed a pair of binoculars to see what was going on at the top of the league.

What a difference a night can make.

Following the 62-38 thrashing of their hated rivals, the Quakers found themselves with a new lease on life in the race for the Ivy League title.

The win over Princeton put the Quakers over .500 in the Ivies for the first time since Feb. 1, when their 75-63 victory over Cornell gave the Red and Blue their second league triumph.

And last weekend, Penn continued to distance itself from mediocrity by annihilating Harvard and Dartmouth.

By treating the Red and Blue faithful to high-flying dunks, hot-shooting and free cheesesteaks, Penn put itself back in the middle of the Ivy race.

The Quakers are now third in the Ivy League, and they can smell the Ancient Eight crown that eluded them last season.

All they need is a little help -- from Princeton.

This Friday, while the Quakers battle an underperforming Brown team in another must-win contest at the Palestra, a pivotal game will be taking place at Jadwin Gym. Yale and Princeton will be fighting for the conference lead.

While the Tigers already have two conference defeats, the Elis only have one -- an 87-82 home loss to Brown on Jan. 19 -- and are in the driver's seat for the third Ivy crown in the program's history and its first since 1962.

For Penn to have any shot at the title, Yale has to lose two more conference games.

While the Quakers have the chance to add another blemish to the Elis' record on Saturday night, Yale returns to New Haven, Conn. for the season's final week to face reeling Harvard and hapless Dartmouth.

Penn, however, would rather not play the odds of hoping that the Elis lose on their home floor to a pair of faltering foes.

Rather, the Quakers are banking on a Princeton win Friday night at Jadwin.

History bodes well for the Quakers, as Princeton has been nearly unbeatable on its home floor in the past decade.

Since the 1992-93 season, the Tigers have suffered just one loss at Jadwin to an Ivy team not named Pennsylvania. The last team to do it? The Elis.

Since that defeat, however, the Tigers have posted double-digit home wins against the Elis every year, including a span from 1996-1999, where Princeton beat the Elis by 30 or more points at Jadwin every year.

But, this is not your father's Yale basketball team.

Two years removed from a 4-22 record, the Elis returned to respectability last year with a 7-7 conference mark and look to be on the verge of turning the corner this season.

Yale has already beaten Penn and Princeton this season and seems to pick up confidence with each successive league triumph.

In the Elis' 60-50 victory over Princeton on Feb. 9, the young Yale team showed uncanny maturity by pulling away from the Tigers down the stretch.

Deadlocked with Princeton 30-30 at halftime and faced with a two-possession game with 1:34 to play, Yale clamped down on its defense, forcing the more-experienced Tigers to miss seven shots in the final two minutes.

Not what you would expect from a team that starts two freshmen -- Edwin Draughan and Alex Gamboa -- in its backcourt.

It is also not what you would expect from a team that boasts NBA journeyman extraordinaire Chris Dudley as its proudest hardwood alum.

Yet, no matter what the sad annals of Yale basketball may hold, the irrefutable fact remains that the Elis -- not Penn or Princeton -- are this year's Ivy team to beat.

But if there is a team besides Penn that has the motivation and talent to knock Yale off its perch at the top of the Ivy leaderboard, it is Princeton.

After the loss to Penn, the Tigers reeled off consecutive double-digit wins over Dartmouth and Harvard and are ready to regain a share of the league's top spot on Friday night.

And if the Quakers can avenge their earlier defeat to Yale on Saturday night and post a pair of wins at Cornell and Columbia the following week, the stage will be set, on March 5, for Penn to beat the Tigers for the second time this season.

If all holds course, a Penn victory would set up a three-way tie for the Ivy championship among the Quakers, the Tigers and the Elis.

Penn would be the highest-ranked seed, because of its superior record against the other first-place squads. The Quakers would stand at 3-1 versus Yale and Princeton, while the Elis and Tigers would be 2-2 and 1-3 against the other teams, respectively.

As such, Princeton and Yale would play, with the winner taking on the Quakers for the Ivy League's NCAA bid.

So, if Penn fans want to see the Quakers return to the Big Dance, they'll have to root for the Tigers on Friday night, no matter how much it hurts.

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