Sebastian Stockman: Breathing a sigh of relief

The Penn men's basketball team sat in three rows in front of a TV in one corner of a room in the Dunning Coaches' Center, as various friends, family members and boosters milled around behind them, making idle chitchat and eating Abner's cheesesteaks and hoagies. The Quakers and their supporters were waiting to see which team the NCAA Selection Committee would have them play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers had taken any real suspense out of these proceedings the previous night by drubbing Yale, 77-58, to secure the Ivy League's automatic berth. "Being in that room on Sunday night when your name is being called is the best feeling in the world for a college basketball player," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said after that game. The Quakers had answered the if. The only questions now were who, when and where? Shortly after 6:00, the CBS NCAA Selection show got under way. The East bracket was up first, followed by the Midwest. Penn wasn't in either bracket, but there were some close calls. Everyone in the room knew that the Quakers would be a good bet for 12 or 13 seed, and might even go as high as 10 or 11. Every time a four or five seed was announced, the entire room held its breath. "For me as the coach," Dunphy said. "I've had the opportunity to be there a couple of times before this. But to see [the team's] faces and know that the anticipation is going to be rewarded shortly -- that's something they're going to remember for the rest of their lives." Kentucky -- which beat Penn in the first game of the 1999 preseason NIT -- was a four seed in the East. But they're Kentucky, so there was a collective sigh of relief when Valparaiso was announced as the Wildcats' opponent. Same thing with Illinois and Florida -- the last two teams the Quakers faced in the tournament -- fourth and fifth seeds, respectively, in the Midwest, some folks even applauded when Creighton and San Diego State were revealed as their respective opponents. "I didn't think it would be nerve-wracking at all," freshman guard Tim Begley said of waiting for the announcement of Penn's seed. "But yeah, you see all those names pop up, you start wondering when you're gonna come, where you're gonna be going, who you're gonna be playing. "I'm glad they didn't call our name right away, or else it would have taken the fun out of it." An audible gasp went up when the 10 seed in the Midwest -- seven-seed Wake Forest's opponent -- was announced. Was it Penn? No, Pepperdine. "They saw that `P' and thought that was it," one of the guys from Abner's said. While the anticipation never turned into uneasiness, the Quakers and their supporters must have been a little anxious by the time their seed finally was announced. Greg Gumbel, the CBS announcer, read all the way through the South bracket until he got to the eleventh seed -- the very last slot in that regional -- "Pennsylvania out of the Ivy League." The crowd erupted and the CBS crew flipped on its camera, broadcasting the Quakers' reaction to the rest of the country. "Once they showed our name," sophomore swingman Jeff Schiffner said. "We were really fired up." No one bothered watching the rest of the selection show. The Quakers knew where they were going, and that was pretty much all anyone in the room was interested in. "It's just fun," Dunphy said of the festivities. "I think the only thing that would be better is if you were on the bubble and your name got called. What a relief that is for everybody in the room -- but this is better. When you come off that game like we had last night, knowing that you're in, it's just a fun time. "It's the best day of the year when you're in, it's the worst day of the year when you're not."

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