Huober | Quality wins lacking for Hoops

The only two wins for the men's basketball team so far this season have been against military academies - The Citadel and Navy.

That's just so un-American. If it hasn't already, the NSA should hurry up and get a wiretap in Glen Miller's house.

In all seriousness, though, Penn's two lone victories highlight a jarring truth: This non-conference schedule is beating up on the Quakers. The last five games have included three top-25 opponents and two losses - just 11 days apart, to the ACC's Virginia and North Carolina - in which Penn's opponent scored in triple digits.

In over a century of college basketball, that has never happened to the Quakers in such a short span of time. On only three other occasions has Penn even seen its opponent hit the century mark twice in a season, let alone within a week and half of each other. The last time was 21 years ago.

So, was it worth it? Aside from their two wins against crew-cut opponents, what do the Quakers have to show from their first nine games?

Not a whole lot.

Sure, we've all seen what Tyler Bernardini can do, and all indications are that he'll have a great career here. Sure, we've seen some players with only garbage-time experience a year ago start to produce on the court.

But did Penn really need UNC to come into the Palestra and put on a highlight reel in order to find that out? For every positive the Quakers manage to coax from games like these, there has been a negating loss to a Howard or a Lafayette.

Whichever way you slice it, it always hurts to lose, and at some point, these "big-time" games start to become less constructive. Obviously, anytime you can get ESPN2 in a packed Palestra, you take it. But on the basketball court, the hits just keep on coming.

In the press conference after Wednesday's loss, Penn seemed to exude a sense of resignation toward its non-conference schedule. Captain Brian Grandieri spoke of Ivy League play as the team's ticket to the tournament and emphasized that conference games are what matters.

And maybe that's true for a team that isn't favored to win the Ivy League. Maybe that coveted berth to the NCAA Tournament is all you can hope for in a year like this. But for a program that has been to the Big Dance 14 times in 27 years since the last time it won a first-round game, that simply is not enough. It may be a bit ambitious, but the goal must be to win in the Tournament every year.

However, Penn only has a realistic shot at that if it's seeded higher than 15. With the way this non-league schedule is shaping up, it doesn't matter what it does in the Ivies - if it make the tourney, that's what they'll get.

So no matter how harrowing the last week and a half has been, the Quakers cannot afford to look past their remaining non-conference games. There are still plenty of quality wins out there - Miami, La Salle, St. Joe's and Temple, to name a few. And it wouldn't hurt to beat Elon, NJIT and company, either.

The way the Quakers played last night, they definitely have a chance to win the Ivies. It's time they start acting like they know it.

Ilario Huober is a senior international relations major from Syracuse, N.Y. , and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is ihuober@sas.upenn.edu

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