Huober | Don't leave senior class by the wayside

ITHACA, N.Y.-

As Penn slogged through its non-conference schedule, Glen Miller and his players expressed similar sentiments after some of the rougher blowouts.

Wait 'til the Ivy League, they'd say. That's where the real season begins, that's where the NCAA berth lies, that's where our season can take a positive turn.

A pair of close wins over Harvard and Dartmouth gave Penn fans reason for hope. But two 10-plus-point, Bernardini-less losses later, that hope is quickly fading.

Cornell, the second of those two victorious opponents, now sits at a perfect 6-0 atop the Ancient Eight; Penn finds itself locked in a third-place tie at 2-2. The Quakers' two victims thus far, Harvard and Dartmouth, look to be the league's doormats at 1-5 apiece.

Ivy season has rolled around, so what are they saying now?

"We'll have better days ahead," Miller said after the loss to Columbia Friday. "I would just say that our opponents in the Ivy League can enjoy it, because it won't last long."

The following night, in Ithaca, the Penn coach continued with this forward-looking viewpoint.

"We're very much rebuilding," Miller said. "You guys all know that. We think we have a good recruiting class coming in and we have some good young players in our program right now."

There's that word: "Rebuilding." As prospects for this season become increasingly dim, the focus shifts to the next. Some fans, and the younger players in private, may have felt this way for some time. But until now, that feeling hasn't been articulated quite like this.

It's not a situation this program is used to finding itself in. For years, we've seen Ivy opponents, out of contention, come to the Palestra to play big, bad Penn and give it their best in front of derisive fans.

Maybe they were playing for the chance to be a spoiler against the No. 1 team and league favorite. Maybe they were playing for the satisfaction of having given a daunting task their all. One thing is for certain: They sure weren't playing for an Ivy title.

Now, it looks like it's Penn's turn to take its licks. These players could learn something from the ones that took their beatings with dignity for years against the Red and Blue.

Not that they haven't acted graciously. But hopefully Miller's comments, holding out hope for the future, aren't coming from a team that's mailing it in. Hopefully, this is not a lame duck season, because there is still plenty to play for.

"You're wearing 'Penn' across your jersey and you play as hard as you can, representing your school. You keep on doing that for the rest of the season, no matter what happens," Miller said.

"Our program will be back where we all want it to be - a lot quicker than a lot of these people [the media] think."

The Ivy title isn't out of reach just yet. As unlikely as running the table for the rest of the year - and waiting for a Cornell loss - might seem, it is not a mathematical impossibility.

But if that doesn't happen, it's no reason to stop playing. Penn's three seniors may have three Ivy rings, but they don't have next year's recruiting class to look forward to.

Miller and the underclassmen shouldn't forget that.

Ilario Huober is a senior international relations major from Syracuse, N.Y. , and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His email address is ihuober@dailypennsylvanian.com

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