With Rocca on bench, men's hoops faces Penn

With the Ivy League title already decided, men's basketball's matchup with first-place Penn tonight at the Palestra is all about pride.

Penn humbled the Tigers (19-9 overall, 11-2 Ivy League) Feb. 15, utilizing a suffocating defense and some hot shooting to overcome a tentative Princeton effort at Jadwin Gym, 55-46.

The Quakers (20-7, 13-0) will be looking to maintain their unblemished league record, while the Tigers — who are 3-0 in their last three trips to the Palestra — will be aiming to make the Quakers one-loss champions for the second consecutive year.

Interestingly enough, the situation sets up oppositely to the final game of the 1997-98 regular season. First-place Princeton (then No. 8 in the country) came into the Palestra looking to finish undefeated in the league behind a solid effort from the team's veterans. Penn — and its talented young corps — looked to spoil the Tigers' miraculous run, and took the game to overtime before Princeton pulled it out, 78-72.

"We had seniors, and they had sophomores and freshmen," head coach Bill Carmody said. "It's a flipflop of that this year."

Penn's then-sophomore Michael Jordan had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation, but failed to convert and the Tigers pulled out the win. Jordan finds himself as the veteran this season, and will look to solidify his candidacy for Ivy League Player of the Year in his final home game tonight.

Fond memories

The Tigers, meanwhile, bring a young team to the Palestra that won in miracle fashion last year, overcoming a 33-9 halftime deficit to stun the Penn faithful, 50-49. Some solid outside shooting will be required to repeat that outcome tonight, but a solution to the physical and aggressive nature of the Penn defense will have to be found first.

Senior forward Mason Rocca will definitely not be in the lineup tonight for the Tigers. His heroic second-half effort against the Quakers at Jadwin earlier this season kept the Tigers close, but Princeton will instead rely on somebody else to provide that spark.

That task will most likely fall upon sophomore center Chris Young, who nailed the game-winning hook shot against Penn last season. Young will look to draw double and triple teams inside, opening up the perimeter and creating open shots. The Tigers' open looks will be limited, but making the ones they have will prove to be an important factor in the outcome.

"The past few games I haven't had to [score] for us to be successful," Young said. "I'll just play the way I've been playing and try to make the right decisions."

The Tigers shot very poorly from the field against the Quakers the last time around, 29 percent overall and only 24 percent from outside the arc. It was the worst shooting performance of the year for Princeton, which has averaged 51-percent shooting against the six other Ivy teams.

Freshman guard Spencer Gloger and sophomore forward Ray Robins will be at full strength for tonight's contest. Robins did not play in the first contest due to injuries sustained in the Columbia game Jan. 29, while Gloger was hampered by the flu and hand injuries, scoring zero points.

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Both will look to hit from long range. Penn's outstanding freshman, forward Ugonna Onyekwe, will look to be successful as well. Onyekwe fared well in his first game at Jadwin, scoring 12 points in 37 minutes and putting an exclamation on the victory with possibly the first 360-degree dunk in the history of Jadwin.

Visiting teams have won 11 of the last 19 Penn-Princeton games, but the Tigers can also look to 1998 for inspiration as they face an uphill battle for victory.