bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
DURHAM -- Duke will ring in 2010 tonight against a program that can't wait to put 2009 in the rear-view mirror.
The Blue Devils welcome Penn to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a New Year's Eve matchup (6 p.m., ESPN2). The Quakers have gone toe-to-toe with Princeton for the title of top program in the Ivy League over the past two decades, but so far this season they find themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Penn has had two more head coaches than it has victories this season. The Quakers (0-8) fired coach Glen Miller before Christmas, and assistant coach and Penn playing legend Jerome Allen lost his head coaching debut by 29 points at Davidson on Monday.
The seventh-ranked Blue Devils (10-1), however, won't be focused on their opponent's struggles. Duke will point toward getting better heading into Sunday's ACC opener against No. 21 Clemson.
"We have Penn, which will be our next game to get ready for the ACC," Duke junior guard Nolan Smith said after he scored 19 points in Tuesday's 84-63 victory over Long Beach State. "We need to go out there and really turn it up more than we did tonight.
"Going into Sunday, we need to get better."
When Duke last faced Penn four years ago, Fran Dunphy -- a good friend of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski -- was in what would prove to be his final season at Penn, a 17-year run that included nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
Dunphy headed to Temple the next season. Miller managed to get Penn to the NCAA tourney in his first season, but the Quakers were 23-43 in the two-plus seasons since.
Duke leads the all-time series 8-6 the majority of the meetings coming in the 1940s and 1950s. Duke has won all five games played against Penn since 1978, including a pair of NCAA Tournament games.
