More than just hoops

I won't lie to you. This was going to be a column about how Penn and Princeton are still the teams to beat in the Ivy League. Was. But, in just a minute and 40 seconds, Steve Donahue changed that. The former Penn assistant coach and current Cornell head coach walked into the postgame press conference on Saturday and gave a teary-eyed speech on what it was like to come back to the Palestra as an opposing coach. "When I came like a week ago, I said I'm not going to be emotional about this return," Donahue said. "And I thought I did a pretty good job of it. "But when I'm going through the [handshake] line, to be honest with you, I'm looking those players in the eyes, and..." And Donahue could only breathe out in a puff of choked-up emotion. Suddenly, that Penn-Princeton column went on the backburner. Those backdoor cuts and highlight-reel dunks, those Ivy crowns and NCAA tournament games -- they just didn't seem so important anymore. You can stand there and discuss how Princeton's still winning, despite the fact that the number of orange-and-black blazer-wearing fans who can recite the Tigers' starting five is roughly equal to the number of passes Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper completed on Sunday. You can stand there and discuss how there's no way Penn would have started oh-and-eight if the Quakers played like they did last weekend. But Donahue reminded me that there's a whole lot more to this game than that. Donahue's eyes weren't watery in that press conference because his team was dominated on the court, or because Cornell might need a miracle to get back in the Ivy race. "This business is all about people and relationships," Donahue said. "And that was what got me. Nothing about the game. Nothing about this building, although I love it. It's all about who I worked for and the players I coached and the people that supported the program." Donahue was an assistant coach here for 10 years. Ten years. Think about it. That's a heckuva long time. About nine years longer than Hanson or Vanilla Ice were popular. About five times as long as the average marriage. Heck, for Donahue, this was a marriage. In those 10 years, he probably spent more time with Penn head coach Fran Dunphy than his wife Pamela. Donahue was in the office early in the morning. He was coaching from the sideline or studying film late into the evening. He's known Geoff Owens for nearly five years. He's known the Cornell players for a few months. So it's understandable that Donahue came into that press conference talking about his former players and coaches, rather than Ray Mercedes' eight points or Cornell's 16 first-half points. And, along the same lines, it's understandable that the Quakers players couldn't quite avoid looking over at the visiting bench during Saturday's game. "Once the game started, I tried to put it out of my mind," Penn senior Geoff Owens said. "But I could still hear his voice and his distinctive whistle he would use that always made me turn my head." Yeah, when teary-eyed Steve Donahue gave his press conference speech, I felt those thoughts of that Penn-and-Princeton-are-still-good column seeping out of my head like body heat on a mid-January night. Donahue finished his mini-speech with a sort-of nervous smile. He had spent nearly two minutes discussing something other than the normal minutiae that sports writers obsess over. But that wasn't a bad thing. Those two minutes weren't wasted. "I just got off my soapbox there," Donahue said. "Any questions?" Do you think Penn and Princeton are still... Wait, nevermind. No questions, Steve. I think I understand.

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