BETHLEHEM, Pa.
Attention all fans of Sex in the City, The O.C., or any of the other saucy TV dramas out there that I confess I don't know anything about:
The Penn women's basketball team has very high standards.
"I'd give us a B," sophomore guard Joey Rhoads said, without the slightest hint of apprehension, of her team's play so far this year.
Karen Habrukowich, one of the Quakers' seniors, wasn't much kinder.
"I would say we're a B/B+, for now," she said.
Coach Pat Knapp was the stingiest of all.
"I'd give us a C for how we practice, because we can practice better," he said. "When you put the experience together, it's a B. And you know what an A is ... but we're not near an A yet."
This for a team whose record stands at 7-6, with five losses coming against teams that are, have been or should be in the top 25. The sixth came to Marist, which beat Cornell and Lehigh after topping Penn by only a point.
"I think Marist is a good team," he said. "I don't know who's going to win the MAAC, but I wouldn't be surprised if Marist won the MAAC."
So all six losses have come to teams that are probably going to make the NCAA Tournament, and Knapp isn't satisfied.
In my opinion, if not for the loss to Marist, I'd give this team a B+ at worst. As it stands, the Red and Blue probably deserves one of those B+/A- grades you see on papers around here all the time.
So much of the credit goes to the players, who do all the little stuff so well -- passing, rebounding, hustling up and down the floor -- in addition to making shots.
But above all, I think the person who is most responsible for Penn's success is Knapp, whose energetic coaching style is a big reason why he was able tocelebrate his 300th career win last night.
Of course, Knapp admitted that he wished he wished he had been able to celebrate a bigger number, especially when compared to Villanova's Harry Perretta -- a fellow Philadelphia native and longtime rival who just celebrated his 500th career win.
"To me, 300 isn't enough," Knapp said. "I would have liked to have won, and my teams would have liked to have won, more than that."
Knapp's passion clearly rubs off on his players, even if they can't always see him storming up and down the sidelines or crouching by the scorers' table, barking out orders all game long.
"It's motivational," Habrukowich said. "I know that he's just so excited and very into the game, and that gets us more up for the game."
Rhoads, quite a firebrand herself, agrees.
"If he's telling you to get out on the shooters, I think it's a form of encouragement, and also it helps to keep us together if we don't know where we're going," she said. "Sometimes we can't hear each other talking on the court, but you can always hear his voice."
If Penn keeps playing this well, you can bet a lot of people will be hearing his voice at the NCAA tournament. A second straight Ivy League title for the Quakers would certainly be worth shouting about.
Jonathan Tannenwald is a junior Urban Studies major from Washington, D.C. His e-mail address is jtannenw@sas.upenn.edu.
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