COLUMN: An evening of interactive basketball at the Palestra

Scott Miller, Commentary In other words, everybody is there for a good time. This was especially the case about last night, which should have been touted as Deja Vu Night at the Palestra. Against the USDBL Converse All-Stars -- again -- the meager crowd was given a show that will unlikely be replayed all season. Forget about the score. Forget about the fact that Matt Langel can shoot the lights out. Forget about Tim Krug pretending the Palestra is still his home, as he lit Penn up for 16 points. The game was so insignificant that all the players involved reacted to everything the fans threw at them. At that kind of show will probably not be seen again this season. When Converse player (and former St. Joseph's player) Will Johnson knocked the sweat-wiping kid in the head, the crowd got on his case. But he made sure at halftime to come over and apologize with his victim. When Converse's Jamal Phillips missed all but one of his eight free throws, he acknowledged that he blew it. When referee Tom DeFelice made a questionable call, his counterpart Bill Koskinen joked with the fans about DeFelice's accuracy. And even freshman Michael Jordan got into the act, tucking his shirt in every time it began to look more like a dress -- at the crowd's request, of course. With absolutely nothing on the line, the Converse All-Stars and the Quakers looked like a team scrimmaging itself. Both sides were equally aggressive -- but at the same time were constantly picking up fallen members of the other team and praising their opponents efforts in the way only athletes can. The Quakers have always been one of the classiest teams in college basketball -- from their trip through the Dartmouth locker room after the Big Green broke their 48-game Ivy win streak to making an effort to shake hands with Princeton when they were too busy celebrating an NCAA tournament berth. But class is one thing, and friendly competition is another. There will be no room for the song and dance that occurred last night when the tougher competition, including the season opener against Towson State, comes along. For the people in the stands, that means it will back to the same old Palestra: getting on the ref's case for every little thing, talking smack to the opposition and making as much noise as possible. For the Quakers, that means living up to the high expectations they set for themselves in the two exhibition games. And to keep expectations (and fan support) high for the season, Penn will need to show that they are a whole lot tougher than they looked in the two preseason games. Sure, the occasional referee will stop by for a chat, and opponents will always get flustered in the face of Penn fans, but you'll have to wait until next year for the entertaining show we got last night.