Wildcats perfect, Quakers winless in City Series competition

At the press conference after Villanova's 80-51 drubbing of the Penn men's basketball team last night, Wildcats head coach Steve Lappas beamed over the Wildcats' just-completed 4-0 swing through the Big 5. Lappas called the win "special" three times, and talked about being part of only the fourth team ever to go undefeated in the City Series. "It's an honor and a privilege," Lappas said. "I was telling the team before the game, there have been some tremendous teams in the Big 5, and if we can do this, we really need to be honored because of the great tradition of the Big 5, and how hard these games are all the time." By contrast, Penn head coach Fran Dunphy was less than thrilled with the way his team wrapped up its city slate, dropping each of its Big 5 games, as well as losing to Drexel. "That's unfortunate," Dunphy said. "The fact is that we're probably going to be the underdog in each Big 5 game that we play, but so be it." The Quakers' Big 5 record is their worst in 10 years. The last time a Fran Dunphy team failed to beat at least one city team was the 1990-91 season, Dunphy's second year at the helm. "It's disappointing, but we need to move on," Dunphy said. Quakers captain and senior center Geoff Owens was also disappointed with Penn's worst Big 5 showing during his five-year tenure. "It hurts. Being in the city, that's what it's about, bragging rights," Owens said. The Quakers certainly didn't have much to brag about last night after starting off their 29-point loss almost as poorly as they finished it. The Quakers were down 14 less than five minutes into the game. "As a team, 0-4 in the Big 5, and my being from Philadelphia and a senior, [which means] my last chance for a win, it hurts a lot," Quakers guard Lamar Plummer said. The Red and Blue's final Big 5 game of the season was also the first-ever played in the First Union Center. Despite the 12,058 people in attendance, the arena barely looked one-third full, and had none of the attendant electricity of a regular intra-Philadelphia collegiate tilt. "It didn't feel like a Big 5 game," Plummer said. "Those are normally packed, like in the Palestra. Wherever they are, it's real tight in there. But the atmosphere wasn't a Big 5 atmosphere [tonight]." Dunphy called the contest "a Big 5 game in a great arena," but also conceded that the venue lacked something. "It's different from being at the Palestra," Dunphy said. "But I'm prejudiced, there's nothing quite like that for a college basketball facility." Dunphy felt that the contest had a Big 5 feel mainly because of the familiarity between the two teams. "It was a great atmosphere in many, many ways," Dunphy said. "We played against another city team. We probably had 11 films of Villanova going into the game, so there wasn't much secrecy to it. Really, all of the teams that we play within in the city limits, we see play often." The chance to see the other city schools play a lot didn't help the Quakers much this year. The Red and Blue lost by 14 points to Temple, and by six to a talented St. Joe's squad. The Quakers' best shot at a City Series win this season came in their first Big 5 game, when they blew an eight-point lead over La Salle in the final minute. "We played well enough against La Salle to win the game, we just didn't win," Dunphy said, wrapping up his team's dreary city record. "I didn't think we played particularly well against Temple, but I think Temple had a lot to do with that. We played OK against St. Joe's, but St. Joe's is an outstanding basketball team. "Hopefully, we'll have a chance to do better than 0-4 next year, and that's what we'll be pointing toward." But the Quakers who will probably take the 2000-2001 Big 5 mark the hardest are the four who won't be around next year, seniors Owens, Plummer, Josh Sanger and Jon Tross. "It hurts -- I don't know what to say," Owens said. "We're going to look at that record and know that we had a lot of good opportunities."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.