The Big 5 Classic is quickly becoming one of the most revered annual sporting events in Philadelphia, and with two upsets and a thrilling win by the Penn men's basketball team, this year's triple-header lived up to its billing.
But at the end of the day, the play on the court and the atmosphere of the crowd was not the only thing that stood out.
Throughout the Penn-La Salle game, Quakers fans bellowed chants and trash talk at the Explorers. Under normal circumstances, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with these actions. In fact, I encourage fans to heckle opponents and take full advantage of their home court.
"My job is to make the Palestra as intimidating a place as possible," said Jon Lubin, who leads the Red and Blue Crew, Penn's student fan section. "It is to make the Palestra somewhere where opposing teams expect to battle not only our players but our intense and enthusiastic fans."
Unfortunately, Penn fans took this opportunity to make reference to rape scandal that surrounded the Explorers throughout the offseason, which resulted in three La Salle players being charged with rape. The allegations also caused the resignation of both men's coach Billy Hahn and women's coach John Miller.
The funny thing is that none of the people embroiled in this scandal was on the court on Saturday. None of them is even associated with the university anymore. And new coach John Giannini has rightly attempted to distance himself and his players from the incident.
There is no reason that the current Explorers should suffer for the mistakes of their predecessors. But that is the way things seem to work and, accordingly, La Salle took it in stride.
As the Quakers student section began chanting, "No means no," after revealing a rollout during a stoppage of play in the first half, La Salle freshman guard Tabby Cunningham cracked a smile. It was a telling moment, something that seemed to symbolize relief, especially for a player who had to watch from home all summer as his new team seemingly fell apart.
Judging from the reactions of nearly all the Explorers, it appeared that they either were mildly amused or had become immune to such comments.
And most of the fans seemed to get a kick out of the innuendos as well. Even Penn alums including Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Phillies President Dave Montgomery had a laugh.
Honestly, the rollouts were funny.
One referenced La Salle's botched attempt to lure Penn coach and La Salle alumnus Fran Dunphy from the Quakers. The Explorers offered the 16-year coach a salary increase and the right to resurrect his alma mater, but Dunphy respectfully declined.
"400K NOT ENOUGH FOR DUNPHY OR BAIL."
Genius, pure genius.
Several times throughout the game, I turned to fellow writers and chuckled at the antics of the student section. The seemingly good-natured humor continued late into the second half.
Then something odd happened.
When the Red and Blue Crew again started up its, "No means no," chant near the end of the second half, Dunphy began to walk toward the fans.
"Be classy," he said, pointing at the students and giving them an icy glare.
Despite the humor, people seemed to be remiss that a serious crime, which had gravely affected many people's lives, was committed. Dunphy quickly reminded everyone of that.
With the coach's opinion about the nature of the game's heckling out in the open, Lubin took control of the student section. The senior motioned for his peers to stop their chants and digress to the wishes of their beloved coach.
"As a Penn basketball supporter, and a large one at that, whatever coach Dunphy says or feels is something that I am going to respect," Lubin said. "I take great effort to make the Palestra a place where Penn earns the respect of our opponents but also a place that our opponents should fear and there is a line dividing those two things, I suppose, and it is our job to figure out where it is."
It is clear that many in the Palestra forgot about that line.
The issue was not really the players on the floor. It was not that those charged with the attack could not be joked about. The issue was that fans made light of a brutal crime.
Regardless of whether anyone at La Salle was involved, it is simply something that should not be mocked in a public arena. Too many people have had to experience or know someone who has experienced the horror of being taken advantage of in such a way.
The Penn fans showed poor judgment in choosing to harp on the rape incident, but the consolation appeared to be that once they realized their faults, their chidings subsided.
It took guts for Dunphy to walk over and scold students for acting so childish. It was that much more of a credit to his character that he did so during an intense game. Even if had I realized the degree to which the comments were off color, I don't know if I, or any other student for that matter, would have taken action. I would hope so, but I truly doubt it.
But Dunphy did.
Jeff Greenwald is a sophomore economics major from Cleveland and is Sports Editor-elect of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jbg@sas.upenn.edu.
