Tuesday night's Penn-Princeton game is one of the three best sporting events of any kind that I've been to -- right up with two Yankees playoff games: the first Byung-Hyun Kim game and the Aaron Boone game.
Just like the Yankees in each of those baseball games, Penn was trailing and pulled out a dramatic comeback.
There was absolute euphoria in the stands; people could not believe what they had seen.
What people do not often think about, though, is that the Yankees went on to lose both the 2001 World Series and the 2003 World Series after their memorable elimination of Boston.
Therein lies the biggest differencebetween those Yankees teams and this year's Quakers squad.
While it is far from a perfect team, the Red and Blue have enough breathing room in the standings and time remaining in the year to use the win over the Tigers to catapult them to the Ivy League championship, and who knows, maybe even win a game in the NCAA Tournament.
Even after their miracle wins, the Yankees had more critical games without much of a rest and time to address fundamental issues. As a result, they could not keep their runs going.
But Ivy basketball is played on the weekends -- and the occasional Tuesday -- not every day.
Penn has nine games remaining in the regular season, stretching over 26 days beginning tomorrow. That is plenty of time to address the weaknesses that Princeton exploited during the first 33 minutes of the game.
The Quakers have had a problem all year defending against three-point shooters, and that was never more apparent than on Tuesday, when the Tigers hit seven of their first 11 triples in the first half.
It was also a problem in the overtime loss to Rider on Jan. 12, as Paul Johnson was left all alone to hit a game-tying trifecta in the waning moments of regulation.
Coach Fran Dunphy also likes to use at most an eight-man rotation, which can certainly tire out the starters. Against the Orange and Black, six players played all but three minutes.
While those six played their collective hearts out, it will be increasingly tough to play such a short bench as the season goes on.
But the Quakers still have a two-game lead in the loss column in the Ivy standings, and with only the aforementioned nine games left, Penn is still in the driver's seat to win the title.
Several things have changed significantly that have enabled the Quakers to emerge from January's five-game losing streak to get to the current eight-game winning streak.
Dunphy has pointed to improved shooting as the biggest reason behind the team's turnaround in the last month. But what has caused the better shooting is a completely new confidence level that has influenced every aspect of the game.
The Quakers of a month ago did not have the mental toughness and emotion necessary to pull off a comeback like they did. They would have folded and walked off the court shrugging off another tough loss.
Take the second game of the season as an example.
Penn allowed Providence to shoot almost 65 percent in the first half, and trailed by 21 atintermission. The Quakers never were even close to getting back into the game.
Against Princeton, though, Penn fought back against a hot-shooting team. Due to some senior leadership, good coaching with the full-court press and most importantly, confidence, the Quakers pulled off the seemingly impossible.
On the other side of the court, the Tigers -- who were certainly not playing like a 1-3 Ivy League team for 33 minutes, reverted to the team that allowed an 18-1 run to finish their loss to Dartmouth.
Penn still needs to be careful to avoid the letdown game this weekend. But while the Yankees may not have been able to continue their positive momentum for much longer, the Quakers should keep the excitement going for more than just another few days.
Josh Hirsch is a sophomore in theCollege from Roslyn, N.Y., and is Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.
