Josh Hirsch: Penn's lax marketing on display at Tourney

If you haven't had it happen to you yet, it's probably because you just haven't been around here long enough.

It's a question I dread, even home in Penn-centric Long Island.

"Where do you go to school?"

Often, it takes a long time to explain what exactly the University of Pennsylvania is, and where it is located, and most importantly, that it is not the same place as the very large school in State College, Pa., known for its football.

Traveling away from the Northeast only makes things worse. A few times last week in Lexington, Ky., I had to clarify what it is that "Penn" is, and why I had come so far to be in Kentucky.

That much I expected. But the worst incident came at Rupp Arena, where the games were held.

There was a temporary tattoo stand, which had a sign showing what designs you could get. There was a cartoon basketball that appeared to be eating a net and there were the logos of the various schools playing in Lexington.

However, all eight teams were not represented. There was no logo for Brigham Young or Central Connecticut State. There was nothing for Penn, either.

Or was there?

On second glance, I noticed something very interesting. There were two navy logos that didn't belong to any of the schools there. One was a stylized lion, and the other was its paw.

That's right, I was looking at two Penn State logos, a school that has no business being brought up in the same breath as Penn when it comes to basketball.

Having another school's logo in your place is much, much worse than not having the logo there in the first place. Some employee got a list of teams that were coming, looked up a logo, and found the Penn State one, and had no idea what the difference was.

On Friday, I came across an article in the New York Times by George Vecsey that talked about how Penn reminded him of Princeton's 1990s NCAA teams that actually won two games.

On his blog on Saturday, Vecsey apologized for not writing more about Penn's successes in the last few years, including its NCAA Tournament win in 1994.

But he, and other writers (and our waitress at Waffle House, who said she picked Penn because they always do well in the Tournament), are missing the truth. Penn hasn't won a game in the Tournament in its last nine tries.

It's just another case of mistaken identity - Ivy League does not mean smart basketball and near-upsets anymore and has not for a while.

I don't blame Penn for the tattoo incident or that its long-touted commercials didn't run. And I do not believe that Penn needs to change its name, as some have suggested. I just think that the school needs to do a little better job making sure that people know what this school is, especially if it wants to continue to be nationally competitive in athletics.

With a deep run, the Quakers will become a household name like George Mason or Gonzaga, but that shouldn't be necessary.

The marketing department should be aggressive. Put some more merchandise around the country, online and especially in Philadelphia. Make Penn a brand name, and not just in academics.

There's no reason why the athletic department should lag behind the rest of the school.

Let's have Penn State students explain why they don't go here.

Josh Hirsch is a senior urban studies major from Roslyn, N.Y., and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.

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