This year's edition of The Line had everything Penn basketball - the fans, the Palestra, the cheerleaders - except for the team itself.
The annual October event at which fans sleep overnight at the historic arena to get season tickets was held on Friday and Saturday last weekend, but none of the players or coaches made an official appearance.
In 2006, two assistant coaches, Chris Sparks and Mike Martin, introduced the entire men's team. This year, athletic-department officials say, head coach Glen Miller and all three assistants were out recruiting. The players were given the weekend off, as they will likely not be able to go home for fall break.
Many schools have a Line-equivalent activity, often called "Midnight Madness", featuring a practice on the early morning of the first day of basketball season where the team is the central focus. Penn's version, partly because the ticket department needs time before the start of the season, happens a bit too early for that.
The marketing department was disappointed not to have anyone there, but says that it was an unavoidable situation.
"It was purely a scheduling thing," Director of Marketing Brian Head said. "This was the only weekend that as a department we could do The Line, and the basketball team is not yet practicing . and many of [the players] simply weren't in town."
According to athletic spokesman Mike Mahoney, some players were still around, but the decision was made on Friday (though he doesn't know by whom) that no one from the team would show up unless the entire squad did. Mahoney also mentioned that, with the coaches out of town, there was no pressure on the players to go.
Freshman forward Jack Eggleston was nonetheless spotted at the Palestra watching the Friday night volleyball game.
In addition, the women's team, which participated in full last season, was a no-show in 2007.
"We did try, but couldn't make anything work," Head said. "We would have liked anybody, but [as for the coaches,] they were all recruiting."
Head's efforts, though, may have come too late.
He had to go through the basketball office in order to get players to come, trying on Friday to see what he could do.
According to Mahoney, the team had little official notice ahead of time, and this may have played a role in the resulting absence - by then, the players had already been given the go-ahead to take the weekend off.
"It's definitely something that we knew may be an issue, but The Line itself I thought still went off pretty well," Head said. "It was an unfortunate event."
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