Most Quakers fans arrived at the Palestra a few minutes after tipoff on Saturday. What a shame. They missed just about the only few minutes in which their team played well.
After a 9-0 Penn run to start the game, Howard took complete control, outhustling and outshooting the Quakers in an 80-65 victory.
For Howard -- which finished 324th out of 336 in the nation in ratings percentage index last season and lost to Duquesne by 70 points ten days ago - it was a huge upset. For the Quakers, the game is just another upsetting loss.
"It's awful," senior captain Brian Grandieri said. "Pretty much rock bottom."
Saturday's contest was a study in contrasts. Penn (0-3) looked lackadaisical at times; the Bison (1-2) were focused and tough for almost the whole game. Penn couldn't hit anything from three; Howard was draining just about everything. Nobody for the Quakers stepped up; Howard had a huge game from forward Eugene Myatt.
Myatt - a Philadelphia product - finished with 36 points on 13-17 shooting, including a 5-for-5 effort from downtown.
Bison coach Gil Jackson, an assistant at Penn for 16 years, praised Myatt's composure.
"He was just feeling it today," Jackson said.
On the other bench, Penn coach Glen Miller was left with very little to praise.
Instead, he talked about his team's defense, which allowed Howard to shoot 60 percent for the game and has allowed an average of nearly 79 points per game thus far.
"It was a poor defensive performance," Miller said. "When you're trying to find yourself on offense, you need the defense to be a constant."
Without the defense making stops, the Quakers weren't able to run in transition as much as they wanted to. The Bison slowed down into halfcourt sets and exploited the Quakers - who rotated between man-to-man, zones, and traps - for open threes and baseline drives.
Grandieri, who led the Red and Blue with 17 points and seven boards, didn't think much of the Bison offense and called it "mediocre." But he added that the young Penn team had trouble communicating and was overwhelmed.
After the game, Jackson looked up at the Ivy League championship banners hanging from the Palestra ceiling. He coached many of those teams, but Howard does not have that historic success.
"Our guys need to know what it takes to win," he said. "We don't have those banners up there. Penn, those kids can look up at the banners and at the pride and tradition and know what it takes to get those."
But the inexperienced Quakers don't necessarily know what it takes to be successful at the college level. And Miller is trying to teach them.
"Right now, our focus has to be on ourselves," the coach said. "We have to see if we can find a way to play with more competitiveness and pride. Sooner or later we have to become an angry team. And we'll see how we respond."
