Rothman | Time to shift expectations for Penn women's hoops

Penn women’s basketball had fun in its 78-57 demolition of Columbia on Saturday. The Red and Blue came within one point of the school’s first-half scoring record, four players scored in double digits and senior Kara Bonenberger notched her 1,000th point.

But the win — although impressive — was inconsequential when compared to the results of the previous night’s game. Friday’s 60-49 home loss to Cornell means that, for the Quakers, the race for second place is officially underway.

You could argue that the team was only in the hunt for silver from the very beginning, even as the defending Ivy champs.

Last season’s runner-up Princeton started out red-hot and certainly hasn’t slowed down. Now ranked 16th in the nation, the Tigers now sit at 21-0 and their 83-54 win over Penn in the teams’ Ivy opener was certainly convincing.

Also convincing was Princeton’s triumph in last season’s Ivy opener, almost identically so — Princeton beat the Quakers 84-53 at the Palestra, Penn’s last home loss in a league game until Friday.

But the Quakers certainly made anyone who was “convinced” back then reconsider. Thanks to a nearly perfect finish to the regular season that was capped off by a road win over the Tigers with the Ancient Eight title on the line, Penn stole the conference’s NCAA Tournament bid and made everyone forget about the fiasco in the teams’ first meeting.

So despite the blowout last month, Penn supporters could still hold on to the belief that if the Quakers could win out — which looks increasingly necessary with each passing Princeton victory — they could pull off another season-finale miracle against the Tigers, this time on their home court.

If that were to happen, the two rivals would then take part in a one-game playoff to determine which team would earn the automatic NCAA bid.

But Friday night changed everything. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it forced us to accept what has been true since the season began.

After losing to the Big Red, Penn now needs Princeton to lose to another Ivy opponent, drop the season finale to the Quakers to force a playoff and then be bested once more by the Red and Blue on a neutral court.

Of course, all of this assumes that Penn can finish its Ivy campaign without another blemish. As we learned this weekend, that itself is by no means a sure thing.

When asked a week before the Cornell loss about the pressure caused by Princeton’s perfection, coach Mike McLaughlin said he wanted his players to play “stress-free” with regards to the league standings.

After the loss on Friday, McLaughlin shrugged off the game’s doomsday implications by using the timeless “it’s a long season” line. Senior captain Kathleen Roche was similarly hopeful, saying that the Ivy League is one in which “any team can beat any team.”

But no team, neither in this league of allegedly limitless possibility nor in any of the nation’s other conferences, has beaten Princeton to date.

While the season is long and things could change, the Quakers will in all likelihood be fighting to finish in second place and earn a possible NIT berth. Cornell showed Penn that not even this consolation prize can be taken for granted, and 5-1 Yale has a good chance to fortify that harsh message when the Red and Blue head to New Haven on Friday.

This year’s Quakers are a good bunch — maybe not as good as last season’s squad, but still a solid squad. They have certainly been far more formidable and uplifting than most of Penn’s sports teams have been this year.

But the Cornell game made the message clear: It’s time to adjust our expectations.

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