Cheesesteak Politics

On December 9, 1996, Fran Dunphy led Penn to a 100-58 win over Lehigh at the Palestra. Afterward, he made known his feelings about Abner's and its pledge to give free cheesesteaks to students with ticket stubs from home games in which Penn scores 100 points.

"I don't want to ever get in a situation where you're forcing things to get culinary satisfaction," he said. "When you get kids in the game late, they deserve the opportunity to do the best they can. It's a little embarrassing."

I'll leave aside Dunphy's use of the word "culinary" to describe Abner's cheesesteaks. But almost ten years to the day after his remarks, Glen Miller seems to have turned the page on a new era of cheesesteaking.

At one point, Penn was stuck on 78 points with just over 5 minutes to go and potential cheesesteakee FGCU at the Palestra. Abner's fears were apparently eased. But then the Quakers started hitting their shots, culminating in a 19-3 run.

Not surprising, considering that Miller had left Mark Zoller, Ibrahim Jaaber, and Brian Grandieri in the game. Between 1:29 left and :27 left, Penn picked up 8 more points, for a total of 97 on the night.

FGCU coach Dave Balza, who perhaps had a right to be peeved by this, decided to thwart the mad dash to 38th and Chestnut. Instead of trying to score, the normal strategy for a team that's losing by 23, he opted to pass the ball around, run the clock down, and prevent Penn from getting the ball again.

Miller's response? His players (Zoller, Grandieri, and Jaaber all subbed out at the 27-second mark) decided to push the issue. For the final half minute or so, Penn was pressing, trapping, and generally trying to force a turnover in the hopes of getting the ball back one more time.

I'll leave for the reader the questions of whether Miller's actions (or, for that matter, Balza's) breach the code of sporting behavior. But one thing is for certain -- if this continues, Penn fans might not want to have anything to eat before the game when Dartmouth comes to town on February 9.