A miserable Saturday

Update, 5:30 p.m.

After some discussions, it is quite possible that Penn was not really in a strict zone defense, but a man-to-man that had a lot of switching and sagging, looking like a zone. I'm not sure exactly what to call it, but I'll look into it with coach Miller later on.

Anyway, I still think that whatever you want to call the defense, Miller should have changed it in the second half because it wasn't working. End update

Saturday was not a good day to be in the Big 5, but more on that later.

First, I just do not understand why Penn played a zone defense for so much of its 77-60 loss to Fordham Saturday. The Quakers came out switching defenses but soon settled on a zone, and then allowed the Rams to shoot 12-of-21 from three-point range.

Penn looked lethargic trying to respond to Fordham's screens and ball movement, and the Quakers rotated the zone too slowly and then too much, with three players going to cover a man who really didn't have the ball anymore.

I understand that starting in a zone was a good plan against a team that had hit only 31.1 percent of threes coming into the game. But where was the adjustment by Glen Miller? Penn was in a zone until there was about 3:20 left in the game and the Quakers were down by 16.

Apparently, Miller blamed defensive execution for the zone's demise. Maybe he should have blamed himself for staying in it so long.

Penn's loss was not the only low blow struck against the Big 5 Saturday. Temple turned a 10-point second-half lead into an 8-point loss to Cincinnati, when the Owls did not score for about 11 minutes, as the Bearcats went on an 18-0 run and didn't look back.

The lone Philly team not in the Big 5, Drexel, also pulled off a shocker Saturday night, beating Villanova for the first time in school history, at the Pavillion no less. Now the Dragons are 1-17 against the Wildcats, who may have fooled everyone into thinking that they are a little better than they really are after their relatively impressive wins over Penn and Oklahoma.

And a disappointing season on Hawk Hill continued Saturday, as Saint Joseph's lost 74-64 to Louisville -- itself not so bad, especially on the road. But then the Hawks lost the following day to Ohio University, after barely beating Division II Bellarmine by 12 on Friday. It was 60-57 in that game with less than six minutes to play.

La Salle at least got Saturday off, but is coming off an 11-point loss to the very unimpressive Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers.

At least Philly fans still have the Eagles. And AI. For now. (Both of them)