Hoops (and squash) notes

I had the pleasure of covering two very different basketball games at the Palestra on Saturday. Among the only similarities was how easy it was to pick out the turning points.

In the early game, Drexel's pasting of St. Joe's, the key moment came early. The Hawks' Jawan Carter made a three pointer to put SJU ahead 7-4 and struck a pose with his shooting hand until well after the ball went through the hoop. He then performed the flapping motion of the Hawk to the crowd, but never did get back on defense. Drexel took the ball out of bounds, ran the floor and scored easily on a lob to Frank Elegar.

Those were points 1 and 2 of a 14-0 run that took the two-thirds of the crowd dressed in Hawks red out of the game.

For Penn, the turning point in the loss to Villanova was a little too familiar. The Quakers came out of a timeout ahead 72-70 with 8:50 to play and had Ibrahim Jaaber on the free throw line for a pair. Neither shot was all that close, and Villanova came down the court and got the ball to Scottie Reynolds for a three-pointer that opened a 12-2 run. Villanova wouldn't trail again.

Why is that so familiar? Think back to last year when Penn chipped away at a 22-point Villanova lead. The Quakers got it down to five inside two minutes with Jaaber at the line. The then-junior made the first but missed the second and fouled Randy Foye on the rebound. Foye knocked down a pair to go up six, and Penn wouldn't get close again.

Here are the abbreviated player rankings, as always using the formula from the book The Wages of Wins. The formula adds points, rebounds, steals and a half of blocks and assists and subtracts field goal attempts and turnovers and half of free throw attempts and fouls.

Zoller 88
Grandieri 58.5
Jaaber 47.5
Danley 37.5
Rest of the team combined 3

Finally, I've only posted once on The Buzz about squash, to lament the lack of upsets in the sport. I got quite the e-mail following that one from women's coach Jack Wyant. So given this weekend's events, I better change my tune.

On the same day that the No. 6 men's team handed No. 4 Yale a 6-3 loss, Wyant's fourth-ranked team defeated the No. 2 Elis, the defending champions, 5-4 in New Haven. And earlier this season, the Quakers beat top-ranked Princeton 5-4 at the preseason scrimmages.

So it means one of two things: either upsets are back or these weren't really upsets. Wyant has a strong senior class, the last remnants of the Jim Martel era, and has been bringing in top recruiting classes in the three years he's been at Penn.

So maybe these aren't really upsets, just the mark of an underrated team that has a real shot at a national title.