Observations from this weekend\'s basketball

The band hit a nerve with me on Saturday during the Fordham game, and not for the first time. As PA announcer Rich Kahn began reading off the Ivy League scoreboard, the band launched into song. None of the student section heard the scores, because the band was too busy playing.

I'll admit that's a little nitpicky, but my real pet peeve is when the band plays "Fight On" and stimulates a good "Let's Go Quakers" chant, only to subsequently squelch it by playing the second verse. Which is more important, generating crowd enthusiasm or making sure that the song is finished? If this conflict means the band only plays the first verse, so be it. The crowds for these reading-day/winter break games will be small enough without the band stifling them.

On the women's side, coach Pat Knapp's substitution rotations were again surprising. Yesterday against American, Knapp played Anca Popovici for the first three minutes of the game...then yanked her out and sat her on the bench for the remainder of the 61-51 loss.

Popovici and Maggie Burgess seem to be the frequent victims of this policy. Against Lafayette, both started: Popovici had 8 minutes and Burgess 14. Against Delaware, it was 16 for Popovici and 11 for Burgess. Admittedly, foul trouble sometimes hastens the process, but either way it doesn't take much for Knapp to go to Kelly Scott and Caitlin Slover.

Knapp is the most animated coach I've ever seen, and he provided another gem for the fans sitting on the Penn side today. After a careless turnover, he grabbed two cups, at least one of which was filled with water. He then proceeded to slowly and dramatically crumple the cups before dropping them onto the sideline.

It probably wasn't very funny for assistant coach Jennifer Wasson, though -- she was the one who got stuck cleaning up the mess after Knapp emphatically stormed away from the scene.