Penn-Dartmouth roundup

In response to Sebastien's post (below), I would say that Stephen Danley's game was much improved tonight -- in mostly one area, offense. Danley did an effective job slashing through the Dartmouth bigs, and that was fine. But when it's accompanied by a 1-for-7 shooting performance from the line, it makes you question Danley's potential for consistency.

And let's not forget that Penn got beat on the boards tonight, and some of that blame should, I think, go to Danley. He may not be responsible for boxing out everyone, but he needs to employ some 'ups' to be tough on the boards. The guards didn't consistantly hit someone once the shot went up, but Danley didn't help the cause. He just didn't have that explosiveness that he did in the past, or the killer instinct.

The plusses were that most of Danley's points came on the inside, right where championship-caliber teams should be able to pound the ball. Danley also had a big hand in the turnovers caused by Penn's full-court press tonight, and he was active on defense at times.

For those, like me, who were waiting for Danley to turn around his recent struggles: 15 points isn't a certified breakout, its a big step in the right direction. But after this long a wait, that's more than enough.

No matter what Danley was doing, the best moment of the evening came from the minute-and-a-half-plus that Adam Franklin logged.

The Red and Blue Crew chanted on the fifth-year senior's behalf for a good three minutes before Glen Miller opted to substitute him in along with seldom-used junior Joe Gill. He managed to get in the box score, with a steal, in his 10th and 11th minutes this year.

Lastly, a response to the predictions of a cheesteaking of Dartmouth by the Quakers tonight. I was doubtful that Penn could pound out 100 tonight, and the way both teams slowed the game down, Abner's was in no danger.

Whatever the cheesesteak odds were last night, they should be higher tonight against Harvard. The Crimson lost a tough double-overtime decision to Princeton tonight (for the Tigers' first conference win). But before Friday Harvard also had the second-worst turnover ratio in the league, where Dartmouth had the second-best. If the Quakers can exploit that advantage on the fast break enough, the Abner's ownership will start sweating early on. If not, Penn may be looking at its third cheesteak-less season out of the last five.