Grab bag

Yesterday was a tough day to be a Penn opponent, which hurt the Quakers' RPI a little.

Penn foes from this season went 2-6, with the wins coming from Villanova (@UConn) and Fordham (@St. Bonaventure), and losses from Navy (@Bucknell, Patriot League tourney), Seton Hall (@Cincinnati), La Salle (Utter destruction at UMass), Temple (vs. Dayton), Saint Joseph's (@Xavier) and Elon (vs. West Carolina, SoCon tourney).

The Quakers' RPI dropped a little as a result, but it wasn't so bad.

Tonight, there are two more games from Penn opponents. St. Francis (NY) plays Central Connecticut State in the first round of the Northeast Conference tournament, and UTEP hosts No. 7 Memphis. Tough road for these two tonight, but you never know.

If Penn clinches the Ivy League title this weekend, we'll get into more detail about RPI implications and games to watch and whatnot.

In other news, Penn did not retain football offensive coordinator Shawn Halloran after one season.

I talked to Halloran a few times before last season, and he said he wanted to emphasize a more balanced attack and run the ball more. I thought this season that the Quakers didn't stick to this plan and should have run the ball much more, especially with the good numbers that Joe Sandberg put up.

Halloran seemed like a nice enough guy, but for whatever reason he couldn't get his team to do what he wanted. Either that or he got overruled by head coach Al Bagnoli, but I really have no idea what the reason is. I tried to ask a few times during the season, but I got a bunch of typical football team answers, i.e., not really substance.

Basically, Halloran's unit didn't do a good job, but I wonder how much this is a desparate move by Bagnoli to energize the program (see Coughlin, Tom). Because say what you want about coordinators, the ultimate responsibility rests with the head coach.

Finally, I thought I'd weigh in on the controversy surrounding the baseball team. I can't speak to whether Kenny Yoo's comments were taken out of context or anything like that, but covering the team last year, I think that coach John Cole was trying to revitalize a team that was completely lethargic the previous few seasons.

Also, I was a pitcher in high school, and from everything I've heard and done, it's much better to run and do light weight lifting than serious heavy lifting. If you lift weights, your whole timing and release is thrown off by too much new strength. And besides, if you want to ever go deep in games, you need to have strong legs and endurance. By the fourth or fifth inning, the adrenaline is gone and you have to go to your second wind. If you're not in good shape, you have no chance to last longer than that.