Outphysicaled

Outphysicaled is probably my least favorite word -- if you want to call it that -- in the sports interview lexicon, and thankfully a word that Glen Miller chose to avoid in last night's press conference. But the word might be the best way to describe Penn's performance against Columbia. Miller boiled it down to toughness, stating plainly that Penn just wasn't tough enough to win the game.

And that assessment is dead on. The Quakers could not thwart the Lions inside presence, allowing Jason Miller to net a career-high 21 points. Loose balls and long rebounds always seemed to find their way to a baby blue jersey, and wherever the Quakers were trying to go on offense, Columbia was always a step ahead of them. The Lions' physical play helped prevent Penn's ball screens at the top of the key and knock Penn out of its rhythm. With time, Zack Rosen and the Quakers tried to make too much happen instead of waiting for a play to develop, leading to turnovers and missed opportunities.

As I hinted Thursday, Columbia isn't half bad this year. In fact, though it's hard to believe, the Lions might be one of the best teams in what is a truly wide open conference defined by parity this season. Niko Scott came to play, Noruwa Agho turned in solid minutes, K.J. Matsui nailed his threes, and Miller's inside contribution was as impressive as it was unexpected. Even Steve Egee -- whose match up against his brother Kevin provided one of the coolest moments I've seen at the Palestra in four years -- showed a good bit of talent and basketball IQ.

Bottom line: Columbia was the better team yesterday, and the more physical one at that. Glen Miller even seemed a bit stumped during the press conference, noting that Columbia wasn't "doing anything special," but just outplayed Penn. Before we read too much into last night's effort, let's see how the Quakers respond tonight against Cornell, which is coming off of a surprising loss to Princeton. Please get to the Palestra if you can tonight -- it should be a very interesting game.

Sidenote: Though the attendance at last night's game among students followed the standard Penn pattern for basketball and football games -- arrive late, leave early -- I was impressed with the large number of students that came by last night. Too bad the Quakers couldn't give them a better show. Last night happened to be the fraternity/sorority night at the Palestra, with discounted tickets for Greeks and a sorority tug-o-war contest. I'd say it was a successful promotion.

That said, and I credit Philly.com's Jon Tannenwald for furthering my observations, Penn needs to make the entire student section general admission. At tip-off last night, the upper level behind the basket was pretty full of students with GA tickets, while section 120 -- reserved for season ticket holders that did the Line -- remained pretty empty and needed to be filled up with cheerleaders. If the season ticket holders don't care enough about their tickets to show up to the game at tip-off, then let the kids that cared to show up down to the lower level. Of course, this can't be done this year because the season ticket holders already paid their money. But to resolve the problem going forward, they should make everything general admission and make the Line optional or get rid of it altogether and just do a "Midnight Madness" event like so many other schools.

As always, your thoughts are welcome. More detailed coverage of this weekend will follow in Monday's edition of the DP.