Game 17: Dartmouth - The good, bad and ugly

Penn's 78-47 win Friday night over Dartmouth was its widest margin of victory since Jan. 14, 2006, when the Quakers beat Columbia 87-55. Moving on:

The good: 21 points for Tyler Bernardini in 25 minutes. This doesn't sound that good at first — after all, we've come to expect that output from the swingman lately. But his 7-for-10 shooting (4-for-4 from behind the arc) came on a night when Bernardini said he was battling flu-like symptoms. He had been ill most of the week and did not practice yesterday. (Sidenote, his mom is in town, and made him soup). "I was able to light it up, I was ready to roll tonight," he said after the game.

My question for Bernardini post game? If he can score 21 with the flu, what can he do next week? "I dunno," he responded.

The bad: Personally, it seemed coach Jerome Allen left his starting five in for too many minutes tonight. The Quakers kept the margin above 20 points for the last 10+ minutes, yet Bernardini, Zack Rosen, Jack Eggleston and Miles Cartwright all continued to play for another four minutes before the bench was emptied. All in all, the starters played 120 minutes, or 60 percent of the game. I completely understand leaving Eggleston in to pick up his fifth double-double of the season, but with the real test Saturday night in the Crimson, you've gotta rest the big guns, especially when Harvard had to fight it out to the end against Princeton Friday night.

The Ugly: Not so much ugly as fun, but in the game's final 20 seconds, the Big Green were still pressing the Quakers, so Penn broke the press with a long pass upcourt to freshman Dau Jok. With the Red and Blue up 31, Jok delicately stepped unguarded to the three-point line, pump faked, realized what a grave error it would be to actually throw up a shot and pulled the ball back down smiling one of those patented Dau Jok grins. He dribbled out the clock for the win.

For more from the game, see the post game video here.