The Quakers could have had two fifth-year seniors on the roster next year, but both will be moving on from the program instead.
Tommy McMahon once declared that he would apply for a fifth year of eligibility, but he left the team some time in December after seeing his minutes dry up. He had missed his entire junior year with a hip problem.
Aron Cohen's case was a bit more interesting. He shared point guard duties with Kevin Egee and Harrison Gaines last season, but doctors suddenly diagnosed him with a heart condition this year. (I believe it is not immediately life-threatening, although I'm not qualified to say for sure.) Tests went on for a while, and as late as Dec. 30 coach Glen Miller said that nothing about his status was definitive. But Cohen was never cleared to step back on the floor. "I never had any issues before, which was a little weird," he told me via email. As far as next year, he is looking into teaching jobs.
The cases illustrate what a blow it is when a basketball player loses a season to injury. Unlike in football, hoopsters with medical hardships must return to school for a full year — not just a ninth semester — if they want another bite at the apple.
I appreciate all of your comments on my column yesterday. They speak for themselves across the board. I'll try to expand on my points and address your comments in more depth here.
Given Penn's historical dominance in a league defined for years not by parity, but by only two teams -- the "Killer P's" -- it is hard to accept that the talent pool in the league is more spread out right now. Maybe in the past, Penn could have managed to get by with a team composed primarily of underclassmen. But right now, they lack talented and very experienced upperclassmen, forcing the program into a rebuilding phase that should realistically last 2-3 years.
For various reasons, Fran Dunphy's final two recruiting classes simply have not panned out. Injuries are largely to blame (read: Darren Smith, Andreas Schreiber, Tommy McMahon, et al). You could even go back to Brian Grandieri's recruiting year and label that class as weak -- except Grandieri -- explaining why he had a minimal supporting cast last season. Some of the other players just didn't materialize into very good Ivy League players. You can blame the latter reason on Dunphy and say he was a bad recruiter in his final years. You can blame it on Miller and say that he didn't develop those players to help them reach their full potential. You can blame it on the players themselves. But assessing blame is meaningless and impossible to do with any real accuracy.
So then we turn to Miller's recruits, most of whom in less than two years have shown more promise than most of Dunphy's last recruits in the same amount of time. It is both presumptuous and in my opinion unfair to make the claim that Miller's players are turning on him or don't want to play their best for him. The Quakers have not lacked effort in the past several weeks, and from what I could tell three weeks ago when I sat right behind the Penn bench against St. Joe's, the players understood and responded to his outbursts well. Obviously, none of the players are going to speak out against their coach on the record, so it's impossible to report what they really think and feel. Maybe the fact that no one has vehmently spoken out on the record against him -- even after graduation or quitting the team -- suggests that he is more respected by his players than some readers might think. The case was certainly not the same for Joe Scott a few years back at Princeton.
In any event, the circumstances that have led to this rebuilding period are most unusual and unfortunate, and fans certainly deserve to question the way Miller has handled himself and this team throughout his tenure. Whenever a team is struggling and suffering from a talent gap, it is very difficult to figure out just how much the coach is to blame. And I would tend to think that without any real leaders on a losing team, the coach is likely to take the heat more quickly than he should.
That's why I believe Penn fans need to accept that this process might take some time, and that it is only fair to give Miller time.
That said, Miller has not embraced the Penn basketball culture -- or the Penn community itself -- in the way that he should have when he first got here. It's a problem that continues to plague him -- one that he needs to make a real effort to overcome. It will be almost impossible for him to get over that hump if fans continue to harass him, which is what makes this current situation especially complicated. The only way I see it being remedied is if both sides begin to gain a better understanding of each other.
Some of you have expressed frustration over his lack of ties to Penn, or that he's simply not a Philly Big 5 coach. I share your concerns -- he has not done enough to make up for his lack of a Penn or Philadelphia identity, or he doesn't realize how important these qualities are and historically have been to the program. Many of you just don't get the sense that Miller embraces the full meaning of his role within the university, which is more than simply being the John R. Rockwell head coach of men's basketball. There are many fans, alumni, and faculty out there that feel alienated by Miller and the basketball program. At Penn, the basketball coach is a very important figure by nature. Recapturing their support extends far beyond wins and losses.
Of course, if fans don't give him a chance to earn their support, then he never will. Both sides ought to try.
The athletic department just released the 2009 football schedule. None of the matchups are that surprising since the Ivy schedule is set in stone through the 2023 season and two of the three non-conference games are against teams the Quakers faced (and lost to) last year. In fact, those two games, home versus VIllanova and at Lafayette, will not even switch venues. Last year Penn lost in overtime to Villanova, 20-14, at Franklin Field, and then lost in Easton, Pa., the next weekend, 24-17, to the Leopards. The third, and new, non-coference opponent is Bucknell, who the Red and Blue last faced in 2006.
Penn 2009 Dates and Opponents
Sept. 19 – VILLANOVA
Sept. 26 – at Lafayette
Oct. 3 – at Dartmouth
Oct. 10 – BUCKNELL
Oct. 17 – at Columbia
Oct. 24 – YALE (Family Weekend)
Oct. 31 – at Brown
Nov. 7 – PRINCETON (Homecoming)
Nov. 14 – at Harvard
Nov. 21 - CORNELL
(Home games in CAPS)
Good evening from the Palestra, where Penn and Cornell are set to pen a new chapter in this growing rivalry. Both teams are coming off of key losses yesterday, with Penn falling to Columbia and the heavily-favored Big Red sputtering at Princeton. This game will be crucial for both teams' Ivy League aspirations. For Penn, the game is a must-win -- falling to 1-3 in the league all but dooms its season. For Cornell, tonight is a chance to prove that last night was a fluke and that with the target on its back, it is still the team to beat in the Ivy League. Cornell's fans have traveled exceptionally well and outnumber Penn at this point, though I'm sure the student section for Penn will fill up soon. Stay tuned throughout the night, wireless willing, for live updates. --Andrew Todres
Final, Penn 73, Cornell 88
Tyler rattles home a baseline jumper on a pass from Howlett, 78-66. Cornell wastes no time on the next possession, dumping it into Tyler for a baby hook to extend the lead to 14. Gaines made a nice move to the basket but couldn't finish on the next possession. Then Foote commits an offensive foul away from the ball with 1:56 to go. Rosen clanks a 3 from the corner, which should just about seal Penn's fate. In reality it was sealed a long time ago. Dale is pushed by Rosen and goes to the line for two, as Cornell's in the double-bonus. Penn fans are heading for the exit at this point. He makes 1 of 2 to give the Big Red a 15 point lead with 1:18 to go. Harrison nets a free throw after getting fouled and Bernardini strips the inbound and goes to the line for two more, making both. 81-69 with 1:09 to go. A Rosen foul off the inbound sends Wroblewski to the line, with Cornell clearing the lane. He makes one of two, 82-69. Howlett bricks another 3, and then Dale gets fouled. He makes both of his free throws -- a 15-point lead with under a minute to go is insurmountable. This game is done.
Cornell completely took the wind out of Penn's sails midway through the first half. Penn's performance this weekend likely has sealed its fate as a team destined for another year without a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Much more coverage from the weekend will follow on the Buzz and in the DP on Monday.
3:01 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 64, Cornell 78
Foote hits 1 of 2 from the line -- Eggleston still isn't in the game, but Cam Lewis has a nice move inside for the bucket to bring it to within 11. He then stuffs Foote, but Cornell retains possession and Wittman drills a 3-pointer. So clutch. Miller grabs a 30-second TO.
3:53 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 62, Cornell 74
"Who's that kid," Steve Donahue asks one of his assistants about Danny Monckton, shortly before Kreefer restores Cornell's lead to 20 with a bucket. Gaines steals the ball and takes it all the the basket and gets fouled hard on the way up, converting the basket. It should have been an intentional foul. Gaines hits the free throw to convert the 3-point play, 69-54. Rosen stripped Dale but the ball landed right in Foote's hand for an easy layup to make it 71-56. At the 5:31 mark, Bernardini returns to replace Monckton. Rosen misses a 3 that he tried to create for himself, but then recoveres a loose ball and drives all the way to the basket to draw a foul. He hits both, 73-58. Then Tyler commits a foul 75 feet away from the basket, his fourth foul. He is just dreadful today. Harrison Gaines, Penn's only bright spot today, hits a jumper from the elbow to close the lead to 14, and then Eggleston draws a charge at the other end. Then he gets pulled for Howlett. Bernardini cuts the lead to 12 now, hitting a nice perimter shot. Then Rosen is whistled for a touch foul against Louis Dale. Dale misses the front end but Tyler gets a rebound over Howlett (why did Eggleston get taken out before, Coach? I disagree with that one) to keep it alive for Cornell. Then a Votel foul. Media timeout.
The Cornell band and student section now serenades Penn its own rendition of the "Hey, you suck!" song. I'm sure Penn's athletic department is thrilled. And to Cornell's band's credit, they do it a lot better and louder than Penn's band used to. Maybe that's an exaggeration -- I just haven't heard it from Penn's side in ages.
7:58 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 49, Cornell 67
Out of the timeout, Wittman gets the feed inside and draws three Penn defenders, with Lewis committing the foul -- his fourth. He hits both to give Cornell a 20-point lead, the largest lead of the game. Gaines tips in a Turley miss at the other end. Then on the next possession Howlett hoists up a ridiculously stupid three-point attempt and bricked it severely, with Wittman responding at the other end with a deep 2. Then Tyler misses another jumper, but Penn cuts the lead back to 18 when Gaines drives coast-to-coast and uses his speed to get himself a layup. On the next possession, Tyler Bernardini failed to box out his man, leading to a continuation of Cornell's possession -- and leading Miller to yank him in favor of Danny Monckton (!). I have a feeling the bench will be emptied out in the coming minutes.
10:32 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 45, Cornell 63
Rosen steals it and takes it the other way on the break, finding Gaines, but he is fouled before he can get up a layup (arguably should have been a shooting foul), then Gaines hoists up a brick from the elbow off the inbounds. For some reason, Steve Donahue doesn't like what he sees out on the floor and calls a 30-second TO.
11:10 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 45, Cornell 63
Reilly and Lewis come in out of the timeout, though Penn's offense looks totally confused. Reilly puts up an ill-advised three-point attempt -- not what he was sent in to do. Miller is too depressed by this performance right now to even express his anger like he usually does. He just looks absolutely miserable on the bench right now.
11:42 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 45, Cornell 63
Finally a three falls for Penn thanks to an open look for Mike Howlett -- I believe that's the first three since Belcore hit one in the opening minutes of the game. Brian Kreefer responds at the other end with a great offensive board and put back, but Egee sticks another 3 on the next possesion to make it a 15-point game. The shots are finally starting to fall for Penn. Then Wroblewski threw the ball away, turning it over to Penn. Tyler Bernardini took advantage of the opportunity, creating an open look and draining Penn's third consecutive three, though Kreefer put in a midrange jumper at the other end to neutralize Penn's three-point streak. Tyler tried to take it inside on the next possession and appeared to be fouled on a layup but nothing was called. Then Tyler committed an ill-advised looseball foul, his third, and was replaced by Gaines. A good interior pass from Foote to Wire sets up an easy jumper, giving Cornell a 61-45 lead at the 12:30 mark. Then Eggleston took a feed in the post but hoisted up a terrible effort on a turnaround hook shot attempt, and Cornell responded with a great pass inside from Kreefer to Foote for an easy layup. Miller grabs a much-needed TO. With 11:42 to go, I would say this game, barring a Palestra miracle, is in the books. Penn just doesn't have it tonight, and Cornell is playing too well.
15:27 to go in the 2nd Half, Penn 36, Cornell 54
Miller starts out with Lewis, Rosen, Belcore, Turley, and Gaines on the floor, as the lineup continues to fluctuate. Gaines hits a short jumper in the lane to start the Quakers off. Then Gaines is hacked but no foul is called on a layup on the ensuing possession. Cam Lewis contributed in a big way on Penn's first two defensive stops. Then Gaines took a feed from Rosen for a nice layup -- Rosen's first assit. Penn is looking sharp to start out this half, just as they did at the beginning of the last stanza. Louis Dale, who has been quiet, responds at the other end with a 3 to put Cornell up 49-33. Gaines continues his little scoring streak, going 1-2 from the line to cut the defacit to 15. On the next possession, Gaines continues to step it up, driving the lane and flushing a floater, though Dale responded in kind with a jumper in the paint at the other end. Cam Lewis then killed Penn's momentum, throwing a terrible pass in the post that was intercepted, and Wittman returned fire with a perimeter jumper to make it a 53-36 game. Lewis then mishandled a pass in the paint and Dale went all the way down the court and drew a hard foul from Turley. At the 16:08 mark, Rosen, Bernardini, and Egee checked in; Dale went 1-2 from the line. Bernardini set Rosen up on the next possession with an open 3, but Rosen missed. The Big Red then worked the ball inside with nice interior passing and drew a foul on a layup attempt under the basket. Alex Tyler will shoot 2 when we come back from the media timeout.
Halftime Stats
Wittman leads Cornell with 11 points. Foote chipped in 9 points and 3 boards. Cornell is shooting 6-11 from downtown.
Penn is led by Cam Lewis' nine points -- the next highest scorer is Belcore with 5. Penn is an icy 1-10 from three-land. The rebounding margin favors Penn by 1, while Cornell has only 5 turnovers to Penn's 7. Tyler Bernardini and Zack Rosen both have two points each, and Rosen does not yet have an assist to his name.
Ugly.
Halftime, Penn 29, Cornell 44
Harrison Gaines made a great play to pick up a defensive rebound and run the floor, dishing to Eggleston on a breakaway, but he Eggleston missed what was a tentative dunk attempt. Lewis grabbed up the rebound and got fouled, hitting one of two. "You just cost us two points," Miller said to Eggleston after yanking him because of the miss. Then Reeves responded with the clock expiring, pulling off a beautiful spin into a turnaround jumper at the buzzer to cement a 15-point lead for Cornell heading into the locker room.
What a wild game this has been. First Penn, coming out with a completely unprecedented lineup, seemed to have the upper hand. But Cornell has been completely dominant since then, making the Quakers look awful in just about every phase of the game. Other than a few nice minutes from Belcore, no Penn player stands out as having really contributed much at all. Lewis has had his moments, but Rosen and Bernardini have brought nothing to the table tonight thus far. Penn will need its better players and leaders to pick up the slack in the second half if it has any chance at making up this large defacit against a more talented Cornell team.
Halftime stats in a few...
:45.6 to go in the 1st Half, Penn 28, Cornell 42
Bernardini comes in out of the media timeout to go along with Eggleston, who came back a bit earlier, Egee, Rosen, and Lewis. Votel and Gaines immediately replace Egee and Lewis. Foote makes his free throws, 35-27 Cornell. A dumb foul on Bernardini causes him to get yanked and replaced by Egee; Reeves makes the pair to extend Cornell's lead to 10. Tyler is just playing terribly right now, and he's clearly frustrated with himself, as is Miller. Gaines draws a foul at the other end and hits one of two -- the lead for Cornell is now nine at the 2-minute mark. Then a great swing pass from Foote sets up a Wroblewski 3-pointer to move the Big Red's lead to double-digits. Meanwhile, Penn is misfiring all over the floor -- Eggelston rims out a three-pointer and Cornell takes it the other way, as Foote finishes off a powerful inside move to give Cornell a 14-point lead. The Big Red are really starting to breakthis open, and Penn just cannot get anything going on offense like they did so successfully in the beginning of the game. Maybe Miller should have stuck with his wacky starting lineup? The usual crew is just not getting it done.
3:19 to go in the 1st Half, Penn 27, Cornell 33
Belcore misses a three out of the timeout, and then Cam Lewis stuffs Foote but is called for a foul, much to the disgust of the pretty full Penn student section. Media timeout.
3:58 to go in the 1st Half, Penn 27, Cornell 33
Turley and Lewis come in out of the media timeout -- still no Eggleston. With the shot clock winding down, Wittman hoists up a three-point prayer that falls, giving Cornell its first lead since the opening minute of the game. Lewis ties it up on the next possession with a nice spin move and baby hook in the post. Then Reeves followed a Wittman 3-point miss with a layup off the rebound. Turley at the line -- chants of "Mormon" echo from the Cornell section (classless) -- but he sinks both to tie the game up at 25. Wittman rattles home another three at the other end to put the Big Red up by 3, but Rosen rides Reeves on his back on the ensuing possession to draw a foul. Egee comes in to replace Bernardini before the front end of Rosen's 1-and-1 -- Tyler has been playing far below his standards tonight. Rosen hits both to draw Penn to within 1. Reeves sticks a three on the ensuing possession to restore Cornell's lead to 4. Then Cam Lewis gets a turn at the free throw (as the Penn crowd holds its breath), and misses the front end. Then Lewis gets schooled in the post by Foote to extend Cornell's lead to 6, prompting a Miller 30-second TO.
7:38 to go in the 1st Half, Penn 21, Cornell 20
Penn returns from the media timeout with a lineup that I personally like: Rosen, Eggleston, Bernardini, Votel, and Egee. Fittingly, there's a stoppage and Howlett subs in for Eggleston before play starts up because Eggleston is bleeding -- that's just the type of player he is. Penn is hustling much better and playing with a lot more toughness than they did yesterday. It's a very noticeable change -- clearly Miller got through to them. A great play started and finished by Votel: gets a steal at one end, takes a post pass and finds Bernardini cutting backdoor for the layup, though Dale responded with a 3 at the other end to make it 17-15. Then Egee catches a pass under the basket and goes up strong for the layup, though he does commit a foul to prevent an easy layup at the other end -- his second foul and Penn's ninth. The Quakers will need to pay attention to foul trouble as the game goes on. Eggleston still hasn't come on since the media timeout, though he seems anxious to get back in at the 9:25 mark, standing up from the bench and urging on his teammates. Wittman also picked up his second foul before the 9-minute mark and was replaced by Gore. Penn demonstrated some maturity coming off of two Adam Gore free throws, slowing down the offense and patiently waiting for the right moment to take it at Cornell, which Gaines did to draw a foul on a jumpshot from the elbow. He hit both of his free throws to put Penn ahead 21-18 and was then replaced by Bernardini. An ugly alley-oop on a breakaway from Louis Dale to Jeff Foote, who barely flushed it, drew the Big Red to within 1. Cornell will take the ball out underneath Penn's basket when we return from the media timeout.
Amy Gutmann is in the house, drawing chants from the Penn student section. The Palestra is pretty full, though again there is a huge discrepency between the students in the upper level and the lower level season ticeket holders. Make this GA, Penn.
11:42 to go in the 1st Half, Penn 15, Cornell 12
Penn's starters, minus Belcore and Votel, come in out of the media timeout -- Eggleston, Rosen, and Bernardini. Gaines is struggling, though, as he's whistled for a travel trying to drive the lane. Then Gaines commited a charge driving again -- he keeps trying to drive strong side and has come away with nothing. Belcore comes in to replace him. Then Eggleston does an amazing job picking away a long loose ball while colliding with a Cornell player, and Cam Lewis receives a dish and puts up a pretty reverse layup to finish. Meanwhile, at the 13:56 mark, Cornell is already in the bonus. Votel checks in and receives a good feed from Belcore and turns around baseline to hit a short jumper. Belcore is playing very nicely so far. Then Chris Wroblewski responds at the other end with a 3 to make it 15-11. A great block from Eggleston on an Alex Tyler layup attempt, but Rosen couldn't complete the layup at the other end. Then there was a great hustle play from Eggleston to scramble for a defensive rebound, diving on the ground and passing the ball over to Egee to give the possession over to Penn.
15:48 to go in the 1st Half, Penn 11, Cornell 5
Justin Reilly needed only 42 seconds to commit two fouls, getting subbed out for Cam Lewis. The scoring started out with a free throw from Jeff Foote and a nice take off a screen for a layup by Belcore. Cornell is taking it inside on Penn early, just like Columbia did so successfully last night. Ryan Wittman added two more points from the charity stripe, and then was quickly subbed out for the recently-returned Adam Gore. Then Belcore continued the scoring with a three-pointer in the corner off a nice screen and feed from Conor Turley, who is seizing the moment in what I believe is his first career start. Then Turley drew a charge at the other end, much to the delight of an enthusiastic Glen Miller. Turley sure is making him look good here in the early going. Cam Lewis, after missing a layup on a prior possession, followed up with a nice post move and strong layup to extend Penn's ead to four and then to six with a nice putback on the next possession. Gaines is a little out of control early though, with a sloppy take to the basket that was blocked. But Penn is really making a point of taking it to the hole, as Egee drove hard to the basket and finished with a layup to give Penn the 11-5 lead at the 16-minute mark, which is where we stand now at the media timeout. An impressive start for the Quakers with the mystery lineup -- Rosen, Bernardini, Eggleston, and Votel still haven't seen a second of action. Also worth noting that the Penn student section still remains relatively sparse, while Cornell's side is absolutely full. The non-student attendance is pretty strong.
Starting Lineups
Cornell
F Ryan Wittman
F Alex Tyler
C Jeff Foote
G Louis Dale
G Geoff Reeves
Penn
F Conor Turley
F Justin Reilly
G Kevin Egee
G Harrison Gaines
G Rob Belcore
Huge suprise here -- Miller is going with a completely new-look starting lineup tonight. Perhaps a punishment for the performance last night? Who knows? Stay tuned.
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.
When Fran Dunphy left Penn in the Spring of 2006, a number of candidates were mentioned as possible replacements: Dave Wohl, Billy Taylor, Fran O’Hanlon, Glen Miller and Steve Donahue. Ultimately, a great deal of the consternation regarding Glen Miller revolves around Steve Donahue’s recent run of success as Cornell’s coach. But did Penn make a foolish decision in 2006? Is there any obvious statistical answer as to why Miller was chosen rather than Donahue? Obviously, if the reasons were a great interview and the vast potential seen in Miller by the powers that be, a statistical explanation will be impossible to further, but let’s take a look. All these statistics have been culled from the Penn and Cornell athletic department web sites and we’re going to pretend we’ve travelled back in time to 2006 and only have those statistics available to us.
Career records
Glen Miller (13 Years 188-157)
Steve Donahue (6 years 58-105)
Though it’s difficult to compare sample sizes this different, it seems abundantly clear that Miller, at least to this point in his career, had experienced a great deal more success than Donahue. Though his record does count his time at Connecticut College, where in his final season with the Camels he lead them to a 28-1 mark and Donahue’s whole career as a head coach was at Cornell. So let’s just compare the records of the two men within the Ivy League and, to create even more equality, let’s use just the first six years of each man’s record.
Ivy Records, First Six Years
Glen Miller (48-36)
Steve Donahue (31-53)
Again, the records seem to speak for themselves. Most impressively, Miller in his fourth year at Brown went to the NIT. In those first six years within the Ancient Eight, Miller averaged eight wins per year to Donahue’s five and one-sixth wins per year. Miller’s teams averaged a finish closer to fourth place than third and Donahue’s averaged a finish closer to fifth than fourth. But all this might mean is that Miller was about one place better than Donahue at beating the teams they both played. How did the two men fare against each other?
Series between Miller and Donahue
2000-01 Brown 2-0
2001-02 Brown 2-0
2002-03 Brown 2-0
2003-04 Split 1-1
2004-05 Cornell 2-0
2005-06 Split 1-1
Near the end of the series it is possible to see Donahue approaching and perhaps overtaking Miller, but overall, before taking the coaching job at Penn, Glen Miller held an 8-4 record against Steve Donahue and the Big Red.
While these are some fairly rudimentary statistics and, admittedly, they do not tell the whole story — for example, they do not take in to account factors such as what players were currently on the roster when the coaches arrived at their respective schools, what the relative levels of alumni and athletic department support were like or any of a myriad of other factors — it’s fairly easy to see, at least numerically, why, in 2006, Glen Miller seemed to be a stronger choice than Steve Donahue in replacing Fran Dunphy.
Good evening folks, sorry for the delay--blame Air PennNet. We're picking up here with about three and a half minutes to go in the first half with Columbia leading, 23-20. What you've missed: a couple of K.J. Matsui threes for Columbia in transition, a couple of Bernardini buckets for the Quakers, and a couple of Egees--Penn's Kevin and the Lions' Steven (his younger brother) have faced off head to head for the first time ever.
Penn 52, Columbia 55, 5:35 Second Half
Scott makes a nice feed to Jason Miller on the baseline for a score, but Miller will foul Eggleston on the other end. The sophomore forward can't connect on the first, but drains the second.
Penn 51, Columbia 53, 7:25 Second Half
Consecutive Jack Eggleston scores spurs Joe Jones to call a 30-second timeout.
Penn 47, Columbia 52, 7:25 Second Half
Just as it was slipping away a little bit (thanks to a pair of jumpers from Noruwa Agho), Votel gives another little boost. He converts an and-1, and cuts the lead to five.
Penn 37, Columbia 43, 11:36 Second Half
Talk about instant offense. Conor Turley, just seconds into his first appearance of the game, finishes a nice lefty hook in the lane, and the foul. He converts the three-point play, giving Penn a much-needed spark. Egee is slammed to the floor near the basket, and he gets ready to shoot two.
Penn 37, Columbia 43, 13:00 Second Half
A three-pointer by Scott and a three-point play by Bernardini was the only offense for the first four-plus minutes of the half, but Columbia has turned it on, and the Quakers are in danger of letting this one slip out of grasp.
Rosen, however, brings the Red and Blue back within six with a bucket.
Halftime Stats
Penn
Brennan Votel: 8 points, 2 rebounds, one steal. Tyler Bernardini: 8 points, two rebounds, one steal. Zack Rosen: 2 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds, 3 steals.
Columbia
KJ Matsui: 9 points, one rebounds. Jason Miller: 8 points, 6 rebounds, one block.
Battle of the Egees
Steve: 4 points, one assist, no turnovers. Kevin: 6 points, no assists, no turnovers.
Penn 30, Columbia 33, Halftime
Niko Scott drained another three from the corner to put Columbia up, and that's how it's going to stay going into halftime (although Steven Egee almost hit a shot from beyond halfcourt at the buzzer). We'll get you some stats as soon as they're available.
Penn 30, Columbia 30, :57.8 First Half
In your face, little bro! Kevin hits a three over Steven after a Lions bucket on the first possession. But Niko Scott answers with a three-pointer of his own.
On the next time down, Belcore finds Votel for a nice little jumper in the paint. The Lions' Jason Miller was sent to the line, and he converts on both.
Penn 25, Columbia 23, 2:14 First Half
Belcore missed the front end, and on their next possession the Quakers turn it over after a botched Rosen drive. He makes up for it on the next possession, however, notching a steal which will turn into a Brennan Votel bucket down low.
A Rob Belcore trifecta on the next Penn possession (on a Rosen assist) gives the team some much-needed life--Columbia coach Joe Jones has called for time. It also looks like Steven Egee will head back into the game, much to the delight of Section 110, which is home to the Egee extended family.
Penn 20, Columbia 23, 3:41 First Half
The Quakers' execution offensively has been subpar up to this point. There have been several errant passes (by Zack Rosen and Harrison Gaines), and Penn has missed a ton of open jumpers. The Red and Blue should be able to take this Columbia team easily, but they're going to have to execute better if they want to take a lead into halftime. Rob Belcore will shoot one-and-one in the meantime.
Three facts that are necessary to understand me before we enter this relatively straight-forward named post:
1. I love lists. I will read any arbitrary group of things as long as it’s in numeric order—“The 16 Worst Plastic Surgeries,” “The 4 Handsomest Daily Pennsylvanian Sports Editors,” whatever –for several years I felt as though VH1’s programming was meant exclusively for me.
2. I hold deep seated biases. Oftentimes, I choose these biases on a whim. In presenting these biases to you, the blog reading public, I want to express that they are solely my personal flights of fancy and do not represent the DP.
3. I love interacting with commenters. Constructive criticisms, deconstructive put downs, construction suggestions, whatever, please interact with me. Like most bloggers, I am lonely.
But before we get to the list, for anyone interested in what Penn’s opponents’ newspapers are saying this weekend, here’s the game preview from the Cornell Daily Sun. The money quote in the piece comes from Cornell Coach Steve Donahue saying, about Penn: “They’re still a young team. They’re one of the most talented teams we’ll play in the league, if not the most talented.”
The Columbia Spectator does not have a game preview up yet, but I found this article about a potential progressive semi-professionalizing of college sports interesting.
All that being said, here are the institutions I’m encouraging you to root for this weekend.
1. The Princeton Tigers Men’s Basketball team:
Yes, yes, I know this is heresy. I’m the Benedict Arnold of the Buzz. But something has felt consistently wrong without Princeton in the upper echelon of Ivy League basketball. A 4-0, first place Tigers team could generate the sort of excitement for the League that has been lacking everywhere except for Ithaca.
2. The Continuation of Phi Slamma Eggleston (I wish I had coined this term)
Ever since the La Salle game, Jack Eggleston has picked up—and immediately thrown down, two handed—the mantle as the preeminent Penn in-game dunker. It’s starting not to feel like a game unless the rim is abused by Eggleston. Additionally, rumor has it that last weekend in Hanover Cam Lewis, The Slammin’ Gauguin, joined the elite PSE fraternity attacking Dartmouth’s rims with aplomb. It would be nice to see that translate to a portrait worthy dunk or two on Jeff Foote and Jason Miller.
For whatever reason, Columbia hasn't lived up to its athletic reputation in the past few years on the hardwood against Penn. While everyone is getting geared up for the Penn-Cornell showdown on Saturday, the Quakers could find themselves in a real jam if they overlook tomorrow night's game.
The brief rundown of the recent history, in case you forgot...
Last year, Penn got destroyed at Columbia, 74-58, thanks to the hot shooting of K.J. Matsui. Penn could not defend the three. In Philadelphia, the Quakers squeaked out with a win, 69-67, in the last game of the season.
Three seasons ago, the Lions dealt Penn its first Ivy League loss of the season. That Penn team would go on to win the Ivy League that year.
Columbia has played relatively well this season -- Niko Scott and Matsui remain viable perimeter threats, and freshman guard Norwua Agho has been coming on very strong as of late. Agho, like Ibby Jaaber and Darren Smith, is a product of the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J.
It's easy for everyone to get absorbed in the Cornell hype, but if the Quakers can't put Columbia away tomorrow, they won't be in very high spirits heading into Saturday night. With such a young team, mental preparation is paramount. For this reason, Columbia cannot be overlooked. The Lions will come to play tomorrow, and Penn better be ready. It's not yet time to be thinking about Saturday.
Having had almost a full week to think about the collapse in the final minutes last week to Dartmouth, the Quakers should be chomping at the bit to get out on the court. And I have faith that Glen Miller has hammered these points home already.
P.S. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the blatant absence of Penn basketball coverage on The Buzz in the past week. There is no excuse for it, and I personally regret the lack of posts. But you're not looking for an apology -- you're looking for regular commentary on the Quakers. All I can do for my part is promise to do a better job of bringing that to you on a consistent basis. Thanks for reading.
Ed Note: For the next week -- and possibly longer if the readers don't run him out of town -- Noah Becker, a senior History major from Wayne, Pa., will be providing some guest blog posts. So without further ado, here is his first one, a look at whether or not a Penn-Cornell basketball rivalry exists.
This post is adorable and flattering. But c’mon Cornell, you already have a sports rival, a real sports rival with a full Wikipedia entry (where else do you think I get my knowledge?). This rival has both an awesomely smelly tradition and full scale administration crackdowns for rowdy fan behavior. In fact, it meets most of the standards that classify a Level Three Hatfield-McCoy Rivalry. Not all of these levels must be met in order to qualify as a mere Level One Friendly Rival, nor do they have to be met in any specific order. But, unfortunately for the Hill People of New York, Penn-Cornell meets none of them.
1. Sustained equality of ability
This criterion is met only in the sense that both Penn and Cornell have been playing basketball against each other and thus both teams had the theoretical ability to play said sport. Otherwise, Penn thoroughly dominates the series. Since a 74-56 Quakers win on Feb. 7, 1969 -- which I use since Saturday's Cornell at Penn game will mark the 40th anniversary of what I'm sure was a rousing match -- Penn is 66-13 against the Big Red. Amazingly, if Cornell won every single game for the next 20 years -- and of course, in a future that dystopian, 2+2 would equal 5 and freshman writing seminars would be taught in Newspeak -- on Feb. 7, 2029, the Quakers would still have a double digit advantage in wins in the series in the last 60 years.
2. Proximity or Class Warfare
Location (Louisville v. Kentucky, Arizona v. Arizona State, Kansas v. Missouri) or a disparity regarding the schools’ relative controls of the means of production—i.e. the “Haves” against the “Have-Nots”—(Harvard v. Cornell in hockey, Little Cowboys v. Little Giants, Notre Dame v. Anyone) play major roles in fostering intense rivalries. In fact, the best rivalries contain elements of both (Duke v. UNC, Villanova v. St. Joe’s, Pre-2004 Yankees v. Pre-2004 Red Sox).
As anyone who’s ever traveled to Ithaca can tell you, it’s not close and a characterization of Penn as an old, Ivory Tower institution rings false. Sure, historically Penn’s picked on the other Ivy League basketball teams, and it was founded before Cornell, but when constructing the evil, plutocratic, Ivy League-educated, blue-blooded villain for literature or film, the elite status conferred by Harvard, Yale or Princeton makes for a more convincing snob.
3. Undeniable, uncontrollable mutual feelings of loathing
Fans of both teams in the rivalry must believe their rival to have a truly despicable, untenable aspect that causes a deep antipathy. The modern king of this is Bill Belichick whose rivalry with the NFL -- by this I mean the league and everyone who populates it -- drove him to a sort of Shakespearean madness which included running up the score on poor, defenseless coaching legend Joe Gibbs. This category while intentionally ambiguous is generally populated by the nationally disdained (Duke Basketball, Notre Dame Football, Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees).
Meanwhile, what is there to loathe about Cornell? Steve Donahue is a former Penn assistant coach, their best players, Louis Dale, Jeff Footer and Ryan Wittman, seem generally unobjectionable and many of the best jokes in The Office revolve around the Big Red.
So what is their relationship to Penn if not a rival? It seems more like the relationship between a younger brother and his older, cooler sibling with Cornell getting picked on, trying to emulate Penn -- by hiring Donahue, and desperately trying to measure up to Penn by telling them about the “rivalry” between them. It’s cute and flattering that Cornell wants a rivalry, but it’s just not true.
I recently caught up with departed Quakers guard Remy Cofield. He left the team almost two weeks ago to make a fresh start next year at a college closer to his Newton, Mass. home. Cofield had a couple of big games as a freshman and showed decent athleticism but was a defensive liability and, by his admission, inconsistent. This year he was relegated to scrub status. Some of what he told me is below, edited for clarity. Look for a full story in the DP soon.
On leaving Penn: I had begun to think about a transfer situation at the onset of the year for two reasons: 1) I was not comfortable with the role I was playing on the team or lack thereof, and 2) I felt a lot of stress which was being amplified by basketball. ... When I said 'personal reasons' for why I was leaving, it was about me and what I was going through which was affecting my family and causing concerns ... I wanted to be closer to my family so I could regain that comfort that I used to have when I played ball.
On playing basketball again: I thought about playing wherever I go and I asked myself this question: Do you still love playing ball? As I've had time to think, I definitely do love playing ball. I do have a short list of schools that I would enjoy going to ... but nothing has been etched in stone.
On forgoing the rest of this season: I just did not want to be a burden to my teammates and what [the coaches] were trying to do with their program. It was the right time for me and I couldn't wait any longer.
On his development as a player: I've had times where I've played well but not on a consistent basis. I know that I have a ton of potential to reach as a player, and I'm nowhere near where I can be. I have a year and a half to work on the things in my game that are weak, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will reach those goals. ... Being here at Penn, I also did not believe that I could develop into the player that I wanted to be. That has bothered me, and played a part in my decision to leave.
Following a disappointing 76-49 home loss to Seton Hall (14-6, 2-5 Big East), Penn coach Pat Knapp gave a very candid and animated interview, in which he seemed to call out his team several times. Since not everything can fit into the paper, here are a few highlights, along with my analysis, below:
On Carrie Biemer’s losing her streak of 27 straight double-digit games: “Not to give people scouting reports, but [the Pirates] are quick, they’re athletic and they’re long, and they got out there on her. The thing is this isn’t all about Carrie scoring points. You saw us miss a lot of inside shots, layups, lobs, fast-breaks. That’s not the point of the night. The point of the night is we need to rededicate ourselves to a team defensive effort because, particularly in the second half, we were, to put it mildly, not very good… These are things we preach and talk about all the time. To me it makes no difference - I don’t care if Seton Hall is in the Big East or the NBA; get out there, play with focus, play with purpose, play with heart.”
Penn is in dire need of consistent second and third options outside of Biemer. The senior captain has tallied roughly 32 percent of Penn's field goal attempts and accounts for 34.7 percent of its scoring. Fellow senior Kelly Scott has been a solid threat on the outside, and she is the only player besides Biemer to average in double-figures with 11.1 points per game. Sarah Bucar's perimeter shooting is sorely missing as she battles a foot injury, and the Quakers could sure use sharpshooter Kim Adams - who left the team after the season opener - to spread opposing defenses for Biemer on the inside.
On the importance of non-conference games: “I’ve never believed that the season begins and ends on February 1 [about when the Ivy League starts in full swing]. There’s a lot of things you can do up to February 1 that can cumulatively make you better ... and get you on track. At one point we were on track, and we need to get back on track right now. We work hard every day in practice to work on combinations, to take care of the ball, to rebound, to run good stuff. I’m certainly not critical of every player that played tonight. We had some that played pretty sharply and with a lot of heart. But when you’re asked to rebound and you just don’t flat-out box somebody out, you didn’t do the right thing. And I don’t care what uniform or number you have, or whether you start or whether you don’t. Answer back. Penn needs to answer back: ‘What are my basic responsiblities?’ I’m not very happy with this effort at all, and I could care less what is read or not read because I’m going to say the same things to the team.”
Non-conference games have been a weakness for Penn (3-11, 0-1 Ivy) in the last few years, but then again the Ivy League is relatively weak, especially compared to the major conferences like the Big East. The team's seniors were unable to record a Big 5 victory over four years, though to be fair, Penn played its Philadelphia rivals much tougher this season. And when the Quakers don't represent well in Philadelphia, it certainly can't help in Knapp's efforts to recruit local-area kids.
As for rebounding, Penn struggled mightily early on with its small lineup, but had appeared to bounce back over winter break with encouraging efforts on the boards, even against big teams like Temple.
On Sarah Bucar’s absence: “We miss everybody. We miss Jess Knapp; we miss Jourdan Banks. Nobody has any idea what they would have done to our depth, or to our competition or to our scoring. It’s just not Sarah Bucar. Do we miss Sarah? Of course we miss Sarah. But it’s Anca [Popovici’s], and Tyler [Cumbo’s] and Erin [Power’s] job to lead the team. Having said that, I think two people who played really hard … and stayed focused and tried to do what we asked them to do, certainly tonight I would put Anca and Erin at the top of that list. I’m not going to go down the whole list. It’s a team effort, and I would be shocked if Anca and Erin were satisfied with their games. I’d be shocked because the bottom line is [that] Penn plays well and Penn wins.”
Like all coaches, Knapp wants to emphasize the players he has on the floor, but Bucar is especially missed for her maturity and leadership as a floor marshall on offense. Bucar is also tenacious in ball pressure on defense and has recorded a team-high 1.3 steals per game.
On Big East teams being of a higher caliber than Ivy League teams: “It doesn’t matter. Here’s why…. Harvard’s a pretty big team, [and there were] a couple big girls on that team out there today, right? We didn’t box them out, and we can. We can. [There are] a couple pretty quick players on the Dartmouth team. Well, same thing tonight. It doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t matter. What we don’t want to be here is ordinary. This is very important. If you print anything, print this. We don’t want to be ordinary. That we just show up, and when the uniform says a different league, we’re supposed to lose. That’s not my makeup. I hate that. So we do everything we can to get these kids ready to pull the upset, get the big win, put in the great effort. Prior to this, what does it matter that we lost to Villanova by two, St. Joe’s was a close game [along] with La Salle [and] Temple. It doesn’t matter. Now is now. The last two weeks is the last two weeks. If we can transfer those lessons, bring them to the table. And all those teams had different strengths… So I thought we had a shot [tonight]."
Knapp is certainly right that Penn's effort against Seton Hall won't get it done against the Ivy League, as was evident in the opener at Princeton, which Penn lost 64-49. The Quakers have been quite inconsistent this season and need to regain the tenacity they showed against the Big 5, even though they couldn't quite come away with victories. Led of course by Biemer, Penn has certainly shown flashes of the talent necessary to have a decent showing in the Ivy League.
On Penn’s offense: “At halftime, 11 assists and 11 turnovers, you don’t want to turn the ball over like that. We can’t have 16 [turnovers] against these guys, but yeah, you’re right, that was a little better… Offensively, how many backdoors or drives or post-ups or offensive rebounds did we make? And you said, rightly so, 15 assists to 16 turnovers. So offensively we did our share of good things. I went on a 10 minute rant here about what? [Rebounding, boxing out] and defense. Toughness is necessary, focus is necessary, and defense as a team is necessary.”
Penn's offensive flow has improved drastically over the course of the season, though there is still quite a long way to go. The offensive execution wasn't particularly bad against Seton Hall, though the Pirates did contain Biemer and Scott. Sophomore guard Erin Power continues to be the unsung hero on offense. Even though she doesn't score a lot of points, she facilitates much of what Penn does offensively and has stepped up even more recently. Power has 46 assists - 29 more than anyone else on the team - to only 21 turnovers. To put it another way, Power is +25 in assist-to-turnover ratio while the rest of the team is a combined -63.
Knapp will certainly lay into his team in practice in the next few days, and Penn will look to be a different team in the Ivy League slate this weekend. As Knapp said:
“I have no idea how this effort gets us ready for Harvard and Dartmouth, but I’ll tell you something: we’re going to bust our butts the next three days to get ready.”
There is so much to say about last night's game against St. Joe's, and it just doesn't feel right to hold off on everything until Monday's edition of the DP. So here's a brief, informal overview of some of my thoughts from the game, and what I will be writing about in my columns this week.
Sorry to all of you that couldn't make it out to the Palestra last night. You missed what might wind up being Penn's best and most exciting game of the season, not to mention a fantastic, classic Big 5 showdown. Sure, the Quakers couldn't pull off the upset, but they did give the most inspired 40 minutes we've seen from them all season. Now, heading into conference play with three consecutive halves of quality, high-energy basketball against Big 5 teams -- to go along with a few nice wins (albeit against weaker opponents) -- Penn seems to be hitting full stride. That's very encouraging.
In many ways, I strongly believe that last night's game was a watershed for the Quakers. I hate to read into one game too much, especially a Big 5 game at the Palestra. No matter what the circumstances leading up to game time are, in the Big 5 we all know that anything can happen. Against Villanova this year, however, not even the ghosts of the Palestra could give the Quakers a fighting chance. But, last night we witnessed the most compelling evidence to date that this team is maturing rapidly and moving in the right direction.
Since I cannot cover everything in one column, I'll be writing two this week in the paper and posting and responding to your comments on The Buzz, which I am always happy to do.
Tomorrow, I will focus on Penn's intensity from yesterday's game as a sign of its increased confidence and maturity. And from my unique vantage point on press row yesterday -- because it was a St. Joe's home game we sat directly behind Penn's bench and were practically in the huddle -- I will give you some anecodtal evidence of why I now am more confident than ever in Glen Miller's ability to lead this team.
On Wednesday, I will discuss last night's game in terms of its importance not only to the revival of Penn's role in the Big 5, but also to the potential for a revival of Penn's regular fan base, as well.
In the meantime, I look forward to your comments and ideas.
Sorry it's been awhile since I last posted these notes, but unfortunately I've been quite busy as the semester is starting. So without further ado here are some Ivy and Big 5 notes:
1) Harvard might be losing its All-Ivy quarterback Chris Pizzoti to graduation, but a familiar face might still be the Crimson's signal caller. Andrew Hatch, who was last seen throwing passes in Death Valley for LSU, will transfer back to Harvard. Hatch threw for 282 yards, two touchdowns and one pick for the Tigers this past season, but lost the starting job to Jarrett Lee. He previously played in Cambridge in 2005 on the Harvard JV team.
2) I know it's a little outdated, but Dave Zeitlin has some good Ivy information over at Rush the Court. Highlights include discussion of Harvard's epic win over then-No. 24 Boston College, the first win for the Crimson over a ranked opponent, Cornell's new transfer from Kentucky -- as if they didn't need anymore help -- and of course Penn's woes against Temple.
3) Again, it's been a long time since I posted these, but here are all of the Schuylkill 16 polls, including several that I didn't post.
Greetings from Tom Gola High School arena. The new Cover It Live feature isn't working tonight, so we'll have to ask you to refresh the page for live updates.
FINAL: La Salle 79, Penn 70
Bernardini gave Penn a last chance when he made a layup and was fouled with 56 seconds left, but Penn couldn't get the rebound on his miss. Look for full coverage of the game in tomorrow's DP, although the blame for the loss begins and ends with that nine-minute scoreless streak in the first half.
Good night from The Buzz.
1:09 Second half: La Salle 70, Penn 59
Green hit two free throws after a ticky-tack foul by Bernardini, and Guillendeaux hit a floater from six feet that should about wrap things up.
2:13 Second half: La Salle 66, Penn 58
Zach Rosen gave the Quakers some momentum with a highlight-reel three-point play where he switched hands in mid-air and still made the shot, and on the next possession Penn pulled out a 2-2-1 zone for the first time — not their usual matchup scheme. But they gave the momentum back by losing Guillendeaux in transition; they paid for it with a thunderous dunk. Not much time left coming out of this timeout. Belcore, Eggleston, Bernardini, Gaines and Rosen on the floor. Green comes back in for La Salle with four fouls.
4:44 Second half: La Salle 62, Penn 51
Penn still has a lot of time but Kimmani Barrett just hit a dagger of a three just when the Quakers had made it a good game. That brought the lead to ten, and Barrett sunk one of two free throws on the next play to make it 11.
6:55 Second half: La Salle 58, Penn 45
Check this out — Gaines picked up a turnover after Ruben Guillandeaux fumbled a crossover and was heading alone toward the basket. La Salle fouled him and the Penn bench exploded, calling for an intentional foul call. In the aftermath, the Penn bench — and by that I mean Glen Miller — picked up a technical foul.
7:52 Second half: La Salle 55, Penn 44
Penn is in foul trouble, with 10 team fouls already. Votel has four, Eggleston three. But putting La Salle at the line has been effective in limiting its scoring since they haven't shot their free throws well. Paul Johnson, the onetime Penn recruit, in particular is getting hacked. Rodney Green just picked up his fourth foul and took a seat, although Penn has done a good job of not letting La Salle's best player be the one to beat them.
11:04 Second half: La Salle 49, Penn 39
Eggleston corralled a missed shot and put it back for a three-point play, making it a ten-point game.
Interesting that Penn has stuck with a man-to-man defense for all but the first few minutes, given that most of La Salle's damage since then has been done on the interior.
11:49 Second half: La Salle 49, Penn 36
Another Bernardini three and an and-one from Gaines has brought Penn within a manageable 13 points.
15:37 Second half: La Salle 39, Penn 27
Penn got a couple of quick threes — one by Bernardini — and cut the deficit to eight in under two minutes. They have since given a bit of it back. Votel picked up his third foul and is on the bench.
Halftime lowlights:
Penn is 1-12 from three, 8-for-31 overall and 0-0 from the line. Cam Lewis, Justin Reilly and Brennan Votel are a combined 1-13 from the field with 4 rebounds in 27 minutes. Tyler Bernardini was by far the best performer, hitting four of nine from the floor thanks to that late surge in the first half. La Salle's adequate 39 percent shooting has been more than enough so far.
Halftime: La Salle 31, Penn 17
The first half draws to a merciful close. The only good news is that Bernardini hit his final two field goal attempts of the half, and that Zach Rosen finished two nice drive, pulling the Quakers within solid striking distance of breaking 30 points on the evening.
Halftime stats coming as soon as I get them. Stick around and I promise you won't be disappointed.
5:00, First Half: La Salle 25, Penn 11
This offensive performance had put the Quakers on Princeton watch until Tyler Bernardini hit a pull-up jumper — and boy, did he need it — to put them into double digits. This offensive performance has truly been hard to watch. Good thing La Salle has not hit a hot streak, or they could be up by 30.
8:20, First Half: La Salle 22, Penn 7
Penn is in a ridiculous drought — eight minutes and 20 seconds without scoring, in which La Salle has scored 16 of its own. The lineup is now Reilly, Belcore, Egee, Rosen and Eggleston. It's turning over pretty rapidly as Glen Miller tries to make something — anything — happen. Penn came out of the gate playing great defense, but it's tough to keep up that intensity when nothing goes right on the other end.
10:21, First Half: La Salle 16, Penn 7
Echoes of last year's Penn-La Salle game, which the Explorers pretty much won from the line. Penn has 4 team fouls but has otherwise played good defense, forcing a pair of turnovers with tough pressure on the perimeter.
Tyler Bernardini's funk showed no signs of letting up, and Miller just yanked him. I don't have the stats but he missed a couple of open shots after an early layup and looked out of sync on defense. He's obviously frustrated.
13:04, First Half: La Salle 14, Penn 7
Penn started the game off strong defensively, exchanging baskets with La Salle and even taking the lead at one point on a Rob Belcore 3-pointer, which gave Penn a 7-6 advantage. But then a pair of threes by Yves Mekongo Mbala ignited a 7-0 run for La Salle, prompting a Quakers timeout. Harrison Gaines and Kevin Egee were subbed in for Rosen and Belcore. After missing several jumpers early on Brennan Votel is back on the bench in favor of Cameron Lewis.
Sophomore Remy Cofield will leave the men's basketball program effective immediately, a Penn Athletics press release said.
“Remy has been dealing with some ongoing family situations, and has reached a point where he feels it is in his best interests to spend more of his time focusing on them,” coach Glen Miller said in the statement. “He plans to finish the school year here at Penn, and then transfer to a school that is closer to home at the end of the semester. We respect the privacy and personal nature of this situation, and wish him well going forward.”
Cofield hails from Newton, Mass.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound small forward averaged 2.9 points and 1.0 rebounds in 27 career games for the Quakers, including three starts.
NEWARK, N.J.--David Benrstein here, wishing you a warm welcome to the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center on the beautiful campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Quakers are matched up with the 0-17 Highlanders, the not-so-proud owners of a 50-game losing streak. Let's just see if the Red and Blue can't push it to 51.
As an aside, freshman Larry Loughery traveled with the team, but did not dress this afternoon.
Penn 59, NJIT 40, FINAL
Votel took a charge to end it, and that'll do it for us here in Newark. It's been a pleasure this afternoon, and we here at The Buzz will see you next time.
Penn 59, NJIT 40, :30 Second Half
The Highlanders are in full-fledged foul mode right out of their timeout with 1:38 left, but the Quakers (Eggleston and Gaines) have hit their free throws thus far. It's looking pretty unncessary right now, and quite irksome to the fans. Danny Monckton replaces Bernardini on the floor.
Penn 53, NJIT 38, 1:38 Second Half
Two Wilkerson free throws brings NJIT within 15. It looks like Penn won't be Lucky No. 51 for the Highlanders, and avoid being the answer to a trivia question on "Stump the Shwab" on ESPN. Miler is leaving in the starters for now, but I get the feeling the bench will be emptied on the next stoppage.
Penn 50, NJIT 34, 3:00 Second Half
More of the same here: Offensive futility by Penn, even more offensive futility by NJIT. This contest has been like a lethargic war of attrition, and the main source of entertainment has been random outbursts by individual fans in the dead quiet.
Oh, and Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreak" is blaring over the loudspeaker. I just want to come out and say right here that I am vehemently anti-Autotune.
Penn 45, NJIT 29, 8:34 Second Half
Gaines hit another three, this time from the right corner. Wilkerson responds with a bucket on the other end.
Penn 42, NJIT 27, 9:20 Second Half
Gaines is really trying to take over this offense at this point; Rosen has been on the bench for quite a while. Gaines is driving to the hoop every time. He missed his last lay-in attempt, but Lewis slammed home the put-back with authority.
Penn 39, NJIT 27, 11:04 Second Half
Gaines confidently drains a three immediately after bringing the ball up, giving Penn a little bit of momentum, prompting NJIT coach Jim Engles to call a timeout.
Penn 36, NJIT 27, 11:41 Second Half
Gary Garris hits a three to cut the lead to five, but Bernardini hits a jumper off the dribble on the next possession. Gaines hits Votel in transition for a finger roll. As far as the Penn offensive sets go, it looks like the Quakers are having trouble spreading the floor.
Buckets by Dan Stonkus and then Harrison Gaines bring the NJIT deficit to nine.
Cam Lewis makes a nice steal, but with no one in front of him and a dunk on his mind, his pocket his picked, but the Quakers maintained possession.
Wilson lays one in after Penn fails to score, and Votel fouls him in the process. Wilson misses the free throw though. Gaines hits a short J on the other end. And now it's time for a media timeout.
Penn 25, NJIT 18, 15:54 Second Half
Not only is the cozy-yet-eerily-open Fleisher Center reminiscent of the silo that is Princeton's Jadwin Gym, but the tone of this game is taking on that of a typical Princeton contest. It's low-scoring and it's tough to watch. A Bernardini bucket inside and a Belcore free throw have been the only points with more than four minutes off the clock in the half.
Penn 25, NJIT 18, Halftime
A jumper by Garris, contested by Eggleston, swishes in to end the half. I'll try to post some stats if they're available, but I'm not holding my breath.
Proved wrong by the NJIT Sports Information team: Brennan Votel leads all scorers with 12 (but has just one rebound), while Rosen has added seven points for the Quakers. Penn is winning the rebounding battle, 17-9, and has seven second-chance points.
Gary Garris is pacing the Highlanders with eight points, with Isaiah Wilkerson adding six.
Also a sidenote: I have been referring to Justin Garris this entire time, but it's Gary, his older brother who has been doing most of the scoring. Justin has just one bucket (when he scored it, I could not tell you).
Penn 25, NJIT 16, :30.4 First Half
Miller calls an inexplicable timeout as Gaines picked up a loose ball with Rosen streaking for what would have been an easy lay-in, presumably. Maybe Penn is going to run down the shot clock as far as it can.
Scratch that, Gaines travels on the next possession, so NJIT will have the final shot of the half.
Penn 25, NJIT 16, 1:04 First Half
A nice, spinning take by Garris gets the Highlanders a bucket, but Rosen answers with a pair of free throws earned in transition. Next time down, Votel connects on a nice up-and-under on a feed from Eggleston. The red-headed big man has been the lone bright spot for the Red and Blue thus far.
Penn 19, NJIT 14, 4:04 First Half
Votel hits a jumper on the baseline, but Isaiah Wilkerson answers with a three-point play after a Belcore foul. Rosen, with several family members and friends in the crowd, gets on the board with a trifecta on the next possession.
The Quakers are not doing well passing the ball today. Bernardini just turned it over on a sloppy pass into the post, and there have been several near-turnovers as well.
A nifty floater by Jheryl Wilson, perhaps NJIT's best player, is followed by a Rosen travel. Two possessions later, Justin Garris throws down a one-handed breakaway jam 'with authority' (according to the P.A. guy).
An Egee three pushes the Penn lead to five.
Penn 11, NJIT 7, 7:23 First Half
Miller sends in the lanky freshman Mike Howlett, who along with Rosen and Belcore are making an incredibly youthful five. Rosen hits a jumper from the top of the key to end the Penn drought. An NJIT turnover on a mishandled pass takes us to a media timeout and a rawkus T-shirt throw in the stands.
Penn 9, NJIT 7, 8:59 First Half
Both teams are looking pretty sloppy right now. NJIT was called for a pair of travels, while Eggleston was called for an unnecessary foul on a screen. Lewis was sent to the line after being blocked and knocked around on an attempt under the basket, but can't connect on a free throw.
On the other end, the Quakers are running a two-three zone, which has stymied the Highlanders.
Penn 9, NJIT 7, 12:00 First Half
After a Bernardini foul, I think it's time to talk about the "uniqueness" of the Fleisher Center. There are only seats on one side of the floor, and there is another basketball court running perpindicular to the main court (like an 'L'), giving the so-called arena a cavernous feel. The P.A. guy is giving short commentary after every basket, and the facility itself has all the pizzazz of my public high school gym in D.C.
Meanwhile, Miller has thrown in Cam Lewis, Harrison Gaines and Kevin Egee to get something going for Penn, who has looked flat thus far. Bernardini isn't hitting open looks, and the offensive play is just generally not crisp.
Bernardini, however, nails his first three after a miss and an ensuing steal by Egee under the Quakers' basket.
Penn 6, NJIT 7, 14:33 First Half
Coach Glen Miller has once again gone with freshman Rob Belcore in the starting lineup, alongside forwards Brennan Votel and Jack Eggleston, and guards Tyler Bernardini and Zack Rosen. Votel hit three buckets in the paint early, while NJIT has been buoyed by three by Isaiah Wilkerson (who sat last semester out and could be the unknown factor this afternoon) and a pair of layups by Justin Garris.
Hey all, Matt Flegenheimer here at the Palestra for tonight's Big 5 action between Penn and Temple. Longtime Quakers coach Fran Dunphy returns to his old stomping grounds for the second time since leaving the Red and Blue's bench in 2006. Keep it with the Buzz all night for live updates from behind the Owls' bench.
Temple 78 Penn 53, Final
Votel hits another short one. Superbly-named Scootie Randall of Temple splits a pair of freebies. Eggleston hits two of his own. Fernandez finishes in transition. Belcore drills a three, and the Owls dribble it out to complete the rout.
Temple 73 Penn 45, 4:05 Second Half
Apparently, a lead this size isn't enough to make Dunphy comfortable. After a travel by Inge, Dunphy, red in the face, screams violently, smacking his fist on the scorer's table. The Palestra crowd shares a collective chuckle.
Temple 70 Penn 43, 6:41 Second Half
Votel hits a deep two with the shot clock winding down, then a short turnaround from the right block. Luis Guzman gets straight to the rim on a baseline drive, followed by a Belcore triple. Owls freshman Michael Eric nets an elbow jumper, and Glen Miller wants to talk things over.
Temple 65 Penn 32, 10:33 Second Half
Bernardini hits a pull-up, followed, predictably, by another Christmas three. That's 25 points for the senior already on 9-for-13 shooting and 5-for-5 from three. The team is 12-for-18 from downtown overall, and it's not as if they're getting open looks every time down. Hard to stop that.
Temple 58 Penn 31, 13:03 Second Half
Another trey for Christmas. Lewis hits a pair of free throws, but also provides the game's most memorable play to date, an open-court debacle on a dunk attempt. Williams tallies another three at the other end, then Christmas sticks another. This is getting ugly.
Temple 49 Penn 29, 15:57 Second Half
Inge finishes on a nice dribble drive, Williams knocks down another three off a Penn turnover, and Bernardini finally gets on the board with a one-handed circus shot. Rosen's second three of the game cuts the lead back to 18, until Christmas goes glass on a pretty drive.
Temple 42 Penn 24, Halftime
Christmas and Rosen each convert a pair from the line, Christmas gets out in transition for a lefty lay-in, WIlliams puts in another two, and the half ends with a Mike Howlett clank on a deep three.
Halftime stats:
Penn
Gaines: 8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
Bernardini: 0 points (0-5 FG)
Temple
Christmas: 14 points (5-8 FG), 7 rebounds
Williams: 11 points (3-7 3PT), 3 rebounds
Temple 36 Penn 22, 3:26 First Half
Owls seven-footer Sergio Olmos splits a pair of free throws after being hacked by Cam Lewis, Gaines finally misses one from downtown, then Olmos rocks the rim with a one-handed throwdown off a dish from freshman Juan Fernandez. Bernardini hits Eggleston on a nice backdoor cut, Williams drills another three, and freshman Rob Belcore hits one of his own. Olmos tracks down his own rebound off a missed hook for two more.
Temple 28 Penn 17, 7:51 First Half
Gaines goes coast-to-coast off a defensive board, draws the foul, and converts both. Christmas nails a cold-blooded three put the Owls up 11 and end the Quakers' run. Temple's stellar senior already has 10 points and six boards. Gaines leads the Quakers with eight points.
Temple 25 Penn 15, 10:01 First Half
Brooks converts another trifecta, and Votel answers with a lay-in off a feed from recently-inserted Harrison Gaines, who sticks a three of his own on the next possession. And the following possession. All the sudden it's a 10-point game, leaving Dunphy grabbing angrily at his bottle of Aquafina.
Temple 22 Penn 7, 12:45 First Half
Temple standout Dionte Christmas gets things started with a quick deuce. Lavoy Allen rejects a Zack Rosen drive at the other end, then converts on a baby hook over Brennan Votel. A Craig Williams three makes it 7-0 two possessions later. Rosen finally gets the home squad on the board three and a half minutes in with a three from the top of the key. Allen throws down a slam on a backdoor cut. Semaj Inge hits Christmas on a no-look bounce pass for an easy two. Jack Eggleston knocks down an 18-footer from the corner. Allen, standing at six-foot-11, pours in another two over Penn's bigs. Christmas drills a three to give Temple its first double-digit lead, which quickly balloons to 14 on another Williams trey. Rob Belacore and Ryan Brooks trade triples to make it 22-7. Unbelievable long-distance shooting from the Owls so far.
I have not been able to make it to any of Penn's games over break, and I hate to rely on box scores for telling information. To that end, I rarely read into any box score too closely. Statistics never tell the full story.
That said, I am particularly struck by how encouraging I believe tonight's box score against Lafayette is for Penn fans.
I could care less about points, rebounds, and field goal percentages; what jumps out at me is the distribution of minutes and Glen Miller's rotation. A total of six players recorded more than 20 minutes of action, with two others contributing at least 10 minutes -- and aside from a garbage minute from Conor Turley, that was it.
In order for Penn to be successful as a team and solve some of its problems, Miller needs to firm up its rotation and stick with a core group of players through thick or thin. It's certainly easier to stick with the same group of players when they're all playing as well as they did tonight, but in the long run, there is something to be said about the individual and collective confidence boost of having a solid rotation in place. Players grow more comfortable and are able to identify their individual roles on a team more easily, which helps to foster stronger team play and cohesiveness. It also creates a more concrete opportunity for a leader to emerge from the group.
In much of the discussion on this blog in response to my posts before winter break, leadership, teamwork, and character were raised as key issues for the Quakers to address over the holidays. Who knows whether or not the rotation Miller used tonight will become a permanent one, but if it is here to stay, I think it's a big step in the right direction.
Of the top six players, two were seniors in Kevin Egee and Brennan Votel. They command the respect of the underclassmen and have the experience to guide them, even if they're not the most talented guys on the team.
Then you have Tyler Bernardini and Jack Eggleston -- a potential superstar and a blue collar forward with good rebounding and scoring ability -- both of whom started last year as freshmen and know Ivy League basketball.
Zack Rosen had a breakout game scoring tonight and remains the first pure point guard Penn has had in years. In several games this season, he has demonstrated a basketball IQ and a maturity level beyond that of a freshman, and as I've said before and will say again, he is going to be a great floor general for years to come.
Finally, Rob Belcore fits into the rotation nicely -- as his mother told me last year when he was still in high school, he can shoot the three "like none other." In all seriousness, he provides another perimeter threat for the Quakers and can also fight for rebounds.
I could see Belcore and Egee switching off between starting and coming off the bench depending on matchups, but for conference play, this main group of six to eight guys can compete with any other rotation in the league. I'm not guaranteeing that Penn is about to run the table or even finish above .500 in its conference, but with this rotation squarely in place, the Quakers should be able to win.
Obviously, they won't all shoot as well as they shot tonight. With a young team, there will be plenty of rough patches ahead. But unless things start to get really ugly over a stretch of at least a few games, I would like to see Miller stick with the crew from tonight -- the time for experimenting is over. And maybe, with a greater understanding of expecations, roles, and responsibilities, this team will be able to overcome the issues that plagued it before the break and emerge as an Ivy League contender.
Newer Posts
Older Posts
An RSS feed of The Buzz is available