For those of you Penn fans planning on eating a pre-game meal Friday or Saturday, I offer you a brief history lesson.
Three years ago, the Quakers welcomed Harvard and Dartmouth to the Palestra after suffering an 0-2 weekend at Yale and Brown with heartbreaking losses both nights.
Then-coach Fran Dunphy called his squad "a wounded team."
Friday night against Harvard, the Quakers looked more like an angry team, putting up 104 points on the Crimson and giving the fans in attendance free chessesteaks at Abners.
Now for this weekend after a loss to Yale, I'm not guaranteeing anything, but I'd say you might not want to eat a pregame meal that day unless you're a believer in the nightly "Dinner No. 2." Especially considering the
differences between Glen Miller and Fran Dunphy's offense.
While the team may come out angrier against Dartmouth tomorrow night, I'd argue that the best chance for culinary satisfaction is the following evening.
According to Ken Pomeroy, college hoops' premier statistician, the Big Green rank 248th nationally in pace, measured by possessions per 40 minutes. Meanwhile Harvard ranks 35th, and on average, there are 13.2 more possessions in a Harvard game than a Dartmouth game.
Also, the Quakers should have advantages inside and outside with the departure of Brian Cusworth, who was responsible for a huge percentage of Harvard's rebounds in addition to all the points.
So just don't be surprised.
While technically not in first place, Penn looks to be the favorite to represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament. And if they can manage a third-straight Ivy crown, who from Philly will join them?
The three Atlantic 10 squads -- Saint Joseph's, Temple and La Salle -- can barely see the bubble off in the distance, and will need to come out of Atlantic City as the conference tournament champion come March.
Drexel and Villanova, however, have legitimate chances of getting into the field of 65. As of now, the Wildcats are likely in, while the Dragons are on the outside looking in.
Villanova (16-7, 4-5 Big East) has an RPI of 20 (probably will raise a spot after last night's win over St. Joe's in the Holy War for the Big 5 title) and has beaten a number of quality teams, including Texas, Notre Dame and Georgetown. But Villanova's main obstacle is its 4-5 Big East record. If the Wildcats can get to or above .500, they're a tournament team, but perhaps not if they don't win half in the league. The promising part is that their seven remaining opponents have a 27-35 combined conference record, and four of the games are at home. Winning at Marquette will be tough, but there's a very good chance they'll win four or more of the other six.
Drexel (17-6, 9-4 CAA, 59 RPI), on the other hand has a good deal of work to do to get back into the tourney picture. After a blistering midseason run, the strong Colonial Athletic Association has cooled their fire, and the Dragons now sit right on top of the bubble. Drexel went on the road to beat Villanova and Syracuse, but is a combined 0-4 versus the three teams ahead if it in the league standings -- VCU, Hofstra, and Old Dominion twice. Drexel has a big game at Hofstra (77 RPI) today that will have huge implications. A game at Creighton (25 RPI) will be real tough, but provides a great opportunity to impress the tournament committee. Bruiser Flint's squad must win at least one of these games and beat the other four weaker teams on the schedule to stop its bubble from bursting.
Got an e-mail from the Red and Blue Crew tonight about a cool promotion giving students a ticket, dinner and a tee-shirt for $10.
Great idea, but I'm not sure I would have used this sentence.
"Tickets are normally $10, but members of the Red & Blue Crew can get the FREE food and t-shirt voucher for only $5!"
Wow, free food and a tee-shirt doesn't sound so free any more.
Word is that if you pay $40,000, you can get a free college education.
While there are many things on which to blame the loss at Yale this weekend (terrible free-throw shooting being the most popular reason), the single most notable atrocity was simply the on-the-ball defense.
There are a few Quakers who night in and night out allow their men to blow by them to the basket. However, at the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Saturday everyone wearing a Yale uniform had blow-by speed.
Even the usually-solid Ibrahim Jaaber was guilty -- Yale point guard Eric Flato blew past Jaaber on multiple occasions. Once the first defender is beat, any team with a moderate ability to pass the ball can get an easy layup, as an inside defender must either yield a five-foot jumper or help and allow an easy layup.
On Saturday it was astounding how often Elis were streaking uncovered to the basket, and it wasn't just Flato. In a slightly unrelated incident but a similar result, Mark Zoller went swiping for a steal 60 feet away from Penn's hoop (shortly after he successfully took one away) and about 5 seconds later the five-on-four turned into an easy basket.
The Quakers are not all Olympic athletes, but in the Ivy League they can't play afford to play that kind of on-the-ball defense and expect to sail through the conference slate.
Yale 77, Penn 68, Final: Penn missed more free throws down the stretch and Yale didn't, and the Quakers lose here for the third time in four years to drop out of first place at 3-1. Yale is 5-1, and Cornell is 4-2 so Penn is in second after the evening.
Penn shot only 8-for-21 from the foul line, and had 14 turnovers to help beat itself.
For full coverage, see Monday's Daily Pennsylvanian.
1:03 2nd, 69-64 Yale: Penn uses its last timeout after a Zoller three (he only has seven points, by the way) to try to set up some sort of defense. Yale as a team shoots 68 percent from the line, and there are some players with low percentages out there. So it's not over yet.
1:56 2nd, 67-61 Yale: Some up-tempo offense by Penn and some solid defense has kept them alive, but I don't think they can let Yale take its full possessions without trapping, as they have been doing lately.
7:16 2nd, 60-51 Yale: The Quakers are still hanging around, but need to go on a run to really get back into the game. Penn has scored five straight, but it hasn't been closer than the current nine-point hole since the start of the half.
10:58 2nd, 59-45 Yale: After Penn cut it to nine again, a three by Flato and a two by Caleb Holmes off an offensive rebound have forced Miller to call another timeout. Penn needs to get this closer now or this game is just about over.
14:57 2nd, 49-40 Yale: Good timeout by Glen Miller, as Penn scored five straight after the coach called for a break.
15:54 2nd, 49-35 Yale: Penn has looked awful offensively in this half so far, and not so good defensively either, being outscored 9-2. The Quakers are definitely in trouble right now, and their team's house of horrors that is this gym may be catching up with them again.
A good thing for Penn is that Yale has four fouls already, but that hasn't mattered much with Penn just 4-11 from the line.
Halftime stats:
Penn is shooting 46.2 percent from the field, a respectable 5-of-10 from three-point range, but a very bad and critical 4-for-10 from the foul line (including 0-4 from Egee). The Quakers are led by birthday boy (23) Jaaber's eight, then Danley's six and five from Egee and Michael Kach.
Yale is shooting 53.3 percent from the field (16 points in the paint), 4-of-7 from behind the arc, and 4-for-6 from the line. Hughes leads the Elis with 10 points, Flato has nine and Kyle has eight.
Penn has turned the ball over nine times compared to five for Yale. Danley and Zoller each have two fouls, while only Kyle on Yale has that many.
Halftime, 40-33 Yale: The Quakers have gone cold, and Yale has heated up again to retake a lead that was as many as nine points (with a 9-0 run before two Jaaber free throws gave the Quakers the final points of the half). Penn needs to regroup a little at the break in order to keep its undefeated Ivy record intact.
Back shortly with halftime stats.
2:38 1st, 31-31: Penn's lineup of Smith, Egee, Reilly, McMahon and Danley has not done much offensively, and that has slowed the pace of the game down and allowed the Elis to retake the lead at 31-29. But Egee hit a layup and is going to the line for one more after the media timeout, with some starters looking like they are going to return. Miller gambled that he wouldn't fall behind resting Jaaber and Grandieri, and it worked to some extent.
7:13 1st, 24-23 Penn: The Quakers went on a 13-0 to go up 18-11, but Yale has answered back to keep the game tight, scoring on four straight trips to really make this game into a shootout. But Zoller picks up his second foul just now, and will likely sit down with only three points at this point.
11:49 1st, 12-11 Penn: Penn takes its first lead of the night on a Jaaber three, and the Quakers have really picked it up defensively in the last couple minutes, while they already have five turnovers on the other end of the floor.
Yale's Casey Hughes, who is probably the most athletic player in the Ivy League, does not have that much skill in basketball terms, but really energized the crowd with both a fast-break dunk and a swat from behind on Kevin Egee on a Penn break.
15:49 1st, 9-5 Yale: The Elis have started strong offensively, and Penn has been somewhat sluggish, but the Quakers have not let the loud crowd get to them, and as time goes on, Penn has an advantage as long as Yale is not way in front.
Jaaber has two free throws plus the ball on an intentional foul coming after the media timeout.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Welcome to a not-so-full-yet John J. Lee Amphitheater at Payne Whitney Gymnasium here at Yale as the Quakers and Elis get set to tip off. Here are the starters, check back for constant updates!
Penn (12-7, 3-0 Ivy League)
(2) G- Ibrahim Jaaber, 6-2 Sr.
(20) G- Tommy Mc Mahon, 6-7 So. (A change after his 15 points last night)
(21) G- Brian Grandieri, 6-4 Jr.
(3) F- Steve Danley, 6-8 Sr.
(24) F- Mark Zoller, 6-7 Sr.
Yale (8-10, 4-1)
(22) G- Eric Flato, 6-1 Jr.
(33) G- Caleb Holmes, 6-6 Jr.
(00) F- Ross Morin, 6-7 So.
(1) F- Casey Hughes, 6-5 Sr.
(15) C- Matt Kyle, 6-10 Jr.
Tommy McMahon broke out tonight, and from everything I've heard, it was another solid road effort by the Quakers in their win. It ended up looking very similar to their Friday night win over Cornell three weeks ago.
That win was a prelude to a weekend sweep, and this one probably will prove to be as well.
The optimist points out the near triple-double by Jaaber, the 12 turnovers, and the huge rebounding margin.
The pessimist says that Penn has struggled at John J. Lee lately and that without a strong effort by Stephen Danley -- one point, four fouls in 23 minutes tonight -- Penn could get beat on the inside.
Since Penn easily covered a seven-point spread tonight, I'll have to go with the rosier scenario this time.
The realist says that ESPN.com should know the difference between Penn and Penn State. When I went to the Quakers' home page to see the AP recap of tonight's game, I found out that they don't. Go here and check out the photos to see for yourself.
2nd half: 0:00. 77-61 Penn
And that's it. The Quakers move to 3-0 in the Ivy League, and head out to Yale, who are up by 5 on Princeton with six minutes left.
Check back here tomorrow for more updates, and look in Monday's Daily Pennsylvanian for a full recap!
2nd half: 1:09. 75-61 Penn
Brown Band: "Sixty-nine seconds left, and Penn still sucks!"
Penn Band: "Scoreboard... scoreboard..."
Brown Band: "Safety school... safety school..."
Penn Band: "It's 8:41, and Princeton still sucks!"
2nd half: 1:53. 75-58 Penn
Chris Skrelja picks up his fourth foul, and Ibby sinks both shots. Not like it matters at this point. A couple of members of the Brown band briefly attempted to chant "overrated," but apparently quickly realized that this makes very little sense when you're losing by 17 to a team that doesn't actually appear in any rankings.
2nd half: 3:46. 73-57 Penn
A Kevin Egee three, and the lead is at 19. Chris Skrelja's three-point play closes the gap a bit, but with less than four minutes to go, it's likely all but over.
2nd half: 6:37. 68-52 Penn
And now, Zoller has his fourth foul. Nevertheless, it'll take a pretty impressive effort by Brown to make these last 7 minutes mean something.
2nd half: 8:36. 63-50 Penn
Mark McAndrew, Brown's leading scorer, picks up his fourth foul. Shortly thereafter, though, he drops the Quakers' lead back to 11.
2nd half: 9:23. 63-48 Penn
Darren Smith completes a three-point play to get Penn's lead back to 15.
The Bears have gotten the gap down to 12 three times this half, but each time the Quakers have scored on the next possession.
Also, for some reason we keep getting logged off Brown's wireless system, so sorry if the updating is a bit spotty.
2nd half: 11:56. 56-39 Penn
Brown is starting to gain some momentum. Several missteps by the Quakers have allowed the Bears to close the gap a bit, gaining four points on Penn in the last two minutes. As I write that, Penn manages to turn it on again, and at the media timeout, it's 56-39 Quakers -- their biggest lead of the night.
2nd half: 17:00. 46-30 Penn
Once again, the Bears opened the scoring. But a Grandieri three and a Zoller layup once again had the Quakers on the offensive. That makes Penn 8-11 from three so far tonight. A shot clock violation gives the ball back to Brown, however.
Halftime. 41-26 Penn
The Quakers are still hot, and the Bears just can't seem to get anything going. Nor can they seem to stop the fast, accurate passing of the Quakers -- probably the best we've seen this season.
The Brown fans are chanting "stupid mascot" at the Quaker right now. It's better than last year, when they actually "kidnapped" the costume and posted a video on the internet of their bear torturing him. Here's a link.
Anyway, the half comes to a close with a dunk by Colin Aldridge, but it's not nearly enough. The Quakers go into the locker room with a 15-point lead.
Zoller has 16 points, McMahon has 12, and nobody on Brown has more than six. Meanwhile, Damon Huffman has played all 20 minutes, and is 0-5 from the field.
1st half: 4:46. 32-20 Penn
Wow. After an out-of-bounds against Penn, Miller seemed to get more upset than anytime we've seen him this year. Maybe it's not him... maybe it's just something about being in Rhode Island. The way Robinson's yelling, it certainly fits the bill so far.
Anyway, since taking over at Brown, Robinson has instituted a Princeton-like offense, focusing on outside passing and long shots. And it's showed: The Bears' possessions have reached late in the shot-clock several times. Penn is still countering by keeping it fast. And every shot by the Quakers is either a layup or a three. Just past the five-minute mark, a Zoller three gave Penn a comfortable 12-point margin. Brown calls a timeout to regroup.
1st half: 9:05. 22-15 Penn
After a Grandieri foul, the Bears set up 1-3-1 half-court trap with nobody under the basket but the shooter. The Bears utilized similar pressure against the Quakers last season with great results, nearly upsetting Penn. Maybe coach Craig Robinson is taking a page from Glen Miller's playbook? In any case, Penn is passing beautifully so far tonight, and are holding the tempo where they want it, rather than at Brown's desired slower speed. The result? Three straight easy layups by Tommy McMahon. The Quakers now hold a 22-15 lead.
1st half: 11:26. 16-10 Penn
The lead has switched back and forth a couple more times, but after another Zoller trey put the Quakers back on top when a travelling call and a missed layup by the Bears gave Penn several more successful possessions. The Quakers have been moving the ball really well so far, getting a few open looks and keeping the Bears off balance. At the second media timeout, the score stands at 16-10 Quakers.
1st half: 15:44. 8-6 Penn
The Bears drew first blood, holding a 6-2 lead, but a Mark Zoller three gave the Quakers their first lead, at 8-6, just before the first media timeout.
1st half: 20:00
And we are underway at the Pitz. You can't really tell from the crowd. In all seriousness, I count about 20 students in total -- about the same as the Penn Band's travelling contingent here today. The crowd's reaction to the announcement of Miller as coach was subdued, to say the least. I heard a bit of gracious applause, but in general, nobody seemed to care. Quite a difference from Fran Dunphy's homecoming last week.
Pregame
Welcome to the Pizzitola Center in Providence, R.I for tonight's Ivy League matchup between the Quakers and the Brown Bears. As always, the Buzz will bringing you live updates throughout the night, for those of you who can't see the game on TV (which is everyone).
We're about 5 minutes from tipoff, and there's a sizable crowd amassed at the Pitz to witness Penn coach Glen Miller's homecoming to Brown, where he coached for seven years before heading down I-95 to Philadelphia to replace Fran Dunphy.
Penn enters the game at 2-0 in the Ivy League, and is coming off a three-game diversion into the Big 5 that resulted in two wins and a loss. The Bears, meanwhile, are 1-3 in the Ivy League, with their lone win coming against the Quakers' next opponent, Yale. At gametime, the Quakers are 7-point favorites over the Bears.
One interesting note: There's a Toronto Raptors scout sitting just a few seats down on press row. That makes one more Toronto Raptors scout than Brown students in attendance tonight.
Here are tonight's starting lineups:
Penn Quakers
Ibrahim Jaaber, senior guard
Kevin Egee, sophomore guard
Brian Grandieri, junior guard
Mark Zoller, senior forward
Steve Danley, senior forward
Brown Bears
Chris Skrelja, sophomore forward
Matt Mullery, freshman forward
Mark McAndrew, junior guard
Damon Huffman, junior guard
Marcus Bekker, senior guard
Due to the stupid Ivy League rule about the visitors wearing white on Saturday night, the Quakers get to see the opposite colors that they did a year ago when they visit Brown and Yale
They begin the trip in Providence, R.I., against Glen Miller's former team, which will come out in their home whites. It's actually a pretty good look, with a good, but not too much use of the red accents, and I like the big brown waist stripe -- it's a little old-school, but that's ok with me.
The Elis are a very interesting case, though. Their home uniforms still the same from last year, in the same template as Texas.
But their road unis are different this year, and that is what the Quakers will see tomorrow night. Here's Yale's new blue outfits, which I think are a little weird.
Something just isn't right about these stripes, which are the same as found on Texas A&M's jerseys. (something about Yale and Texas, maybe it's George Bush) I like the Longhorns look better, and we'll see next year if this change comes to the white unis -- it's probably a money issue (like why Penn doesn't have red uinforms this year).
Tonight and tomorrow night Yale and Brown will get their first shot at beating Penn, the back-to-back defending champs and only undefeated team left in the Ivy League. The Quakers must have a similar approach to each league game, but on the other side of the bench, everyone else is gunning for the top dawgs.
Penn again is the team to beat, and Ivy squads often feel like they have an uphill battle to fight, trying to stop a team which comes into the league with so much talent and so much confidence.
"Since they've been winning they just have a certain mystique about them," Yale senior swingman Casey Hughes said. "I think that they have that winning tradition to an extent manifests itself because they're used to winning and the expect to win. While some other teams haven't experienced winning against them a whole lot, it's [mentally] tough to change that tradition, so hopefully we change that a little bit on Saturday."
Yale and Brown have the skills to pull off a win on their home courts against the Red and Blue, but if they can't stop the freight train that is Penn, its momentum might be too much to handle late in the season to challenge for the crown.
It doesn't feel like as big a story as Fran Dunphy coming back to the Palestra, but Glen Miller's return to Brown should be fun to watch.
He wasn't there as long, didn't have as much success and didn't move to another local team. Still it will be interesting to see how the coach who led the Bears for six years it treated.
Two days before his return, Miller was in a joking mood when I asked him if he'd even seen the visitor's locker room up there.
"I have," Miller said. "I used to go up there and scrounge around for scouting reports after games to see if the opponent left one around. But besides that, I haven't been in there too much"
I spent last night at the Wachovia Center, taking in No. 9 Pitt's 65-59 win over Villanova, and found the result to be part good news and part bad news for Penn fans.
Which do you want first?
Ok, fine, here's the bad news, but it's pretty obvious. Penn's RPI, took a hit after Villanova's loss, and the Quakers are now 99th of 336 teams.
Now the good news. Penn fans should NOT want the Panthers to fall to a spot in the tournament where there's any chance of the teams meeting in the first round.
It's a sexy matchup, with the teams close geographically, and the game would most likely be played in Pittsburgh's backyard up in Buffalo. In fact, it's one I've seen many times in various bracket projections already.
And with every win Pitt gets, the more likely the Panthers are to get a No. 1 or 2 seed and not get placed with the likely 13th or 14th-seeded Quakers.
To put it frankly, the Panthers played a below-average-to-bad game Monday night and still emerged with a road win over the Wildcats. They shot just 21-of-49 and committed 15 turnovers, looking sloppy all the while.
But 7-footer Aaron Gray would be too much for Penn to handle on the inside. Making it even worse, if the Quakers concentrated on the wide load underneath, there are plenty of other weapons. Pitt came in shooting 50
percent, and Jamie Dixon's defense holds opponents to just 39.8 percent from the floor.
It's a nightmare matchup that the Quakers would love to avoid.
I've heard it said many times, mostly by Quakers fans, that college basketball has no business being played in an arena like the Wachovia Center.
After attending my first Villanova game at that facility last night, I must say that I disagree. I realize that the student sections can't get their chants in sync. That the band needs its microphone to be on in order to be
audible. That most of us needed oxygen masks to deal with the elevation of our seats.
But 18,017 people got a chance to watch a college basketball game in person last night. There's not I can think of to argue against that.
In the category of things I've never seen before, I witnessed my first ever delay in a basketball game on account of lettuce.
During a media timeout in the second half, the FreshGrocer sponsored a contest in which a Villanova student had to toss five heads of lettuce into a shopping cart to win a 60-second shopping spree. Good idea, but the
execution could have been better.
See, the contest was held on the court, and some of the lettuce escaped, and a crew was working well over a minute after the horn to get the salad off the hardwood.
I'm curious what Bill Raftery had to say about this on ESPN. If any of you watched, could you please post and let me know if the Big Monday crew took note of this strange delay?
After some fun debates about rushing the court after the Temple win, I'd like to finally give some kudos to the athletic department and especially the fans.
I went to dinner, getting out around six and arriving at the game at 6:10, and I barely made it into the first student section. A full hour before the game fans were showing up so that we didn't look weak compared to the SJU faithful. Obviously general admission wouldn't get the same results for Ivy League games, but it would make a huge difference on when fans arrive. I feel bad for the Penn players who have to warm up 30 minutes before tipoff against Columbia in front of a crowd that the JV squad would be ashamed of. Penn fans are loud and great hecklers, but are too busy to show their support for more than the required 40 minutes.
The cheers were also very creative at the game. Before I get into the positives, I have to say I cringe whenever we chant 'this is our house!' If it's our house why do we need to say it? Everyone already knows it is. Penn fans shouldn't even need to respond to St. Joes' over-used claim.
I HATE the "safety school" chant because it says 'we're rich, gifted and basically better than you', and contributes to why many people hate stereotypical Penn students, and exemplifies why we hate Princeton kids. But a fantastic variation of that was the "'Nova rejects" chant. It doesn't say 'we're better than you', but instead, just 'you suck'. Also the waving of dollar bills at the St. Joe's dance team was great. And finally, when St. Joe's fans called Stephen Danley ugly, a fan behind me yells "yea, but he has a wonderful personality". I don't know why, but that also cracked me up, wish you could form that into a chant...
Final score, SJU 84-Penn 74:
Penn drops to 11-7 and finishes 2-2 in the Big 5 with the Hawks' 84-74 win tonight. Penn just could not get stops down the stretch, as SJU improves to 12-8, and 2-0 in the Big 5.
For full coverage, see Monday's Daily Pennsylvanian.
1:04 2nd, 79-72 SJU: A potential dagger, as SJU ran off the whole shot clock and missed a three, but Calathes got his own rebound and dished to Nivins for a layup and foul. He missed the ensuing free throw, but Penn now trails by seven with 64 seconds left.
1:49 2nd, 77-72 SJU: Another offensive rebound led to two Hawks points, but Grandieri hit a three on the other end to keep the game interesting. The Quakers absolutely need a stop on this possession.
2:34 2nd, 75-69 SJU: If Penn can't get a stop on the floor, the Quakers have gone to the steal. Two straight have given Penn life again.
3:23 2nd, 73-64 SJU: This is turning into another high-scoring game because Penn still cannot get a stop. The Quakers are succeeding offensively relatively well, but the Hawks have scored on 10 of 11 possessions, and are going to the line after an offensive rebound and a foul on Danley (his fourth).
Unless Penn buckles down in a big way, this game is over.
7:23 2nd, 64-55 SJU: It's coming down to crucnch time, with Penn not yet giving up, but trailing by nine (with two free throws coming up). The Quakers need to get some stops though. They've allowed 28 points in 12 minutes after allowing 36 the whole first half. Penn shows no signs of getting hot, it will have to work for this win on the defensive end and on the glass. Hitting free throws won't hurt either.
9:21 2nd, 62-51 SJU: Penn is starting to get sloppy on both ends, and the Hawks are owning the glass in the second half, with seven offensive rebounds to three defensive boards for Penn, resulting in a number of second-chance points, especially for Nivins, who has eight second-half points after six in the first.
Penn needs to go on a run now or this one could be over very quickly.
12:07 2nd, 54-46 SJU:After the fouls were 11-5 St. Joe's in the first half, they are 7-2 Penn in the second. Jaaber and Zoller have each picked up their third fouls, as Darrin Govens hit a layup, missed his foul shot, and Ahmad Nivins got the rebound and hit a shot to give the Hawks their largest lead tonight and force Miller to call a timeout.
12:24 2nd, 50-46 SJU: A delay where the officials are trying to sort out a shot clock situation has resulted in some good back-and-forth chants between the St. Joe's and Penn student sections.
15:54 2nd, 46-44 SJU: I said in the first half that there were a lot of lead changes and ties, and here's the numbers: Four ties and nine lead changes. In the first few frenetic minutes of the second half, there has been one tie and four lead changes.
The bad news for Penn right now is Danley picked up two quick fouls to give him three for the game, and is now on the bench for the next few minutes.
Halftime stats:
Penn is shooting 14-31 from the field, 2-12 from three, and 7-12 from the free-throw line, all below average numbers.
The Quakers are led by 10 points from Grandieri and seven each from Danley, Zoller and Jaaber.
The big edge for Penn is on the offensive glass, with 8 offensive rebounds to four for Saint Joe's.
Penn has five turnovers, and SJU has seven.
The Hawks are led by Calathes' 13 and four players between four and eight points. They are shooitng 50 percent from the field, 3-10 from three, and 5-7 from the line.
End of 1st half, 37-36 Penn: As expected, it's a close game, with a number of ties and lead changes, with Calathes hitting a three with about 16 seconds left to close to a one-point game.
Back shortly with first half stats.
3:51 1st, 29-27 SJU: Scoring has picked up a little in the last few minutes, with the Hawks' foul trouble sending Danley to the line for a 1 and 1 after the media timeout. Penn only only has five team fouls, although you wouldn't know that from coach Glen Millers' arguing with the refs on about half of the possessions.
7:49 1st, 21-19 SJU: After three Big 5 games at least in the 70s, this game is looking like an old-fashioned Philly tilt. Scoring is down, and the battles are being fought hard inside with people going to the floor on both sides. The crowd is into it too -- although SJU's two rollouts have both referenced Fran Dunphy, I think it's time to come up with a different idea.
Both of St. Joe's starting guards are in foul trouble -- Williamson has three and Carter has two.
11:15 1st, 14-14:Pat Calathes scored five straight to tie the game for the Hawks.
Good job by Penn so far on the boards, with Egee and Tommy McMahon grabbing some offensive rebounds. the Quakers have outrebounded the Hawks 11-4, including six offensive rebounds to three defensive rebounds for St. Joe's.
14:12 1st,11-6 Penn: Good last couple minutes for the Quakers. A great offensive rebound and put-back by Egee followed by a three-point play on an offensive-rebound by Jaaber have put Penn out in front.
15:57 1st, 6-5 SJU: It's been a sloppy first four minutes, with four total turnovers and only five made baskets. However, one of those was a three by Steve Danley, which was his first field goal in about 87 minutes, dating back to the second half against Columbia, three games ago.
Welcome to the Palestra for Penn's final Big 5 game of the season, against the Saint Joseph's Hawks. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The general admission experiment for the Penn students has been a success. Instead of a mostly empty student section before tip-off, the Red and Blue Crew goes almost all the way up to the top of the Palestra. Good job by the Penn students, and hopefully this will become a permanent policy next season.
Here are the probable starters:
Penn (11-6, 2-1 Big 5)
G- (2) Ibrahim Jaaber, 6-2 Sr.
G- (15) Kevin Egee, 6-3 So.
G- (21) Brian Grandieri, 6-4 Jr.
F- (3) Steve Danley, 6-8 Sr.
F- (24) Mark Zoller, 6-7 Sr.
Saint Joseph's (11-8, 1-0 Big 5)
G- (3) Jawan Carter, 6-0 Fr.
G- (23) Garrett Williamson, 6-5 Fr.
F- (12) Pat Calathes, 6-10 Jr.
F- (52) Rob Ferguson, 6-8 Jr.
C- (34) Ahmad Nivins, 6-9 So.
One note for Penn is that freshman guard Darren Smith does not appear to be playing tonight. He is dressed, but not participating in warm-ups, and I am told he has reaggravated a shoulder injury he suffered earlier in the season.
Check back for updates after tip-off.
A lot of energy has been spent on these pages over the debate surrounding Wednesday night's court-rushing after the Temple win. In light of last night's events out in Allston, here's something we can all agree on: making fun of Harvard.
The Crimson dropped an 88-78 decision at Lavietes Pavilion to Yale despite the absence of the Elis' captain, Sam Kaplan. That sparked this humorously depressing sidebar from a "contributing writer" at the Harvard Crimson.
My favorite part comes below:
With sub-zero winds in the forecast and the Harvard student body in post-exam hibernation, the crowd on Friday night was as dull and lifeless as ever, drawing out any remaining life-blood from a supposed rivalry game that pitted a 5-10 Yale squad against an 8-8 Harvard team. Yale fans in attendance seemed to equal, if not exceed, Crimson supporters, and with no Harvard cheerleaders in sight, Yale's cheerleading squad took the floor at every opportunity.
Ouch. Brian Cusworth hammers the point home by blaming his team's poor second half on the sparse crowd:
"I can't make that excuse, because we've played enough years here that we should be used to [the bad atmosphere]," Cusworth said. "But when you take a punch like they gave us at the end of the first half, it can carry over when you don't have a home crowd behind you."
Straight from Norries Wilson's playbook: Say that you're not going to say something, then say it. ("I'm not allowed to comment on the officiating, so I won't say that we got held and they wouldn't call it until the game was pretty much over.")
When we get out-cheered by St. Joe's today, a virtual guarantee unless the R5 and all the roads are shut down, remember that there's at least one school that's having a worse weekend fan support-wise.
It's No. 6 Hofstra vs. No. 14 Penn at the Palestra tonight. The Quakers have the chance to make some noise on the national scene tonight, and they need to -- Penn has yet to beat a higher-ranked team so far this year. Their first home match of the year, this one should present a good chance to do so.
Check out a preview here, and refresh this page for live updates.
FINAL: Hofstra 31, Penn 3
Hofstra won the final three matches in businesslike fashion, including wins over Herrington and Matt Dragon, two of the Quakers' top wrestlers. No 17 Zach Shanaman almost pulled out an upset in the 184-pound bracket but fell at the last minute, 5-3. That pretty much sums up the evening.
Hofstra 22, Penn 3
Hofstra has done nothing but widen the lead, and the match looks about unwinnable. This one just didn't seem to be in the cards for Penn. Here's a stat for you: of the six Penn wrestlers ranked in the top 20 nationally who competed tonight, all but two -- Valenti and No. 8 Matt Herrington, who will compete last -- was matched up against a higher-ranked opponent for the Pride. Not easy to mount a comeback with matchups like that.
Hofstra 13, Penn 3
Hofstra's Tomasette threw Eveleth off his back with 23 seconds to go in regulation for a takedown and a 2-0 win, putting Hofstra up by 13.
But No. 2 Matt Valenti came back with a vengence at 133 pounds. Tied at 4-4 through two overtimes, Valenti came down with what looked like cramping in his calf. He still managed to survive that round, then finally outmaneuvered his opponent in the fifth overtime for a 10-4 win. Penn's now on the board.
Hofstra 10, Penn 0
The Quakers looked like they might recover at the heavyweight division, but Ben Reiter couldn't get anything going against Hofstra's Matt Pollock and dropped the match.
Next up: No. 11 Matt Eveleth against No. 18 Dave Tomasette. Penn can turn it around right here.
Hofstra 7, Penn 0
Not a great start for Penn, which lost the first two matches by decision and major decision.
Lior Zamir, at 184 pounds, was doing find until an illegal hold shifted the momentum, and Hofsra's Joe Rovelli scored a reversal and a take-down quickly thereafter.
At 197, Penn's Jack Sullivan was beaten soundly by Chris Weidman, and the Pride has a healthy 7-0 lead to work with.
A few thoughts before the weekend:
1- I agree with a number of the comments about my bit on court-rushing, and I guess I wouldn't call what the Penn students did inexcusable. I still wouldn't do it if it was up to me, but my question is, if the game wasn't televised, would they still have done it? I see too many games on TV where students rush the court for what I would consider a questionable situation, in my opinion, just so they can be on Sportscenter that night. But this win was special, and maybe it wasn't anywhere near the worst court-rushing I've ever seen.
2- As you may have seen, the athletic department is now offering video streams of games from the Palestra on its Web site. Basically, you pay 10 dollars for the rest of the year and you get basketball and wrestling, including archived on-demand content.
There was a trial run during the Temple game last week, and the last 18 seconds are on the site as a sample. The Saint Joseph's game tomorrow is being offered free as another carrot, so hopefully, as Josh mentioned below, you can check it out if you can't go to the Palestra. Unlike the sample video, this game will have audio, synced up from the radio broadcast with Brian Seltzer and Vince Curran. This will be the case for all the games that have audio, which is still free for the rest of this year.
Finally, there will be some road basketball games available at schools that have the same service. I believe those include Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton.
According to Brian Head in the Penn athletics marketing department, they are testing the service to gauge the interest of Penn fans before setting up more formal pricing plans, possibly including audio, for next year and beyond.
At this point, Head said, 185 people had signed up for some form of the service, after two days.
And while it may make some revenue eventually, that's not the immediate aim.
"There's significant initial investment, eventually it will be nice to make money, but that's a secondary goal," Head said.
With so many games not televised, and a national fan base, he added, the department thought this would be a good service to the faithful and at least get the school some more exposure.
I think it's a pretty good idea, and we'll see next year what the prices are.
3-As Josh also wrote, the SJU game is not on TV. I tried to find out why, and it's a little complicated and I'm not entirely sure of the reason, but here's what I could figure out. CSTV owns the rights to all Atlantic 10 home games, which tomorrow night is, and they are not airing it. But, they can still sell the game to a local channel, which has not happened.
The question is, why? Two CSTV spokesmen told me that they were not sure of why this specific game was not picked up, but only that there are packages available to local outlets -- such as all Xavier games -- but that this one was not part of one picked up by Comcast SportsNet, which has 14 A-10 games. CSN is showing the Sixers-Hawks game tomorrow night, so that explains why they don't have the game.
But CN8, which has many other local games, doesn't have it either. A spokeswoman at CN8 told me only that CSTV has the rights to the game and they don't, and one of the CSTV spokesmen told me that to his knowledge, CN8 hadn't picked up any games from them this year.
That could be because previously, the A-10 just gave CN8 and other local stations the rights to the games for free, but this year under the CSTV deal, stations have to pay, and they may not be willing to so.
So that leaves a local channel like the CW or My PHL whatever number it is to do it, like they occasionally pick up some Big East games on ESPN +. Basically, it's just a shame that the game isn't on TV, although at least tomorrow we're saved by the free Penn offer.
4- Anything but Uniform: Saint Joseph's
The Hawks, as they were two years ago, are the home team for this game, so they'll be in white and Penn will be in blue.
The SJU home outfits are slightly different from what they were last year.
I still like the jerseys, although the shoulder stripes are starting to look Nike-like. And good use of all of the school colors, including the gray striping.
Hopefully the Hawks will keep their own look and not go down with the standardization that is infecting college hoops.
Tomorrow night's Penn - Saint Joseph's matchup is key to the Big 5 race, as three teams - Villanova, St. Joe's and Penn - could still bring home the hardware. In addition, Penn's Big 5 games have all been instant classics this year, from the near-comeback win over Villanova to the 93-92 nail biter over La Salle to of course the win over Fran Dunphy and Temple on Wednesday.
But if you're not one of the 8,000-some fans who have bought tickets to the soldout Palestra tomorrow, you're SOL.
The game isn't on network television, it's not on ESPN, not on Comcast SportsNet, not on CN8, or even CSTV. Well, if you have high speed internet access, for this game only it's free on pennathletics.com, but like many other college Web sites on every future occasion you'll have to shell out some cash for it. So for games like this, you have to be there to see it.
But this lack of a TV provider is nothing new. In fact, four of the other 9 total Big 5 games are not on TV. And if you take away Villanova (which gets on TV 17 times this season), only one of six Big 5 games can be seen locally.
This seems ridiculous considering Philadelphia is a city where college basketball is big. It's especially odd at a time when none of the major four professional teams (Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and Sixers) are playing.
La Salle is on CSN four times, but only once for a Big 5 game, Penn is only ever on CN8, a channel I don't get in my apartment and most people at Penn don't receive, and Temple played Villanova on ESPNU...over winter break. We don't get that channel (an ESPN branch targeting college fans) in session here, let alone at home.
Here's the 2006-07 Big 5 TV schedule:
Penn - 'Nova: CN8
Penn - La Salle: None
Penn - St. Joe's: None
Penn - Temple: CN8
'Nova - La Salle: CSN
'Nova - St. Joe's: ESPN 2
'Nova - Temple: ESPNU
La Salle - St. Joe's: None
La Salle - Temple: None
St. Joe's - Temple: None
I apologize to the Quakers diehards who I might offend, but I have to agree with Josh's post about fans rushing the court against Temple. But my reasoning is different.
Rushing the court is something you do against a team that is nothing but an enemy. Like a far better squad, a rival, or a postseason opponent.
Temple may be an enemy of Penn's, but the presence of Fran Dunphy on the opposing bench means that the relationship is not one-dimensional any longer. The Dunph is as steadfast a friend of Penn basketball as anyone, and the Penn-Temple game will no longer be "us vs. them." It can't.
Fran Dunphy made this program what it is, and when the student body rushed the court, its celebration -- justified or not -- came at Dunphy's expense. What a way to treat a friend.
Another crazy win for Penn, executing down the stretch and making plays it would not have made in the last several years. But the great night was marred somewhat by the court-rushing by the Penn students.
I thought everything else the Penn students did was great, from the paper mustaches before the game to the rollouts. But you do not rush the court in a game you are favored. Unless that game wins you the national championship. You want to look like you've been there before.
In other news, where have you gone Steve Danley? The senior forward has not scored in double figures in four straight games, and has not had a field goal in the last two. He has also gotten in foul trouble in the last two games, hurting his cause. But he looks lost in the post and has not been doing well on the box-outs.
But some Ivy games against inferior centers (Cornell and Columbia have arguably the two best frontcourts in the Ivy League), should help Danley out in the next couple weeks. Penn needs him to help take some of the load off Ibrahim Jaaber, Mark Zoller and Brian Grandieri.
Speaking of box outs I am going to keep track of this next game, but I've noticed that very rarely does anyone on the Quakers, or the Ivy League for that matter, actually ever box out. The number of offensive rebounds given up because of no box-outs are staggering. You'll hear more about that next week.
Due to the lack of consistent internet access, here's a quick recap of the first half.
Penn 76, Temple 74, Final
After Penn quickly tied the game at 46 early in the second half, Temple took the lead right back and held on for a while, but eventually the Quakers took their first lead since it was 7-5 with a Mark Zoller floater.
The game went back and forth until the end. With 46 second remaining Brian Grandieri hit two free throws to take a 71-70 lead. Dionte Christmas responded with two free throws of his own, and following a patient effort from Jaaber to hit Zoller for a go-ahead floater, Christmas drained an 13-foot jumper to re-take the lead with 8 seconds to go.
Then with 1.4 seconds to go Zoller put up a desparation three from the top of the key, but got fouled by Dion Dacons, to shoot three free throws. He only needed to hit two to take the lead, but Zoller hit all three, icing the game for the Quakers in yet another Big 5 Classic.
Temple 41, Penn 33, Halftime
Fran Dunphy got a nice ovation from the crowd in the beginning of the game, but his response back to the Penn fans was rather unkind, as his Owls led for the majority of the first half, taking their advantage to as many as 19 midway through the half.
But Penn came storming back with a 14-0 run that started with a backdoor cut from Stephen Danley to Ibrahim Jaaber for a two-handed dunk. Jaaber's has sick ups. The Quakers used a couple three-pointers from Tommy McMahon to bring it close, but Dionte Christmas responded at the buzzer with a three to make it a 41-33 lead at the break.
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