In reply to Jeff Shafer's post below, I would start by saying that Fran Dunphy was no shrinking violet himself. As classy as Dunphy was, he could curse a blue streak quite easily. His predecessor at Temple, John Chaney, even said so himself when Dunphy was introduced as the Owls' new coach.
We didn't hear it most of the time because the crowd noise in the Palestra is such that whatever Dunphy says gets swallowed up before the sound can get across the court, or even to the part of press row where DP writers usually sit. But I distinctly remember hearing Dunphy in full and rancorous voice when Penn played at Illinois-Chicago over Winter Break in 2005.
And I would note something Miller said in the statement put out by Penn Athletics this evening (as an aside, I'm impressed and quite surprised that the full release came out tonight instead of after the press conference tomorrow):
"I have always enjoyed bringing my teams to play at the Palestra, and I look forward to enjoying the home court advantage that the Palestra affords our team," he said.
Whether or not Miller has changed all that much since that famous tirade, I think it's fair to say he knows of what he speaks.
You've probably read on the main site that Glen Miller has been chosen to succeed Fran Dunphy as the men's basketball coach. As I note in Wednesday's DP, a good number of Penn fans remember Miller for his outbursts, particularly one at the Palestra three years ago.
Miller's Brown team lost, 73-66, and after the game he went on a tirade about the officiating saying he "got jammed up the ass" by the officials. That's just one case of Miller's short fuse.
Going back to January 2004, the last easily accessible box scores I could find (Brown doesn't exactly keep stellar records), Miller has been issued four technical fouls (three in Ivy League games).
By contrast, I cannot recall Dunphy getting a T in the four years I've been watching the Quakers. A quick scan of the past three year's worth of box scores proves that to be correct.
I think Miller will calm down a bit once he settles in here. He should pile up plenty of wins given the talent he'll have on next season's team, and that should help. But Penn is hands down the marquee program in the Ivy League right now, and Miller will be in the company of four other first-rate coaches in the Big 5. Tirades here are not acceptable. Neither is blaming officials or throwing fits.
Penn fans have come to expect their coach to win, but not at the expense of losing any class. I hope Miller doesn't let them down.
On a completely unrelated note, Princeton's Joe Scott has received a technical foul in each of the last three games he has coached against Penn. Scott is 1-2 in those games and 1-3 overall against the Quakers.
Princeton 14, Penn 2, FINAL
Penn saw its hopes of a division championship fade away, as the Quakers were blown out by the Tigers in Game 2. Penn's season ends with the Quakers 12-27, and 7-13 in the Ivy League, which will be no better than second and no worse than third in the Gehrig Division.
Every Princeton starter had at least one hit in Game 2, and eight scored at least a run as Princeton scored in six different innings. Meanwhile, the Quakers only had four hits and didn't have a runner even reach second base until a homer by Tim May in the ninth. It's a disappointing ending to the season, but Penn has made strides this season towards being an improved team. I would take encouragement from the two hits and semi-rally in the ninth, as the Quakers wouldn't quite give yp their season so easily.
Princeton 13, Penn 0, End 6th
It just doesn't seem like it's Penn's day today, as the Tigers tack on another run and the Quakers continue to struggle at the plate. Penn will have to come up with a monumental comeback to have any shot at staying alive in the Gehrig Division race.
Princeton 8, Penn 0, End 4th
Princeton steadily increases its lead as Penn's bats have been silent in Game 2 against Christian Staehely. The run scored in part due to a wild pitch from Schwartz, another preventable mistake.
Princeton 7, Penn 0, End 3rd
More bad Penn defense (a missed easy pop-up by first baseman Tim May) leads to more two-out Princeton offense, as the Tigers add to their lead. Gibbons is now out, replaced by Steven Schwartz, who stranded two runners to end the inning.
Princeton 6, Penn 0, End 2nd
The Abate move completely backfires, as he walks the first batter in the second and is removed for Michael Gibbons. Gibbons then gave up a single and a two-run triple, which Gatti took a bad angle towards as the ball got by him, followed by an RBI groundout. Princeton has sent 14 batters to the plate already, while Penn has only sent seven.
The Quakers are in a huge hole early, but there is still a lot of time left.
Princeton 3, Penn 0, End 1st
Shoddy defense hurts Penn again, as centerfielder Michael Gatti misplays Aaron Prince's bloop, allowing Zach Wendkos to bat with two outs, and hit his second homer of the day to give Princeton the lead. The next batter, Sal Iacono, hits one out as well, and the Tigers lead 3-0. Maybe Cole's decision to use Abate was not the best, as there is already action in the Penn bullpen.
Penn-Princeton Game 2
Game 2 is about to start here, a nine-inning affair. Starting for Penn will be Sean Abate, who actually went 7 and a third innings yesterday. We'll see how long coach John Cole keeps him in for.
Penn 9, Princeton 7, FINAL
Brown, who blew Game 1 yesterday and saved Game 2, finished his 2.1 innings of work today with a 1-2-3 seventh to get the save and keep Penn's hopes alive. The Quakers win to improve to 7-12, while Princeton drops to 6-9. Cornell's loss makes them 5-10. We'll get into more details after next game, which will start in about 35 minutes. Come back for more updates. Either way, Penn still needs to win the next game to stay alive.
Penn 9, Princeton 7, End 6th
Penn rallied to take the lead with two outs in the sixth, on a walk, a single, another walk, and and two two-run singles by Josh Corn and Tim May. The second walk of the inning was a bizarre play, as Princeton catcher Sal Iacono threw to second with the runner going on ball four. His throw went into center, and Ken-Ichi Hino trotted home to score, or so he thought. Apparently, the umpires ruled that the batter, Nwaka, got in Iacono's way, forcing the bad throw. So the walk stood but Hino went back to third. This came after a lengthy delay and several consultations of the rule book by both umpires and both coaches. Corn's single, though, made the longest walk that I've ever seen a moot point.
In the bottom of the sixth, Brown gave up a one-out single and got through unscathed, putting Penn three outs away from a huge victory.
In Ithaca, Columbia scored six runs in the eighth inning on only two hits, and beat Cornell 10-4, making their second game less pressing for Penn.
Princeton 7, Penn 5, End 5th
Alex Nwaka crushed a three-run homer to give Penn the lead in the top half of the fifth, but, Princeton got a clutch two-out single from Zach Wendkos to tie the game. Another hit from Sal Iacono gave Princeton the lead back. Closer Doug Brown came in after Iacono's single and gave up another RBI single to make it 7-5 before getting out of the inning. Penn is now down to its last six outs of the season.
On the out-of-town scoreboard, Cornell and Columbia head to extra innings in Game 1. As a reminder, two Cornell wins today would eliminate the Quakers, as would one Penn loss.
Princeton 4, Penn 2, End 4th
The Quakers got back into the game with a few hits in the fourth, but made the last out at second base as Scott Graham tried to advance on the throw. Wallace settled down with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half.
Princeton 4, Penn 0, End 3rd
The last half hour or so has been unkind to the Quakers. A two-out pop-up right behind the mound fell between three players, and the next batter, Princeton's Aaron Prince, hit his first home run of the year to give the Tigers the lead. Prince's homer came on about the eighth or ninth pitch of the at-bat. After a single, Zach Wendkos crushed another two-run homer to give the Tigers a four-run spread, all unearned off Bret Wallace.
And in Ithaca, Cornell has tied up Columbia going to the sixth inning.
Penn 0, Princeton 0, End 2nd
So far, we have played two innings, and seen only one more than the minimum 12 batters. Penn has a hit by Kyle Armeny, but he was erased by a double play. Princeton has one batter reach on an error with two outs in the second, but he was stranded.
Meanwhile, Penn needs Columbia to beat Cornell, and so far the Lions are obliging, leading 4-2 in the 5th inning of Game 1 in Ithaca, N.Y.
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Welcome to Clarke Field, where Penn will try to stay alive in the Lou Gehrig Division race. The doubleheader starts at 1 p.m., and check back on the Buzz for more updates as the game progresses.
Today we launch a new category of posts at the Buzz, as Penn Relays week has arrived. It actually started yesterday, with the men's and women's 20k and 5k runs, and if you really care that much the results are here and here.
Of course the big show kicks off at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. If you plan on going, please join me in knocking on some wood, because at the moment, the forecast calls for three straight days of sunshine and high temperatures in the 60s. For each of the last three years, it has rained at least one day of the Relays, which can be really annoying if you don't have seats under the upper deck at Franklin Field.
At the moment, it seems like the streak will end this year. I hope I didn't jinx it.
Just under an hour ago, a remarkably upbeat group of Penn softball players walked into the dorm where I live. Given that they just returned from a weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth -- always the most strenuous Ivy League road trip of the year for any Quakers team -- I was surprised that they weren't all on the verge of falling asleep.
But they had a very good reason for being so cheery: they won three games this weekend, bringing their record to 18-26 (5-9 Ivy League). That ties the school record for wins set by the 1981 Penn squad, which won the only Ancient Eight title in program history. Yes, that team only played 24 games, and yes, this year's squad has one more loss than last year's team that went 14-25. Still, it's a pretty big accomplishment.
It's even more remarkable considering how those three wins came. In the first game Saturday against Dartmouth, Penn pitcher Emily Dentstedt carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, when it was broken up on a double by Big Green shortstop Ashley Gleason. Dartmouth plated two runs in the frame to make the score 5-2 in Penn's favor, then had runners at the corners in the seventh with no outs. But Denstedt got the next three Big Green hitters to fly out, finishing off the complete game win.
As if that's not enough tension, consider what happened in the second game. Penn took a 4-0 lead into the fifth inning, when Dartmouth got its first run of the game. In the bottom of the seventh, the Big Green scored again on a bunt single by Gleason, making it 4-2. With runners on second and third, Alycia Petryk got a base hit that scored two runs, then tried to turn it into a double but was thrown out at second base. That was the final out of the inning, but it came after both runners crossed the plate.
So it was off to extra innings. After a scoreless eighth, Penn took a 5-4 lead in the ninth on a groundout by pitcher Brandi King with runners on second and third. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, which counts as drama no matter the size of the ball and the field, Dartmouth's Kelly Fry hit a game-tying home run to keep the game alive. The teams played on until the 13th inning, when Penn's Julia Cheney smashed a two-run home run to put Penn up for good, 7-5.
Amazingly, Dartmouth's Stephanie Trudeau pitched all 13 innings for the Big Green, while Penn used three pitchers -- Olivia Mauro (the seven "regulation" innings), Michelle Rehm (the first four extra innings and the start of the fifth) and Denstedt (the rest of the game).
Sunday's doubleheader at Harvard was also quite prolonged. This time it was Mother Nature's fault, as rain pushed back the start of the day's action an hour and forced three more delays thereafter. Perhaps showing some fatigue, Penn gave up seven runs in the first three innings of Game 1 to the Crimson, but rallied with three runs in the seventh to make the final score a very respectable 7-6.
In the second game, Crimson starter Shelley Madick lasted all of one-third of an inning, giving up two runs. Penn would tack on six more by the end of the day for a 8-0 win and the record-tying victory.
So give credit to this Penn team for persevering through all that softball, and all that travel. At least in my case, it goes to show once again why athletes can do what they do, while the writers write about it instead.
Since yesterday's action in the Lou Gehrig division was washed out, today was the penultimate test for Penn's playoff hopes.
The Quakers are still alive, but barely after today's games at Princeton. The Tigers took the opener, 4-3 in eight innings, but Penn came back to win the second, 3-2 in 10 innings, behind nine stellar frames from starter Brian Cirri.
Meanwhile up north, Cornell and Columbia split today, which means the Lions are eliminated with 13 losses. But, Columbia helped out the Quakers by defeating the Big Red once. Here are the up-to-date standings in the Gehrig:
1 Princeton 6-8, .429
2 Cornell 5-9, .357, 1 game back
3 Penn 6-12, .333, 2 games back
4 Columbia 5-13, .278, eliminated
Because the Quakers lost, they will need at least one more win by Columbia to stay in the race before Cornell plays Princeton in a four-game set next weekend. Penn must sweep tomorrow's doubleheader (a makeup for Saturday's lost games) or the season is over because it is impossible for both Cornell as Princeton to finish with 13 losses. One of those two frontrunners could finish with at most 12 losses and under the right situation, Penn could tie for the division.
We'll see what happens tomorrow afternoon.
At Hey Day today, Penn president Amy Gutmann gave the juniors a three-question quiz before officially pronouncing them seniors.
Question 1: Which famous coach just left the Red and Blue for the Maroon and the Blue?
You stumped me Dr. Gutmann. Fran Dunphy indeed left the Red and Blue, but last time I checked, Temple's colors are cherry and white. There's no blue in there.
Still, I give her credit for implying that Penn basketball is one of the three most important things students should know about.
There's a chance the Ivy League's Lou Gehrig division could end up like last year's NL West nearly did: with a champion with a losing record. That would be good news for Penn, which has already guaranteed itself a mark below .500.
Princeton, the top team in the Ancient Eight's lesser tier, is 5-7 going into this weekend's four-game set with Penn. The Quakers' fate is simple: win at least three games. The picture is somewhat complicated, because Cornell and Princeton have yet to play their four-game series, and will do so next weekend. Here are how the standings look today:
1 Princeton 5-7, .417
2 Cornell 4-8, .333, 1 game back
3 Penn 5-11, .313, 2 games back
4 Columbia 4-12, .250, 3 games back
No matter what happens in any particular game, any team to reach 13 losses is out. Depending on who wins what, 12 losses could mean a share of the title. So even last-place Columbia (8-28 overall) is still alive.
Penn can afford to drop just one game in New Jersey, while Columbia must sweep its set against Cornell in Ithaca. While there are no scenarios under which the Quakers can guarantee themselves the division crown outright this weekend, it is possible to win it with a sweep of the Tigers AND at least one Columbia win. Cornell would then have to win one of four against Princeton.
Then again, Princeton has won six in a row and has the best pitching staff in the Ivy League, so all of this might not matter come Saturday night. We'll keep you posted as things play out.
I attended my first Penn baseball games of the year this weekend, and all I can is "yuck."
The Quakers lost three out of four (the one game I missed was the win) to Cornell in miserable fashion. Penn was outscored 56-25 by a Big Red squad that had just five wins all season coming into this weekend.
Now, I wasn't surprised by the fact that Penn lost. Heck, I wasn't even surprised that they lost by such a huge margin.
No, what really got to me about the baseball team was just how many errors they made. In total, they committed 12 on the weekend.
At times, this team looked worse that my Little League team that went 0-26 one year. Players were crashing into each other when going for fly balls, letting grounders slip between their legs and letting baserunners get out of run-downs.
And this lack of fundamentals has been a problem for the Quakers all season. They now have 91 errors on the year. The next-worst team in the league is Columbia, which has only 64.
Last year, Princeton had the most errors on the season -- 88.
Any way you look at it, this is flat out embarassing.
If Penn was losing games because its batters couldn't hit far enough or its pitchers couldn't throw hard enough, that would be understandable. After all, former coach Bob Seddon left this program with a dearth of talent.
But you don't need to be that talented to call off a teammate on a fly ball. Even the least-talented of teams has no excuse for being anything short of fundamentally sound.
Baseball is the one sport where your opponent can't really cause you to make errors. Nobody defends you as you try to make a catch or throw.
And let's not forget that this team might not have the best players in the league, but every player was pretty darn good in high school. Every player on Penn made was able to get recruited to play Division I baseball because they didn't make these types of mistakes.
It's unreasonable to demand that Penn win more games. But even if it keeps losing, the team should stop doing it in such an embarassing way.
Congratulations to 1996 Penn alumnus Dan Leibovitz, the former Temple assistant who was officially named the new head men's basketball coach at Hartford yesterday.
While the implications of the hire were covered in today's DP, I can't help but note here something Leibovitz said at his press conference today, when asked the inevitable question about his former boss John Chaney's legendary practice schedules.
"No we're not going to practice at 5:30 a.m.," he said. "We're going to be disciplined, but I've had enough of that. I've got to get some sleep."
There's a good reason for that -- he and his wife, Nancy, are expecting their first child in June. So a double congratulations then. Here's hoping that if the child grows up with Dan's knowledge of the game, we might see him or her following in Dan's footsteps at Penn some day.
Then again, who knows if a college coaching salary will be enough to cover Penn's tuition 18 years from now.
It's certainly sad to see Fran Dunphy leave Penn. He was a fantastic coach, a great guy and to me -- as well as countless other sportswriters at The Daily Pennsylvanian -- the greatest journalism professor at Penn.
You see, this University has a lot of things (heck, we even have a huge white button sitting in the middle of campus) but one thing it lacks is a journalism department. Those of us with an interest in the subject are left to fend for ourselves at a student-run newspaper, learning from each other and every so often from the people we cover.
Dunphy used to tell me that everyone at a University is supposed to learn from each other. And his relationship with our newspaper definitely an educational experience unlike any other. He recognized the enthusiasm writers at the DP had for covering his team, even if he would always chide us for writing about him too much. He knew that it was our job to criticize him if he was doing something wrong.
At the same time, he was unafraid to call you out when you asked a bad question. I'll never forget the press conference after a loss at Yale my sophomore year, when I asked Dunphy about how "many were speculating" that he'd use a smaller rotation of players. In reality, I was the only one speculating and it was a bad question.
"Who speculated that David?" he shot back at me.
I was speechless. Coaches aren't supposed to be the ones asking questions at press conferences after the games. But it taught me the art of asking better and more honest questions.
Dunphy was never afraid to tell me when he disagreed with something I wrote. There was the time he called me out for printing an incoming recruit's SAT scores. And then there was the time he criticized me for something I wrote about a small golf tournament that Penn lost -- he didn't like that I noted that a Penn player had the worst score in the entire tournament. He was probably right.
And despite his criticism, he always was willing to talk to us. He always answered every question honestly.
But it's not just DP writers that Dunphy respected. Jack Scheuer, who has covered Philadelphia sports for over 30 years, pointed out the other day that once the regular basketball game of Philadelphia sportswriters at the Palestra conflicted with a Penn basketball practice. Guess who moved to another court? Dunphy's team.
So on behalf of all DP sportswriters who have had the pleasure of working with Dunphy over the past 17 years, I'd like to say thank you. Thanks for teaching us how to ask good questions. Thanks for teaching us how to write better stories. Thanks for teaching us about the history of the Palestra.
Thanks for teaching us that it's not a good thing when your opponent makes more free throw than you've attempted. Thanks for telling us every week that you had "a lot of respect for our opponent" because they are a "very good basketball program" with a "very good basketball coach" who leads a "very good basketball team." Thanks for teaching us to stick up for ourselves. We'll miss you.
There was quite a crowd up at the Liacouras Center this afternoon to welcome Fran Dunphy as the new coach of Temple. Anybody who was anybody in Philadelphia basketball (and was not named Jay Wright) was there to say hello, or goodbye, depending on which side of the Schuylkill you're from.
There were plenty from the west -- former Penn players, coaches as well as longtime friends and supporters. One of them, Eric Osmundson, summed it up by saying the number of people there and the magnitude of those in attendance really showed how much Dunphy has touched so many lives.
That's an awfully good way to think about the 17 years Dunphy spent as the face of the Penn program. He's led by example, demonstrating everything that is right about collegiate athletics, and the sport of basketball is better because he is a part of it. Everyone at Penn is fortunate he was a part of the University's fabric for so long.
That's why today was a celebration. Dunphy stepped up to the podium with Hooter the Owl at his side and said "Man I love this." Not because he'll be making a little more money or be playing a few more games on national TV, but because he'll have a chance to make an even bigger positive impact on Philadelphia basketball. He said it seemed like half of Philadelphia was in the room. Not too much of a stretch given the hordes of people who could barely shove their way inside the reception room off the arena's main lobby.
Later, in an appearance on Comcast SportsNet, Penn radio man Vince Curran joked (correctly I might add) there were more people there than Dartmouth draws on a Saturday night.
I'm sure Dunphy's glad he doesn't have to make that trip to New Hampshire every year anymore. I've only made it three times, and that's more than enough for me.
Quick hits:
Word of the day: "daunting." Dunphy used that repeatedly to describe the new challenge in front of him. True, winning at Xavier will be a tad tougher than walloping Harvard every year.
Question of the day: "So, I guess this is the end of the 5 a.m. practices," something Temple's John Chaney was famous for. Answer: "We've done that before at Penn out of necessity," but Dunphy made it clear he preferred 3-6 "and that's p.m."
Best sign brought by a Temple student: "4/10/2006: The Dunphy Dynasty Begins Today."
Best dressed: Dunphy barely edges out (former) assistant Shawn Trice. You know it's an important occasion when he breaks out the pocket square.
Here's some audio from today's press conference at which Fran Dunphy was introduced as the new head coach of Temple men's basketball:
Press Conference
Comments from Fran Dunphy
Comments from John Chaney
Comments from Bill Bradshaw
Comments from Andy Toole
Comments from Mark Tyndale
Comments from Vince Curran
If you're reading this while sipping your morning coffee, the word officially went out late last night that Fran Dunphy has accepted the offer to become Temple's head coach.
When I first heard the news, I was not surprised, but I nonetheless could not help lamenting the end of an extraordinary era of Penn basketball. I will have more to say about this later on, and I am sure my colleagues will too. For now, though, I can't help thinking back to something Dunphy said a few weeks ago when John Chaney retired.
The day after Selection Sunday, the Philadelphia basketball community gathered at the Palestra for the annual Coaches vs. Cancer March Madness Tip-Off Breakfast. Chaney was quite conspicuous by his absence, as his seat at the dais was taken by Owls assistant coach Dan Leibovitz. No one was all that surprised that Chaney was not there, especially because his wife was about to have a major surgical operation done. But when Temple Sports Information Director Larry Dougherty came up to me and Zachary Levine as we sat down to eat, we both realized immediately what was going on.
Later that morning, Chaney officially announced his retirement. The word of what was going on had gotten around to just about everyone before then, though, and the many reporters in attendance were busy asking the other City Series coaches what they thought about the news.
"He's meant so much to so many people that we're at a loss a little bit," Dunphy said. "Nobody's ever going to be able to replace that guy, so it's going to be tough job, whoever it is that does replace him."
Then came a line that rings particularly true now.
"For me," he said, "the good part is that I'll be able to now talk to [Chaney] about his thoughts on coaching."
Considering that Dunphy will be coaching on a floor emblazoned with Chaney's name at midcourt, those conversations will now likely take on an added significance.
After a month of rumors and speculation, I'm ready to say the dust has settled: Temple has a new basketball coach and Penn will have to find one.
I don't have any of the gory details, and Fran Dunphy may not yet have signed on the dotted line with the Owls, but this is a done deal. This morning the Quakers coach of 17 years gave his farewell address to a few hundred friends and supporters.
He's thought long and hard about this. He's spent many nights taking long walks with his dog undoubtedly pondering his future. He reminded everyone today how much he cares about attention to detail -- even mentioning how he counted the ring of church bells as he was walking through campus to make sure the time was correctly chimed 11 and not 10 because of Daylight Saving Time. This isn't something he's doing on a whim, and as competitive a person as Dunphy wouldn't make such a change if he didn't think he could win and make a difference.
Dunphy wouldn't have stressed the importance of seizing opportunities, accepting change and moving on if he wasn't. No surprise, then, that there were an awful lot of heartfelt hugs when the show was over.
"You're never too old to change and to learn new things," Dunphy said to the crowd.
There will certainly be a lot of new things to learn next year in the Big 5. This is just the beginning.
Sean Abate had an interesting day today. So interesting it required a review of the NCAA baseball rule book.
Abate started today's game against Villanova as the designated hitter batting seventh. With the Quakers down 5-1 in the third, manager John Cole sent Abate in to pitch with a man on first and no outs. He retired the next three Nova hitters in order, and pitched a scoreless fourth.
As the pitcher, Abate proceeded to hit in the bottom of the fourth and was then replaced on the mound by Steven Schwartz. No big deal, right?
Well, out came Abate to bat in the bottom of the sixth -- as DH.
Major League rules (upon which the NCAA game is based) stipulate a DH can replace any other player including the pitcher during a game, BUT doing so waives the DH rule for the game -- meaning each subsequent pitcher must hit for themselves. I assumed that after Schwartz came in to pitch, Abate's day was done by rule and Penn would no longer have a DH.
It turns out the NCAA rules have a provision which allows a DH to pitch and still be DH. Here's NCAA Rule 7-3:
"The DH may go in to pitch, then subsequently be relieved as the pitcher and still remain the DH."
To me, this seems a bit silly to deviate from the Major League rule. There are other situations where the DH rule is nullified, such as when he replaces a defensive player, so why not here as well?
For the record, Abate weht 0-4 with a strikeout as DH, and pitched 2 innings, no runs and no hits and two walks. Pick up today's paper for all the details of Villanova's 10-7 win.
And by postgame analysis, I mean that literally. Because for the second year in a row, Penn was not represented in that longtime CBS tradition, the "One Shining Moment" montage. Texas was a couple times, and I'm pretty sure the shot of the Longhorns human-sized mascot (as opposed to the real steer, Bevo, who comes to football games) was taken in Dallas.
You may recall that Penn's 23-22 halftime lead over the Longhorns prompted ESPN.com to put David Whitehurst diving for a loose ball in its lead photo during the game. But none of the Quakers' three-pointers were memorable at the end of the NCAA Tournament. I suppose that's to be expected of a team whose motion offense rarely results in the flashy dunks that higlight reel makers crave. Still, Albany made it into "One Shining Moment," and the Danes ended up losing to Connecticut by 13 points. Penn ended up losing by eight.
Yet for all my sour grapes, there was a link to Penn basketball on television tonight, as former Penn player, coach and athletic director Craig Littlepage made the trophy presentation to Florida coach Billy Donovan. You can thank Littlepage and the rest of the selection committee for putting Penn and Texas together in the first round, as well as the other 31 first-round matchups (32 if you count the play-in game, which they call the Opening Round).
So as I often do when the NCAA Tournament comes to an end, I thought for a minute about what could have been. Those of you who remember Penn's game against Oklahoma State in the 2003 Tournament, and especially those of you who made the trip to Boston, will recall that eventual national champion Syracuse played its first-round game against Manhattan to start the afternoon doubleheader at what was then the FleetCenter. The then-Orangemen (another name change for you, and the DP has a long history of not recognizing name changes) got a real scare from the Jaspers, and Jim Boeheim's tradition 2-3 zone led to a lot of three-point attempts by Manhattan.
In the second game, Oklahoma State's perimeter defense suffocated Penn's backcourt trio of Andy Toole, Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley, and Penn stayed in the game mainly because of a career high 30 points by Ugonna Onyekwe in his final game as a Quaker (ah, those were the days...). When the game was over and Penn had lost, 77-63, I couldn't help thinking that Penn might just have beaten that Syracuse team, beacuse it would have had a considerable number of three-point opportunities.
Quite a few people told me at the time that I was crazy for thinking that. But I bring it up again now because the Penn-Oklahoma State and Penn-Texas games have something else in common besides Big 12 opponents: Penn's fate was determined as much by the style of the team it was drawn against as its own strengths and weaknesses. What if this year's Quakers had been drawn against one of the other No. 2 seeds -- Tennessee, Ohio State or UCLA?
The Volunteers -- who had no business being seeded that high in my opinion -- and the Buckeyes both struggled mightily in the first round. Tennessee needed a Chris Lofton three-pointer with 2.9 seconds to go to beat Winthrop, while Ohio State trailed Davidson by four points at the half. Perhaps coincidentally, OSU won the game by eight points, and was also playing in its home state.
As with Syracuse three years ago, UCLA made it to the title game, but as we all know, the Bruins did not come out on top. And one of the biggest reasons why UCLA lost plays right into one of the biggest strengths of this year's Penn team -- Florida's outstanding perimeter defense.
So call me crazy again, but tonight I wonder what might have been if Penn and UCLA had faced off in the first round. I suppose, though, that such thoughts are always more likely to come up if your team hasn't played in three weeks, and won't play again for another seven-plus months.
It didn't help East Coast viewers that tonight's NCAA basketball championship started around 9:30. What really put them to sleep, however, was UCLA's woeful performance -- probably the worst game I've seen the Bruins play this season outside of a 71-68 loss to Southern Cal back in February.
Sure, shooting 29 percent (29 percent!) for most of the game isn't going to get it done, but the biggest problem for Ben Howland's team tonight was shoddy interior defense. Florida got away with one backdoor after another, convincing me that even Princeton could have had a shot in that game.
Here are a few notes I took on the game:
Incorrect pronunciations of Mbah A Moute: 2 (not bad for Billy Packer)
Ads featuring Coach K: 3
Times CBS mentioned this was the 25th time the network was broadcasting the Final Four: 7 (6 too many)
Random Jim Nantz quote of the night: 6 minutes to go in the first half and Ryan Hollins of UCLA is shooting free throws. Nantz is complaining about the Bruins poor foul shooting then says "...he looks up at the basket and through the window at a banner with a school's name on it -- Indiana -- they have banners here with all the schools in the tournament, and Kelvin Sampson just introduced as the new coach of the Hoosiers, what a great opportunity there..." I have no idea where that came from.
Worst dressed: Dick Enberg -- I've got no gripes about his suit, but that magenta tie was horrendous.
Best dressed: Who else but Rick Pitino who was in the stands to watch his former player at Providence, Billy Donovan.
Cliche watch: I have to give the CBS people a hand for only using the phrase "rekindle the magic" twice. Bonus points for only referencing "wizards" once.
Trivia question: So Florida is the national champion of the NCAA Tournament. The Gators during the regular season lost to South Carolina (the champions of the NIT) twice. When is the last time the NIT winner beat the NCAA champion in the same season? How about twice?
I'll have the answer for you tomorrow.
The above headline pretty much tells the story of the weekend for Penn baseball. Any chance of making noise in a pretty weak Lou Gehrig division was shattered with four losses in 48 hours to drop the Quakers to 2-6 in the Ivy League.
Don't look now, but Columbia's riding high at 4-4 in the Gehrig. Cornell is just 1-3, but expect that to change as soon as they make the swing through Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Now that the first week of interleague play is in the books, here's how the divisions stack up: Red Rolfe teams won 13 of the 16 games this weekend, with only Cornell (1) and Columbia (2) picking up victories. Rolfe teams outscored their opponents 138-73 in those 16 games. Even Brown (3-13 overall) would be in first place in the Gehrig with a 3-1 Ivy mark.
Back at Murphy Field, Penn's pitching and fielding woes have been evident for some time. Now the bug has struck the hitters, too. The Quakers lineup was anemic this weekend.
Saturday's line looked like this:
Joey Boaen: 5-9, 3 RBI
Josh Corn: 4-7, 4 RBI
Rest of team: 9-51, 4 RBI
When Boaen and Corn couldn't carry the load on Sunday (3-17, 0 RBI combined) the team was hopelessly lost save for Alex Nwaka's 5-8 and 3 RBI.
If this team wants to get back in the race (if such a thing is possible) more than just one or two hitters are going to have to produce with any kind of consistency.
Cup of coffee: Needless to say, the team's performance didn't impress Bill Meiklejohn (who bought the naming rights to Murphy Field) who came for the end of the first game against Brown and was presented with a commemorative jersey and bat between games by Athletic Director Steve Bilsky. University President Amy Gutmann made an appearance to give Meiklejohn a certificate of appreciation (and for some reason felt the need to read it aloud in its entirety like she was talking to a 4-year-old). Fortunately for the three of them, they didn't stay for game two.
Also worth noting was the very respectable spread put on by the Athletic Department on Saturday. Maybe if this were a staple at Penn doubleheaders more people would come. But then maybe only this reporter is easily swayed by potato salad.
Major kudos to the men's lacrosse team for its win over Cornell the nation's second-ranked team -- today at Franklin Field.
The Quakers should be one of two undefeated teams in the nation right now (No. 1 Virginia is the other). But they played a bad game against Harvard last week, losing 13-8 to a Crimson squad that previously had just two wins.
Still, the 8-6 victory by Penn today is a fantastic feat. Hopefully, this will lay the groundwork for lacrosse becoming a popular spectator sport at Penn.
The spring sports season normally is a miserable time for the Quakers. Baseball and softball are simply unwatchable. Golf never plays on campus, and tennis and track compete at Penn just a couple times per year. Maybe lacrosse will even start drawing more fans to Franklin Field than football in a few years.
Now let's just hope that the team doesn't go into a men's soccer-esque late season losing streak. If the Quakers keep this up, they might even make it to the Final Four, which Penn is hosting at Lincoln Financial Field.
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