Penn-Yale Live Updates

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- There are cathedrals of basketball, such as the Palestra, and then there are cathedrals where basketball is played, such as Yale's John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Penn men's basketball team finds itself at the latter venue this evening, and The Buzz is here to bring you all the action in this big Ivy League showdown.

I'm joined on press row tonight by fellow Buzz contributing writer Jeff Shafer and Daily Pennsylvanian Senior Sports Editor Matt Conrad, and throughout the evening we'll be letting you know about everything going on between the Quakers and Elis.

Penn wins by the skin of its teeth, 57-55. The Quakers have clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title, and pending the Brown-Princeton result, might have the nation's first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in a few minutes.

0:01 Two big defensive lapses. Morin hits a jumper to make it 57-55 Penn. Yale then steals a horrendous inbounds pass by Grandieri, and the ball gets to Flato, whose desperation jumper falls short as the Yale fans gasp. Game over, and the Penn fans can exhale.

0:11 second half: Danley gets fouled after receiving the inbounds pass. He makes the front end of the one-and-one, and makes the second. For what seems like the first time in years, we have clutch points from Penn near the end of a game, and Steve Danley gets high-fives from his teammates. 57-53 Penn

0:13 second half: Grandieri misses a layup and Zoller gets the rebound. He passes to Jaaber, who is fouled by Hughes. That's Hughes' fifth foul, so he's done for the night, but it's only Yale's sixth foul of the half so Penn doesn't get any free throws. Now it's time for Penn's defense to step up. 55-53 Penn

1:16 second half: After being fouled by Osmundson, Nick Holmes hits two free throws. 55-53 Penn

1:55 second half: Martin airballs a hook shot with a second to go on the shot clock and it falls to Zoller. At the other end, Osmundson misses a three. 55-51 Penn

2:10 second half: A media timeout. More than five minutes have run off the game clock since Penn's last basket. 55-51 Penn

3:02 second half: Fran Dunphy calls timeout after a Martin hook shot cuts the lead to four. That Brown leads Princeton 45-31 with nine minutes remaining in Providence, R.I., is completely irrelevant at the moment. 55-51 Penn

4:03 second half: Morin hits a hook shot and the lead is down to six. 55-49 Penn

7:13 second half: Martin hits a layup to cut Penn's lead to eight. At the other end, Osmundson hits an eight-foot jumper and was fouled by Caleb Holmes. A media timeout is called, and the tension is palpable. Osmundson misses the free throw. 55-45 Penn

8:40 second half: Osmundson makes a backdoor cut and Matin blocks his layup off the backboard. At the other end, Morin hits a jumper to bring Yale within nine points again. Then Osmundson hits a three, and the back-and-forth action continues. 53-41 Penn

10:42 second half: Pinick hits a jumper to bring Yale within nine points for the first time in a long time. Grandieri responds with a three and the Penn fans roar their approval. Caleb Holmes then hits a three and James Jones calls timeout. For the first time all night, there is some electricity in the air among the Yale partisans. 48-39 Penn

11:06 second half: Jaaber is called for an intentional foul after his feet get tangled up with Eric Flato's, and Flato hits the deck. The Yale fans love it, but even from this objective angle there wasn't any intent in the contact. Flato hits both free throws. 45-34 Penn

11:53 second half: A media timeout. 45-30 Penn

15:50 second half: After a block by Zoller, Osmundson takes it the other way for a layup and James Jones calls timeout. 41-21 Penn

16:11 second half: Jaaber takes the ball right out of Kaplan's hands and goes the other way for a dunk, although not a very forceful one. 39-21 Penn

17:25 second half: Mark Zoller now has 14 points, and just pulled down his 10th rebound when Casey Hughes missed an open 12-foot jumper. 37-21 Penn

19:18 second half: Osmundson gets the first points of the half by dribbling around a screen by Danley in the post for a reverse layup. 35-21 Penn

Halftime: Penn leads 33-21. The big stats are as follows: Penn shot 51.9 percent from the field and 4-of-10 from three-point range, while Yale shot a frigid 32.1 percent from the field and made two of five shots from beyond the arc. Penn only has a 18-17 advantage in rebounds, but Mark Zoller has been an absolute force in the post with nine boards to go along with his game-high 12 points.

1:03 first half: Yale finally breaks the 20-point barrier with a Princeton-esque hook shot by ex-Tiger Martin. 33-20 Penn.

2:30 first half: Martin gets free underneath and throws down a dunk. 33-18 Penn

3:42 first half: At the last media timeout of the first half, it's 31-16 Penn.

5:40 first half: Grandieri banks in a turnaround jumper. 31-14 Penn

6:50 first half: We have the answer to the question of who will be the third forward off the bench: senior Greg Kuchinski. We know this because he was just called for a foul, although he came onto the floor without any announcement from the public address. It's good to see Kuchinski get some real minutes, and I dare say he's a good matchup against the man he's guarding, Dominick Martin.

7:20 first half: Another media timeout after Osmundson gets fouled hard for the second time tonight. It's still 27-14 Penn

10:24 first half: Jaaber hits a three with Kaplan right in his face, and the public address man gets his name right. 27-14 Penn

10:24 first half: Zoller hits a three, Yale misses at the other end, and Whitehurst takes it back the other way. His layup falls off the rim, but right into the hands of Zoller for the putback. Elis coach James Jones calls a timeout. 22-11 Penn.

11:30 first half: We hit the second media timeout of the half, and it's 17-9 Penn.

12:14 first half: Yale's Ross Morin clocks Eric Osmundson and the ref judges that it was in the act of shooting, and as he was behind the three-point arc he gets three shots. The first and third are no good, but the second is. 15-9 Penn

14:43 first half: Mark Zoller, who seems to be the object of the 30 or so people in the Yale student section thus far, hits a three. Eric Flato answers with a three of his own at the other end, and before you know it David Whitehurst has two more Penn points on the board with a layup. 14-7 Penn

15:46 first half: Ibrahim Jaaber -- pronounced "Jabbar," as in the former Lakers great, by the Yale public address announcer -- is fouled by Casey Hughes and misses both free throws. Both teams are having a very hard time getting the ball in the basket thus far. 7-2 Penn

15:58 first half: We hit the first media timeout after Sam Kaplan is called for an offensive foul. And we can report that the old Quaker -- or at least the one that attended Penn games prior to last weekend -- has emerged at courtside, much to the delight of the Penn band and pretty much everyone else. 7-2 Penn

17:26 first half: Casey Hughes hits a short jumper and Yale's on the board. 5-2 Penn

18:26 first half: After both teams miss on the first few possessions, Eric Osmundson hits a three to get Penn on the scoreboard first. 3-0 Penn

Starting Lineups: For Penn, it's the usual five -- Ibrahim Jaaber, David Whitehurst and Eric Osmundson at the guards, with Steve Danley and Mark Zoller in the frontcourt.

For Yale, it's Eric Flato and Nick Holmes in the backcourt, Sam Kaplan and Casey Hughes at forward, and Dominick Martin at center jumping for the tipoff. Yale wins the tip.

Pregame notes: Penn takes the floor with just over five and a half minutes to go until tipoff, and Ibrahim Jaaber continues his tradition of slamming the ball off the hardwood near the three-point arc at his team's end of the floor. The seats are pretty empty so far, and at first glance are probably more fans wearing Quakers colors than Elis colors. That could well change -- the often raucous Yale student section has a habit of showing up a bit late -- but as with Penn, Yale's Spring Break began today.



Who to root for (Day 2)

Here's all the information a Penn fan needs after another day of conference tournament action:

Penn's RPI: Currently ranked 106th
Projected seed: 14

America East Tournament
Today's tournament kicks off with No. 8 UMBC (RPI 299) taking on No. 9 Stony Brook (308). Cheer for either team here, as both teams are much worse than Penn.

Atlantic Sun Tournament
No. 1 Lipscomb (144), No. 2 Belmont (129), No. 4 Gardner Web (144) and No. 6 Stetson (268) won last night. Root for anyone here, as Penn will be ranked ahead of any team that wins.

Big South Tournament
No. 1 Winthrop (78) and No. 2 Coastal Carolina (127) won last night to make it to the finals. Penn fans should definitely cheer on Coastal Carolina, because if they win, that will put the Quakers ahead of another tournament team.

Colonial Athletic Association Tournament
Penn fans should hope for No. 8 Drexel (117) to beat No. 9 Delaware (243), as the Quakers beat the Dragons earlier this season. They should also hope for No. 12 James Madison (295) to upset No. 5 Northeastern (100) and No. 11 William & Mary (267) to upset No. 6 Virginia Commonwealth (73). Pick anyone in the game between No. 7 Towson (202) and No. 10 Georgia State (249).

Horizon League Tournament
None of the teams that won yesterday and who will face off today in the second round are ranked ahead of Penn in the RPI. Thus, Penn fans can root for anyone. The real important games begin tomorrow, when No. 1 Wisconsin-Milwaukee (56) and No. 2 Butler (88) play.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament
With the No. 5 through 10 seeds opening play today, Penn fans can cheer for any team. None of these teams will be ranked ahead of the Quakers in the Tournament.

Missouri Valley Conference Tournament
Root for No. 9 Indiana State (154) to shock No. 1 Wichita State (24) and No. 7 Evansville (185) to upset No. 2 Southern Illinois (42). The other two games (No. 4 Creighton vs. No. 5 Bradley and No. 3 Missouri State vs. No. 6 Northern Iowa) feature four teams all of whom have RPIs way higher than Penn. Thus, it really doesn't matter who wins.

Northeast Conference Tournament
No. 1 Fairleight Dickinson (137), No. 2 Central Connecticut State (158), No. 3 Monmouth (172) and No. 5 Robert Morris (213) won yesterday. All of these teams will be ranked behind Penn in the Tournament, so cheer for anyone.

Ohio Valley Conference Tournament
Penn fans should hope for No. 4 Jacksonville State (176) to upset No. 1 Murray State (79). That would put another team behind the Quakers in the field of 65.

Patriot League Tournament
Cheer for No. 8 Army (326) to shock No. 1 Bucknell (43). That would put yet another team behind Penn in the Tournament. I guess Quakers fans should also hope for No. 5 Lafayette (253) to win this tournament because they played Penn this year.

Southern Conference Tournament
Penn fans should be happy that the worst team in the conference, The Citadel (318), upset Furman (224) yesterday. After all, the Quakers played the South Carolina school earlier this year. If The Citadel can pull another miracle upset today against Davidson (111), that would put Penn ahead of the SoCon champion.

Sun Belt Conference Tournament
This tourney gets under way today. None of the opening round games have any consequence for Penn.

West Coast Conference Tournament
Again, none of the opening round games in this tournament of note.



Who to root for

I guess I'll make this a daily feature on The Buzz until the NCAA Tournament (however, I am traveling to China on Sunday, so I might skip a day -- but I digress).

Here's your daily dose of teams to root for in conference tournaments if you want Penn's seed to go up (that's assuming that Penn wins the Ivy title):

Atlantic Sun Tournament
Here, you can root for anyone. All teams are way behind Penn in the RPI. The closest is Lipscomb (RPI 146) who is 40 spots behind the Quakers in the rankings.

Big South Tournament
Penn fans should root for No. 5 seed High Point to upset No. 1 Winthrop. That's because Winthrop has an RPI of 81. If they go down, the next best team is No. 2 Coastal Carolina (RPI 128), which would put Penn ahead of another tournament team.

Missouri Valley Conference Tournament
The 7 to 10 seeds (Evansville, Drake, Indiana State and Illinois State, respectively) play their open round games today. All four are way behind Penn in the RPI, so you can root for anyone. Don't expect a team to help the Quakers out in this conference, however. The top six seeds in this conference are all ranked at least 50 spots ahead of Penn in the RPI.

Northeast Conference Tournament
Quakers fans can pretty much root for anyone here too. Fairleigh Dickinson is the top-rated team in this conference, ranked 139th in the RPI. It's unlikely that they'll catch Penn even if they win out.

Southern Conference Tournament
Today's SoCon Tourney games feature the 6 to 11 seeds, all of which have RPIs in the 200s and 300s. Here, Penn fans can root for anyone, but they should root extra hard for the No. 11 seed, The Citadel. After all, the Quakers paid a visit to the South Carolina school earlier this year. A miracle run by The Citadel through the conference tournament would give Penn's RPI a little bit of a boost. As for the rest of the conference, Quakers fans should root for any team by Davidson to win. Even if the Wildcats (who are actually the No. 3 seed in this tournament) take the conference crown, they might still end up ranked behind Penn. Right now, Davidson is ranked 113th in the RPI.



The worst poll in America (part 3)

All season long, I have been busting the chops of the voters in the CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Top 25. Each week, I have pointed out how many undeserving teams made it into the Top 25 while others (such as Penn) were left out.

This week, for the first time all season, the voters seem to have pretty much picked logically with the first 23 teams. After that, however, it's all downhill.

As always, below are the rankings with the team's RPI in parentheses:

1. Gonzaga (9)
2. Bucknell (42)
3. George Mason (24)
4. Wichita State (26)
5. UNC-Wilmington (38)
6. Western Kentucky (49)
7. Kent State (64)
8. Hofstra (40)
9. Missouri State (19)
10. Northern Iowa (28)
11. Creighton (30)
12. Southern Illinois (43)
13. Northwestern State (68)
14. Winthrop (81)
15. Akron (69)
16. Wisconsin-Milwaukee (55)
17. Old Dominion (59)
18. South Alabama (86)
19. Pacific (103)
20. Iona (73)
21. Murray State (78)
22. Montana (75)
23. Bradley (45)
24. Georgia Southern (144)
25. Delaware State (138)

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES (in order): Manhattan (82), Miami (Ohio) (79), Northern Arizona (119), VCU (76), Sam Houston State (108), Fairleigh Dickinson (139), Albany (135), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (207), PENN (106), IUPUI (148), Northeastern (100), UC-Irvine (156), Marist (105), Coastal Carolina (128), Butler (87), Samford (117), Southern (141), Lipscomb (146).



What Penn didn't do on Friday

Against Harvard, the Quakers may have won a close game, something they have failed to do often recently (Saint Joseph's, Temple in each of the past three years, Brown and Yale two years ago, etc.)

But what they did not do in this game, or in the relatively close wins against St. Joe's and Princeton last year, was score a must-have basket. Penn has not done this since Tim Begley and Jeff Schiffner scored in back-to-back games to beat St. John's and Manhattan back in December 2003.

And in nearly every other game where they had a chance to make that kind of shot, the Quakers lost.

There still has not been a moment where a player has managed to tie a game or hit a winning bucket with fewer than 10 seconds left in a game. Eric Osmundson's free throws last year to tie Princeton with 31 seconds remaining was the closest anyone has come.

I think that to take the next step, to win an NCAA Tournament game, someone on the Quakers needs to be able to step up and make that shot.



Can I get a forward?

Jay Wright of Villanova gets most of the credit nationally for playing a four-guard offense. After this weekend, it would appear as though Fran Dunphy wanted to show everyone 'Nova is not the only team in the city that can make do with just one big man.

But Wright doesn't play four guards willingly, and neither did Dunphy. An injury to Curtis Sumpter predicated the unusual Villanova attack. When Friedrich Ebede and Steve Danley went down Friday against Harvard, Dunphy chose to follow Wright's lead.

Both coaches saw this weekend how easily their smaller lineups can be overpowered. Dunphy's Quakers blew an 11-point to the taller Harvard duo of Matt Stehle and Brian Cusworth who scored at will against Danley and Mark Zoller, and thrived against Zoller alone. Wright's Wildcats were massacred in the paint today by a much larger Connecticut team.

But Villanova has gotten used to playing with that combination. Penn looked lost defensively.

Give Eric Osmundson and Ibrahim Jaaber credit for a solid job keeping Harvard and Dartmouth guards neutralized. And Zoller did about all he could playing his position and Danley's. But Penn was in serious trouble playing small for the entire second half Friday night, and if not for a few favorable calls would be on thin ice in the Ivy standings.

Dunphy says he put the best five players on the floor he could in that game. His lineup may have had the most basketball experience, but there is no getting around Harvard's height advantage, and that really hurt. It begs the question would Penn have been any worse with someone like Brennan Votel or Cameron Lewis out there? At least Dunphy could have saved the legs of his best players -- there was some serious fatigue the next night -- and maybe someone could have put a body between Stehle and the basket.

Given Ebede appeared to be hurt pretty bad Saturday night, there may be some major cause for concern if the Quakers are down to two big men. He's got great elevation, but I'd definitely never like to see the 6-foot-2 Jaaber jumping center again.



Penn 68, Dartmouth 52, FINAL

Game Over: Penn pulls away late for its 10th Ivy win. Check back on DP.com for more details.

1:15 2nd half: Osmundson gets some cheers as he departs for the final time at home, and then Greg Kuchinski earns a roar as he hits a fadeaway in the lane.

3:44 2nd half: Some bad news for the Quakers: Danley left the game in between two free throws, and Zoller picked up his third foul. Penn may be forced to use more players. But on the plus side, Penn extended to its largest lead of the game at 16, before two Big Green free throws knocked the lead down to 14.

The Penn Band finally unveiled the CBS NCAA Tournament theme song, after reportedly learning it for the Princeton game. It wasn't bad, but they could use the three weeks until the Tournament starts.

7:55 2nd half: If Dartmouth wants to come back, this is some bad news: Two starters, Leon Pattman and Calvin Arnold, each have four fouls.

10:10 2nd half: By the way, the rollouts have returned tonight. The reason for their absence last night, according to Red and Blue Crew leader Brian Walsh, is that they ran out of spray paint, and then started making the rollouts with regular paint, but gave up when they did not have enough time to let the paint dry before the game last night. But they are back tonight, with what looks like regular paint.

11:11 2nd half: I think Dartmouth has missed about seven layups tonight, as the Quakers use some good transition offense to extend the lead to 12.

13:28 2nd half: Princeton leads Harvard 37-19 at the half. I'm not sure which is more embarrassing, that Harvard will be on its way to its seventh straight loss after being picked to finish second in the Ivies, or that Harvard allowed the Tigers to score 37 in a half. Princeton is coming in averaging 50.7 points per game.

15:24 2nd half: Penn's response to Dartmouth's challenge: A Jaaber layup, Osmundson three, and Jaaber fast-break dunk, forcing a Big Green timeout.

17:10, 2nd half: Whitehurst picks up his third foul on a three, which Mike Lang hits. The ensuing free throw makes it a three-point game.

Halftime stats: Most important stat of the night -- Jaaber's three steals give him 84 for the year, which breaks his one-year-old Ivy record for steals in a season, which he set against, lo and behold, Dartmouth.

Other stats: Penn is shooting 10-for-23 from the field, 1-of-7 from three-point range, and a shocking (for them) 9-for-9 from the line. Zoller leads the Quakers with 13 points and six rebounds, while Osmundson has seven. Jaaber is scoreless on three shots.

Dartmouth is shooting 10-for-29 from the field, 3-of-8 from deep, and has not gotten to the line yet. Dan Biber has eight points, while three other players have four.

Meanwhile, Princeton has extended to a 14-point lead with five minutes to play in the first half, so it looks like Penn will have to wait a week to even clinch a share of the Ivy title.

Halftime: Penn stays with the six-man rotation throughout the half, as Dartmouth is hanging around at the break, down only seven. Check back for halftime stats and the second half.

Meanwhile, Princeton and Harvard are tied 5-5 five minutes into their game in New Jersey.

3:43 1st half: For whatever reason, Dartmouth is playing man-to-man defense, and not the 2-3 zone that has perplexed the Quakers for much of the year. But Penn has not shot the lights out, so maybe it is working, as the Big Green hits some shots to make the score within reach.

But if Penn wants to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, it needs to avoid sequences like this one: Zoller stood and admired a three-pointer that ended up not even close, as his man, Dan Biber, came back down the court, and hit a three in transition.

All year Penn has had trouble with not following its shots, especially on threes, and someone needs to make sure the Quakers start doing that, soon.

7:18 1st half: Some good news for Dartmouth as they trail 19-7. At least it's 29 degrees warmer in Philadelphia than in Hanover, N.H. (48-19).

The last timeout came as Jaaber emphatically swatted away a shot on a Big Green fast break.

Also, as Princeton is about to get underway, I'll keep you updated on the Tigers' game against Harvard so that you don't have to do too much surfing.

11:41 1st half: Two media timeouts so far, and we've seen a bunch of Penn rebounds and points, but only one basket and already two timeouts for the Big Green, as Penn leads 13-2.

Brian Grandieri makes his first appearance of the game -- we'll see if Penn goes any deeper than this after coach Fran Dunphy did not do so last night.

15:27 1st half: This is the best start the Quakers have had in a while. They are killing Dartmouth on the glass, and are doing enough offensively to add to their lead.

18:09 1st half: A quick three by Osmundson, a crazy reverse by Zoller, and a lay-in by Danley off a nice feed from Zoller have given Penn an early lead and forced Big Green coach Terry Dunn to take a timeout.

Starting lineups:

After a nice presentation to the three seniors on the Quakers and a senior who is a team manager, we are ready to get started at the Palestra.

Dartmouth (5-19, 3-8 Ivy League/8th)
G - Mike Lang, 6-3 Sr.
G - Leon Pattman, 6-2 Jr.
F - Dan Biber, 6-8 Fr.
F - Calvin Arnold, 6-9 Sr.
F - Jonathan Ball, 6-4, So.

Penn (17-7, 9-1 Ivy/1st)
G - Eric Osmundson, 6-5 Sr.
G - Ibrahim Jaaber, 6-2 Jr.
G - David Whitehurst, 6-3 So.
F - Mark Zoller, 6-7 Jr.
F - Steve Danley, 6-8 Jr.

Injury update: Junior forward Steve Danley broke his nose last night against Harvard, and will play tonight, as he is now wearing the classic basketball face mask.

Senior forward Friedrich Ebede, on the other hand, was not as lucky. He strained his groin and will not play tonight. However, I hope for his sake that he starts on Senior Night and then the teams throw the ball out of bounds or something so that he gets his due on the court.

It's the season finale at the Palestra for the Quakers, with tip-off time against Dartmouth at around 7 p.m.

Check back for constant updates during the game as Penn tries to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title with a win and a Princeton loss to Harvard.



Games to watch (or at least follow) this weekend

I must say that I love ESPN.com's Bracketology. It puts some numbers behind the seed speculation, and its creator, Joe Lunardi, is almost always right.

So here's who Penn needs to win (or lose, depending on your perspective) this weekend to have a chance to move up the list.

Obviously, the Quakers need to win as well to stay where they are -- currently the fourth No. 14 seed.

Penn wants the teams in bold to win:

Winthrop (19-7, 12-3 Big South) at Birmingham Southern (19-7, 12-3), Saturday, 8 p.m. (BSU's RPI is much worse than Penn's, while Winthrop's is much higher)

Tennesee Martin (13-13, 9-10 Ohio Valley) at Murray State (20-6, 16-3), Saturday, 8:30 p.m.

McNeese State (14-10, 9-4 Southland) at Northwestern State (19-7, 12-1), Saturday, 3 p.m. (NWSU actually has two more games next week before their conference tourney, while the other teams do not)

Manhattan (17-9, 13-4 Metro Atlantic) at Iona (20-6, 13-4), Sunday, 6:15 p.m. I actually am not sure who I want to win this game, because Manhattan is currently in first place in the MAAC via a tiebreaker, but Iona's RPI is much higher, and both teams have better RPIs than Penn. So I guess the Quakers need both teams to not win the MAAC tournament, with Sunday's game irrelevant.

Miami-Ohio (16-8, 12-3 Mid-American) at Kent State (20-7, 13-2), Saturday, 2 p.m. Actually the same problem as the previous game, although the two teams play twice each next week, so there is still some room for them to lose before the MAC tournament.



It's Tiger season

The Penn-Princeton rivalry belongs to the Quakers ... in February and March, that is. The Penn men's basketball team is 8-1 in its last nine against the Tigers, and the gap is widening.

But sometime around the middle of March, the edge moves north to Princeton, in a big way.

In the 10 spring sports with Ivy standings or an Ivy League tournament, the Tigers finished in the top half of the standings in nine sports last season, including three titles.

Meanwhile, the Quakers went without a title last spring and finished seventh in three of its highest profile spring sports - men's lacrosse (in which there are only seven teams) baseball and softball.

The tennis teams have already begun their spring seasons, and lacrosse opens this weekend. As the season begins for Penn's spring sports teams, the theme for many will be redemption ... and Tiger hunting.

Last year's standings:
Baseball: Princeton 4th, Penn 7th
Softball: Princeton 1st, Penn 7th
M. Lacrosse: Princeton 2nd (of 7), Penn 7th
W. Lacrosse: Princeton 2nd, Penn 3rd
M. Tennis: Princeton 4th, Penn 6th
W. Tennis: Penn 2nd, Princeton 3rd
M. Golf: Princeton 1st, Penn 3rd
W. Golf: Princeton 1st (of 7), Penn 3rd
M. Track (Heps): Penn 2nd, Princeton 4th
W. Track (Heps): Penn 5th, Princeton 6th

And in crew, a sport with no Ivy League standings, the Tigers were even more dominant. In the national polls, Princeton finished third in heavyweight men's and fourth in women's, while the Penn heavyweight men were in 19th, and the women were "also receiving votes" in the women's top 20. However, the lightweight men were one spot in which the edge went to the Quakers, with Penn finishing sixth in the EARC and Princeton back in eighth.



A last home stand

I don't really have a great measuring tool for how closely people on campus are paying attention to Penn basketball. But using the only one I've found thus far -- the number of people who come up to me and ask my opinion of the team -- I'd say things are pretty flat at the moment. That's too bad, because this weekend is about a lot more than just the final two home games of the season. It's a chance to see the beginning of the end of two very of the more enigmatic careers in recent Quakers history.

Eric Osmundson came to Penn from Carlsbad, Calif., by way of a year under longtime Utah coach Rick Majerus. He had a lot of potential as a guard when he got here, but almost immediately blew out his knee, so he couldn't even practice during the year he could not play as a result of the transfer. Then it took him the season after that to really regain his form.

(Yes, that's updated from what I originally wrote -- a friend emailed to explain the injury and transfer rules better than I can.)

I hope that Osmundson will be remembered for more than his four-point play and game-tying free throws during last season's comeback win over Princeton. I hope that he is remembered for his pace with the ball, for his ability to move off screens and hit three-pointers, and above all for his leadership both on and off the court. Even though he has not spent all four of his college years here, he has clearly earned the respect of his team and the Palestra faithful.

The other graduating senior, one who has spent his entire career at Penn and has not suffered any big injuries, is Friedrich Ebede. I'm not sure I've ever seen more questions asked about the potential of a single Quakers player since I've been here. His athleticism has always made fans want to see him on the floor for extended periods of time, even though the potential for a turnover was often equal to the potential for a slam dunk.

This year, though, Ebede has improved his game more than any of his teammates have except for Ibrahim Jaaber. The turnovers are gone, he has no fear about driving to the basket and he has even developed a pretty nice shooting touch from three-point range. So perhaps we can take this weekend to appreciate what Ebede has done instead of what might have been, because he also deserves a good sendoff.

If all of this isn't enough to make you want to show up to this weekend's games, there's still a chance that Penn could clinch the title, which would allow Osmundson and Ebede to sit on their own rims with the nets in hand instead of someone else's.



The worst poll in America (part 2)

Well, I guess I'll make this a weekly feature. Last week, I noted how the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 makes no sense. There are some pretty bad teams in the top 25 (I'm looking at you IUPUI) and really good teams left out (i.e. Bradley).

Here's this week's look at the rankings, with the team's RPI in parentheses:

1. Gonzaga (9)
2. George Mason (19)
3. Northern Iowa (22)
4. Western Kentucky (40)
5. Bucknell (37)
6. Wichita State (24)
7. UNC-Wilmington (35)
8. Creighton (31)
9. Kent State (79)
10. Hofstra (46)
11. Southern Illinois (42)
12. Missouri State (25)
13. Iona (69)
14. Akron (72)
15. Montana (77)
16. Northwestern State (73)
17. Wisconsin-Milwaukee (55)
18. Winthrop (95)
19. Old Dominion (51)
20. Murray State (78)
21. South Alabama (85)
22. Pacific (110)
23. IUPUI (126)
24. VCU (70)
25. Fairleigh Dickinson (128)

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES (in order): Miami-Ohio (83), Northern Arizona (127), San Diego (154), Bradley (50), Georgia Southern (152), UC-Irvine (163), Delaware State (146), Sam Houston State (111), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (204), Albany (131), PENN (104), Butler (76), Northern Illinois (123), Manhattan (92), Coastal Carolina (145), Marist (108), Northeastern (109), Lehigh (158), Ohio (103), Birmingham Southern (133), Southern (151), Samford (102).



All eyes on the bracket

OK, I'm clearly way ahead of myself in planning another NCAA Tournament trip already. Penn really did lose to Columbia, after all, and Dartmouth's playing good ball these days. But let's be honest, a pair of wins this weekend and a little help in New Jersey (I'm calling for Harvard to soundly beat Princeton like it should have done earlier) locks up the league.

Joe Lunardi at ESPN has the Quakers currently pitted against No. 3-seed Iowa in Detroit. Of the threes, this Big Ten matchup is the most favorable for Penn. Two of the others, Illinois and Florida, are either too quick and athletic (the Illini) or too big and athletic (the Gators).

Also in the mix is Pitt. I saw the Panthers take on Rutgers a couple weeks ago (when they were undefeated) and wasn't impressed. If RU's Quincy Douby would have gotten any help at all, his team would have won. Penn could hang with this team if it plays a near-perfect game.

That leaves the Hawkeyes, who like everyone else in the Big Ten wins every home game, but can't travel. They are 3-4 in conference road games with losses to (get this) Minnesota and Northwestern. From what I have seen of Iowa, it's not a bad defensive team, but lacks the offensive firepower to put anyone away -- even Penn. But don't get your hopes up. Steve Alford's team won't stay a three for long, especially when the Big Ten tournament rolls around and they have to win games that count.

That's where we stand today. Expect that to change by tomorrow.



Penn-Cornell game updates

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Penn (15-7, 7-1 Ivy) at Cornell (10-13, 5-4).

Follow the action from Cornell's Newman arena on The Buzz!

Elsewhere, Columbia pulled off another shocker, knocking off Princeton on a buzzer-beater, 65-64. The Tigers now have three league losses. Also, Yale beat Harvard, 77-66, and Dartmouth topped Brown, 58-46

FINAL - Penn 67-56. Columbia and Dartmouth are eliminated from the Ivy chase. Princeton holds second with three losses.

0:15.3 (second half): Jaaber skies to put back an Oz miss. Those two gave him 29 for the game. Penn will cover the spread. Somehow.

1:15 (second half): Penn has converted 8 of 9 foul shots with the lone miss being rebounded by Jaaber. Penn 65-53

1:40 (second half): Danley missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Zoller skied for the rebound and Penn was able to burn 31 seconds off the shot clock before fouling Zoller. Danley had another chance at the line seconds later and hit two. Penn 60-51

3:28 (second half): Oz hit a catch-and-shoot three from the elbow after missing an open three on the previous possession. Most of Penn's starting five are playing in deep foul trouble: Danley 4, Ebede 4, Jaaber 3, Osmundson 4. Penn 56-51

6:29 (second half): A critical stretch for Penn saw the Quakers get two baskets on second-chances. Danley and Grandieri both put back missed threes to give Penn ever so slight breathing room. Penn 53-48

7:36 (second half): Without Jaaber, Penn would be losing by at least 20. He have Penn the margin with a floater in the lane and now has 24. Penn 49-48.

10:07 (second half): Naeve gave Cornell the lead with a jumper from the right wing. Cornell 48-47

11:40 (second half): Cornell tied it on a three by Dow, and the home fans awoke. This looks too much like last night. Grandieri hit a layup for the lead. Penn 46-44.

15:11 (second half): Whitehurst lost an easy pass under the Penn basket, and Rourke recovered, feeding Collins at the other end for an open three. That cut Penn's lead to just two. Jaaber answered with back-to-back threes. Penn 44-39

HALFTIME: Penn 35, Cornell 29. Stats:

Penn: 11 turnovers, 12-25 shooting, 48 percent. Jaaber 5-7, 16 points, 2 steals; Oz 2-4, 6 points; Zoller and Ebede 4 rebounds.

Cornell: 10 turnovers, 10-25 shooting, 40 percent. Rourke 3-7, 9 points, 4 rebounds; 2-4, 8 points.

1:30 (first half): Cornell has missed enough threes for an entire game, but the Big Red are outplaying Penn for offensive rebounds. Rourke saved a bad out-of-bounds pass from Penn and Naeve was able to convert a jumper at the other end, cutting Penn's lead to three. Jaaber answered with a three. Jaaber 16, rest of Penn 17, Cornell 27

3:34 (first half): Cornell unveils a 2-3 zone and, as expected, Penn doesn't know what to do. Ebede passed to Osmundson at the top of the key as the shot clock expired. It's last night's game all over again. Danley picked up his third personal with four minutes to go. Penn 28-21

4:21 (first half): Jaaber picked off a short inbounds pass intended for Collins under the Penn goal and simply jumped up for the layup. Jaaber has 13. Penn 28-21

7:24 (first half): Naeve could not hold onto a handoff for an easy layup, and Whitehurst seized the ball and fed Jaaber who was fouled on a fast-break layup. Penn 22-17

9:02 (first half): Jaaber intercepted a 50-foot pass intended for Gore, and an ensuing collision sent him to the floor. An official called a foul and smacked Cornell coach Steve Donahue in the face. I don't know whether Donahue was more surprised by the physicality of the call or the foul itself. Penn 20-13

11:40 (first half): Back-to-back Cornell turnovers yield zero Penn points as both Ebede and Zoller miss layups. Jaaber so far has 8 points and an athletic block. Penn 15-8

15:16 (first half): Checking the out-of-town scoreboard, Dartmouth and Yale are in line for wins and Princeton trails Columbia by 10 at the half in New York.

17:34 (first half): Zoller's layup gave Penn first blood. Osmundson and Jaaber have threes. Penn 8 Cornell 2.

Starting Lineups
PENN: Jaaber, Zoller, Danley, Whitehurst, Osmundson
Cornell: Rourke, Collins, Gore, Naeve, Dow

A decent number of Cornell students have spilled over from the hockey game that preceded this game next door at Lynah Rink. Harvard defeated Cornell 4-3. Crowd looks to be about 1,200.

Quakers are wearing white jerseys on the road for the first time this season, per new Ivy League rules.



Penn-Columbia game updates

NEW YORK-- Follow the game live by continuously updating this page!

Final: It's all over. Columbia has pulled an improbable upset, beating Penn 59-57. The one saving grace for Penn, however, is that Yale and Harvard lost tonight. Princeton and Cornell have gone into overtime. Still, the Quakers looked absolutely awful at times. They now face an incredibly important game in Ithaca tomorrow night.

:1 (second half): Now Columbia calls a timeout. The Columbia students are ready to stampede the court. Penn needs a miracle shot if it wants to win.

:1 (second half): Nwachukwu tips in the ball! Columbia has taken the lead with a second to play, 59-57. Timeout Penn.

:33.7 (second half): Zoller has been called for a charge, his fifth foul. Columbia will have the ball and they will be able to hold on for the final shot.

:52 (second half): He makes one of two and the game is tied at 57.

:53 (second half): Columbia, down 57-56, will have two shots to take the lead after Mark Zoller recorded his fourth foul. Nwachukwu will shoot from the line. He is a 73 percent foul shooter. Zoller tried to get a jump ball call, as he wrestled with Nwachukwu on the ground. But the ref called a foul on him instead. Penn has not scored in four minutes.

1:28 (second half): Timeout Columbia. They will have a chance to take a lead on this possession, as they have the ball trailing 57-56. Penn has not scored on the past five possessions.

3:35 (second half): Penn was unable to score, letting the ball go out of bounds. Columbia will have a chance to tie the game after this media timeout. Penn still leads 57-54.

3:45 (second half): Dunphy calls a 30-second timeout, as Penn leads 57-54 with the ball. A basket here would be big for the Quakers, putting them up two possessions.

4:36 (second half): Timeout Columbia. Penn has gone on a 5-0 run to retake the lead, 57-54. Jaaber hit a huge three and then got a big offensive rebound on the next possession that led to a Danley layup.

6:55 (second half): Columbia has taken the lead, 52-49, on an Armstrong three.

7:45 (second half): Ebede was just called for a foul, putting Columbia in the bonus. They will shoot 1-and-1 after this media timeout. For now, Penn leads 49-47. The Quakers have hit one of their last 10 shots.

8:53 (second half): Jaaber has just recorded his fourth steal, putting him above of his nation-leading average of 3.5 steals per game. Penn leads 49-47.

9:49 (second half): An Ebede free throw puts Penn up 1, 48-47. Armstrong has been very solid for the Lions tonight, leading all scorers with 20 points. Jaaber has been held to just three points in the first 10 minutes of this half.

10:00 (second half): Penn looks horrible on offense. They are losing the turnover war to Columbia and are in danger of losing the game. Columbia has tied the game at 47.

11:56 (second half): Jaaber just made a huge and-one, ending a Columbia 8-0 run. The Quakers now lead 46-42. Penn, once again, looks like it has never played against a 2-3 zone before. They are getting no scoring whatsoever from the paint and they are only winning because their shots have been falling from outside. Penn is shooting 6-for-13 for the second half, and is 0-for-4 from three.

15:44 (second half): Penn now leads 43-34. Danley scored his first points of the game on an ugly leaner over Nwachukwu. Zoller also had an inside layup, his first points from the paint today. He followed that up with a nice and-one, which he is about to shoot. The Quakers are shooting a blistering 61 percent from the field tonight.

Halftime: Columbia closed the half on an 8-0 run, but Penn still leads, 33-28. Jaaber is the game's leading scorer with 13 points. Osmundson has nine and Ebede six. Justin Armstrong is Columbia's leading scorer with 10 points. Penn has looked dead at times during the half, but the team's three-point shooting has kept them in the lead. Columbia's big men have pretty much held Penn's forwards in check. Steve Danley has no points and Zoller has two. The Quakers' big men will have to step up in the second half if they want to pull away.

3:17 (first half): Penn has quietly crept out to a 10-point lead and now leads 30-20. Osmundson and Ebede have each sunk another three, the perfect answer to Columbia's zone.

7:45 (first half): The Quakers have apparently found an answer to this zone: the three-point shot. They now lead 22-18 after hitting four straight threes. Eric Osmundson appears to be over his shoulder injury, as he is 2-for-3 from downtown tonight. Jaaber leads all scorers with 10 points and is 4-for-4 from the field. Ebede again proved to be a spark from the bench, hitting a nice three with a man in his face.

11:49 (first half): Penn still trails 14-10 and appears to have no sort of consistency on offense tonight. Mark Zoller was just called for his second foul of the game. Friedrich Ebede will likely play the rest of the half. Ebede has been a big spark off the bench lately. Hopefully for the Quakers, he will continue to be strong off the bench.

13:09 (first half): The Lions have countered with a 8-1 run of their own. Columbia now leads 14-10, forcing Fran Dunphy to call a timeout. K.J. Matsui had five of those points on the Columbia run, including a nice three off a screen. The Lions have switched to a 2-3 zone, forcing two straight turnovers.

14:49 (first half): At the first media timeout, Penn leads 9-6. The Quakers struggled early, turning the ball over and missing shots. Columbia jumped out to a 6-2 lead. But the Quakers went on a 7-0 run, capped off by a steal by David Whitehurst that led to a fast break Ibby Jaaber layup.

Pregame: The arena is about 80 percent full, and it's hard to tell the ratio of Penn to Columbia fans. The Columbia "Lions Den" student section is pretty much full and the school is giving out rally towels.

Starting lineups:

Columbia
F John Baumann (6-8, Soph, 13.9 ppg)
F Dragutin Kravic (6-8, Sr, 6 ppg)
C Ben Nwachukwu (6-8, Soph, 11.5 ppg)
G Dalen Cuff (6-3, Sr, 3.8 ppg)
G Brett Loscalzo (6-0, Soph, 4.8 ppg)

Penn
G Ibrahim Jaaber (6-2, Jr, 17.8 ppg)
G David Whitehurst (6-3, Soph, 6.6 ppg)
G Eric Osmundson (6-5, Sr, 10 ppg)
F Steve Danley (6-8, Jr, 9.9 ppg)
F Mark Zoller (6-7, Jr, 12.7 ppg)



Anything but uniform: New York redux

I won't burden you with another discussion of Columbia and Cornell's uniforms -- here's the first one.

But in case you were wondering, here's Cornell's home uniform, (too much gray) which Penn has not yet seen, and Columbia's which Penn already has.

In the past couple years, this trip has been red at Columbia and blue at Cornell. I hope this continues, because the respective colors are a much better contrast to Columbia's blue and Cornell's red. Always better for teams to look differently than the same.

Next week, we'll bring you stories on specific Penn players' wardrobe habits to absolve your boredome.

Enjoy the weekend.



Steal the show

History tells us not to expect pretty basketball anytime Columbia plays Penn -- or any other team for that matter. As Friday night's game approaches, statistics tell us we're in for a really ugly 40 minutes.

According to stat guru Ken Pomeroy, Penn is 13th in the nation in forcing 25.9 turnovers per 100 opponent possessions. Pair that with Columbia's 25.4 turnovers per 100 offensive possessions, good for 320th of 334 Division-I schools, and you've got a real mess. (The Quakers average 19.1 turnovers per 100 possessions and are ranked 49th; Temple, unsurprisingly, is tops with 12.5/100)

Throw in Ibrahim Jaaber -- the NCAA leader in steals per game -- and the job of Columbia point guard looks worse than any New York City sanitation worker.

Cornell coach Steve Donahue, who will be seeing Jaaber for the sixth time in his career Saturday night compared the junior to one of Penn's most notable guards of the past, Jerome Allen. Donahue coached Allen when he was an assistant to Fran Dunphy in the mid 1990s, and it was Allen's steals mark that Jaaber broke earlier this season to become the all time Penn leader.

"He's already way ahead of Jerome Allen's steal record at Penn," Donahue told me on Wednesday. "That's mind-boggling because I coached Jerome Allen for four years and I can't remember anyone being as aggressive on the defensive end as him. This kid already has more steals than him -- a lot more -- and he still has more than a year left. I have just never seen anyone dominate the defensive side of the ball at that position as him."

The Quakers are favored by 14 1/2 over Columbia, and judging by what happened a month ago at the Palestra, they look pretty good to cover, even though the game won't be pretty.



Where's the love?

Is there any poll that hates Penn more than the SpikeTV/collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25? Sure, Gonzaga and Bucknell deserve to be at the top. But when school's like Northern Arizona and IUPUI are ranked ahead of Penn, that's just silly.

Below is a list of every school that received votes, with the official NCAA RPI listed in parentheses (note the lack of logic):

1. Gonzaga (12)
2. Bucknell (40)
3. George Mason (27)
4. Northern Iowa (17)
5. Wichita State (21)
6. Western Kentucky (48)
7. Southern Illinois (24)
8. Creighton (29)
9. Wisconsin-Milwaukee (41)
10. Hofstra (55)
11. UNC-Wilmington (45)
12. Akron (68)
13. Kent State (97)
14. Northwestern State (71)
15. Montana (85)
16. Iona (69)
17. Pacific (107)
18. Winthrop (87)
19. Old Dominion (51)
20. Murray State (84)
21. Missouri State (25)
22. South Alabama (91)
23. Northern Arizona (146)
24. VCU (65)
25. IUPUI (123)

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES (in order): Miami-Ohio (89), San Diego (141), Northern Illinois (116), Ohio (110), UC-Irvine (164), PENN (100), Birmingham Southern (132), Georgia Southern (160), Sam Houston State (111), Bradley (63), Manhattan (74), Samford (79), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (208), Butler (86), Northeastern (103), Davidson (130), Marist (108), East Tennessee State (213), Lipscomb (168), Delaware State (139), Oral Roberts (156), Albany (134), Fairleigh Dickinson (140), Lehigh (157), North Dakota State (177), Coastal Carolina (167), Elon (171), Southern (162).



Not much to say

Tonight at the Palestra was fairly uneventful -- I guess that's a good thing.

Penn did what it had to do, which was come out and play adequate ball. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was inspired, but they certainly gave 100 percent effort even with a 10-point lead -- see Mark Zoller scrambling on the floor for one loose ball after another.

The final, 60-41, was a tad lower than I would have expected, but then I also figured Princeton could do better than 31 percent from the field, and maybe try for, say, one offensive rebound. Penn can now look two full games down on the Tigers in the Ivy chase.

Here are the "you know Penn is doing well" stats: Nine steals (four from Ibrahim Jaaber); plus-10 rebound margin; plus-six turnover margin; 84 percent (21-of-25) foul shooting; 36 points from big men (Pete Carril himself would have been proud of some of Penn's backdoor cuts).

And the "against a better team we wouldn't have won" figures: 41.9 percent shooting (What is it about zone defenses that seem to throw off Penn's system?); 30 percent three-point shooting (although most of those weren't ill-advised shots); too many open looks for Princeton from beyond the arc -- Penn got lucky the Tigers only hit 4-of-15.

Cheers to Steve Danley for a fine offensive night, something he's been lacking of late.

Jeers to Princeton for not selling its ticket allotment. Where are the Tigers' fans, if they exist?

Congrats to those of you who took Penn minus-15. The Quakers are now 6-1 against the spread in Ivy League games.



Anything but Uniform: Princeton

This is the last new opponent Penn will be playing this regular season.

And here's a look at the Princeton road uniforms.

It's pretty much the same template as Cornell's red jerseys. It's a Nike thing.

I don't mind the uniforms, they're pretty standard. One thing that I will discuss, though, is whether Princeton should add a third jersey -- an orange one. The women's basketball team there has one, so there's an idea of what it would look like.

I generally like the concept of third jerseys in college basketball, as I mentioned when I talked about La Salle.

Also, the orange would allow for another team to wear two colored uniforms on the road and help avoid a team wear its road uniforms at home.

But, the orange jerseys are kinda ugly, so maybe Princeton's not the best candidate.



Five reasons to worry

While Josh seems to be riding high into tonight's game, I'm a lot more cautious about Penn's chances. Why? Here are the top five reasons why I'm worried about tonight's game:

1. Eric Osmundson's health

Don't be surprised if Oz gives Penn very little tonight or doesn't play at all. He's definitely hurting after suffering that separated shoulder against Harvard on Saturday.Yesterday's quotes by Dunphy and Oz were full of optimism and gamesmanship. They don't want Princeton knowing the true extent of the injury. Brian Grandieri may be good replacement on offense, but Oz's defense will be hard to replace.

2. The matchup zone

Penn has stuggled against much simpler defenses this year. Brown shut the Quakers down with a simple 2-3 zone. And Penn looked awful at times against Temple's similar zone. If the Quakers don't come out fast, they will get frustrated.

3. Princeton's center is 6-foot-4

Yes, walk on center, Justin Conway, is certainly a mismatch guarding Penn's Steve Danley, who is 6-8. But the zone can compensate for some of this size disadvantage. But Danley is going to really struggle on defense when he has to try and keep up with the much quicker Conway. The Penn forward may get into foul trouble early.

4. Momentum, momentum, momentum

I'm going to argue that Princeton actually has more momentum going into this game. The Quakers have been plodding through their Ivy schedule winning by 15 and 20, but this is just living up to expectations. Princeton, on the other hand, is exceeding its expectations, which I think gives them more confidence. And they definitely have got to have an extra boost of confidence after winning so many cloise game in recent weeks.

5. Any remember last year's game?

Princeton proved last year that it could get up for a game at the Palestra and quickly take the crowd of it. Sure, Penn came back to win that game but that was pretty much thanks to a Princeton meltdown. If the Tigers come out tonight like they did last year, don't expect them to blow another lead.

With that being said, I still would be surprised if Princeton came away with a win tonight. All I'm saying is that the Tigers really should be taken seriously.



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