DPOSTM Ivy Hoops Power Rankings: Week 3

Women's hoops highlights vs. Lafayette

While everyone's pumped up for the return of Penn men's basketball, they should start to take note of the women's team, which is off to its best start (4-1) in program history, thanks to a 49-39 win over Lafayette Wednesday night. Freshman Renee Busch is off to a great start to her Red and Blue career, and she drained five threes against the Leopards.

Check out Penn's highlights of the night, courtesy of the Penn Sports Network.

Basketball recruit Tony Hicks drops 38 in season opener

High school hoops is underway across the nation, and while the four Penn commits don't necessarily have college coaches to impress anymore, they're still putting in some work. Two future Quakers tipped off their senior seasons last night:

• Tony Hicks, a guard out of St. Rita's in Chicago, scored an insane 38 points in his season opener last night, as St. Rita's beat Lake Forest Academy 79-61.
• Julian Harrell and Loyola also won their season opener 81-42, as Harrell scored 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting. He also had four assists and six steals.
• Big man Darian Nelson-Henry doesn't kick off his season until Friday, and point guard Jamal Lewis of Sidwell Friends plays tonight. Interestingly, Lewis will face Hicks and St. Rita's at the Gonzaga DC Classic in Washington on Dec. 9.

Penn vs. Nova will be on ESPN3

Who loves the Big 5? ESPN, apparently. The worldwide leader in sports will broadcast the Quakers' Saturday tilt with Villanova online at ESPN3.com. Perhaps after watching Penn go to overtime vs. Temple (that game was not broadcast on TV), ESPN didn't want to let another Big 5 matchup go to waste. Penn students: if you're on a Penn internet connection, this means you have access to ESPN3!

Mano-A-Mano: Crimson Fever

The Penn basketball team loves to keep things interesting, no matter who the opponent is (can't we get a double-digit win one of these days?). But the real hot topic right now is Harvard. A full-blown outbreak of Crimson fever has swept the nation after their Battle 4 Atlantis tourney title, causing national media outlets to do the unthinkable: actually acknowledge Ivy League basketball. Are the experts jumping on the bandwagon too soon? Or does this year's non-major powerhouse really reside in Cambridge? Mano-A-Mano debates...

Question: Is Harvard really this good?

Kevin Esteves: Yes, Harvard is a great team and probably should have received a top-25 ranking this past week after winning Battle 4 Atlantis. But does that mean they're just going to steamroll through their schedule like that ESPN article said? I just can't see it. College basketball games are way too volatile for any coach/player to think they're going to basically win out and sweep their conference slate. Penn beat Cornell two seasons ago when the Big Red were ranked 22nd and playing unbelievable basketball. Cornell just didn't show up for that one. That kind of stuff happens. I just think it's way too early in the season to be making these kinds of extrapolations. So yeah, Harvard's great right now, but let them play at least halfway into the Ivy season before we even think about comparing them to some of the all-time great Ivy teams. I think people are just so ready to jump the gun because fans and the media love it when an Ivy team, which isn't supposed to be challenging ranked teams, starts taking out the big boys.

Brian Kotloff: From what I see, the pieces are there. Watching this weekend (that's right, I did some homework), I saw a team with legit size and skill both down low and on the perimeter. They move the ball and spread the floor extremely well, and have been playing lights-out defense. But while awfully impressive as an Ivy team, the Crimson are not without flaws. They don't really have a true go-to point guard, meaning they could be susceptible to ball pressure. They have a rare gem in dominant big man Keith Wright, but they struggle to get him an ample amount of touches -- he's shooting 65 percent yet only getting eight shots per game. And yes, they beat a top-25 team, but Florida State can't exactly light it up offensively. I saw a Seminoles team that couldn't capitalize on the open perimeter shots Harvard allowed them. So I agree, it's waaay too early to put Harvard on a pedestal and declare them this year's "it" team. First, they have to prove themselves in further nonconference tests against teams like Vermont, UConn, Boston U. and B.C. Once they get into Ivy play, teams will be so familiar with them that upsets in multiple games are certainly possible. So cool your jets, national media -- right, Emilio?

KE: Yep...if you took a minute to stop breaking down game film , you would see that I also said it's way too early to classify this Harvard squad as a big-time team. But, I'll give it to you — that breakdown is pretty solid. Not having a go-to point guard could definitely spell trouble, but in terms of Ivy play, what will make the Crimson so tough is their ability to get what they want down low. When Penn tried to make those comebacks in last year's double-OT game, the Quakers were clawing for every basket — everything was tough and contested — while the Crimson could just stop the bleeding and dump it down to Wright, who would inevitably draw contact or finish at the cup. What a luxury to have.

BK: That's exactly why Harvard could be a special team. Even the great Cornell teams that built a mini-dynasty in recent years didn't have such a strong post presence (and no, Jeff Foote doesn't count...) or the caliber of athletes that Harvard boasts. The reason we're preaching patience, though, is because the pieces don't always gel. You just can't essentially hand a team a championship before the actual games begin, like ESPN did today. What if the early success gets to their head? What if Wright or Kyle Casey gets injured? I hesitate to think guys like Zack Rosen and Douglas Davis and Greg Mangano will let Harvard roll to the league title without having something to say about it.

Eggleston's Take: No winners last night

We tend to think of basketball as a zero sum game. One team wins and the other loses. Last night, that was not the case. Yes, the Quakers scored more points than the Jaspers, Zack Rosen was his usual self, and we saw some promising flashes from Marin Kukoc, but this contest yielded no winners.

From the start of the game it was obvious that the coaching staff was not happy. Tyler Bernardini and Fran Dougherty found themselves seated when the game began, signaling a desire to shake things up after the recent skid. The game ended with the image of Coach Allen a few feet out on the court, yelling at the players and gesturing at them to pick up loose balls. Despite coming out on top, Penn really did nothing the whole evening that would change their coach's attitude for the better.

In the first half, the Quakers were badly exposed on the glass by a Manhattan team that could hardly be considered physically imposing. Getting out rebounded by eleven by the Jaspers is not a good sign of things to come this season. Coach Allen tacitly acknowledged the lack of production from the interior players with a lineup down the stretch that consisted of Rosen, Cartwright, Bernardini, Kukoc, and Belcore. It will be interesting to watch if and how this unit is used in the coming games. These five could be a tough group to match up with offensively but could be exposed just as easily defensively.

I highly doubt you will see any smiles from Coach Allen or Zack Rosen in the post game press conference or at practice on Thursday. All the Quakers know tonight was a missed opportunity to improve before a Big 5 showdown. Sometimes even a win can feel like a loss.

Postgame video from Penn win over Manhattan

Post-game interviews with seniors Rob Belcore and Tyler Bernardini after Penn beat Manhattan 75-72 at the Palestra Tuesday.

Allen:

Belcore:

Bernardini:  

Liveblog: Penn basketball vs. Manhattan - brought to you by the Blarney Stone

Another Tuesday, another rainy night for Penn hoops at the Palestra. Tonight the Quakers host Manhattan, a team which is 1-1 against Ivy League opponents this year (Win over Brown, loss to Columbia). Penn is trying to hop off a three-game skid after losing to No. 17 Pittsburgh and James Madison this weekend.

Regardless of records, the Quakers want this one bad after they gave up a 12-point second-half lead last year, as the Jaspers closed the game on a 17-0 run to take the win. Follow the action below:

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Harvard basketball, 2011-12: Best Ivy League team ever?

I covered a bit in my column today how Harvard is shaping up to be the overwhelming favorite in the Ivy League this season. In a story on ESPN.com (warning: Insiders only!), John Gasaway took my angle several steps further, suggesting the following:

• A 28-2 record is not an unreasonable expectation, with the only losses coming in upcoming games at Vermont and UConn
• "A 26-4 finish for [Tommy] Amaker's team would be well within the range of expectation"
• Harvard appears on track to "smash through" the previous Ivy League high in Ken Pomeroy's national rankings (No. 52, set by Cornell in 2010). It currently ranks No. 30, ahead of teams like Temple, Memphis, Texas and Vanderbilt.

The main takeaway is that the Crimson national bandwagon is gaining major, major steam after their performance in the Bahamas. And as I wrote today, this is no ordinary Ivy team -- size-wise, talent-wise and depth-wise, Harvard is built like a high-major team. That said, can we please gather a bigger sample size before concluding that 26-4 should be expected?

As Penn coach Jerome Allen said of Pitt: "Obviously, they have some natural advantages over us as far as height, strength and jumping ability. But you've got to play the game. They put their shorts on one leg at a time"

Erik Rask named finalist for Ivy Defensive Player of the Year

A two-time first team All-Ivy selection, Penn senior linebacker Erik Rask was selected as one of two finalists for the Asa A. Bushnell Cup Defensive Player of the Year award.

Read the full DP article on Rask's nomination here.

While the award was previously given to just one player, this year the Ivy League will give out two MVP awards — one for offense, and one for defense. Rask is up against Harvard lineman Josue Ortiz.

Rask had 83 tackles this season, 11.5 for losses, 2.5 sacks, one forced fumble, a recovery, two interceptions — one returned for his first career touchdown.

Ortiz tallied 38 tackles and 10 sacks, with one forced fumble and recovery. He averaged 5.9 yards lost per sack.

Dartmouth running back Nick Schweiger (one of the 2010 recipients of the award) is a finalist again, along with Cornell ace quarterback Jeff Matthews, who broke the single-season and single-game passing records in a win over Penn this year.

The winners will be announced Monday morning at a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York.

Remember last year at Manhattan?

The Quakers are nine-point favorites tonight, hosting a 3-3 Manhattan team that was pummeled by a struggling Columbia team last weekend.

But let's take a jog down memory lane to when the Quakers played the Jaspers in their second game of the 2010-11 season. As you might recall, Manhattan orchestrated a monumental comeback, scoring the game's final 17 points. Just a reminder that no game is ever in the bag. From the DP last November:

Penn quickly found the net after the break. With less than 10 minutes remaining, the Quakers held a 51-42 lead. Two minutes later, an Eggleston three brought the gap to 12.

That’s when Manhattan lit up.

 

A layup from sophomore George Beamon sparked an 11-point run. Though the Quakers consistently grabbed rebounds, poor shooting — Penn hit 26.1 percent from the field after halftime — and numerous turnovers allowed the Jaspers to bring the game within one.

 

With Penn ahead 51-50 and 2:31 left on the clock, a foul sent senior Conor Turley to the line. But the co-captain missed both shots, and a foul by Zack Rosen meant it was Beamon’s turn at the line.

 

With a swish and a swish, Manhattan regained the lead.

Kidani Brutus, who led Manhattan with 14 points, drained a three from the corner to ice the win for the Jaspers.

 

Two desperation three-point attempts from Penn’s Tyler Bernardini and Rob Belcore fell short and Manhattan’s celebration ensued.

Another look at the end of Penn-JMU

Here's a look at the final play in Penn's 60-58 loss to James Madison Saturday. The Quakers had just over eight seconds to inbound the ball and tie or win the game. With some good ball movement they were able to find center Mike Howlett down low, but after evading one blocker, he went up for the layup and his shot was blocked by Julius Wells.

Harvard basketball wins Battle 4 Atlantis

The Harvard men's basketball team is better than national champion Connecticut. Exaggeration? Perhaps. But the Crimson left the Bahamas this weekend as the champions of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament there, which featured No. 20 Florida State and the No. 4 Huskies.

While Harvard never actually went toe-to-toe with UConn (this is my obligatory Glen Miller reference), the Crimson rolled through Utah in the opening round and then beat the (then undefeated) Seminoles 46-41 in an ugly game that featured a 14-14 halftime score. UConn was eliminated in that round by Central Florida, which Harvard went on to defeat, 59-49, in the final. The last two games were broadcast nationally on Versus.

ESPN's Andy Katz took notice, leading his morning blog post today with a note on Harvard. While I doubt the Crimson will crack the Top-25 after one upset, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make the national rankings sooner than later this season. The Harvard student newspaper thinks so too. They received 1 point in the ESPN-USA Today poll that came out a week ago, and 3 in the AP Top-25. New rankings should be out later today.

And just maybe this Harvard team is better than UConn. The two will play December 8 in Connecticut. The Crimson also face Vermont, Seattle, Boston College, Boston University, Florida Atlantic and St. Joseph's before the year is out.

Mid-Monday Mix: No Thanksgiving breaks for M. Hoops

I hope everyone had a nice and restful Thanksgiving. Time for the final push toward the end of the semester!

Rundown:

• Penn women's basketball is off to the program's best start since the 1982-83 season after improving to 3-1 yesterday in a double-digit win over Niagara. Sophomore Alyssa Baron bounced back from a quiet performance last week to lead the team with 23 points.
• Men's basketball has now dropped three straight after losses to No. 16 Pittsburgh Friday and James Madison Saturday. Brian Kotloff recaps the 20-point loss to the Panthers, and Alyssa Kress has the action from Penn's 2-point loss to the Dukes.
• Columnist Mike Wisniewski says the Quakers need to get more reliable scoring out of players not named Zack Rosen, who even when targeted by the Big East's Panthers, was able to muster up 22 points.
• Penn wrestling took two of three at the Northeast Duals this weekend. Penn's veteran trio of Micah Burak, Zack Kemmerer and Bryan Ortenzio each went 3-0. The Quakers one loss — to Arizona State — came after Penn's Anthony DiLonardo was deducted a decisive point for unsportsmanlike conduct when he threw his headgear after a loss.

Multimedia: Here's some postgame video after the basketball loss to Pitt. I'm not sure who the small child on coach Jerome Allen's lap is, but he steals the show. (Video courtesy of Jonathan Tannenwald/Philly.com)

Extra Extra: Perhaps the weekend win should have gone to W. Hoops coach Mike McLaughlin, who had to sit through this on the ride home from Niagara...

Liveblog: Penn vs. James Madison - brought to you by the Blarney Stone

Penn hoops is one night removed from losing to a bullish No. 17 Pitt team, 78-58, which marks two straight losses for the Quakers after a 3-1 start. Penn will look to get back on track tonight at the Palestra, where the Red and Blue face JMU. Follow along as Alyssa Kress and Mike Wisniewski liveblog the action.

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Liveblog: Penn basketball vs. Pittsburgh — brought to you by the Blarney Stone

Greeting from the Palestra for the nightcap of the Hoop Group Classic where Penn will take on No. 16 Pittsburgh. Both teams have accumulated three wins on the young season thus far. The Quakers are looking to rebound from a home loss to Wagner, 71-65, on Tuesday, while the Panthers most recently defeated La Salle, 73-69, on Tuesday as well.

Olé Olé Olé Rosen Olé Rosen

Say what you will about their first round of roll-outs, the Red and Blue Crew has had something of a creative renaissance this year.

If you've been to one of Penn men's basketball's three homegames this season (odds are decent) and seen senior point guard Zack Rosen hit a three (odds are extremely high) than you've heard the RBC's new chant 'Olé Rosen' set to the popular spanish soccer cheer.

Sophomore Red and Blue Crew member Andrew Wynne explains how he came up with the cheer that's quickly becoming a staple of their repertoire:

"When I was a little kid — I'm a Phillies fan — and whenever they would play the Mets, their fans would do 'Jose, Jose, Jose Jose' [to the tune of the Olé cheer] whenever Jose Reyes got on base. I was like, 'that's fun, but I wish he was on our team.' So I was like, 'Rosen's got a two-syllable last name, let's translate that over."

With Rosen knocking down threes in droves early this season, Wynne has had ample opportunities to try out the cheer. He says he's got a few more in the works.

"Before this season, I thought we need some more player-specific chants, so that was the first one we're testing out. I have another coming up for Miles Cartwright off his nickname Mizzo. The idea is to have more chants that if you walk in and have never been here before, you can pick up easily."

Though the Mizzo cheer hasn't made its Palestra debut yet, during Penn's win over Robert Morris last weekend, Cartwright was visibly responding to and encouraging the cheers from the Red and Blue Crew. Rosen, however, hadn't quite noticed the chanting directed his way.

" I didn’t, but some of the other guys heard it," he said of his teammates. "They think it's funny."

Wynne just hopes the team can feed off the crowd's energy more.

"That's what I'm looking for, to engage more of the players, be specific so they really understand. On a person by person basis we've been much louder as a whole, hopefully we can maintain that once we get more people during Ivy games."

Both Rosen and Wynne said regardless of how vocal fans are, they're hoping to get more students to come down to games as the season picks up. Wynne said he's trying to work with Penn Athletics administrators on some initiatives to get students out for particularly big games, such as the matchups with defending Ivy League champions Princeton and Harvard.

Until then though, he's still working on his stock of chants. He said he's thinking about putting Tyler Bernardini's name to the bass line from the White Stripe's 'Seven Nation Army.

"I think he's got a chance"

Happy Thanksgiving from DP Sports

We're taking a break from blogging this Thanksgiving holiday, but before we do, we'd like to take part in a custom many families do on this day of thanks:

Let us know what you're thankful for!

Game 5 - Wagner: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Wagner dropped Penn, 71-65, Tuesday night in front of 2,144 fans, who stuck around for the Thanksgiving holiday and braved some nasty weather to make it to the Palestra.

The Good: Ten minutes into the first half, freshman guard Camryn Crocker engineered a steal from Wagner's Tyler Murray down the left sideline and took the ball on the fast break in for an easy dunk. It was a nice show of confidence from the freshman, who's become one of coach Allen's go-to bench players early in the season.

The Bad: Penn: 18 turnovers, 14 assists. Some credit goes to an athletic Wagner team that put a ton of pressure on the ball, but there were a lot of lapses for Penn on offense, which never seemed to find its rhythm. Zack Rosen had five turnovers, Crocker and Fran Dougherty each had three.

The Ugly: For the final 10 minutes of the first half, the game devolved into a total slopfest, loose balls flying all over, errant passes sailing out of bounds, and no set offense to be found. But the referees seemed to just take the game into their own hands during that stretch, calling ticky-tack fouls left and right to make sure that neither team could establish any semblance of a flow. The best was when a ball was called out of bounds of Rosen's knee, but that shiny new video board soon showed a replay that disagreed with the call. Luckily for everyone's sanity, the officials called a much cleaner second half.

Turn Back the Clock: The last Turkey Bowl

The Red and Blue finished up their disappointing season in the Ivy League on Saturday with a 48-38 loss to Cornell at Franklin Field — Penn’s first loss to the Big Red since 2006. In their history, the Quakers have played Cornell more than any other opponent, and the series is the third most-played in the Ancient Eight, behind only Princeton-Yale and "The Game" of Harvard-Yale. On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, this week’s segment will take a look back at the historic series and turn back the clock to Penn’s last Thanksgiving Day football game.

On this day in Penn sports history …

November 23, 1989: For the 59th time, but the first since 1965, the Quakers and the Big Red met on Thanksgiving Day. The history of the Penn-Cornell Turkey Bowl goes back long before the Ivy League was even conceived. The teams first met on the holiday in 1895 in Franklin Field’s inaugural season. From that year until 1938, the game was played every Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, as the college football-crazed town came out in large numbers for the game and Franklin Field could hold far more people than the Big Red’s home stadium. After a brief three-year hiatus, the game was picked up again in 1942 and was played on the holiday 17 times between then and 1965. The likely end to tradition was Cornell’s desire to play Penn at home. The first game to be played in Ithaca, N.Y., was the 71st meeting in the series in 1964, and since then, Penn and Cornell have alternated hosting the game each year. But for one season, in 1989, the tradition was resurrected.

When the game was scheduled the year before, it looked promising that it would have title implications, as the two rivals were both Ivy co-Champions in 1988. Hopes for a repeat, however, were long gone for both teams. Penn entered the game with a four-game losing streak after starting off 2-0 in Ivy play, and Cornell was even worse at 1-5. Yale and Princeton had already been declared Ivy co-Champs, as all the other Ivy teams had concluded their seasons. But the Quakers still had much to play for: First, for revenge, as the Big Red had defeated Penn in the season’s final game the previous year to force a tie for league champion. And second, for pride, as ending the season on a five-game losing streak would be nothing short of embarrassing.

The 10 a.m. game was televised nationally on ESPN. It was played on a snow-covered Franklin Field — Philadelphia’s first Thanksgiving snow since 1938 — in front of a crowd of just over 10,000. Cornell struck first on a 1-yard run by fullback Todd Nicholson midway through the first quarter to go up 7-0. Less than one minute into the second quarter, Big Red quarterback Chris Cochrane scored a rushing touchdown of his own. Penn would add a field goal before the break, but Cornell still led at the half, 13-3.

Penn’s fate was not sealed until the fourth quarter. Down 13-6 and at the Cornell 43, the Quakers made an impromptu fake punt call after seeing a flaw in the Big Red’s defensive alignment. A pitch to Penn fullback was unsuccessful for a 1-yard loss and the ball was turned over on downs. The Red and Blue still had an opportunity for a defensive stop on the subsequent drive on a third-and-13 play. Cochrane hit his fullback John McNiff in the flat — well short of the first down — but McNiff then proceeded to make several Quakers defenders whiff and he gained 20 for the first. A few plays later, Nicholson ran into the endzone to put Cornell up, 20-6, which would be the final score.

All in all, the revival of the Thanksgiving game was not a successful one. The timing was poor, with both Penn and Cornell well out of Ivy contention that year. And the snow certainly did not help attendance. Here are the thoughts at the time from Paul Rubincam, Steve Bilsky’s predecessor as Athletic Director, on the possibility of a future Thanksgiving Day game:

“It is not something intended to be done every year. But we certainly can think about doing it again when it is our turn to host the Penn-Cornell game. The Cornell people have a large alumni base in Philadelphia and it is a natural discussion to have. I think if the conditions are right, where you have two teams vying for the Ivy championship on a more ideal day, you can draw even 25,000 to 30,000 people.”