This game was pretty darn exciting for the first 16 minutes. After that it was exactly what I thought it would be. So:
The good: Those first 16 minutes. Tyler Bernardini appeared to have turned a corner with two-straight season-high games. I'm still skeptical, just less skeptical than I was yesterday. He also had to come out twice with cramps in his leg during the game. Unfortunately,for Penn even a hot Tyler is only going to go so far.
The bad: In the first few minutes Conor Turley had four shots in the paint, all misses — and it wasn't because Kentucky was dominating him. Had he made those short shots, Penn would have been up 20, not 12.
The ugly: Zack Rosen failed to hit double digits in points for just the second time in 37 games. This one's not as bad as it seems, as Rosen was dishing out some nice assists, especially during the first half. What he needs to do is realize when Penn is in the midst of one of their patented dry spells and take the game into his own hands for a possession or two and stop the bleeding — if last year taught us anything, it's that Zack Rosen can take control of a game.
With a new year at hand, Penn basketball will be ringing in 2011 here in Lexington, Ky. Cal Silcox and Michael Gold are at Rupp Arena bringing you updates from tonight's game against the No. 12 Wildcats. Follow along below for all of the action, or to open in a new window, click here.
Odds are — Vegas odds, that is — that the Quakers won't be getting lucky when they play the Wildcats in Lexington, Ky., Monday night. Penn is 24.5 point underdogs against No. 12 Kentucky.
-Penn has never beaten Kentucky in the four game series. For what it's worth, Penn has never beaten Marist either.
-While the Quakers were practicing at Rupp, Penn Athletics tweeted that migraine-ridden Rob Belcore was still wearing his sunglasses all day, though he was practicing with the team and will be a gametime decision. Another tweet indicated the Andreas Schreiber will be out at least a month (the game notes indicate indefinitely) with a hand injury suffered in practice. He and Marin Kukoc did not travel with the team.
-The last time Penn played at Rupp Arena was in March 2007, when the Quakers last made the NCAA tournament. They went just one game, losing to Texas A&M, 68-52. It was the last game for the stellar trio of Ibby Jaaber, Steve Danley and Mark Zoller. You can check out the March 2007 archives of The Buzz for a full account of the DP's trip, but really, all you need to read is right here.
-The last Penn player to hail from the Blue Grass State was Brennan Votel, who graduated in 2009.
-The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU with Rob Stone and Jay Williams giving the commentary, but we'd love if you join Michael Gold and myself right here on The Buzz for our liveblog. Or you could do both!
4. Penn (5-5)–poised to take over the # 3 spot after disposing of Delaware. But evidently a feast of Blue Hen did not sit well as the Quakers fell flat vs. Marist. Miles Cartwright, a 20-point scorer and starter against Delaware, remembered he was a freshman and scored only six on 2-11 shooting. At least Jerome Allen has settled on a consistent starting lineup that now includes Cartwright and inside beast Conor Turley.
The question is, when Rob Belcore overcomes his reported bout with migraines, what will happen to that starting lineup? And the second question is, assuming Andreas Schreiber is done for the season as was mentioned on the Marist radio broadcast, does Mike Howlett take the center starting spot from Turley once Howlett is back to 100%? And the third question is, Dan Monckton?
My answers would be 'yes' to the second, 'I have no clue' to the former, and if Monckton returns in the form he played much of last year, I'd like to see him starting over Tyler Bernardini, assuming Tyler's 18 point spurt at Marist was anomaly.
As I was perusing my favorite robot's preview for Penn-Kentucky (seriously, I can't get enough of this website) I happened to notice the site's 'Fan Satisfaction' graph, which offers a game by game analysis of how fans should (or shouldn't) enjoying the Quakers' play.
After hearing reaction to this week's loss to the Red Foxes, I was bewildered to see that StatSheet's measurement was still hovering in the green "satisfied" area, only down a bit from the Delaware win.
Meanwhile the losses to Pitt, Drexel and Nova, as well as wins over UMBC and Lafayette rank lower? Say what? Here's one thing algorithms can't quite get....yet.
(PS: For an explanation of the graph as well as comparison to the rest of the Ancient Eight click here.)
So as not to start the New Year off on the wrong note, I want to make one more list (I, like you, am getting a little tired of them). It's been a great year editing the sports writing in The DP, so here's a quick look back at a few of my favorite pieces of writing — whether from a journalistic or simply writing standpoint. Enjoy:
Kevin Esteves did a great job on both the wrestling and baseball beats, with these pieces on wrestling coach Rob Eiter's little grapplers as well as a look at the Cuban roots of a few Penn baseball players.
Though David Gurian-Peck has since been put out to pasture, he wrote two great articles about Philadelphia traditions: Wing Bowl and Philly Roller Derby, and I'm sure he saw some things at both events that he never wants to see again.
Michael Gold, a Boricua at heart, penned an article on Jessica Melendez, a Miami native on Penn softball who played for the Puerto Rican National Team this summer.
Yesterday we took a look at the top 10 Penn sports moments in 2010. But we here at The Buzz wouldn't be a fair and balanced news organization if we didn't also remember a few of the lows of the year, so to kick off 2011 we present, in no particular order, the not-top 10.
1: Men's basketball absolutely crushed by No. 7 Duke. Okay, this may have been on Dec. 31, 2009, but we're going to count the 114-55 blowout for this year. It was the worst loss in program history. If it's any consolation for the Quakers, Duke was the eventual national champion. This loss also marked the 9th straight loss to open the 2009-10 season, which made it a program worst start.
2: Ekaterina Kosminskaya calls it quits. This was a sad one for Penn women's tennis. The star senior and former Ivy Rookie and Player of the year had to cut her collegiate career short after finding she had a torn rotator cuff in her right shoulder. Though it was a tough loss for the team, there's hope this year in freshman recruit Connie Hsu, who, after a stellar fall season, looks in prime position to be a Rookie of the Year contender, just like Kosminskaya.
3. Women's hoops 2009-10 record of 2-26. Let's call it a rebuilding year for the women's basketball team. After Pat Knapp was fired, Penn brought in the winningest coach in NCAA history, Mike McLaughlin, to take over. But even he couldn't lead the team to more than 2 victories, and only one Ivy win. But already before the beginning of 2011, the Quakers (4-5) have won twice as many games as they did last year and have a talented core of freshman players.
4. Men's hoops 17 point drought in loss to Manhattan. In a game they were favored to win against the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's Jaspers, Penn was, in fact, going to win — until the Quakers went silent for the last 8 minutes of the game, allowing Manhattan to finish on an 17-0 run to take the game and hand Penn its first loss of 2010-11.
5. Ace pitcher Jess Lupardus quits softball team. Though the details of her departure still aren't entirely clear, Lupardus, who's pitching carried Penn for three years, left the team along with three other Quakers in the offseason. Coach Leslie King told The DP it was an "isolated" incident ("If you’re looking to see if there is some kind of underlying problem in our program, you’re barking up the wrong tree," she said), but the players seemed to express different sentiments. Lupardus said she and other players had become "disgruntled", while Diana Ark, one of the players to step down, said "It’s just a lot of issues. And, yeah, it’s kinda messy."
6. Senior Christian Lunoe arrested at Penn-Princeton football game. This one may be only tangentially related to Penn sports, but Lunoe, president of the University's Interfraternity Council, was arrested at the 2010 Penn-Princeton football game in New Jersey for obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct. Lunoe reportedly was uncooperative after security asked him to leave the stadium when he was found to have a "hydration pack with an alcoholic beverage, which was not permitted." He was later released on his own recognizance, but after the incident he resigned from his position in the IFC.
7. Field Hockey goalie dismissed from team with just one more game to play. First year coach Colleen Quinn Fink dismissed backup goalie Kat Muller before the Quakers' final game of the season, evoking animosity among some players, according to Muller, as the team struggled to close out a difficult season (Penn finished 3-14 with a 19-74 goals for/against). "I think it’s really unfair what she’s doing, and my classmates are pissed,” Muller said. “We’ve been having trouble with her the entire season to be honest,” she added. After the season, Fink responded, telling The DP "I made the difficult decision and my staff made the difficult decision that I felt was best for the team and for the program moving forward."
8. Rowers collide with log, lose rudder. During the third annual Nash Challenge, in which the seniors of the men's crew team participate in a 66 mile marathon in one day, the Quakers failed to see an upcoming log in the river. They collided with the lumber, which sheared their rudder off the boat. "We completely lost [the rudder] and had no way to steer,” Nick Barnes said. “We just zig-zagged all the way home." The accident caused a half-hour delay while they got a new skeg.
9. One student's call to end the toast toss. Way back in September, college senior Pranav Merchant wrote an op-ed in the Inquirer questioning the traditional toast at Penn football games on the grounds that it is wasteful. He went as far as to suggest that the tradition makes Penn students look like "spoiled brats." But it turns out the Penn Athletics does much to combat this image, supporting food drives, taking donations for the toast, and on the whole donating more money to food-related charities than is spent on the toast.
10. Glen Miller firing. Some out there probably think this should be on yesterday's top ten list, and they might be right. Glen Miller's firing led to what many think is a generally step up for the team in the last year. But the incident of his sacking itself belongs right here. Mid-season coach firings are the things of the NHL or NFL, not Division I men's basketball.
On this last day of the year, it seems appropriate to look back at the top 10 moments in Penn sports in 2010. So join The Buzz as we look back at a memorable year:
Heading into the 2010 matchup with Penn, Navy had not lost a CSFL game since 2006 — a 25 game winning streak — and the Midshipmen had beaten Penn for 10 straight meetings. But that all changed when the Quakers dropped Navy 24-14 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., ending the Midshipmen’s reign on the league. It was a key win for Penn on the way to taking a share of the CSFL title, its first since 2000.
9. Women's golf rises to first-ever Ivy championship — April 25
After finishing fifth in both the 2008 and 2009 Ivy championships, Penn women’s golf catapulted to the top of the Ancient Eight in April 2010, in large part due to the talented duo of then-freshman Isabel Han and sophomore Tiffany Cheung, who finished second and third, respectively, at the tournament. It was the program's first ever Ivy title.
Though a tie would rarely count as a top moment in any sports countdown, when the Penn women’s soccer team tied Princeton, 0-0, they secured an Ivy title, their first since 2007, and a spot in the NCAA tournament. The women then traveled to Morgantown, W.Va. where they lost in the first round to Penn State. The tie at Princeton was part of an action packed Saturday at Princeton where football routed the rival Tigers, while men's soccer lost in a game with title implications.
7: Usain Bolt electrifies Penn Relays — April 24
It might not be a Penn Sports moment per se, but the World’s Fastest Man’s appearance at the Penn Relays was a highlight of the sporting year on campus. A sellout crowd of 54,310 packed the Franklin Field stands to see Bolt’s anchor leg of the 4x100 relay — in which the Jamaican team set a Penn Relays record.
6: Men’s soccer overtime win over Bucknell in NCAA first round
Penn men’s soccer missed out on a share of the Ivy League title when they lost at Princeton in the penultimate week of the season, but after a solid season, the NCAA awarded the Quakers an at-large bid into the tournament. To ice that cake, the game was played at Penn.
“I’ve been here 13 years, I’ve never seen anything like it," coach Rudy Fuller said. "The students were fantastic. The energy and the spirit really pushed our boys on.”
5. Men's hoops ousts No. 22 Cornell at the Palestra — Feb. 12
In a season with little to write home about, Penn men’s basketball gave the fans one memorable moment when the Quakers upset No. 22 Cornell — a team that went on to the NCAA sweet sixteen — handing the Big Red their only Ivy loss of the year.
Then-sophomore Zack Rosen was moved to tears after the win — whether they were from joy or pain we may never know. Besides Rosen’s 22 points, Jack Eggleston had a career night for Penn with 24 points on 4-for-5 shooting from three. Of Penn’s six wins last season, this was by far the most memorable, as the Quakers faithful stormed the court. It was also Penn's first home win in nearly a year.
4. Volleyball tops Yale in play-in match — Nov. 21
Defending Ivy League champion Penn volleyball suffered early setbacks in Ivy play with losses to Princeton and Yale but battled the rest of the season to secure a share of the Ivy title with the Elis. But the Quakers got a chance to settle the score at an NCAA tournament play-in match when they traveled to Yale looking for an automatic bid into the championship tourney.
After going up two sets to zero, Penn let the next two sets slip away. But the Red and Blue held on for the fifth set, winning a spot in the tournament (where they lost in the first round to Ohio). More importantly, they proved, at Yale no-less, who was tops in the Ivy League.
3. Penn hires Jerome Allen as head coach of men's basketball — March 31
While he lacks coaching experience — he spent half a season as an assistant coach before he was thrust into the position of interim head coach — he was hired by Athletic Director Steve Bilsky for his understanding of the Penn community and tradition.
“Jerome’s talents and accomplishments in life are noteworthy and familiar to the Penn community,” Bilsky said in a statement. “What isn’t as well known, until you spend time with him, is the humility that coincides with his pride. It is the combination of these qualities, plus his vision to return Penn to glory, that makes me so pleased to name him the John R. Rockwell Head Coach of Men’s Basketball.”
2. Women's Lacrosse wins 4th straight championship — May 2
The dominant Penn women’s lacrosse team won its fourth straight Ivy League title — this time in the inaugural Ivy League tournament — with a 9-8 victory over Dartmouth at Franklin Field. The Quakers had a comfortable 7-2 lead, but let the Big Green back in the game, barely holding on for the win. It marked the last Ivy game for a talented senior class that didn't lose a single conference game in four years.
1. Back to back Ivy Football championships — Nov. 13, 20
There’s nothing like a repeat league title to assert one’s dominance. And after a season of scraping by Ivy opponents in 2009, the Quakers said ‘we’re here to stay' in 2010, beating Ancient Eight teams by an average of 18.7 points. Penn first clinched a share of the title by downing Harvard, then the Quakers sealed the outright title with a 31-7 win over Cornell to end the season.
The second-straight undefeated Ivy season carried significant weight this year as the team looked to honor their fallen teammate Owen Thomas, an elected captain, who committed suicide in April, as well as team leader Dan ‘Coach Lake’ Staffieri, who lost his battle with bladder cancer earlier in April.
The season was rife with record-breaking moments as well. Coach Al Bagnoli steered the program to its 800th win, joining an elite club of Division I teams, and he broke the Penn program record for wins as a coach. Kicker Andrew Samson broke a bunch of Penn and Ivy scoring and kicking records, though his perfect PAT streak fell when he missed a kick against Yale.
And when the Quakers clinched the title, they broke out the celebratory cigars:
??
Did we forget anything? Share your favorite moments from the last year in the comments!
Penn may have only played one Big 5 game so far this year, but the Villanova Wildcats have already completed their city slate, and they swept the conference, taking their seventh title in the last 10 years with a 78-74 win last night over Temple, last year's champion.
DP Alum and Philly.com maven Jonathan Tannenwald has a nice video recap (below) with Philly college hoops writers Dick Jerardi and Keith Pompey.
Around this same time last year, the Penn wrestling team entered winter break and prepared for the Southern Scuffle in a less than ideal situation. Senior co-captains Cesar Grajales and Matt Dragon, along with senior Rollie Peterkin, had just been cleared to wrestle after serving about a month-long suspension stemming from an October incident when they were implicated in an assault and their subsequent arrest in November. But through it all, the Quakers were able to muster up a solid performance, finishing 11th among 31 teams. Grajales came one win shy of claiming the 149-pound title, while Dragon picked went 2-2 in his matches.
Peterkin, meanwhile, a two-time NCAA Championships Qualifier, decided to take the year off and not wrestle.
But flash forward a year later and it's clear what a difference a year can make.
This past Wednesday and Thursday at the Scuffle in Greensboro, N.C., it was Peterkin who not only suited up for the Quakers, but also earned Penn's top finish. As a team Penn finished seventh of 34 teams in 2010. (results here)
Wrestling at 133-pounds, the second-seeded Peterkin went 5-0 for the tournament to claim the title. His championship win over Hofstra's Lou Ruggirello, ranked 4th nationally, is sure to get Peterkin back on the map after a year off. It also sets up what should be an intriguing rematch when Penn takes on Hoftsra in a dual meet Jan.30th at the Palestra (provided both are healthy and ready to go).
The Quakers as a whole, meanwhile, performed well, finishing eighth among 34 teams. Sophomore Micah Burak, ranked 7th nationally, upset the Nation's No.1 Dustin Kilgore (Kent State) 6-4. He went 6-2 for the tournament and earned a fourth place finish.
Senior Zack Kemmerer, who has been one of Penn's most consistent wrestlers this year, also helped pace the Quakers with a fifth place finish in the 141-pound weightclass.
Last year, amidst all the turmoil, then-junior Scott Giffin emerged as an All-American.
With Peterkin back to reassert himself as one of the nation's best, it will be interesting to see what this season has in store for the Quakers.
The way I see it, men's basketball has had two really awful losses this year: Wednesday at Marist, and six weeks ago at Manhattan. In both games, Penn was the favorite and in both games Penn lost, despite significant leads. Both games came after meaningful wins — Manhattan after the season opener to down Davidson, and Marist after upsetting Delaware in convincing fashion.
Sorry for the lack of live blog last night, it was a technological nightmare. First, I discovered my computer's motherboard is fried, two days after the expiration of the warranty. Then when my colleague Tim brought his computer (check his recap here), we had all sorts of trouble getting wireless internet, and then were finally told after the game that the servers were shut down due to winter break. So, without further ado...
The Good: Not much, but I guess Tyler Bernardini's performance qualifies. He finished 8-for-17 with 18 points, and the shooting percentage would have been higher without a couple of forced attempts in the final minute.
The Bad: The frontcourt and the free throw shooting. My article expanding on this is here. Outside of Jack Eggleston, the rest of the frontcourt consisting of Conor Turley, Fran Dougherty and Mike Howlett totaled 10 points and 9 rebounds in a combined 41 minutes. By failing to get the ball inside, the Quakers also failed to draw fouls, and they once again failed to convert on their limited opportunities. Penn was just 6-for-13 from the free throw line, while Marist was 24-for-27.
The Ugly: More injuries. During warmups, Miles Cartwright was wearing a facemask similar to Tyler Bernardini's, but he took it off during the game. I was told the mask was a precautionary measure due to an injury sustained in practice Monday. I'm not sure whether the injury affected Cartwright, but he struggled, finishing 2-for-11 from the field with just 6 points.
Rob Belcore was not dressed for action and was on the bench wearing sunglasses. Coach Allen didn't comment, but Belcore has reportedly been battling migraines for the past week. Freshman Steve Rennard has apparently jumped Darren Smith on the depth chart and got his first significant minutes in Belcore's place. In 11 minutes, he committed four fouls and shot 0-for-2 from the line.
Andreas Schreiber was once again absent altogether. Penn Director of Athletic COmmunications Mike Mahoney said he didn't travel with the team due to an "injury," and Allen again wouldn't comment. I'll just say if you are buying the injury explanation, I have a plot of oceanside property in Iowa to sell you. Belcore, for example, was obviously not available to play but was still on the bench.
After taking down Delaware last week, Penn will take the court in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. against Marist. This will be the first time that the Quakers (5-4) will face the Red Foxes (2-10), who haven't played since falling 75-57 to Holy Cross on Dec. 19.
Ari Seifter will be liveblogging below. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. (To open in a new window, click here.)
Eds note: We're experiencing some technical issues, which we hope to have fixed soon. Please check back in a few minutes.
It only took one convincing win for the Quakers to take both weekly Ivy awards. Zack Rosen earned his first Ivy Player of the Week award for 2010-11, while Miles Cartwright picked up Rookie of the Week for the third time.
The duo took matters into their own hands Wednesday against Delaware when they combined for 50 of Penn's 78 points in the win. Rosen scored 30 points, 26 of which came in the second half, and his freshman counterpart dropped 20 points on the Blue Hens. Rosen's offensive output tied for a career best, in addition to his four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Cartwright also had two steals, two rebounds and an assist.
It will be another quiet week for Penn as they head to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to take on Marist Wednesday, and then have another week off before rumbling down to Rupp Arena to play Kentucky on Jan. 3.
The slowdown in the schedule during winter break and exams has allowed the coaching staff some extra time for recruiting before the busy Ivy season picks up. While I had a few minutes with coach Jerome Allen before the break, I asked him his take on the recruiting process so far in his first year as head coach.
"For the most part it’s been going okay," he said. "The great thing is that we got four guys on staff; we’re all road warriors. Everyone’s excited. And that part of our job we all love, just evaluating talent. Really just trying to get involved with the best guys we possibly can, guys that fit our philosophy of solid basketball."
From speaking with the recruits last year before they arrived at Penn, we heard time and again that assistant coach Mike Martin had been integral in bringing many of the freshman to Penn, so Allen appears to be using those talents to his advantage. And since Martin has a bit more experience, Allen is also taking a few lessons picking up on a steep learning curve.
"As an assistant I got my feet wet a little bit, but to be quite honest with you, working with Mike Martin, who’s unbelievable in terms of the amount of contacts he has and his work ethic, and Dan Leibovitz, has made my job a lot easier in terms of helping me through that process — not so much just the eye for evaluating talent, but meeting people, knowing where to go."
While Allen is one of four new coaches to the League this year (Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn), he has the least experience recruiting of the four, having only been an NCAA assistant for one year before his promotion to head coach.
So far, the Quakers have two reported commitments, both from forwards. Will Davis, who committed in mid-November, will come to Penn after taking a postgrad year at the New Hampton school. Greg Louis committed in early November and hails from Dwyer High School in south Florida. The last month and a half have been quiet on the recruiting front, though Patrick Lucas-Perry, a guard out of Michigan, told The Buzz that he was considering Penn and would like to make a decision "very early next year."
With seven seniors on Penn's roster, I'm inclined to think that the Penn coaches would look to pick up a few more players in the coming months, though I doubt it will be as large as last year's seven-man group.
It seems like we just can't get enough of last night's game. Noah, Jennifer and Kevin pretty much covered everything, but I want to take a look back and compare Zack Rosen's performance with the first time he scored 30. Do you remember?
It was almost a year ago (January 3), and the Quakers lost to Lafayette, 77-62 — their tenth straight. And the final score was not the only difference between the two performances.
Aside from Rosen's career high, Jack Eggleston also notched a then-career high 19 points and 11 rebounds. But other than that, the duo didn't get much help. Darren Smith scored eight, and Conor Turley and Danny Monckton scored three and two, respectively. That's it. Rob Belcore played 35 minutes and failed to put any points on the board, though he did grab eight rebounds (Penn out-rebounded the Leopards, 37-31).
While the Quakers were handily outscored off the bench by both opponents (22-2 by Lafayette and 20-2 by Delaware), that didn't matter so much last night. Instead of Rosen carrying his team, he led it. Miles Cartwright scored 20, Conor Turley posted 14 and Eggleston had eight points and 10 rebounds.
In the words of Cartwright:
[Rosen's] our leader, and when he can get it going, we want to be there to support him any way we can. That’s what I was trying to do today, just trying to play off of him. And once he got it going, I think it lifted all of our play up.
After dividing my time between watching the second half of last night's Penn-Delaware game and the Knicks-Thunder game, I wanted to follow up on Noah's post with some other game notes.
First off, since I only watched the second half, I did not witness Penn's poor shooting – 10-for-29 from the field — in the opening stanza. However, I did get to see Zack Rosen put the team on his back during what turned out to be an amazing second half for the junior point guard. Rosen scored 26 of Penn's 52 points after halftime and showed off his whole offensive repertoire — step-backs, three-pointers and a number of double-clutched layups.
Some things I noticed:
1) Rosen's confidence.
Just wow. After shooting 1-for-7 in the first half, Rosen apparently just flipped a switch and turned it up offensively in the second period without regard to his poor shooting in the opening frame. He hit 7-for-11 from the field after halftime, but more importantly, he shot 9-for-12 from the charity stripe (11-for-15 on the game — could have eclipsed his career-high if he were even better from the line, but that's just nitpicking).
To anyone who was watching the first half: Did Rosen show this same aggressiveness in the first half and the shots were just not falling, or did it seem like he made a conscious effort to take it to the cup? Because from what I saw, it looked like Rosen and the Penn coaching staff quickly determined that, um... NOBODY on Delaware could stop him.
Anyway, I remember watching one sequence when he was around the corner three-point line and all he did was give a jab step to his left and dribbled hard baseline (leaving his defender in the dust) until he was at the rim — I believe he drew a foul there, maybe even an And1. He also was able to take his man off the dribble at the top of the key with one of his go-to moves, a spin move, followed by another spin move if necessary, and he seemed like he could get to the rim anytime he wanted. What's interesting to note is that Rosen actually seems to slow up once he gets to the rim (usually by contorting his body or doing a double-clutch) which isn't always great because his shots often get blocked, but it certainly can be effective: it can allow the defenders to catch up and inevitably foul him. But whatever he did, it worked, and Penn seemed content to ride it out to a victory.
2) Eggleston's intangibles
I know some commenters have talked about this in the past, but you really can't say it enough, particularly in light of Eggleston joining Penn's exclusive 1,000 points club. Eggleston was certainly not the story of the game (leave that to the duo of Rosen and Cartwright), but he put in a workman-like eight points and 10 boards. When I looked at the boxscore and saw that Eggleston yet again played all 40 minutes (the only Penn player to do so last night) it made me wonder — Who else could play his position? Schreiber, Howlett, and Turley are all centers to me, which means that Penn really doesn't have any depth at the power forward position. What makes Eggleston a "4" in my mind is just his combination of size and scoring ability. The other bigs I mentioned can score at times (Turley had 14 last night) but they really aren't dynamic enough offensively to take their man off the dribble, and they aren't quick enough defensively to stay in front of most 3s or 4s. With that said, it makes sense that Jack plays as much as he does, but I don't think it can be stressed enough how much he means to the this team, and how much his loss next year will be felt.
3) Penn three-point defense: out-of-sync
With a nice win like that, Penn should be pretty happy heading into the holiday, but good teams must learn to correct mistakes even after wins. Noah mentioned the six total team assists: part of that can be contributed to Rosen's mano-a-mano takeover, but still, that number has to be at least in the double-digits right? Also, the three-point defense, and defense in general, was a little sloppy at times and I'm sure Coach Allen will address that. Although Delaware shot 0-for-3 from deep in the first half, that quickly changed after halftime. They hoisted up 16 in the second period, and buried 7 of them. Were it not for Blue Hens' guard Jawan Carter nailing five on his own, Penn could have taken this game much earlier. But the reason they didn't was because of a few lapses defensively on rotations. In fact, many of the Blue Hens' second-half threes were uncontested. I witnessed one when Delaware just pushed the ball on a fastbreak and found an open teammate for a corner three, another that just came about given that Penn was in a zone, and finally another that Delaware nailed after Penn "showed" hard on its pick-and-roll defense, meaning that the big man, (I believe it was Howlett) edged out to cut off the opponent guard before sliding back to pick up his man who was rolling to the basket. I can't remember at this point whether it was the Delaware player who rolled out to the three point line or another player who just filled the space, but Penn was out of position to defend the three point arc on a number of plays.
With that said, Penn did take excellent care of the ball and if they can duplicate that going forward and tighten up the defense (to be sure, the effort and intensity always seems to be there this year), this team should be a force to be reckoned with in the Ivy League.
With the Football Championship Subdivision taking a bit of a break until the Jan. 7 championship game, The Sports Network released its FCS All-America team Wednesday. The only Penn player to make the cut was senior Luis Ruffolo, who was selected as the third team's guard.
Choosing a member of Penn's offensive line must have been a fairly obvious choice. Prior to the postseason, only five FCS teams boasted more rushing yards than the Red and Blue and only two teams in the country allowed fewer sacks. Given that Ruffolo was one of three offensive linemen to be named first team all-Ivy — the others were Joe D'Orazio and Greg Van Roten — his selection seems logical.
I'm glad to see DeLuca and Ruffolo honored. Both players are seniors who helped lead their team through an incredibly tumultuous year and they each posted strong numbers for the Ivy champion Quakers. But the cynic in me can't help but wonder how many other Penn players might have been named All-Americans had Penn competed in the FCS tournament. I have a feeling Brandon Colavita (who scored 12 touchdowns and ran for 72.8 yards per game) would have continued to shine in the postseason and would have easily been selected by a poll.
The Quakers played probably their best game of the season last night, beating Delaware on the road and scoring a season-high 78 points. As always, the full game recap is here. I’m taking over for Cal on this one, since he was airborne for the game. My thoughts:
The good: There are too many things I could put here, but it’s best summarized by Penn’s 52-point explosion in the second stanza. Zack Rosen scored half of those with a ridiculous second-half stat line (7-for-11, 3-for-4 3pt, 9-12 FT) and tied his career high with 30 points. Honorable mentions: Miles Cartwright’s first start; Penn committing just four turnovers; Jack Eggleston scoring his 1,000th point; Mike Howlett returning; two consecutive decisive road wins.
The Bad: For all their offensive prowess, the Quakers notched just six assists in the game. It was a lot of one-man shows and not a lot of ball movement and teamwork. But it’s been a while since they could win that way, so you can’t really complain. Dishonorable mention: The referees, who called 45 fouls in the game (28 on the Blue Hens), many of which were pretty questionable. To be fair, eight of those came in the final two minutes when Penn already had a double-digit lead.
The Ugly: Tyler Bernardini’s facemask. One of the players told me afterwards that Bernardini caught a nasty elbow to the nose in practice this week. Let’s hope it’s not affecting his vision, because he can’t afford another reason to keep shooting so poorly (0-3 3pt Wednesday). Not quite as ugly: Rob Belcore sporting some sunglasses during warmups. We know he likes to roll with some funky styles (read: frohawk), but indoor shades are only for poker tables. We’ll give him be the benefit of the doubt and assume he had a good reason.