After spending their Thanksgiving break in Philadelphia, the Quakers headed across the state to take on No. 5 Pittsburgh (and the fabled Oakland Zoo).
Follow along below as the Quakers look for a massive upset--or to open in a new window, click here.
In the rush to get home for Thanksgiving, I wasn't able to put together my good/bad/ugly report from Tuesday's Lafayette game, so I thought I'd give it today along with some preview for tonight's showdown against No. 5 Pittsburgh.
The Good: Rebounding! The Quakers knew this was a dire problem in need of correction after the Drexel game, and they came out ready to clean the glass. Tyler Bernardini made use of his size, picking up four rebounds, Jack Eggleston also had four, and oddly enough, Miles Cartwright and Zack Rosen led the team with five and eight boards, respectively. However, Pitt has been outrebounding its opponents by 16.3 per game, while Penn has been outrebounded by five per game. That does not bode well for the Quakers on the glass tonight.
The Bad: 40 minute basketball. Chan Park said it well, so I'll let you read his column that ran the day of the game, but if the Quakers have any shot of hanging with a top-tier team like Pitt, they'll have to play consistently for 40 minutes. Against Drexel, Penn had a better first half, and against Lafayette the second half was much better. But the Quakers really need to focus that drive for a full game.
The Ugly: Here's a strange stat: Penn leads the all-time series with Pitt 7-5. Huh? Well, the teams haven't played since Jan. 30, 1976 when the Panthers won by 7. At least Quakers' fans can rest easy knowing that if the Panthers do take this game as is expected, Penn will still hold the series, at least for another year.
Be sure to read our liveblog of the game right here on The Buzz. You can also watch the game live on ESPN3.
You might have noticed in Tuesday's recap of Penn-Lafayette that the Quakers will remain in Philadelphia over the break to prepare for their matchup with No. 5 Pitt, and even hold practice today on Thanksgiving.
What didn't go into the recap was that tonight the team will head downtown to 1515 Fairmount Ave., a support house for formerly homeless men and women with serious mental illness, where the team will serve a Thanksgiving dinner to residents and then eat together.
Junior captain and campus ambassador Zack Rosen told me this trip would be the first of its kind for the team since he's been around, and he credited coach Jerome Allen and Penn Chaplain Charles Howard with organizing the trip, which he said the Quakers are looking forward to.
I also spoke briefly about it with Allen during practice earlier this week — before the win over Lafayette — and he told me that whether this team wins or loses, he wants to impart bigger lessons on his players, and for them to appreciate the opportunities they have as much as he does.
And I think that whether or not the team wins or loses, that's the kind of person I would like leading the Quakers into the future.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
The Quakers host Keystone State rival Lafayette in a Tuesday night pre-thanksgiving matchup. Follow along below or Click Here for live game commentary.
After another undefeated Ivy season and second straight Ancient Eight title, the No. 14 Quakers were copiously awarded in the postseason all-Ivy awards — 21 in all, the most ever for an Ivy team. Per the Penn Athletics release:
Three offensive linemen were named first-team All-Ivy - seniors Joseph D'Orazio and Luis Ruffolo and junior Greg Van Roten. Sophomore quarterback Billy Ragone and senior fullback Luke DeLuca joined the trio on the first-team All-Ivy offense, while on the defensive side the linebacker duo of junior Erik Rask and senior Zach Heller were joined by senior Josh Powers and sophomore Brandon Copeland on the first team.The Ivy player of the year will be announced on Monday Dec. 6, at a ceremony in New York City. Could it be Billy Ragone?Four first-time recipients were among the All-Ivy second team honorees in offensive lineman Drew Luongo, sophomore running back Brandon Colavita, defensive lineman Drew Goldsmith and defensive back Matt Hamscher.
Eight more Quakers were named All-Ivy honorable mention, including senior Bradford Blackmon on two occasions. Bradford was an honorable mention defensive back as well as an honorable mention return specialist and was joined on that list by sophomore tight end Luke Nawrocki, senior defensive lineman Brian Wing, senior defensive back Brian Levine, senior kicker Andrew Samson, sophomore punter Scott Lopano and senior offensive lineman Jared Mollenbeck.
Meanwhile, coach Al Bagnoli was named one of 20 finalists for the Eddie Robinson award for the best coach in the FCS. That award will be announced January 6.
Beyond the print preview of tonight's matchup at the Palestra with Lafayette, there's one more thing coach Jerome Allen and the Quakers will need to improve on if they're to beat the Leopards tonight: working the ball inside.
Penn's abysmal second half shooting against Drexel was a result of an inability to get anything going inside, as a result the Quakers took way more low percentage shots, which were simply not falling Saturday night. When I spoke with Allen last night before practice, he was well aware of the issue.
"That responsibility falls on both groups; both our perimeter players and our interior players as well, demanding the ball, and guys looking for them. If you play inside out, it just makes the game that much easier," the coach said of getting the ball inside more.
That is why, Allen said, he was working in different players in the second half, trying to see if other players could create opportunities for each other.
And with junior forward Mike Howlett still injured, Allen will continue to have to rely on his available young big men — Cam Gunter, and especially Fran Dougherty, who impressed in his 17 minutes Saturday.
Be sure to check Chan Park's column on yet another area in which the Quakers can improve, and follow along right here on the Buzz for our liveblog during tonight's game.
Saturday night’s 21-point loss against Drexel exposed a few recurring issues that the Quakers will have to address during nonconference play if they hope to turn things around before heading into the Ivy slate against Yale, January 28.
In the presser, coach Jerome Allen opted to discuss his team’s inability to execute on the basics: rebounding, defending and allowing Drexel penetration. However, I’m a little concerned that the team’s problems run deeper than execution.
Saturday’s performance against Drexel was eerily familiar to last year’s opener — a 70-55 loss to Penn State. To jog your memory: The Quakers came out strong, trading baskets with the Nittany Lions for much of the first half and entered the locker room down just seven, 36-29. In the opening minutes Tyler Bernadini dominated, scoring the team’s first 10 points but was benched for the second half of the first frame with three fouls and used only sparingly the rest of the game — he played just 17 minutes total — completely taking him out of rhythm as he scored just two points the rest of the game.
Meanwhile, guard play offensively was lackluster as Zack Rosen went just 2-for-8 from the field and was 2-for-6 from three point range. Darren smith was 1-for-11 from the field and 0-for-7 from distance. Overall, the Quakers were 5-for-23 from three-point range and 14-for-22 from the charity stripe. Defensively, Penn had trouble locating Penn State Guard Talor battle, who was 11-for-20 from the field en route to scoring a game high 27 points and grabbed 10 defensive rebounds.
After the game, coach Glen Miller talked about improving on the little things:
“If you’re playing a team like Penn State, if you’re the University of Pennsylvania, all those small things, the things that you can control, you have to be successful in those areas,” he said. “Although we did some good things, for us to take it down to the wire, we had to do better in those areas.”
“Where we had success [in the first half] was getting the ball either off the cut into the low post or just off a post up,” Miller said. “We have some guys who can hit the three but our success offensively was getting the ball inside.”
Flash forward to Saturday night: The Quakers kept the game close in the first half, entering the locker room down just five, and let Drexel run away with the game in the second frame. Overall, the Quakers shot 5-for-17 from three-point range and were 11-for-20 on free throws. Two Drexel guards logged over 20 points — with Chris Fouch scoring 26 and Derrick Thomas scoring 23. The two combined for eight rebounds. Zack Rosen was 4-for-11 from the field and 2-for-5 from distance. He and Miles Cartwright combined for just two boards. While Tyler Bernardini didn’t do much against Drexel (he scored nine points on 3-for-7 shooting in 27 minutes), Andreas Schreiber did. The fifth-year senior logged seven points in 11 minutes of play in the first half, dominating inside and nailing several midrange jumpers. Allen benched him for most of the second half — for the reason that the team was outplayed on the boards and he thought that other lineups could have given the team more success defensively.
One major difference between last year's opener and Saturday's contest was that the Quakers were outrebounded 42-19, allowing the Dragons to grab 15 offensive boards — 10 in the first half.
Some comments after the game from Allen:
"They executed their stuff, they got penetration, they grabbed offensive rebounds, guys made shots. When you play against a good team you have a small margin to make mistakes and we made mistakes on box outs, on defensive slides and that’s what happens. It was a combination of our inability to get the shots that we wanted whether it being because of good defense or a lack of execution."
"We’re not that far away. We just have to remain consistent and hold on to our principles and hopefully we can use this as a learning tool such that that when you get lackadaisical or don’t tend to get focused on the stuff that we are trying to build our foundations on. We’re close, we’re close. Its all part of the process."
On his decision to take out Schreiber:
"It was my decision, nothing to his fault but I just thought that other lineups gave us a better chance that we need. We’re going to win basketball games because we defend and I that’s where I hope we will be building on our own ability. When I looked up at halftime we gave up 10 offensive rebounds, so not to put the onus on Andreas Schreiber I think we have to do a better job as a team of rebounding the ball and defending and stop the penetration and contest the shots and were just not there yet but were going to be."
As we know last year, after the game against Penn State last season, things spiraled out of control. The Quakers went on to lost their next nine, going 6-22 overall. In this year's opener against Davidson, Penn proved it has the ability to beat some stronger opponents. But it was a different story against Manhattan. What do you guys think?
Here's the postgame presser from the Penn men's soccer 4-0 loss to Maryland in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.
Live from College Park, Md., Penn men's soccer takes on No. 2 seed Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament. After downing Bucknell at home on Thursday, the Quakers will need to massive upset against the ACC titan Terps if they want to extend their season.
Follow along with the game below, or Click Here
Yes, we stole the title from the classic spaghetti Western.
A few observations from last night's Battle of 33rd Street:
The good: Freshman Fran Dougherty put in some quality minutes in the post — 17 to be exact — and grabbed 5 rebounds and 5 points, including a monstrous put back dunk in the second half.
The bad: 27.3 percent field goal shooting in the second half. When the Dragons took command of the game in the second half, they weren't forcing turnovers — they were just rebounding Penn misses.
The ugly: The Drexel student in the DAC-Pack section making an absurd bird noise during Penn free throws. Overall, the contest brought out a great rivalry between the schools, and attendance was 6,879 in the second home game of the season. The two student sections were pretty full. The chairbacks, however, were not.
It was my first game ever watching Penn basketball purely as a fan. Nevertheless, Penn athletic communications let me film the post-game press conferences, even wearing my Red and Blue Crew t-shirt. At top, just Jerome Allen. In the middle, Zack Rosen and Fran Dougherty. At the bottom, Drexel coach Bruiser Flint, guard Derrick Thomas (middle) and guard Chris Fouch (left).
The Battle of 33rd Street returns to the Palestra in 2010 for University City hoops bragging rights. Follow along as Penn looks to stop a three-year skid to Drexel.
It's the last weekend of FCS football, and we're here at Cornell as the No. 16 Quakers try to win the Ivy title outright against a second-to-last Big Red squad.
Read our liveblog below or click here to open in a new window.
There's no way this can follow the fact that Miles Cartwright needs gummy bears before every game, but here's the second edition of This Week on 33rd Street. If sports editors sitting at a table doesn't get you excited for the Penn sports weekend ahead, I don't know what will.
We'll be liveblogging much of the action this weekend, so be sure to check back on The Buzz for updates and commentary. Here's our schedule: Football at Cornell - Saturday, 12:30 p.m. M. Hoops vs. Drexel - Saturday, 7:00 p.m. M. Soccer at Maryland (NCAA round 2) - Sunday 5:00 p.m.
Without further ado, part 2 of our special expose series on freshman guard Miles Cartwright, thanks to a top-secret source close to the situation:
5: He has an insatiable sneaker habit and a totally out-of-control shoe collection back home in Van Nuys, Calif.
4: His younger brother is a highly recruited, standout point guard who recently tried out for Team USA. Miles taught him everything he knows about basketball.
3: He hates his hometown San Fernando Valley hot weather, but can't stand Philly's cold weather either.
2: He wants to work in the family business, television arts, like his mom. She produces day time court shows in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
1: He is very superstitious and has to eat Gummy Bears before every game for good luck.
If you can't make it out to the Palestra to see Mizzo play tomorrow, be sure to follow our liveblog right here on The Buzz.
After a thrilling 5-set win over Princeton yesterday to secure a share of the Ivy volleyball title, Penn also earned a shot at returning to the NCAA tourney for the second straight year. But since the Quakers tied Yale, they'll have a playoff match in New Haven, Conn., Sunday.
The Quakers have amassed a 0.727 (8-3) winning percentage at home this season, while going 0.533 (8-7) on the road, including a difficult California road trip early in the season. They beat Yale at the Palestra, and lost in New Haven. So why will the Quakers have to travel to Yale, where they statistically are much worse off?
According to Sarah Finney, assistant director of communications and championships at the Ivy League office, the conference rules stipulate that "the match will take place at the home site of the top-seeded team. The top-seeded team is determined by a formula which, in this year's case, makes Yale the top-seed due to the fact that Yale's win over Penn was in three sets and Penn's win over yale was in four sets."
In previous years, the Ivy Manual stipulated that the playoff game would be at a neutral, preferably Ivy League site, though the rules have changed. Finney said that due to a 4-team playoff at a neutral site in 2004, crowds were very low, and the league coaches proposed a change in the rules to help bring out more crowds to the potential playoffs. The proposal went through the League's legislative process and was approved by the Ancient Eight's athletic directors.
A top-secret source close to Miles Cartwright contacted us at the DP this week, revealing some of the lesser known qualities of the freshman guard who made waves after his 18-point debut last Saturday against Davidson. So before his return to the Palestra against Drexel this weekend, we're going to share (in a dramatic two-part series) the top 10 things you need to know about Miles Cartwright:
10. He is named after Miles Davis.
9. His younger brother Parker Eliington is named after Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington.
8. His nickname is Mizzo (pronounced MEE-zo), a Bloods' gangsta pronunciation of his first name.
7. He is the younger brother of Warner Bros. recording artist, Miss Jack Davey, lead singer of the group J Davey.
6. He is having a hard time adjusting to walking around campus and Philly. He misses his whip (car) badly!!!
Check back to The Buzz tomorrow for part 2.
In addition to mens soccer coach Rudy Fullers letter to the Red and Blue Crew, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has also organized a pregame tailgate for tonights NCAA matchup against Bucknell at Rhodes Field.
Tonights tailgate will begin at 5:30 and run similarly to the Penn Athletics football tailgates. SAAC will provide 100 burgers, 60 hot dogs, soda and water, according to Wharton student and SAAC representative Jim Foreman. Grills will be provided, and the same red-cup policy as the football tailgates is in effect.
With the re-opening of the South Street Bridge, access to Rhodes Field and the tailgate location (parking lot nearby) is easier than ever.
According to an email from the Red and Blue Crew earlier this week, Drexel is planning on bringing 1,500 Dragons fans to the Palestra for this year's installment of the University City rivalry. From the email:
Drexel is planning to bring over 1,500 students to the Palestra.And if Penn student crowds remain lackluster as they were for much of last season, 1500 Drexel students would blow away the Quakers' student support Saturday night.There is absolutely no way we're going to let this trash take over our home court. We will be the bigger and better student section on Saturday. Forward this e-mail around campus and bring all your friends and hallmates to the game with you. Tickets are just $5! The annual Penn-Drexel game is always one of the most entertaining on the schedule, with a packed Palestra and the winning student body getting control of the 33rd Street Trophy for the rest of the year.
Details on free pregame and postgame festivities will be released later this week!
I have my doubts as to whether Drexel's fan group, the DAC Pack, will actually muster a crowd for the 1,500 tickets they've reserved. But if they can, and Penn students can turn out in force and match the DAC Pack, this should make for a really excellent night at the Palestra. And after the exciting upset of Davidson, Penn fans have all the more reason to come back.
While Penn may not be as relevant in the Philly hoops scene as they have been in the past, this so-called 'City Six' game is definitely a winnable game for the Quakers, who haven't won the battle of 33rd street since 2006. Penn appears much improved, while Drexel lost its leading scorer and rebounder, Jamie Harris, who was allegedly involved in an armed robbery over the summer and has been suspended indefinitely.
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