Although this will also be his last campaign on the Quakers’ sideline, Bagnoli made it perfectly clear before the year started that he never wanted his impending retirement to overshadow what his players did on the field.

As one of the Quakers’ top players, sophomore forward Alec Neumann has been able to focus on his game, but as he becomes an upperclassman, he will try to add ‘leader’ to his impressive list of accomplishments at Penn.

Penn basketball is hard at work preparing for its opener against MEAC foe Delaware State on Saturday night.

This year, outside expectations are virtually nil for the Quakers. And they like it that way.

Understandably, the team wants to stress the process and not the results this year. That makes perfect sense with a young roster that was projected to finish seventh in the Ancient Eight in the Ivy preseason poll. But there will need to be results this year alongside the all-important process.

Starting in May of this year, there was a new presence around Penn basketball as Quakers alum Nat Graham joined Jerome Allen’s staff as a new assistant coach. And with Graham came a new buzz word: Tremendous.

With several important upperclassmen from last year parting ways with the program, the Red and Blue will count on the underclassmen to produce, and Howard will be looked upon to lead the way.

Mike Lintulahti isn’t one for the spotlight. For him, basketball has always been about the players first and foremost.  And now,  taking over as one of the assistant coaches for Penn men’s basketball, Lintulahti has the chance to shape the players in this program in ways that he never could before.

Luckily for Penn basketball, all the negativity surrounding the program is external. Inside the Palestra, the atmosphere pervading Jerome Allen’s players is one of positivity, optimism and belief. And it starts with two of the four seniors on the roster.

Having lost several key players – either due to graduation or other reason – from last year, the Red and Blue will look to a talented freshman class to help get the program back on track and moving in the right direction.

Everyone reading this next sentence will hate me but I will say it anyway: When Al Bagnoli announced in April that he would retire after the 2014 season, I immediately thought about Derek Jeter.

One of the beautiful things about sports is their universality – you don’t have to speak the same language as your opponents to recognize a fantastic play or a well-fought game.

As the Quakers prepare for Senior Night this Saturday against Harvard, it is natural to wonder who will be filling in for graduating seniors Duke Lacroix, Kamar Saint-Louis, Louis Schott, Jason deFaria and Mariano Gonzalez-Guerineau.

A twenty-something Colorado Avalanche fan carried his equipment bag into Penn's Class of 1923 Arena for his weekly Monday open hockey session, only to find out quickly that he would be forced to stay in the stands. The reason? His favorite hockey team was occupying the ice.

The Quakers battled down to the wire with a high-powered Princeton squad, only to drop a heartbreaker, 4-3.

While the freshmen of Penn heavyweight rowing put up a commendable effort, the Rutgers Fall Classic was all about Navy, whose combined heavyweight and lightweight boats edged out the Red and Blue.

In a weekend of debuts — including Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which premiered Thursday night — Penn swimming’s opening act at Sheerr Pool may have been the biggest blockbuster of them all.