Everything looks better from above .500. Penn men’s basketball topped visiting Fairfield, 74-68, today in its second and final winter break home matchup. Freshman AJ Brodeur led the Quakers to a hard-fought victory with a career-high 27 points.

Only 0.6 miles separate the basketball facilities of Penn and Drexel, and somehow that proximity is reflected on the scoreboard whenever the two teams play.

Penn men’s basketball will take a vacation over the next few weeks, with its next game coming December 28 against Drexel at the Palestra.

Penn wrestling is approaching winter break ready to work hard and win some key matches. As winter break approaches, the Quakers are preparing for two major tournaments – the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Lehman Open in Lancaster, Pennsylvania – before a huge dual meet against Princeton on January 8.

With only preseason tournaments under their belt thus far, Penn’s men and women fencing teams will look to use winter break as one of the final tune-ups before the rigors of the conference season begin.

The Penn women’s and men’s squash teams go into the winter break having two somewhat distinct experiences to start their seasons.

A year ago, after Penn football won a one-third share of the Ivy League title, I wrote in the columnist issue that Ancient Eight football championships should not be shared. And this year, Penn football has forced me to put my money where my mouth is.

All season long, Penn men's basketball appeared to be on the verge of improvement in coach Steve Donahue’s second year in charge, but the Quakers still needed that signature win to prove to the college basketball world that they were for real. Thanks to a breakout performance from junior Sam Jones, that big-time victory is in the books.

Sometimes, there are just no words. Summing up the experiences of sprint football’s championship season is not a feasible task, but these past few months were so magical, so unprecedented, so perfect, that I owe it to my squad to try. First off, the hunger this team had was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

You can’t achieve greatness without a bit of humility, and Penn wrestling just picked up its fair share of the latter this weekend. In their opening dual meet of the season, the undermanned Quakers were outmatched by a strong Rider team, losing seven of ten individual matches en route to a thorough 32-10 defeat at the hands of the Broncs.

Sports Editor-elect Jonathan Pollack: For me, the best part of Penn Athletics this year was sprint football winning its first outright CSFL title since 2000, so the best moment should come from that season.

With 8:42 remaining in the second half, junior guard Darnell Foreman’s jumper put Penn within two points of George Mason at 57-55. Between that moment and senior guard Matt Howard’s free throw with 3:07 left, the Quakers scored zero points on nine missed shots and a turnover.

It was poetic, almost, the transfer of dominance. After senior guard Matt Howard lit things up in the first half, scoring 12 of Penn’s first 15 points, freshman forward AJ Brodeur took over in the second period, tallying 16 of his 22 after intermission.

In Penn’s history, 24 fencers have represented the Red and Blue at the Olympic Games. If sophomore Justin Yoo has anything to say about it, he will be the 25th come Tokyo.

Penn men’s basketball knew that its opening set of non-conference games to start the season would be challenging. The Quakers were right.

It's early on a Saturday morning. While you're asleep, Garrett Colvin is hard at work.  He’s taken on the responsibility of being one of the few, the proud, the Penn basketball managers. Student managers are a rare breed.

If you have the best season in a program’s 87-year existence and no one even notices, did it really happen? That’s what we’re at the Ringe Squash Courts to talk about.