Penn men’s basketball has notched yet another unlikely 'first': Big 5 champions, for the first time in seventeen years. 

Now it’s time to be concerned. Penn men’s basketball is in serious trouble, and the slump is coming at a pretty inconvenient time. A four-game losing streak is always a bad sign, but the way in which the losses came was the most discouraging sign of all. 

Penn women’s basketball outplayed the defending Ivy League champions thanks to team defense and fewer mistakes. An hour after that game finished, Princeton men’s basketball did the same.

Penn will travel to New Jersey to play the Tigers on Saturday, and next week the Quakers will return to Philadelphia to host their Ivy League foe on Jan. 12. On the surface, this scheduling doesn’t seem to make much sense; looking deeper doesn’t reveal any solid justification either. 

With a new year full of big games, fresh faces, and untold stories on the horizon, it’s time to suggest a few New Year’s resolutions for Penn Athletics. 

This is the grittiest team I’ve ever seen. Everything they do is gritty. The way in which the Quakers came up with two of the biggest wins in their career in a span of a week made me sure of it — Penn men’s basketball is the grittiest team in Philadelphia.  

If the Quakers keep this up — or even if they don’t blow away Ivy opponents, but at least grind out results well enough to make it through — then fans could be clearing their calendars for mid-March. Hell, maybe even April.  

If someone had told me three years ago that Penn men’s basketball would play an ACC team off the court and it wouldn’t even be all that big a surprise, I would have laughed until my sides split. 

On Saturday night, Nov. 24, Penn men’s basketball scored over 100 points against Stockton University while Abner’s threw up an air ball, disappointing stunned and angry game fans with a broken promise of free cheesesteaks.

Six months, a few injuries, many miles, countless mishaps, and endless trials and tribulations later, I did it. Somehow. I think I ended up with ligament damage and a stress fracture, but it was totally worth it.

The Quakers have a very strong core of young talent, and they have potential to reach the pinnacle of the league soon. They just Priore and his staff to finally get the QB situation right to get there.

We are so lucky that these treasures all belong to Penn. The Palestra court, Franklin Field turf, and Penn Relays name should never be shared with any corporate entity. Otherwise, we’ll be like everyone else. 

When the next hurdle in my life comes and I do not know how to get through it, I will look back at my senior year and remember exactly what it felt like.

Instead of featuring the strengths that Penn has developed during the latter part of the season, the Homecoming defeat highlighted the weaknesses that have plagued the Red and Blue throughout the year. 

There is no doubt that the loss of Betley hurts but that isn’t important because as a unit, a multitude of guards can step up and fill the void left by the sharpshooter.

Both the men’s and women’s squads will be in the thick of the title hunt, and never in the last decade have both teams been simultaneously this good.

This win was on the juniors and sophomores. And if they can play like they did here against Cornell over the final two weeks, they might just set themselves up for a title run next year.