Upon my arrival this March 16, a Bermudian asked, "Is this your first time in Bermuda?" "No," I said. "I come here every 50 years!"
While most Penn students were making their way to exotic locations like Puerto Vallarta and Cabo for Spring Break, many Penn student-athletes were embarking on their annual spring training trips.
Without a doubt, the inaugural Ivy League tournament was a success by any definition of the word. But was it the best move for the league to make? Ultimately, I’m still skeptical.
We go to Penn, where people don't remember, and probably never knew, the name of the player who screwed up in the game a few days ago. They probably don't know there was one big mistake that had a huge impact on the game at all. Most of them don't know the game was lost, or even played.
For some reason, we have a much higher tolerance for this upsets and chaos in March Madness than in any other major sport — or, really, in most other aspects of life. This naturally leads us to two questions. The first of which is, of course, why? The second is: is this underdog affinity is good, bad, or indifferent?
It doesn’t get worse than this. There’s no sugarcoating what we just saw; Penn women’s basketball choked. And as much as it pains me to say it both as a journalist and a fan, that’s the evidence that coach Mike McLaughlin’s program isn’t quite at the next level yet.
It doesn’t get worse than this. There’s no sugarcoating what we just saw; Penn women’s basketball choked. And as much as it pains me to say it both as a journalist and a fan, that’s the evidence that coach Mike McLaughlin’s program isn’t quite at the next level yet.
While most Penn students were making their way to exotic locations like Puerto Vallarta and Cabo for Spring Break, many Penn student-athletes were embarking on their annual spring training trips.
Without a doubt, the inaugural Ivy League tournament was a success by any definition of the word. But was it the best move for the league to make? Ultimately, I’m still skeptical.
Penn's victories this weekend showcased some of the best this team has to offer: great ball movement on offense and stingy defense that forces teams to make tough shots and Michelle Nwokedi dominating on both sides of the ball. But even still, there are plenty of questions left for this team as they approach the NCAA Tournament.
There’s no escaping it — Penn men’s basketball choked in the end of its Ivy League Tournament loss to Princeton. Penn’s spirit looked remarkably shattered after the final whistle, but the players can go home with their heads held high.
After falling to last place in the Ivy League with an 0-6 start, Penn men's basketball was down in the dumps. Big time. But thanks to the new Ivy League Tournament, Penn was still not technically out. Outside Penn’s locker room, few gave the Quakers any chance, but this team persevered.
So, despite the loss, the Quakers have a lot to be proud of from this game. It’s now time for them to channel that pride into improvement and to win the next two games against Dartmouth and Harvard in hopes of securing an Ivy League Tournament bid.
The work Penn women's basketball has put in and its dominance over the course of the season should be rewarded with both the Ivy League championship and a chance to make waves on a national level. A collapse in the final stages of the season would be heartbreaking. One title without the other would be a hollow victory. It would be a shame if the conference’s best team didn’t represent it on the biggest stage.
Don’t sleep on Penn men’s lacrosse. That’s not just a message to the students here at Penn or even to the team’s rivals in the Ivy League. That’s a message to all of college lacrosse.
In the infamous words of Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” The first time I saw Talladega Nights I interpreted the jokes literally was so offended that my family took me to the movie theater with them that I almost cried.
The closest thing I can compare it to is what Liverpool FC manager Jürgen Klopp calls “Heavy Metal Football” — and well, ladies and gentlemen, what the Quakers have finally worked their way into is Heavy Metal Basketball.
It’ll be a long bus ride home for Penn women’s basketball. Across sports as a whole, many athletes hate losing more than they like winning, and that holds especially true at the elite level. And that’s exactly why this weekend isn’t as bad as it seems.
“At 5-foot-9 and 168 lbs, Zack DiGregorio is just slightly smaller than the average adult man, but is over 42 percent more likely to spill on himself when drinking water from a cup. This number increases to nearly 68 percent when other people are present.”
Coming into the weekend, Penn men's basketball’s chances to make the Ivy League Tournament and compete for a March Madness bid seemed almost nonexistent. The Quakers were not shooting well, and seemed unable to hold teams off down the stretch in games. But by early Sunday afternoon, it appears as though the Red and Blue have life once again.
Coming into the season, Penn’s starting front court of Michelle Nwokedi and Sydney Stipanovich got most of the attention.
Terrell Owens is hands down one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history. Yet, for the second straight year he has failed to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The fact that less than the 80 percent of the 48-person selection committee voted to induct him yet again is a joke.
I went to both Penn-Princeton men's basketball games this year, and they tell the story of our team's season. They tell the story of a team that had the ability to hang with the best of the league, but just couldn't put it all together. They tell the story of a squad that had ample opportunities to earn their way back into competition, but faltered when it mattered most.
Solutions by The State News
