Zachary Levine: Hey, five outta nine ain't bad

It's hard to believe how far we've come since Sept. 6.

Back when Penn had only won six of the last nine Ivy League basketball titles, Joe Scott still coached Princeton, and Steve Irwin was still alive.

But it was that day that I made 10 predictions for the year in Penn and Ivy League sports, and now it's time to see how I did.

1. The Dunph is going down.

Thanks, Z. You made me 1-for-1. When Mark Zoller knocked down three free throws with less than a second to play, it sealed one of the best games a Penn fan will ever see.

As for the appendix to my prediction, a little off. Villanova did indeed win the Big 5, but the Quakers fell a game short of the 3-1 mark I gave them.

Lesson learned: Never underestimate a bald man named Martelli.

2. Penn won't win five titles.

I'm going to have to take an incomplete, because the Quakers collectively are much closer than I gave them credit for.

M. Hoops, an obvious choice. Gymnastics winning the four-team Ivy Classic, a great turnaround under a new coach.

But these spring sports are starting to make me nervous. Women's lacrosse has been outstanding, Baseball is percentage points out of first, Softball has had an encouraging start and the tennis teams are undefeated.

Three out of five will be tough, but I'm not ready to give myself a star for that one.

3. Harvard's Clifton Dawson will be the Ivy League's all-time leading rusher.

Bonus points for not only having it correct, but also predicting he'd fall short of 5,000. Dawson finished with 4,841, comfortably topping Ed Marinaro's record of 4,715 but falling short of five grand.

4. Patrick Knapp will have a breakout year.

A little tough to define, as he led Penn to a respectable 7-7 record and a nice recovery from last year's forgettable season.

But I'll withhold the point, because I said that they'd finish top three. The Quakers were fourth, with only a blown 16-point lead to Cornell keeping them from third.

5. Yale football coach Jack Siedlecki will lose to Harvard for an unprecedented sixth straight time.

Clearly, what I meant was that he'd win an Ivy League championship. It's called metaphor. You readers just wouldn't understand.

6. Penn alum Mark DeRosa will get at least one vote for American League MVP

Thirty-three players received votes. Mr. Hit-.208-in-September-to-screw-this-columnist-over wasn't one of them.

But if that's the kind of month that'll get you $13 mil. from the Cubs, then who am I to stop you?

7. Columbia hoops finally won't underachieve.

Winning your last three games to finish 7-7 doesn't get you off the hook. Maybe next year.

8. The NCAA's new I-AA euphemism won't be seen in print outside of an NCAA press release

I certainly never saw the words "football," "championship" and "subdivision" in that order.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever seen the word subdivision in print before.

9. A Penn sports team will win a game/match/meet at some point this year.

Seemed bold at the time with the Quakers a combined 0-3-1. But my genius shone through when the men's soccer team pulled out a win over Hartwick, and the women simultaneously beat Hofstra.

10. A Penn sports team will score a point/goal/run at some point this year.

More genius, thanks to Alex Grendi's early goal against Hartwick after different Penn teams suffered five straight shutouts.

Final Score: 5-for-9 with one undecided. Pretty good if it's field goal percentage.

In basketball, that is.

Zachary Levine is a senior mathematics major from Delmar, N.Y., and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is zlevine@sas.upenn.edu.

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