No fog here

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All day today, Philadelphia was shrouded in a thick fog that made it impossible to see more than a few feet out the windows in the high rise dorms. But after the sun went down, the Penn men's basketball team played one of its sharpest games of the season, an 84-44 blowout of Cornell.

Ibrahim Jaaber was dominant once again -- 20 points, eight assists and a whopping seven steals before taking a seat for the night with eight minutes remaining. What impressed me the most, though, was the Quakers' passing. Big Red coach Steve Donahue was on the receiving end of a motion offense clinic from his former boss, Fran Dunphy, as Penn worked the ball inside and around the perimeter almost at will. By the end of the game, Tommy McMahon had a dunk to celebrate and Eric Osmundson had a smile on his face the likes of which hasn't been seen for quite a while.

At the other end of the floor, Big Red swingman Lenny Collins looked like a scrub instead of the first-team All-Ivy player he was last year. Collins finished the night with only five points on 2-of-7 shooting, including 1-of-4 from three-point range. He also committed two of Cornell's 25 turnovers.

The stat of the night, though, was Penn's 17-of-21 shooting from the free throw line. That may seem like an odd choice, but it's a vast improvement from recent Quakers performances at the charity stripe.

Overall, I'd rate this game as Penn's most impressive win of the season thus far. Yes, it was in front of a home crowd, unlike the Hawai'i game. But the Quakers were simply dominant tonight, and I have to believe this kind of performance sends a shiver up the spine of the six Ivy League coaches who weren't in attendance.

The only question left is whether Penn will play at the same level against Columbia tomorrow night.