05/15/09 5:00am
Just a few years before his tragic passing, sportswriter Dick Schaap wrote in his autobiography that his favorite sport was "collecting people."
In four years of writing for the DP, my favorite Penn sport has been just that.
I have enjoyed collecting Penn athletes the most because they are some of the more underappreciated and interesting students at this university.
04/28/09 5:00am
When Glen Miller arrived in West Philadelphia three years ago to be introduced as the next coach of Penn, he was greeted with something he had not come to expect in his prior 15 years as an NCAA coach: a legitimate press conference.
Roughly eight reporters from The Daily Pennsylvanian and many more members of the local media huddled around him to get a close look at Fran Dunphy's replacement.
04/23/09 5:00am
It was just supposed to be a friendly game of football on Thanksgiving with family and friends. Not an event in which you would expect to seriously injure yourself.
But to Wharton senior Daniel Doddo, tri-captain of the Penn Men's Lacrosse Club, there is no such thing as a friendly game.
04/09/09 5:00am
Just hours before the Phillies took the field for Major League Baseball's Opening Night, the Penn football team took to the gridiron at Franklin Field for the first time in 2009. Unlike the Phillies loss to the Braves, this one didn't count: it was the team's annual intrasquad scrimmage.
04/07/09 5:00am
Believe it or not, there's a basketball oasis in West Philadelphia, where Penn students and inner-city children come together each Friday to cap off the week.
Enter at 58th and Walnut. Tread lightly down the creaky hallways lined with beat-up lockers, past the classrooms filled with wobbly desks and outdated books and swing open the double doors.
03/24/09 5:00am
Glen Miller will be returning next season as head coach of the Penn basketball team, the team's co-chair John Rockwell confirmed last night. A member of the board of athletic overseers, Rockwell also endows the head coaching position.
Other sources close to the program have indicated that the beleaguered coach met one-on-one with Athletic Director Steve Bilsky last week to evaluate this past season, Miller's status and the current state of the program.
03/02/09 5:00am
Winless at home in the Ivy League, Penn needed a victory in the worst possible way.
And finally, for the first time since Jan. 6, the Quakers sent their fans home happy, but likely still without much confidence in this struggling team.
In front of a crowd of only 3,142 on Fan Appreciation Day at the Palestra, Penn outlasted Brown, 64-54, in a battle that was memorable for its pure ugliness more than anything else.
02/23/09 5:00am
Another weekend sweep at the Palestra is likely to leave Penn fans in consternation about the state of the program. Such has been the case after every bad outing at home, regardless of the context.
But if anything, the way in which the Quakers lost demonstrated exactly what is wrong with the program right now.
02/18/09 5:00am
PRINCETON, N.J.
Not all victories are created equal.
There are moral victories in losing efforts and momentum-building victories in recent winning efforts.
There are victories in games you should have won and victories in rivalry games that are always up for grabs.
02/13/09 5:00am
Valentine's Day in New Haven. This Penn team just can't catch a break.
But after a historically bad weekend in Philadelphia - in which the Quakers endured their first Ivy League weekend sweep at home since 1968 - Yale's cozy John J. Lee Amphitheater might not be as bad as it seems.
02/10/09 5:00am
He is the only Penn basketball player worthy of such a distinction: Harrison Gaines has Cornell's number.
After dropping 19 points in each of the Quakers' two games against the Big Red in his freshman season, Gaines responded to a spot start Saturday with gusto, leaving Cornell coach Steve Donahue searching for answers.
02/09/09 5:00am
It's that time of the year again. I have the dubious honor of penning my second annual "Penn is rebuilding and will not compete for the league title" column.
And this second rebuilding season has brought with it a unique challenge that needs to be addressed.
02/05/09 5:00am
Nothing adds fuel to the fire of a fraternal rivalry like a little game of one-on-one. No blood, no foul.
Usually the older brother will do whatever it takes to hold off his younger sibling.
Columbia's freshmen point guard Steve Egee learned this reality all too well from growing up with his brother Kevin, Penn's senior two-guard.
01/28/09 5:00am
Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli had a lot to say after the Hawks' victory over Penn last Saturday. What was the first thing on his mind?
"First, I want to acknowledge the crowd on both sides," he said. "It gives you chills, Saturday night at the Palestra.
01/26/09 5:00am
Before the winter break layoff, Penn found itself at the lowest point of Glen Miller's tenure. In a December posting on The Buzz, the Daily Pennsylvanian's sports blog, I questioned the Quakers' passion, direction and leadership, fearing that the program might be in serious jeopardy.
01/22/09 5:00am
In Penn's penultimate tuneup for conference play, two different teams showed up for the Red and Blue.
The first team was the one Penn fans have grown all too familiar with this season. You know it well.
It's the squad on which no player in particular wants to run anything resembling a play on offense.
12/05/08 5:00am
It's been a tough grind to start the season for the Penn men's basketball team.
First, there was the trip down to Dean Smith Center to open up against the No.1 North Carolina Tar Heels. Then, the Quakers got taken down a few blocks away from the Palestra at Drexel in a game that finished right as many Penn students were just waking up.
12/03/08 5:00am
There was an eerie feeling last night at the Palestra, even before the game tipped off. Scanning the arena from press row, I saw completely empty sections in the second tier of the historic gym. Penn's cheerleaders moved their seats from the baseline to the front rows of the student section to fill the rows of sparsely-filled bleachers behind the basket.
11/24/08 5:00am
With Penn struggling to find an offensive rhythm early in the first half on Saturday against Monmouth, Tyler Bernardini put the team on his back, scoring all but two of the Quakers' first 14 points.
But a young and weaker Monmouth squad crept back anyway, refusing to be silenced by a single player.
11/14/08 5:00am
As the Penn men's basketball team ran onto the court for its first-round play-in game of the 1979 NCAA Tournament, the Quakers noticed something a bit strange.
Banners of each tournament team competing in Raleigh, N.C., were displayed throughout Reynolds Coliseum, save the banner for Penn.
