iogyhufi
Masters Student
Posts: 681
Age: 27
Reg: 10-10-17
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02-13-22 05:41 PM - Post#336399
In response to LyleGold
I've seen the displays, and I agree they're quite nice. I appreciate that the Palestra wants to preserve its own history. But what makes gyms special for me are the atmospheres they have and the memories I have therein. (I suspect that that's the largest part of the reason old-guard Ivy Leaguers and Penn folks love the Palestra - the path to March always lead through it and the fans back in the day packed it to the rafters! The Big 5 contests let Penn get free shots at top-tier teams like Nova and Temple at home! If any top area team would consent to play Yale in New Haven, I suspect I'd have an attachment like that too.)
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Penn really hasn't been in the very top echelon of Ivy League basketball basically since Fran Dunphy left. Glenn Miller's first year at the helm was the last time Penn was top-100 nationally, as measured by KenPom. Since then, Harvard has had five such teams. Princeton has had four. Yale has had four. Even Cornell has had one. Penn has only won one Ivy League title since then (though they're contending for another this year), but that was in one of the worst years the league has had in a decade.
I don't say this as some attempt to talk trash or slam Penn as yesterday's news, because that clearly isn't true. Penn has been a quality team and a tough out every year since Donahue was hired, and this year is no exception. But when I was in school, Penn wasn't the sort of team whom you circled on the calendar before the season. You wouldn't think that winning in the Palestra was the pinnacle of the conference season. That role was taken by Harvard or Princeton. Heck, in the games that I attended at the Palestra where Yale played Penn, I found the atmosphere underwhelming. That might be why I don't have the same attraction to the Palestra that others do.
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