pennsive
Junior
Posts: 200
Reg: 11-21-04
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02-04-24 12:50 PM - Post#362755
In response to palestra38
I am not a defender of Steve D., but without more facts, it is reasonable that there are many reasons, including residual injury, why a fifth year senior who saw no path to a championship might opt to sit out this year rather than hang out with underclassmen. That said, I am among the few of us who still watches every minute of every game on ESPN+ because of my 60 plus years of caring very deeply about Penn and its basketball team. Just as I was disappointed and hurt by Liz McGill’s obvious lack of sophistication in the ways she failed to manage campus upheaval and the hostility of the Washington committee hearing, I see SD lacking the ability to adjust to the way that recruiting and coaching have evolved. I believe he cares very much, and see signs that his players care very much about their team and the university, so he deserves credit for that. He seems to be a good man, one deserving of his players’ loyalty, but a coach whose defensive schemes look the same as they would have 40 years ago, and whose recruiting falls far short of the upgrades in recruiting by his Ivy peer group. Even if magically Clark returns and makes a big difference and he were to influence Martz to join him to finish out the season, we still would be a third place quality team at best. More realistically, we will finish fifth or sixth, and, sadly, it will continue this way until Steve or the university do what is needed to up their game.
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