Mike Porter
Postdoc
Posts: 3619
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-16-24 01:11 PM - Post#361766
In response to palestra38
The hallmark of Steve's teams is a lack of toughness. Someone hits us in the face and we fold. Happened last year against Princeton (and at Cornell and Dartmouth) and is happening again today. Made me search the story about the Franny team in the playoff against Yale--Schiffner gets cheap-shotted and bleeding all over the place, he gets taped up, and we kick Yale's behind. Have not seen that toughness as a team since....when we had it (Steve's championship team he inherited from Jerome), it was the players he inherited. Frankly, it's hard to watch now.
Can't disagree with you, but the bottom line here is that Cornell is a better team at their peak. Unfortunately for them, Princeton is better, but this Cornell team is at a level that has won Ivy Championships in the past.
Penn is the same Penn it has been for a long while now. Mediocre. Will have a decent shot at making the tournament and unceremoniously losing in the first round (sound familiar?).
Steve Donahue has managed to do something that no other Penn coach in nearly 30 years has done for me... and that is make me stop caring. I think this is the least Penn basketball I have bothered to watch since my sophomore year.
I just haven't been very interested. Mediocrity is worse than being a train wreck for me because it is a trap you can't escape. Saves me time wasted, so probably a good thing I guess.
I do really like the frosh group on the team and seems promising, but I've seen this movie before for this year. The only way ahead is if the next batch of frosh next year match the quality of this year's frosh. That has been the short coming every time of the Donahue staff. They recruit one promising class and whiff on the next class or two. You need to stack quality to win. There's hope yet (Bradyn Foster looks v. interesting), but let's see.
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