dperry
Postdoc
Posts: 2214
Loc: Houston, TX
Reg: 11-24-04
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03-03-24 04:10 PM - Post#364416
I have been AWOL this season because a.) lots of RL going on right now, and b.) both bball teams have been way too depressing to watch, particularly the men, but I do have to come on to give major props to men's squash, who just gave a serious beatdown to Trinity in the national championship match, winning six of the first seven matches before the College Squash Association called a TKO. This gains revenge for their 5-4 loss to the Bantams in the regular season, and in the semifinals we also turned the tables on the orange plague, beating the Tigers 5-4 after they had edged us by the same score in league play in Princeton to force a split of the league title.
I will give this some relevance to the basketball situation by pointing out the importance of coaching and facilities. Penn is only the sixth program ever to have won the men's nine-player championship (the other five are Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Navy a couple of times way back, and of course Trinity has a bunch recently.) Since their heyday in the early '70's with Al Molloy, Penn had been mediocre at best. Gilly Lane, a very good player for Penn himself, was brought back as an assistant about eleven years ago and became head coach in 2016. In eight years he's taken this program from meh to breaking into a very exclusive club with members who have a lot of recruiting advantages against us. This guy is a genius, and he's bringing back seven of today's nine starters, four of whom are underclassmen, so if he can bring in even one halfway-decent player next year, they will be in the mix for the title next year as well. It also helps that the alums helped them build the best facility in the country at the moment (although wouldn't you bleepin' know it, the Jerseyites have new courts coming next year, albeit not on main campus), and Drexel made a deal with US Squash to turn that old armory on Lancaster Avenue into the National Squash Center, so national championships are going to be four blocks away for the foreseeable future. While basketball's facilities are already upgraded and quite good, we obviously need some work on the coaching side.  Let's hope this year is bad enough to get that change made.
Well, baseball finally won the Ivies for me last year, and I have now seen a Penn team win a national championship, so I think my Quaker fan agenda is now complete; everything else is gravy from here on out!
Hail, Alma Mater
Thy sons cheer thee now
To thee, Pennsylvania
All rivals must bow!!
Glorious forever
Thy colors here will be
Forever, forever
They'll wave in victory!!
David Perry
Penn '92
"Hail, Alma Mater/Thy sons cheer thee now
To thee, Pennsylvania/All rivals must bow!!!" |
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AsiaSunset
Postdoc
Posts: 4361
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: OT--National Bleepin' Champions!
03-03-24 04:41 PM - Post#364419
In response to dperry
My understanding is that Gilly Lane was recently retained to mentor MBB and that Donahue will now be dedicating more time to recruiting in Egypt and India.
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penn nation
Professor
Posts: 21204
Reg: 12-02-04
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03-03-24 05:05 PM - Post#364421
In response to AsiaSunset
Is this our first national championship since tiddlywinks in 1783?
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Penndemonium
PhD Student
Posts: 1900
Reg: 11-29-04
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03-03-24 06:45 PM - Post#364427
In response to penn nation
I was friendly with a family that had the national #2 ranked squash junior several years back. The son eventually chose Princeton, but the father told me that Penn was going to become a powerhouse - that all the kids wanted to play for Gilly even though he wasn't a coach of the same fame as the Harvard coach and a few others. I think he had recruited the #1 player that year. He was just known as a coach that would intensely focus on the player, treat them with respect, honesty, and integrity. He was also known as someone who would make them be the best they could be - as he did for himself as a student-athlete. They said he was simply the hardest working of many great coaches. The players knew the coach would be working even harder than they were. That is quite a bit different from what we are hearing about our basketball recruiting.
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Penndemonium
PhD Student
Posts: 1900
Reg: 11-29-04
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Re: OT--National Bleepin' Champions!
03-03-24 06:47 PM - Post#364428
In response to AsiaSunset
I recognize the Egypt and India part is a joke, but were you joking about Gilly Lane mentoring the coaches too? He is younger than most of them, but he would still be a great mentor.
My understanding is that Gilly Lane was recently retained to mentor MBB and that Donahue will now be dedicating more time to recruiting in Egypt and India.
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AsiaSunset
Postdoc
Posts: 4361
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-04-24 08:47 AM - Post#364448
In response to Penndemonium
Yes - I was not serious
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T.P.F.K.A.D.W.
PhD Student
Posts: 1171
Loc: Our Nation's Capital
Reg: 01-18-05
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03-04-24 10:25 AM - Post#364459
In response to AsiaSunset
Yeah, but what about the golf team?
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