palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32886
Reg: 11-21-04
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02-27-05 05:39 AM - Post#5226
Just back from NYC, and it was wonderful to watch a team that had the title in its back pocket play hard....really hard...coming out of the locker room with a 2 point lead at the half. Penn played absolutely stifling defense, with a backcourt of Ibby and Whitehurst interfering with every dribble, every pass and within a 5 minute period completely putting Columbia away. By midway through the second half, Ibby, now a true star in this league, had over 20 points with a combination of 3 pointers, hard drives and floaters in the lane. Add that to his steals, his rebounds and his blocked shots and I would venture right now he is the most talented player in the Ivy League. This is to take nothing away from Tim Begley, who cemented his Ivy Player of the Year status with 26 points (as did Ibby), along with control of the offensive game during the big second half run that was almost perfect. Yes, Penn relaxed a bit and the final was an 8 point victory, but the game was never in doubt. Any Penn fan has to be proud of the team, who rose from the ashes of the Rider game, got its game together and shocked the League with its dominance. This is the best coaching job Fran Dunphy ever performed and it is truly incredible that Penn has clinched an NCAA bid with 3 games still to play.
Now, an unavoidable comment on Columbia, for its handling of the game tonight is a primer on how NOT to be a winning program. We've already heard about the attempt to keep tickets out of the hands of Penn fans....to me, that is not that important, since if CU had the demand from its own fans, they deserve the tickets. Of course, there was no such demand and Penn fans ended up with the seats---after unnecessary hassle. Moreover, there is no excuse to have a system where tickets are printed with seat numbers, but in some (but not all) sections, they are treated as general admission seats. This led to many arguments over seats and general chaos well into the first half. Then, the bush league raising of the baskets as the final buzzer went off and the blaring of Sinatra music so Penn fans couldn't even sing The Red and the Blue was astonishing. Something Joe Jones' own brother said a few years ago is instructive---that sometimes you have to watch someone else win to learn how to win yourselves. When you are petty and jealous of another program's success, you just show that you are a loser. My goodness, it wasn't like pulling down the goalposts! I'm sure that Penn would have reimbused the cost of a net (Penn has cut the net at Princeton and vice versa). But that just wasn't going to happen because Columbia's administration is made of small minded losers---and that is the real reason why there are only two programs that win in this League. I was embarassed tonight by the actions of my law school alma mater....They ensured that there would be no celebration on their court because if they can't have one....
There still were many Penn fans milling around after the game to savor a victory, however, and with two amazing performances to review, here are one man's grades:
Ibby---A+. Absolutely incredible game. Got Penn back in the game early after falling behind with a few "3's" and then simply drove at will. He stole several balls, knocked others away, blocked a few shots and slammed home a rebound emphatically. In other words, he did it all. And to think, he's only going to get better.
Begley--A. Begley hit a lot of shots after Penn got to 20 up, so his scoring was not quite as impressive as Ibby's, but he also played a complete game. Broke the press effortlessly until the game was in hand and then made a few sloppy mistakes, but all in all, a fine fine game for Tim.
Fikiel---A. Scored 14, 12 of which came during the big run that stretched the lead from 2 to 20. Jump shots, foul shots and even a few layups...Jan was very active and made a major contribution, especially since both Danley and Pettinella were in foul trouble.
Zoller--A-. The only other Quaker to score some points, Zoller showed me what he was worth when Penn was up by about 18, Ibby had knocked away a dribble and the Columbia player was about to pick it up when Zoller took a running swan dive to knock the ball away and it eventually ended up as a backcourt violation. That kind of effort, together with the young talent this Quaker team has, bodes extremely well for the future.
Since Danley and Pettinella were in foul trouble and played limited minutes, we'll give them an Inc. Neither Oz nor Whitehurst scored any (well, I think Oz scored 2) points, but Whitehurst showed me intense defense. I don't think any Ivy backcourt can stand up to the defensive pressure of Whitehurst and Ibby....once Whitehurst gets a better feel for the offensive game, watch out!
Congratulations 2004-05 Ivy League Champions Penn Quakers!
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TomPittsburgh
maximus
Posts: 538
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
Reg: 11-28-04
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Re: Penn Report Card----The Passing of the Torch
02-27-05 01:55 PM - Post#5227
In response to palestra38
Pettinella seems to have played himself out of the mix.
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Howard Gensler
Postdoc
Posts: 4141
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Penn Report Card----The Passing of the Torch
02-27-05 02:48 PM - Post#5228
In response to TomPittsburgh
Not sure why you look at it that way. Pettinella no more played himself out of the mix than Whitehurst played himself into the mix. Ryan was playing 15 or so minutes a game and was consistently productive in those 15 minutes in terms of points and rebounds (and not bad on the TOs). His foul shooting was horrible but that was magnified because he was so adept at drawing fouls. Whitehurst was playing a few minutes a game, Oz got sick and then he was playing 20 minutes a game.
As we've been saying all along, Fran likes to play 7 1/2 to 8 guys. He prefers experience to inexperience. Down the stretch he's been going with Fikiel in situations that he previously might have gone with Pettinella (and that he previously might have gone with another guard). Against Yale and Brown Jan did not deliver, but he was still in down the stretch against Cornell and Columbia and the last two nights he did deliver. Last night, Pettinella would have played more except he picked up 4 fouls (one on a horrible call, one because Begley gave Montgomery a free path to the hoop and Ryan thought it might be better to try to stop him from getting a layup) and then Fran couldn't use him down the stretch because of his foul shooting.
Next weekend Ryan could play his 15-18 minutes again.
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TomPittsburgh
maximus
Posts: 538
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
Reg: 11-28-04
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Re: Penn Report Card----The Passing of the Torch
02-27-05 04:01 PM - Post#5229
In response to Howard Gensler
do you feel that Pettinella has shown significant improvement in his play from last year to this year?
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Howard Gensler
Postdoc
Posts: 4141
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Penn Report Card----The Passing of the Torch
02-27-05 04:52 PM - Post#5230
In response to TomPittsburgh
He's a much better passer than he was last year and he turns the ball over less. He's a much better defensive rebounder. He's much better at drawing fouls although much worse at making foul shots. He has 11 steals this year compared to 1 last year and he fouls less. He is more versatile offensively. He's scoring at virtually the same clip as last year but if he were shooting foul shots at the same rate he'd have another dozen points.
So I do think he's improved but his improvement has not been as great as Danley's.
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Anonymous
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Re: Penn Report Card----The Passing of the Torch
02-27-05 06:18 PM - Post#5231
In response to Howard Gensler
Palestra38: Excellent report. I was there too and agree with all of your comments. This is Fran's best coaching job that I can remember, but let's realize that this is one of the few years that we were not favored, so there was room to exceed expectations. Ibby dominated the game by completely closing off lanes on defense, picking pockets, rebounding, blowing by his man, etc. This was Bobby Willis at his best (star guard on the Tony Price Final Four team). David Whitehurst didn't score but adds a very nice dimension with his defense and speed. Os looks good coming in as the stablizing first guard substitute, and Jan had one of the best games that I have seen him play (perhaps this is why Fran gave him so much time at Yale when he appeared to be awkward). Coach's faith in him seems to have paid off. Tim seemed out of sorts in the first half when he struggled, but after Fran sat him down a couple of times and then made halftime adjustments, he played like the captain of our Ivy champs. Congratulations to the team. Sorry the absent cheerleaders didn't share in the moment, but the ample Penn crowd (despite Columbia's outrageous efforts to foil Penn attendance) was loud and supportive of the team anyway.
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SomeGuy
Professor
Posts: 6415
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Penn Report Card----The Passing of the Torch
02-27-05 06:36 PM - Post#5232
In response to Howard Gensler
I also think Jan played more with Danley & Pettinella on the bench b/c Cornell and Columbia are a little smaller up front than most of the league. Obviously Preston and Taylor can hurt you (and apparently Naeve & Baumann as well, based on the results), but these teams don't have the 6'10 to 7'0 center that half the teams in the league run out there. That and, with Jan playing well, it seemed appropriate to have him out there while the clinching was going on.
In other words, I don't think Pettinella's status has really changed.
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