Get schooled.
The rumor mill has been working overtime lately with the Temple coaching search and the domino effect that could result from that hire. With newspapers disagreeing about what has or will take place as far as meetings and interviews, it’s tough to know what to believe. Here’s a common sense look at where things stand and where they’re headed.
In a piece titled “Save the Tigers!” that appeared last week on Slate, former Daily Princetonian Editor-in-Chief and current editor of The New Republic Online Richard Just discusses race and Princeton basketball. While there is undoubtedly a racial element to The Legend of Princeton Basketball, Just misplaces the blame for this, targeting in part the program and its fans.
A poor couple of minutes late in Friday’s game may have cost Penn a chance at one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Tournament history, but the Quakers can take solace in the fact they made one of the top teams in the nation sweat through a First Round game in its back yard. Now the Quakers’ takeaway from the 2005-06 season won’t be the poor second half of the Ivy season, but rather the near misses against Texas and Villanova — the latter without Steve Danley — and the respectable showing at Duke. Penn will go into next season knowing it can compete with the best in the land.
Nobody may be giving Penn much of a chance of upsetting Texas, but a simulation of Friday’s First Round matchup in College Hoops 2K6 on the Xbox went down to the final buzzer. Here’s how it went down, with images and video.
While Penn and its fans had to be very disappointed with the freakish lack of upsets this year in the one-bid conference tournaments that relegated the Quakers to a 15 seed, there’s a big upside to this for basketball fans. Namely, the NCAA Tournament field is without a doubt the strongest it has ever been from top to bottom since the expansion to 64/65 teams.