“I told Amy to get on the microphone and give Jerome the job immediately.”
– Ed Rendell, moments after Penn’s shocking upset of Cornell
So it happened, in a crowd of exuberant but slow-moving Penn fans, I found myself next to one of the biggest Penn fans of all: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.
One person tried commending him on the job he was doing in Harrisburg, but Rendell quickly changed the subject. The final buzzer had just sounded on Penn’s stunning 79-64 dismantling of nationally ranked Cornell on Friday – a result some have called the upset of the year in college basketball – and the governor was in the mood to reminisce.
He told whoever would listen about the 1970-71 Penn team that didn’t lose a game until its 43-point loss to Villanova in the NCAA tournament and about the 1994-95 team that should have beaten Alabama in the first round of the tourney.
The governor was proud of his team Friday
And then he said what everyone was thinking: the win over Cornell should eliminate the interim tag from Jerome Allen’s title. He even told Penn president Amy Gutmann as much after the game.
Of course, it’s hard to judge a coach on one game. And I’ve heard some alumni say defeating Cornell – a team Penn dominates in most years – should never warrant enough excitement for students to rush the court.
But for anyone that has sat through some of the rock-bottom games of the past two-and-half years, Friday’s performance was a sight to behold – a however brief respite where, for one night, the magic of the Palestra returned and Penn was dominant again.
Like other thrilling Palestra games, this one was chock full of memorable moments – from Mike Howlett returning from injury (surprise!) in dominating fashion to Darren Smith’s long 3-pointer to beat the shot clock to Jack Eggleston’s ferocious block/foul of Jeff Foote to a seemingly endless 15-0 run to start the second half.
By the time, reserve Drew Godwin slammed the ball on the floor as time expired, it became real: the same Penn team that sputtered to just one non-conference win, fired its coach midseason and was decimated by injuries had played flawless basketball to upset a ranked team for the first time since 1998.
Sure, it may turn out that Cornell runs the table the rest of the way, and Penn falls back into the bottom half of the Ivy half standings.
But for the freshmen, sophomores and juniors at Penn who had seen nothing in the Palestra besides empty seats and ugly basketball – well, in my mind, they deserved the right to run onto the same floor that produced such an inconceivably glorious performance. (Although next time they should leave the “overrated” chant at home.)
Ed Rendell has seen plenty of great moments in the Cathedral of College Basketball. Now these students have seen one, too.
