As I walked down the ramp from the north side of the park, I heard over the loudspeaker that it was the seventh inning. Quickening my pace, I saw from a distance one quick out … then another … then another.

And then I heard three words sacred to anyone who follows baseball or softball.

… A perfect game …

Yes, in one of the biggest games in program history, Penn freshman phenom Alexis Borden did not allow a Cornell runner to reach base, retiring all 21 batter in a 4-0 win that propelled the Quakers into next weekend’s Ivy League Championship series against host Harvard (where they will be going for just their second Ivy title ever and first since 1981).

Below are two videos, courtesy of Penn Athletics, of the final out and Borden talking about her accomplishment.

About 24 hours later and right next door, I was there for the entire Ivy League women’s lacrosse championship pitting the host Quakers against Dartmouth at Dunning-Cohen Champions Field, one of the turf fields at Penn Park.

At first, it looked as if Penn might add to the perfection of the weekend as they held Dartmouth scoreless for all but the entire first half (a serious accomplishment in a sport that’s very high-scoring).

But the Quakers lost the momentum and couldn’t get it back as the visiting Big Green scored six unanswered goals en route to a 6-4 win.

Despite the upsetting loss, though, Penn was rewarded for its sixth consecutive regular-season Ivy title, strong strength of schedule and rout of Harvard in the Ivy semifinals at Penn Park when it earned an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament later that day.

The trip will be Penn’s sixth straight to national tournament and it begins next weekend at Loyola (Md.).

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend at the new Penn Park – which, in addition to its charm and beauty, can now call itself the home of champions.

Women’s Lacrosse – Ivy League Tournament

Friday and Sunday, Dunning-Cohen Champions Field at Penn Park

For the third straight year, the Quakers will host the Ivy League Women’s Lacrosse Tournament, earning that right by finishing atop the league standings to capture their sixth straight Ivy championship. Incidentally, Penn has hosted this tourney (which determines the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament) all three years of its existence.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the tourney is that the games will be the first played by a varsity team at the synthetic turf field at Penn Park, which is primarily used as a practice facility. The reason for this is the team’s normal home at Franklin Field will be occupied by track and field (see more below).

As the top seed, the Quakers open with fourth-seeded Harvard on Friday at 8 p.m. Should they advance, they’ll play the Dartmouth-Cornell winner Sunday to become the second Penn team this spring to win the Ivy title. (The men’s golf team won in thrilling fashion last weekend.)

Track and Field – Outdoor Heptagonal Championships

Saturday and Sunday, Franklin Field

Just one week after Penn Relays, Franklin Field will be filled with elite athletes again as the seven other Ivy League teams join the host Quakers for Heps.

Last year the Quaker men finished in seventh place at the outdoor championships meet but Maalik Reynolds claimed the high jump title with the second-best jump in Heps history. Now a sophomore, Reynolds will look to defend his title, as will Penn’s 4×800 relay team, which took first at last year’s meet.

On the women’s side, junior Morgan Wheeler and junior Jillian Hart are among the favorites to win Heps titles in the javelin and pole vault, respectively, while the Quakers’ 4×100 relay team of Gabrielle Piper, Paige Madison, Leah Brown and Emily Townsend should also have a good showing.

Softball – One-Game Playoff for South Division Title

Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Penn Park

For the first time in conference history, there will be a one-game playoff to determine who plays in the Ivy League Championship Series. Penn and Cornell will do the honors after finishing tied atop the South Division with 15-5 records. Both teams set up the showdown after concluding the regular season with four-game weekend sweeps. The winner of the matchup will face North Division champ Harvard the following weekend.

Cornell has won the last three South Division championships, while Penn is going for just their second division title in program history. But the upstart Quakers (32-15) have already taken three out of four from Cornell this season and boast perhaps the best pitcher in the league in Alexis Borden.

Borden, a freshman, leads the league in earned run average (1.39) and wins (23). The Penn offense, meanwhile is led by reigning Ivy League Player of the Week Brooke Coloma (who is second in the league with 34 RBIs) and freshman Sydney Turchin (who leads the league with 36 runs scored).

Penn Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Saturday, The Inn at Penn

Away from the fields where Penn’s current athletes are competing for championships, some past champions will be honored in this invite-only, black-tie event.

The eighth induction class features Diana Caramanico W’01, LPS’11 (women’s basketball), Debra Cencits Donnally NU’81, GNU’83 (field hockey/women’s lacrosse), Tim Chambers C’85 (football), Willis N. Cummings D’19 (track/cross country), Melissa Ingalls C’90 (women’s volleyball), Bruce Lefkowitz C’87 (men’s basketball), Robert Levy C’52 (special award), Timothy Ortman C’01 (sprint football/wrestling), Joseph Sturgis, Sr. C’56 L’59 (men’s basketball), Paul Toomey C’77 (men’s soccer), John Tori C’54 (men’s fencing) and Bob Weinhauer (men’s basketball coach of the famed 1979 Final Four team).

It’s a pretty impressive class to be sure, and we’ll have more on these Penn greats following the induction ceremony.

Robin Martin, right, will be head coach for his first Penn Relays after taking over the men's track and field program from the reins of Charlie Powell, left, last December.

It’s that time of year again as runners from across the country (and Jamaica – a lot from Jamaica!) come to Franklin Field for the largest, oldest and perhaps most exciting track and field competition in the country.

Yes, the 118th running of the historic Penn Relays is here.

Earlier this week, I got the chance to discuss the meet with Penn interim men’s track and field coach Robin Martin C’00, a former Penn Relays champion who I featured in a recent Gazette issue.

With his help, I’ve pinpointed a couple of Penn storylines to watch for students and alums going to Franklin Field this weekend. (To see Penn’s entire schedule, click here).

College Men’s High Jump Championship

Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

Last year, Maalik Reynolds became the first Penn athlete to win the Penn Relays high jump title since 1955 (when Will Lee C’55 shared the title with three others in 1955). He later improved upon that winning jump of 7 feet, 3 ¼ inches to capture a Heps crown the following week, and the sophomore remains one of the nation’s best jumpers this year. Despite being the top seed and favorite, Martin expects stiff competition, especially from a pair of Indiana University jumpers in Derek Drouin and Darius King. Still, there are a lot of expectations for Reynolds to repeat. Martin said that many Penn alums decided to sit in the section in front of the high jump area just to watch Penn’s star sophomore.

College Men’s Distance Medey Championship of America

Friday, 4 p.m.

Penn's Ryan Cunningham will anchor the Men's DMR on Friday.

This is an event that is usually one of the most exciting ones at Penn Relays. It’s also won that has been dominated by Villanova, which has won the race two of the past three years and 25 times overall. But Martin believes his team consisting of senior Brian Fulton (1200-meter leg), senior Brian Rosenthal (400), freshman Mato Bekelja (800) and senior anchor Ryan Cunningham (1600-meter leg) can make a splash. Martin called Cunningham and Fulton “national-caliber” mid-distance runners, especially heaping praise upon Cunningham, who put in a lot of hard work to shave his mile time down from 4:24 to around 4:02 since coming to Penn. And since the DMR usually comes down to who runs the strongest mile, Martin is hopeful Cunningham and the Quakers will be able to stay with Villanova and the other national powers in this event.

High School Boys Discus Throw Championship

Friday, 10 a.m.

As the top seed, East Brunswick High School senior Sam Mattis will look to defend his Penn Relays title in the discus. Why should this matter to Quaker fans? Well, Mattis will be attending Penn next year, having passed up full rides from some of the nation’s premier programs to be the centerpiece of Martin’s first recruiting class as head coach. You might want to get a sneak peak at Mattis, who Martin believes has the potential to be a national champion and an Olympic thrower some day.

High School Boys Mile Run Championship

Friday, 6:05 p.m.

Staying with the high schools – which usually has some of the most exciting races at Penn Relays – another Penn recruit will be a competing for a national title: Upper Moreland’s Drew Magaha. According to Martin, Magaha is the best 800-meter runner in the country and would already be in the Penn record books for his 800 time. Now we can see how he does against the country’s best high school milers.

———–

There are other races to watch, of course. For Penn, the men have a good 4×800 relay team that has a chance to win the second Championship of America heat, and the Penn women will look to be competitive in the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×800, among other heats. And, of course, let’s not forget about local power Villanova going for gold in most of the distance relays, as well as the thrilling USA vs. the World races on Saturday that always electrify the crowd.

To see the entire Penn Relays schedule (and follow results live), click here. But if you’re in town, you should really try to make it out to Franklin Field to soak in the atmosphere and excitement of the country’s best track meet.

Penn and St. Joe's played under the lights at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday (Drew Hallowell)

Penn freshman Austin Bossart has only been to Citizens Bank Park twice in his life.

The first time he sat about as high as you can sit, in the upper deck by the left field foul pole.

The second time he alternated between the dugout and home plate.

“This opportunity was great,” a beaming Bossart said shortly after the Penn baseball team played Saint Joseph’s in the championship game of the Liberty Bell Classic, an eight-team tournament for local Division I colleges. “I wouldn’t have passed this up for anything.”

After beating Villanova and La Salle to get to the Liberty Bell finals for the first time in the tournament’s 21-year history, the Quakers lost to St. Joe’s, 6-3, in Tuesday night’s finals at the Bank. (For more game details, check out the Pennathletics.com recap, a short article I wrote for CSNPhilly.com and a few well-done Daily Pennsylvanian pieces.)

But for most of the Quakers, it seemed, the final score meant less than getting the chance to play on the same field as pro ballplayers, if only for a couple of hours.

Bossart follows through on a swing during Penn's first trip to Citizens Bank Park (Drew Hallowell)

“It’s disappointing but I think the opportunity for all of us to come here was better than actually winning the trophy,” said Bossart, the only Penn player who had a multi-hit game. “I would have loved to win the trophy. But it was just a good opportunity for all of us. You’ve gotta enjoy it for what it was.”

Interestingly enough, Bossart, a St. Louis native, said he played at two other major league ballparks – Busch Stadium and Wrigley Field – before coming to Penn. But, of course, that didn’t make the freshman catcher any less giddy when he stepped foot on the pristine grass and dreamt of watching baseballs fly into the outfield seats.

“I was joking around like I would hit a grand slam at bat,” Bossart said. “It was a lot of fun, joking around with the guys in the dugout.”

Romanticism aside, the experience gained by playing a championship game against a city rival could also help get the Quakers in gear as they prepare for four big games against Cornell this weekend at Meiklejohn Stadium. Cornell is currently in first place in the Lou Gehrig Division of the Ivy League, four games up on Penn (15-17, 6-6).

“I hope this will kick us in the butt a little bit and give us momentum going into next weekend,” Bossart said. “Hopefully we can pick it up in Ivy League play.”

Jeff Luhnow after getting hired by the Houston Astros in December

The 2012 Major League Baseball season opened last week, and with it came the perpetual belief that every team has a chance.

Well, every team except maybe the Houston Astros.

Fresh off a dismal 56-106 record last season, the Astros have been picked last in most MLB preseason power rankings and are deep in rebuilding mode.

All of which is to say that new general manager Jeff Luhnow, who graduated with a dual degree from Wharton and the School of Engineering in 1989, has his work cut out for him.

Luckily, the Penn grad and former St. Louis Cardinals executive seems up to the task, despite this being his first GM position. One article, written shortly after his hire, describes Luhnow as brainy and bilingual, part of the new breed of cerebral, stats-first baseball execs:

Some old-school baseball team initially derided Luhnow with nicknames such as “Harry Potter” and “the accountant.” Here’s a guy whose playing career peaked out in high school, whose pre-Cardinals resume featured stints as the president of a dot.com venture, Archetype Solutions, Inc., and vice-president of marketing for Petstore.com.

That said, his Penn degree will certainly serve him well in his new role, wrote another Houston sportswriter – Zachary Levine – who also went to Penn.

Educated in a dual degree program that blended business and engineering, Luhnow joins a front office that is increasingly data-oriented. To listen to him and to CEO George Postolos talk is a different experience than to listen to the old regime when it comes to what Luhnow called “the zero-sum game” of baseball.

Still, while Luhnow’s “new-age” thinking may have upset some “old-school” baseball men in the past, Luhnow was quoted in the same story as trying to steer clear of the scouts vs. stats war that has seemed to be building steam ever since the writing of “Moneyball” nine years ago. Here’s his quote:

“There’s a misperception about what the winning formula is. You can’t be the elite scouting and player development organization without the best scouts and coaches in the industry. Those are baseball people who have been in this their entire life and use their good judgment and experience to make decisions.

“The complementary part is adding a whole new area, which is really utilizing whatever technology and whatever capabilities are available, whether it’s understanding medical assessments, understanding performance histories, different ways to evaluate character. There’s a lot of science that can be added to the equation.

“But it’s really all about gathering up as much valuable information as you can, organizing in a way that makes sense and making the best possible decisions.”

Luhnow would certainly be wise to use all of the tools at his disposal to rebuild the Astros, which opened the 2012 season with 10 players on a major league roster for the first time. That number shows just how inexperienced the ’Stros are and how deep Luhnow’s rebuilding efforts must go. But for the general manager, that part is also, well, kind of cool:

“One of the most fun things I’ve gotten to do in my nine years as a baseball executive is tell five position players and five pitchers that they were making their first opening-day roster in their career. That was really a fun experience after a lot of the other conversations that you have to have during the spring: letting a guy go or telling a guy that he’s going to be reassigned or optioned out. It was really fun to get a chance to do that.”

Of course, there will also be some hard parts, mixed in with the fun. But for now, the Penn grad is saying all the right things as he tries to build the worst team in baseball into the best.

“I want to see Minute Maid Park filled to the rafters in an American League championship series. I want to see this city get excited about the possibility of going to a World Series. And I would love to see Houston to win the World Series, and the team in Texas that gets talked about be the Houston Astros. I’m all in.”

Miles Cartwright drives around Butler's Ronald Nored in a second-round CBI game (Penn Athletics)

Technically, the Penn basketball team played in its first postseason since 2007, won its first postseason game since 1994 and hosted its first postseason game since 1978.

But the Quakers seemed to recognize that their invitation to the College Basketball Invitational – a newish postseason tournament for teams that don’t make the NCAA tournament or the NIT – didn’t carry nearly the same weight as the program’s 23 trips to Big Dance.

Following Penn’s loss to Butler in the second round of the CBI on Monday (which came a few days after the Quakers’ first-round win over Quinnipiac), senior Rob Belcore offered some candid thoughts on what marked his final game at the Palestra.

“I always imagined my last game here was walking off after spanking Yale. The Ivy League meant so much to me this year and to lose that hurt a lot. These games for me were about having fun, going out and getting the chance to compete again. I’m not going to dwell on this loss too much. I’ll still say losing to Princeton was the final game of my college career. These were almost like exhibition games. They were fun. I came out, competed, got to play with my best friend and roommate for four years [Zack Rosen]. But I’m not going to say 30 years from now, ‘Dang, I lost my last game at the Palestra to Butler.”

Belcore makes a fair point, and in some ways the CBI games, at least the one vs. Quinnpiac, had an exhibition-like feel to it. That, perhaps, is only natural after the letdown of missing out on the Ivy League championship by one game. But for athletic director Steve Bilsky W’71, it was important to give the basketball team the opportunity to continue its season, even if it meant paying to guarantee home games (as is the custom in the CBI). Here are Bilsky’s thoughts:

“We did it for one reason really and that’s for the players. I talked to [head coach] Jerome [Allen] right after the Princeton game and asked him to think about whether he wants to continue to play. It’s not a wrong answer to say no. This team has been in a playoff mentality for almost the entire second half of this season, so the wear and tear emotionally and physically is real. A lot of teams choose not to continue playing and I don’t think that’s a reflection of disrespect. They just feel like anything more would be counterproductive. In Jerome’s case, he didn’t think very long. He wanted to continue playing for two reasons. One, because he feels his seniors earned that right. And two, the more you play the better you get.”

Perhaps the best part for the Quakers was that they were able to put a few underclassmen who played sparingly throughout the season (guys like freshman Simeon Esprit and sophomore Marin Kukoc) on the floor against good competition. That kind of game experience is one of the greatest benefits of these kinds of postseason tournaments. Here’s what Allen had to say about that:

“Ultimately our goal isn’t to play in the CBI but we had the opportunity in this tournament and it was kind of like a celebration to the type of season we did have. For returning players, they have to connect to the process in terms of what it’s going to take to ultimately be champions. I think that’s why you play the game and why you play in the postseason and to have this taste of the postseason I think will do these guys well. There’s never an offseason. I think this will do them well in terms of preparing for next season.”

Ahh yes – next season. Who’s ready for it?

Dick Harter (left) went 88-44 as head coach at Penn, winning two Ivy League and two Big 5 titles.

Last year I was privileged enough to talk to Dick Harter for a feature I wrote on Penn’s legendary 1970-71 basketball team.  Harter was the coach of that team, and it was in large part due to his no-nonsense leadership that Penn won the first 28 games of the season before losing to Villanova in the NCAA Tournament’s Eastern Regional final.

Even though I was asking specific questions about what happened 40 years ago, Harter was very much engaged during our conversation and extremely honest. One thing I remember jumping out was when he told me that not a day goes by when he doesn’t think about the perplexingly lopsided season-ending loss to Villanova that year.

The reason for that, I learned later, was because in 53 years of coaching in college and the NBA no other team meant more to him.

“He had a historic career but all of all the things he did – from being the head coach at Oregon to an illustrious professional career – he would say, not just for our benefit but to anybody, that his crowning moment was that Penn team,” Penn athletic director Steve Bislky told me from his Palestra seats, shortly before the Quakers’ win over Quinnipiac in the first round of the CBI on Wednesday. “Not just because of the record but because of how we played the game and how close we came to perfection.”

Harter died Monday night. He was 81.

“I was definitely shocked and saddened when I heard,” said Bilsky, a senior guard on that 1970-71 team. “There’s no other way to describe it.”

I asked Bilsky if he could share his favorite Dick Harter story. He said he couldn’t think of one specific one but that what he remembered most was the feeling he had at every practice during his time on the varsity team from 1968-71. Harter, a former Marine, wasn’t a yeller and screamer (that, Bilsky said, was ex-assistant coach Digger Phelps’ job) but was extremely organized and demanded a lot from his players.

“He perfected the idea that at every practice we were to be as perfect as we could – no turnovers, no mistakes, no missed layups,” Bilsky said. “ That was basically gelled into us to the point where I think that became the way we practiced and played. That’s what made us so good in the way that we executed the game as close to perfect as anyone can.”

Following the 1970-71 season, Harter left to become the head coach at the University of Oregon, which began a long and prosperous coaching career away from Philly – until he returned to be an assistant for the 76ers in 2004.

Bilsky, who followed him to Oregon, remembered being surprised that Harter quit his job at Penn because of how memorable that 1970-71 team was and how many good players were returning for the following season.

“I know that was a difficult decision for him but as he expressed it he wanted to play the very best,” Bilsky said. “And at that time, that was UCLA. And he had a chance to play in a conference with UCLA.”

Harter may have left Penn in 1971 but his place in Palestra lore never has.

Rest in peace, Coach.

An empty Jadwin gym, two hours after Penn lost a heartbreaker to Princeton

PRINCETON, N.J. – What is there to say? For Penn basketball fans, Tuesday night marked a bitter end to a memorable season as the Quakers missed a golden opportunity to capture a share of the program’s first NCAA tournament since 2007. Even worse, hated rival Princeton was the team to deal Penn such a cruel fate.

In time, I will review this season, look ahead to the next one and try to put Zack Rosen’s incredible college career in perspective. For now, I will simply share what head coach Jerome Allen, Rosen and fellow senior Rob Belcore said after Tuesday’s gut-wrenching loss to Princeton in the regular-season finale. For those Penn fans who want to torture themselves further, they can read my game story, one from the Daily News’ Dick Jerardi here, and a good column from the Inquirer’s Mike Jensen here.

I’ve seen a few people say Allen was too hard on his players since many believe this team overachieved. You can craft your own opinions based on the quotes below, but Allen has said similar stuff all season long, and in my opinion it’s helped turn the program around. Plus, he did praise the seniors for the work they put in to the program. Here’s the transcript:

JEROME ALLEN

I’m obviously disappointed. We set out to say we wanted to control our own destiny and everything we did to prepare was for winning the league. This is not the end we had in mind. We came up short.

I think [I was most disappointed with] the defense, to be honest with you. On days when the ball doesn’t go in the basket, you still have an opportunity to win. It’s how you defend. I just thought from start of game, they didn’t have anything to play for, other than to be the spoilers. How can a team that’s playing for nothing play harder than the team that’s supposedly playing for something? And that’s really what blew my mind. OK, the ball wasn’t going in. But offensively they just got whatever they wanted – backdoors, offensive rebounds, open jump shots, open layups. And I think that’s really where the problem lies.

I think when you put it together, we had about four or five consecutive stops, and I think that’s what enabled us to get back in the game. And shots for us went down. And then they came right back down and scored on two straight possessions and then again two straight possessions. That’s where the game was at – five, seven, eight. At this point of the season, whether you’re fatigued or not, you have 40 minutes of your life to have something you can share with your grandchildren. It can’t be a function of fatigue. It just came down to desire.

I’ll give their offense some credit. Those guys, Princeton, they stick with their system. It’s an unusual system to defend with misdirection, with backdoors. Having said that, it’s the same system they ran when we played them earlier in the season at the Palestra. So it’s not like they ran anything new. It was a direct function of our focus.

I don’t think I was confused. I’m not confused, baffled or surprised. It was just a direct function of who paid attention to details better over the course of 40 minutes.

I think these [seniors] bought in. And that allowed us to get 15 guys to listen. When the best players get it and give it every day in practice and they’re diving on the floor for loose balls and taking film home by themselves to study, that kind of allows me to do my job a lot easier. It gives a sense of normalcy for what the freshmen think is expected. This is what we do. It gave us that identity going forward. Hopefully next year’s class comes in and guys currently returning will do the same thing for those guys. I appreciate it, the fact they allowed us to teach as a staff. There are no moral victories by any means. This is the University of Pennsylvania and we’re about winning championships. We don’t prepare to come in second. We prepare to win. From that standpoint, not winning is a disappointment. We’re disappointed. But having said that, going forward we know areas we can improve, both mental and physical, to one day become champions because really that’s what it’s all about.

I don’t know [about the NIT, CBI or CIT]. That’s out of our control. I just think the biggest thing we tried to tell these guys is you always want to be in position where you can control your own destiny. We had that opportunity tonight. Whatever happens come Wednesday, Selection Sunday, who gets in, who doesn’t get in, we don’t know because we can’t control that. That’s unfortunate.

For one, Steve Bilsky did something I’m not sure too many athletic directors would have done and give a guy with three months experience the opportunity to run the program. Having said that, we stay connected to the process. This is a disappointing season for us. We didn’t win. From Dec. 14 to 2009 to March 6 of 2012, the only thing we wanted to instill in these guys is if we hold onto our principles for 40 minutes and defend, we will win more than we lose. Whether that was 11-3 or 6-8 we came up short. You’ve been to the Palestra a number of times and you know what that building is about and what this program is about. We’re top 10 in all-time wins in NCAA history. And to not get it done is disappointing. Whether we finished 11-3 or not, what does that do for us?

ZACK ROSEN

We didn’t play as hard as we could and we lost.

For us, the season is either you win it or you don’t. That’s what [the younger players] can take away from it I guess. You win or you don’t. Whether we’re close or not close, you either win or you don’t. They can take that.

Whether it has or hasn’t [sunk in], we lost. We blew our opportunity and that’s the bottom line. I don’t think there’s anything past that to say.

ROB BELCORE

Until tonight, we weren’t mathematically eliminated. I suppose after Princeton beat Harvard at Harvard, we knew we had a chance to run the table. And if we played our best basketball, we could beat anyone in the league. And we beat every team in the league this year. No one swept us. I never for a second thought we were out. With the guy sitting to my right [Rosen], he’s going to need a month off for how tired his back has got to be. As long as he was taking the floor with me, I legitimately believe there was no one – I thought he could carry us through the whole way. And he almost did. I think we let him down, the other 14 guys. Zack’s play was tremendous. He’s the best player in the Big 5 this year. He’s the best player in the Ivy League this year. As long as I was with him, I knew we had more than a punchers’ chance.

Ian Hummer is a really good player. He knocked down some threes. We all have to live with that. He had two big threes that hurt us in the first half. My M.O. is supposed to be the guy that locks people up, plays defense. I don’t even know how much he had but we lost. He had a good game. I should have done better. I don’t care what they run. I don’t care what any system is. What it comes down to is stopping the person in front of you and I didn’t do that.

BOSTON – Lavietes Pavilion, the basketball gym at Harvard, has a unique setup. Unlike most gyms, where media areas are tucked away inside the bowels of the arena, the press conferences at Lavietes are held in a second-story room with a large glass window that overlooks the court.

I found myself thinking about this setup on Saturday when, about 10 minutes after a classic Penn-Harvard basketball game ended, Tommy Amaker walked into the room. Sitting in a cushy chair, with his back to the window, the Harvard coach fielded questions from reporters, attempting to ignore what was happening behind him on the court. But it was hard to ignore.

As Amaker was asked how his team blew a golden opportunity to capture a share of the Ivy League championship and all but lock up the program’s first NCAA tournament berth since 1946, a large contingent of Penn fans gathered on the opposite side of the gym, cheering Quaker players and coaches, one by one, as they filed out of the visiting locker room.

Amaker heard what was happening and tried not to wince. There was supposed to be a party on the floor at Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday. Just not this kind of party.

———-

It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of Penn’s 55-54 triumph over Harvard. Just consider what the Crimson had going for them:

• They had won 28 straight games at home, the second longest such streak in the nation
• They returned everybody from last year’s co-Ivy championship team, were nationally ranked earlier in the season and were (perhaps prematurely) predicted by some to be one of the best Ivy League teams ever
• They were celebrating Senior Night in a game that had been sold out for weeks (with tickets selling for more than $100 on StubHub)
• They led for most of the night and held a nine-point advantage with six minutes remaining
• They were facing a Penn team whose second best player – Tyler Bernardini – was seriously limited by a foot injury and that had few experienced big men to deal with Harvard’s All-Ivy forward tandem of Keith Wright and Kyle Casey

But the Quakers had at least two things going for them: Zack Rosen and guts. And with his team trailing by nine, Rosen – who will easily go down as one of the best players in Penn history – took over the game, as he’s done time and time again this season, leading the Quakers to the come-from-behind stunner to spoil Harvard’s night and keep Penn in control of its own destiny in the Ivy title chase. (Read my game story for CSNPhilly.com here.)

And then the party started.

———-

Like many longtime Penn basketball fans, I’ve been lucky enough to see the Quakers win many Ivy League championships. I arrived on Penn’s campus in the fall of 1999, the same year as Ugonna Onyekwe, Koko Archibong and other talents rarely before seen in the Ivy League. Soon Andrew Toole and Tim Begley got here, and then Ibby Jaaber and Mark Zoller. Thanks to these guys – Ivy League stars all of them – Penn managed to capture six conference titles in the first eight years I started following the team.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying this: I was spoiled. So, too, were a lot of my classmates, who expected Penn to go to the NCAA tournament every year (or, at the very least, come in second place in the Ivies behind Princeton.)

But we all know what happened next. Fran Dunphy, the architect of so many great Penn teams, bolted for Temple, and his replacement, Glen Miller, couldn’t carry on Penn’s tradition of success. Players began to transfer and injuries began to mount. Cornell got good and then so did Harvard. For the Quakers, it was a struggle to even finish in the top half of the league, let alone win it.

Around this time two years ago, there was a glimmer of hope when new coach Jerome Allen led Penn, in the midst of one of its worst seasons ever, to an upset win over nationally ranked team Cornell team at the Palestra. After the surprisingly lopsided win, students rushed the court, and if I recall correctly, some fans were not pleased about this, since Penn, well, is supposed to beat Cornell at home. But if you hadn’t been at the Palestra for those last few years, and only followed the team from afar, it was probably hard to relate to the sheer joy felt by the fans in the building that night. If only for a few hours, the magic of the Palestra had returned.

Saturday’s win over Harvard felt even better because the stakes were so much higher. It’s been a long, slow climb back to the top of the Ivy heap, where Penn had been perched for so many years, and while the Quakers are not there, it sure felt that way over the weekend.

For four straight seasons, Penn wasn’t even in contention to win an Ivy League title — and for those of us who have been spoiled by success, it felt more like 40. That’s why fans made sure to show their gratitude Saturday, even long after the final whistle blew. It took a whole lot of losing to appreciate winning again.

“This is why I came here,” sophomore guard Miles Cartwright said, looking below on the crowd of Penn supporters. “When I was being recruited, Coach Allen told me we’d be playing these kinds of games on the road. It was a great opportunity tonight and I’m really grateful we got it done.”

Later, while on the team bus heading back to Philly, Cartwright tweeted, “really grateful for my teammates. big win for us, but please believe it when i say that we are not done yet.” That, of course, is very true. The Quakers need to win their final three games of the regular season – home games against Brown and Yale this weekend and then a road tilt vs. Princeton next Tuesday – to secure at least a share of the Ivy title. And then they’ll likely need to beat Harvard again – in a one-game playoff – to get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007.

But after hitting rock bottom (at least by Penn’s lofty standards), just playing meaningful basketball in March means a lot. And should they get back to the Big Dance, it would mean a whole lot more. Or as Rosen put it, in this CSN video, “We would have walked into hell and left in heaven.”

Matt Maloney C’95

These days, however, Maloney and Greenberg don’t visit the historic gym on 33^rd Street as much as they used to. Maloney, who teamed with Penn head coach Jerome Allen in the backcourt to lead the Quakers to a 42-0 Ivy League record from 1993-95, is currently enjoying his retirement from the NBA in Houston, while Greenberg, who starred as a La Salle player before coaching the Penn women from 1999 to 2004, is currently the head coach at Boston University.

But for a few hours on Tuesday, both returned to the place that meant so much to them as Maloney and Greenberg were inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame. It’s a well-deserved honor and I was lucky enough to be there and write about it for CSNPhilly.com. For more on what they said about the induction, I’ve included quotes from both Maloney and Greenberg, which you can find below:

MATT MALONEY

On the induction: It’s incredible. I haven’t been back here in a decade. Once I walked through the door, a bunch of emotions came flooding back – not only from my days playing here but just going to games when I was younger. There’s just an incredible atmosphere and history and tradition of the Big 5, and it’s just incredible to be a part of right now.

On the legendary Matt Maloney-Jerome Allen backcourt: Well, I think it’s more Allen-Maloney. If you ask me, he was one of the best players in Big 5 history. He entailed everything you want in a great player. I just tried my best to not embarrass myself around him more than anything. He taught me so much about game. It was just an incredible experience playing with him. I’m just so happy he’s the coach here. I think it’s great for Penn basketball.

On the Allen/Maloney-led Penn teams that went 42-0 in the Ivy League: Our teams went on a great run and it wasn’t solely because of one or two people. And Fran Dunphy was a great coach. Being part of that ride was fun. Every game we played there wasn’t anyone we felt we couldn’t beat.

Maloney was the Ivy League Player of the Year in his senior season (1994-95)

On playing in the NBA from 1996-2003: I was incredibly fortunate. I know I worked hard to get the opportunity but it’s about someone giving you the opportunity above and beyond. [Former Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich] gave me the opportunity to start and stuck with me for three years down there. And my teammates gave me all the confidence in the world.

On playing with Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler for the Rockets: They were the original Big 3, right? It was incredible. It was kind of easy. You dribble down, you throw the ball to one of them and just watch. It was a great experience. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity.

On possibly returning to basketball: I’m getting perspective on what I want to do. I don’t know. I definitely want to give back what my dad gave me – all the knowledge of basketball. Whatever opportunity comes up, I’ll consider and go from there. … Eventually, I will do something on the basketball level.

On Allen being Penn’s head coach: I was so excited. I knew it would be so good for Penn. He’s got so much knowledge of the game and he’s such a great leader. He commands respect for how good he was. Just being in a room and talking basketball, I know players respect him. He’s really turned the program around, and he’s just started.

On his decision to transfer to Penn after one season at Vanderbilt: I originally wanted to do so it so my dad could see me play. I ended up at Penn and the education I got here was one of the best in the world. And the opportunity to play for Coach Dunphy was incredible. He’s one of the best coaches in the game and Jerome was one of the best players in the game. It was just walking into a perfect-storm situation.

On his most memorable Palestra moment: I remember my first game here at Penn, how nervous I was. From what I recall, I was never really nervous before games. My first game in the NBA, I wasn’t nervous. But my first game here, playing for my hometown team, I was so nervous. I would say that’s the biggest moment – the atmosphere of playing here rather than being in the stands and watching.

On what he thought about when he returned to the Palestra for the first time in more than a decade: Walking down the ramp, it brought back all the memories of me walking down that thing going to practices. Going to Temple practices when I was younger. The first time I met John Chaney down here was a big experience for me when I was kid. Sitting here, now looking around, I remember when they threw streamers on the floor. A lot of different memories hit me.

KELLY GREENBERG

On the induction: It’s a tremendous honor, it really is. It’s funny, when people mention the Big 5 to me, I don’t think of when I played and don’t think of when I coached. I actually think of when I was a little girl and when I came here. It’s just a tremendous honor to have my name put up on the wall with all of the legendary players and coaches and media people. I’m very fortunate. I don’t think I was a star player or a star coach in any way. I just happened to be involved with people that really won a lot and I’m really lucky.

On her family ties to the Big 5: My brother, dad and uncle played at La Salle. My dad and uncle weren’t in the actual Big 5; they played before the Big 5. Coming here in fourth and fifth grade, I remember the banners and streamers. And then becoming a player and realizing there’s a whole new side to it. I always knew the men and by the time I got to college, the women started having a Big 5 of their own. I got to experience both sides to it.

On how this day compared to when she was unveiled as the new Penn coach in 1999: That really was a great day for me. It was a great day for my family and me being back home and being able to coach my home games in this legendary building. That was a magical five years for us. As an assistant coach for so many years, you finally get a chance and I thank Steve Bilsky for giving me that opportunity. What’s special about today is all 11 of my siblings are here. The 12 of us don’t get together too often anymore because there’s much going on. That’s mostly my fault, to be honest.

On if she misses Philadelphia: I definitely do. I miss the basketball part of it and I really miss my family. Up at BU, I feel like we’ve got something really special going on but my family is not a part of it, so that’s the one thing I do miss a lot.

Greenberg coached Penn to two Ivy League championships in five years at the helm

On if it was a hard decision to leave Penn for Boston: It was. At the time, it was very hard. It wasn’t like I had to get the heck out of Penn but I felt ready for a different challenge. I lived up in Boston during my 20s and loved it. BU’s a great place. I really enjoy it. That first year-and-a-half, you always worry if you did the right thing. But I did. And my time at Penn is a great memory.

On her best memory at Penn: I remember [in 2000-01] when we kept winning and went undefeated [in the Ivy League and went to the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament]. That was so special because of the senior class of Claire Cavanaugh, Erin Ladley, Liz Alexander, Jess Allen and of course Diana [Caramanico]. I remember every single game and we squeaked out of so many of those Ivy League games. I really remember games more than anything. To be honest with you, as a coach, I can do without an office. I really remember the practices and the games and the players of course.

On keeping up with Penn women’s basketball after leaving (following Penn’s second trip to the NCAA tourney in 2004): In the beginning, when Amanda [Kammes] and [Jessica Fleischer] and them were finishing up their careers and I wasn’t here, I certainly kept in touch. But it’s really hard when you have your own program and start getting pulled and you just don’t have the time. I’m not a real Internet person but when I could check the papers early on, I certainly did. And now it’s just so different and I don’t know any of the players. But I still want them to do well, of course. I keep in touch with players I coached at Penn. I went to Diana’s wedding. I went to Tara [Twomey’s] wedding. I’ve seen Claire’s kids. So you know, they’re all special people in my life.