Quakeaway from Penn men’s basketball’s 93-49 loss at Villanova

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Disheartening. Discouraging. Disgusting.

Whatever negative adjective you’d want to throw out would probably apply to how Penn performed in a 93-49 loss at Villanova on Tuesday night.

That 44-point margin of defeat is the worst loss Penn has ever suffered against the Wildcats in a series that spans 71 games and dates back to 1910. The prior record-holder was the 43-point loss Penn took to Villanova in the 1971 Elite Eight, which ruined an undefeated season for the Quakers and is widely considered the worst defeat in program history.

This team is galaxies away from that 1970-71 squad. The Quakers actually played pretty well offensively in the early stages on Tuesday, using good ball movement and better three-point shooting to draw even with the Wildcats at the under-eight media timeout in the first half.

What happened from there was nothing short of a collapse. Penn went roughly 14 minutes of game time without scoring a field goal as Villanova used red-hot outside shooting to put together a killer 30-3 run.

As for Tyler Perkins, who got his first chance on Tuesday to face his former Penn teammates after his offseason transfer up the Main Line to ‘Nova? The sophomore guard scored seven points before the game’s first media timeout and finished a rebound shy of a double-double.

There is only one Quakeaway that merits mentioning after Tuesday’s humiliation:

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How are the Ivy non-grad transfers doing?

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With the season two weeks old, here’s a first check on the 2023-24 Ivy stars who transferred prior to their graduation. This year, the student-athletes are all from the men’s side, but growing amounts of NIL money, more relaxed transfer rules and the lack of scholarships in the Ancient Eight should eventually (sadly) expand this list to the women’s division in the near future.

Over the opening few weeks, Kalu Anya, Malik Mack and Danny Wolf have continued their strong play from last year, while Chisom Okpara and Tyler Perkins are seeing reduced roles with their new teams.

We’ll take another look in a few weeks to see how everyone’s doing:

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Penn women’s basketball picks itself up after falling to Saint Joseph’s

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No matter what sport you’ve been around, you’ve probably heard it said: A W is a W. An ugly win counts just as much in the record books.
But the opposite isn’t necessarily true, and the Penn women’s basketball team recorded a pretty good loss Friday night to an excellent Saint Joseph’s squad, 68-57, at the Palestra.
For context, look back a year and a day to the last time the two teams met: a 77-49 blowout for the Hawks on their way to a 28-win season (and a Big 5 championship). If anything, the Hawks are stronger this year, while the Quakers are trying to compensate for the loss of All-Ivy forward Jordan Obi to graduation and spark plug guard Ese Ogbevire to injury.

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Brown men’s basketball looking to gel more after College Hill Classic

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There’s room for more years to add to Brown’s Ivy League title banner at the Pizzitola Sports Center. (Ray Curren)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The brown banner at the Pizzitola Sports Center sits ominously among a slew of white ones and reads “Men’s Basketball Ivy League Champions.”

Below that sits a lone number: 1986 — with plenty of space for a companion or two.

It almost read 2024, of course. We don’t have to rehash what happened last March in New York on this site, but Brown had earned its first NCAA Tournament in 38 years by upsetting Yale and Princeton. Until it hadn’t.

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Minnesota downs Yale’s men’s basketball, 59-56

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A second-half Minnesota surge led the Golden Gophers to a 59-56 win over Yale at Williams Arena before 8,205 fans Saturday.

The Bulldogs had led by as many as 14 (25-11) in the first half and held a 29-19 halftime lead.

Minnesota came out far more aggressively in the second half and spread the floor effectively. The hosts also made a concerted effort to get the ball to preseason All-Big Ten senior forward Dawson Garcia. Garcia registered 19 second-half points after managing only five in the first half.

“We are bending but not breaking,” Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said.

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Princeton women’s basketball loses more than a game at Quinnipiac

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Princeton women’s basketball lost more than a game today against  at the M&T Bank Arena in Hamden, Conn.

The 74-66 loss to Quinnipiac might be an afterthought to Carla Berube, as star junior guard Madison St. Rose went down with 6:31 remaining with what appeared to be a painful left knee injury. She was taken off the court by Berube and a trainer and came back on the floor about 10 minutes later on crutches with an ice pack on her knee. Berube was uncertain as to the actual extent of the injury postgame.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 86-69 loss to Saint Joseph’s

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PHILADELPHIA — There are losses, and then there are capital L “Losses” that are so embarrassing and so complete that they force you to reevaluate your priors about the team you cheer for.

The 86-69 beating Penn took at the hands of Saint Joseph’s on Friday night at the Palestra falls into the latter category.

The Quakers (2-2, 0-1 Big 5) were never seriously competitive against the Hawks (3-1, 2-0) in their sole nonconference home game against a premier opponent. The Hawks used a 14-2 run early in the first half to break a 9-9 game wide-open, then tacked on a 15-2 run midway to expand its lead to a high of 32 points.

As of early Saturday, Penn has fallen nearly 75 spots in KenPom’s rankings in less than two weeks of play, plunging from 186 to 260.

Red flags abounded on Friday, starting with how …

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LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball falls to Loyola Chicago, 73-68

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Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps the first loss of the season for Princeton (3-1), a 73-68 win for Loyola Chicago at Jadwin Gym Friday night:

Harmoni Turner sets Harvard women’s basketball single-game scoring record in win over Boston College

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Harmoni Turner had a game for the ages on Wednesday night as the Harvard women’s basketball team defeated Boston College, 78-70, at Lavietes Pavilion.  

Turner scored 41 points, an all-time program record for points in a game. The senior guard also grabbed 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.  

The Mansfield, Texas native was scorching hot from the field all night long, shooting 14-for-23, including 7-for-11 from beyond the arc. But it wasn’t until the final second of the game that she broke the program’s single-game scoring record of 39 points, a mark previously set by two players – Allison Feaster in 1997 and Hana Peljto in 2004.

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How Columbia men’s basketball held on for 76-75 win over Lehigh

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Up 71-58 with 2:30 left in regulation, the Columbia men looked well on their way to a comfortable victory at Levien Gymnasium, but Lehigh rode a huge 17-4 run to knot the game at 75 with seconds on the clock.

A controversial foul on the Mountain Hawks sent Lions junior guard Avery Brown to the line with 0.8 left, and the junior guard sank one of two free throws to seal the deal.

The relieved Lions are 4-0 for the first time since 2005, while a frustrated Lehigh sits at 0-3.

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