Penn has gotten lost and found its way all the way across 33rd street. Not a small feat and we should remind them of such. Penn is down. Penn is at the DAC. This should be a sellout in any year for the battle between the 2 closest schools in all of DI. I hope the current students get behind the team for this specific game, at the very least, and make it as uncomfortable for Penn as possible. I expect about 10 students from Penn to bother to show up. Lets send them back to the other side of 33rd street properly.

UPenn- 64
Drexel- 70

Penn is 0-3 on the season. Beat bad by Iona. Then close loses to Missouri and Towson. Penn will be on just a couple days rest for tonight. Hopefully we can take advantage of some tired early legs.

under 12 down 12-8. Amari 0-2 from the FT line. Sounds like he is not getting down low and their big men are keeping him out. Their one big has 2 fouls already.

Down 21-14 with just over 8 remaining. We cant seem to get into any rhythm. Couple Penn guys have 2 fouls. Need to take advantage.

25-14 Penn with 6:14 to go. Spiker timeout. We arent sure what to do out there and keep Amari on the perimeter. That wont win us many games. Especially if nobody is going to hit shots

What is Mate or Oden Jr bringing to this team?

2-7 at the FT line. Williams is brutal

U4 timeout, down 27-17. Small bit of momentum here need to come out of this turnover with a made shot to really start putting pressure from the crowd onto Penn

Clank. Clank. Clank. 7-25 so far shooting.

Halftime. Turn it over for a penn dunk at the buzzer. Down 33-22. Very poor half by Drexel

Trying to get momentum. cut their 15 point lead down to 5 at one point. But down 11 now.

U4, down 55-48. Untimely turnover by House stepping on the line

2 left, down 4. lets go!

1:34 left. 57-55 timeout Penn. Lets goooooo

Started hitting some shots, but dug too big of a hole again. Hopefully it was still fun and the students keep coming back. I suspect we are going to have a bunch of these inconsistent performances this season. Like ODU against us, we lost this game at the free throw line.

64-59 final

Now for my recap...
It was a fantastic atmosphere at the DAC tonight. Attendance was listed at 2,324 which I believe is the largest crowd at the DAC since the seat renovation was completed. Safe to say it was a sellout. The students filled up both GA sections, and I think that there were students sitting in scattered empty seats around our area as well. Interesting how there was not a large Penn contingent there, but it was quite possibly because Drexel didn't put any tickets aside for them. I will say that the place felt packed. I don't recall it being this crowded for a MBB game since the 2014-2015 season.

EDIT: I looked it up and the attendance for the home opener of the first game after the renovation was completed vs SJU was 2,509. I was not at that game due to illness.

Penn/Drexel is not like it once was. Maybe because I'm so removed from being in college. Maybe because the landscape of college basketball has changed. Maybe I've just grown up. In the past, I would have been upset with the loss. Tonight, I was fine with everything. I have no expectations for this team, so I saw a Drexel team fight back and battle to the end in a great atmosphere.

Free throw shooting and shooting over all was the achilles heel. They played Penn tough defensively, ran their offense well, and kept turnovers down (just 10). Shots just didn't fall. Had they done better at the FT line, the outcome might have been different. But we'll never know. They'll get their warmup against Arcadia on Friday, and then next week in Florida, we'll get a better idea of what this team is made of.

Poor shooting doomed us. 11 missed FTs. 11 missed layups. And even with all that, Drexel had a chance to win. So I give our guys credit for making it close. But still a bummer loss.

Glad so many students are showing up, but someone obviously needs to teach many of these kids how to be college hoops fans. They get loud for dunks and threes but sit in silence half the time. You're on top of the court! Let these visiting players hear it. (/old man yelling)

i think we have to get used to a lot of things not being like they used to be.

just to be clear...it's awesome the students are turning out. everyone is doing a great job with that and attendance in general.

you're probably not going to see a student section that participates though. it's just the way things seem to be these days. the high school student sections do a great job of showing up and dressing up for various theme nights. they're dressed great...but outside of saying "you can't do that" which is probably my least favorite chant of all time...they don't really do anything.

credit the cheerleaders (how about that! cheerleaders leading cheers!), some of the dac pac alums, and my son who is doing his best to break the bleachers by jumping on them to get defense cheers going in the second half.

(11-15-2022 10:10 PM)J.B. Wrote:  Penn/Drexel is not like it once was. Maybe because I'm so removed from being in college. Maybe because the landscape of college basketball has changed. Maybe I've just grown up. In the past, I would have been upset with the loss. Tonight, I was fine with everything. I have no expectations for this team, so I saw a Drexel team fight back and battle to the end in a great atmosphere.

similar to my last post...i was feeling nostalgic seeing the penn uniforms thinking back to all the drexel-penn and other city games i went to as a student. i grew up watching great teams and great coaches so it was awesome to go see the games so easily...and have drexel part of it.

if younger people are even watching like i used to...they're not getting to see the same philadelphia basketball that i got to see. villanova is the whole show and even they're probably going to come back down from the clouds soon. the personalities like chaney, dunphy, and martelli are gone. the big 5 classic and doubleheaders on a saturday afternoon are gone. rivalries in general seem to be gone.

i'm not trying to sound depressing. agree with jb that i was just glad we made it close. i looked over and saw worry on the faces of the penn fans. that was good enough for me. i'm just glad i got to see the end of that period of philadelphia basketball and can't expect the students to be as pumped about it as i was.

Of any team, I would expect students to be able to get behind wanting to beat Penn, the team across the street. Maybe they dont have the ire many do about folks who go to Penn, but just the proximity I would think is enough to want them to care and want to win. But I agree fans and atmospheres in general have changed, so maybe we need to adjust as well to this new way. It is thrilling to hear how well we are showing out in numbers. That means many people are doing a great job and focusing on getting people to the games. That is always the hardest step. Cheering and caring can be a learned trait.

What we really need to get people hooked (beyond really good teams and exciting brand on basketball) is that marquee home game. Many of us here had the postseason NIT game with NC State or UMass or the preseason NIT game with SHSU. The teams in the conference dont have the rabid traveling fanbases of the prior CAA, but that doesnt mean we cant create our own culture and fandom. Name games at home to start the season can help that (Yes I know the struggles of getting those games). Penn is a great one to help with this as a home and home. Orchestrating a walking road trip to the Palestra has an effect on hooking students, too. Excitement breeds followers. We aren't getting Duke to walk into the DAC, but that doesnt mean you can't get bigger names into the DAC. Penn is a great get. ODU is too. Bringing back VCU or Mason can help. Home and home with good mid-majors with branding can help. Heck even doing something with an NCAA darling like a St Peter's might carry some weight in a following season.