It's been all of one game, but the evidence for the Quakers turnaround story is already building.
Behind 18 points from freshman Miles Cartwright - all in the first half - and a double-double from Jack Eggleston, Penn avenged last year's 79-50 loss at Davidson with a 69-64 victory at The Palestra.
The Quakers posted an astonishing 71% FTA/FGA rate, and while they'll want to do better than their 66% shooting from the stripe on the night, it was enough on a night when the Wildcats didn't shoot well from the line either.
The returning injured veterans, Tyler Bernardini and Andreas Schreiber didn't provide much, combining to go 3-for-11 and 3-for-4 from the line in 32 minutes. Cartwright's explosive debut made up for that, giving Penn the third scoring punch it had been looking for to go along with Eggleston and Zack Rosen.
EXIT SANDMAN
After the shocking news, the game was merely an afterthought for most Ivy fans.
All-Ivy forward Michael Sands left the Bulldogs for personal reasons, shortly before the season started. The news became public in Yale's game notes for its meeting with Quinnipiac last night and the most important topic in the postgame reports.
According to Yale Coach James Jones, Sands made the move for personal reasons, and there is no determination about whether he will return to play for the Bulldogs in the future.
In Sands' absence, Yale forward Greg Mangano had a decent game with 20 points on 46 eFG% shooting and nine rebounds. The Bulldogs defense struggled to make Quinnipiac miss and also struggled to keep the Bobcats off the boards when they finally did.
Yale clawed back from down 20 to get within six twice with about two minutes to go, but it couldn't muster the necessary defensive stops, nor did it possess the offensive firepower to pull off the huge comeback.
THE UGLY
It takes a team effort to be this bad, and the Big Green was quite the team in its incompetence.
Dartmouth posted a 28 eFG%, including a 3-for-20 showing from three, as it fell behind Providence 39-15 and never recovered, en route to a 87-52 loss. No player posted an eFG% over 50, and the starting four-guard lineup went 7-for-24 from the field.
While Harvard's poor performance against George Mason wasn't completely universal - Keith Wright tied a career high in points with 22 and set a rebounding high with 16 - it was pretty close, as freshman Laurent Rivard had an awful 0-for-11 showing from the field and fellow guards Brandyn Curry and Christian Webster didn't fare much better (combined 5-for-22).
The cold shooting was one thing, but the turnovers were quite another. The Crimson turned the ball over 24 times on 74 possessions (32% TO Rate), which would have been the third worst performance last year behind the showings at Cornell and at Army.
Wright's monster first half kept Harvard in it at the half (32-28 Patriots), but the turnovers, and the points off of those giveaways, allowed George Mason to run away with it in the second half before settling for a closer-than-it-looks 66-53 win.
ALL-IVY SATURDAY NIGHT
G Zack Rosen (67 eFG%, 16 PTS, 5 REB)
G Miles Cartwright (70 eFG%, 18 PTS, 3 STL)
F Keith Wright (75 eFG%, 22 PTS, 16 REB, 2 BLK)
F Jack Eggleston (92 eFG%, 15 PTS, 11 REB, 4 BLK)
C Greg Mangano (46 eFG%, 20 PTS, 9 REB, 2 BLK)
Top Rookie
G Miles Cartwright (70 eFG%, 18 PTS, 3 STL)
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