Soft Pretzel Logic

If the AP could call the mayor's race within half an hour of the polls closing last night, I think we can safely say Penn has been knocked off its perch as the most-supported team here on the blog.

The current results:

Drexel 404
La Salle 10
Penn 53
Temple 28
Saint Joseph's 107
Villanova 467
Somebody else 7

But the poll will remain open until Saturday afternoon, so keep voting.

Today's College HoopsCast is up, featuring interviews with Drexel's Bruiser Flint and Penn's Glen Miller.

Which brings me to this comment posted by Fred:

JT:

Has it really gotten that bad with the Penn students that they dont turn out for the Princeton game?

I am amazed with the lack of interest in the Penn student body for anything related to athletics.

The FB crowds seem sparse (I think they "announced" 12K for the last home game). And now the interest level has been diminished for the big basketball game.

Are the students really that disinterested? Bored? Are there other more attractive options on campus?

Are students strapped for spending money? (I would think not)

Are marketing and promotional efforts not working?

I think this is quite disappointing, considering that Penn traditionally fields very good teams in both sports (recent football problems aside).

Wow.

I hope the Penn fans on here will chime in with their views on this but I will say a few things. First, as I said yesterday, Princeton being really bad makes a huge difference. The whole buzz around the game was that it was always for the Ivy League title, and that's gone.

For example, I was at the 2003 game and it was jammed to the rafters. That year, both teams were very good -- Penn had Ugonna Onyekwe et al., while Princeton had won the title in 2001 and tied for it a year earlier.

A year later, I believe the Palestra game was over Penn's spring break, which severely diminished the atmosphere. Then John Thompson III left, Joe Scott came in and down the Tigers went.

But I will also say this. Fred asks whether the promotional efforts aren't working. From my experiences on Penn's campus, I've rarely all that much promotion in the first place. Drexel hangs a banner over Market Street; Temple has the marquee on the Liacouras Center, though that is certainly in a prime location. But it's been a while since I've seen promotional material on Locust Walk.

Again, I want to hear from the Penn folks on this, but I get the impression that there isn't much of that in general.

And by the way, check out all those stories in the headline list on the right side of the blog. Today's offerings in both papers are very good, especially Ed Barkowitz's national college basketball preview in the Daily News.