WE ARE ... in the Palestra?
PSU-Brandywine to get taste of big-time hoops vs. Penn
MIDDLETOWN » For a basketball player from Philadelphia, there is no greater thrill than to play at the Palestra. It’s called the Cathedral of College Basketball for a reason. The Palestra ranks up there up there with the great on-campus arenas in the land such as Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, Phog Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas and The Pit at New Mexico.
“It’s the mecca of Philly basketball,” Penn State-Brandywine point guard Donte Winfield said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Winfield played in an AAU tournament at the Palestra. Teammates James Fisher and Terrence Brown also played there as youngsters.
Fisher, a senior guard from Upper Darby, played there as a seventh-grader with St. Andrew’s CYO in Drexel Hill. Brown won a Police Athletic League championship at the Palestra as a 12-year-old.
All will have that opportunity again when the local Lions (0-1) take on Penn (1-2) at 11:30 Saturday morning.
“It’s going to be nice to experience it again,” Fisher said. “We’re looking forward to it.”
The game came about because Penn is playing in the Gulf Coast Showcase, which is considered one of the many exempt tournaments or multiple team events the NCAA allows Division I teams to play in November and December. The tournament counts as one game against a team’s 28-game schedule.
The MTEs, as they are known, also allows the teams involved to play one non-bracketed game against a non-Division I team. Penn wanted to take advantage of that provision. Ben Kay, who is in his first year as the coach at Brandywine, is a friend of Penn assistant coach Ira Bowman. The next thing you know, the game was on the schedule.
“I’m a former Division III athlete,” said Penn coach Steve Donahue, who played at Ursinus after graduating from Cardinal O’Hara in 1980. “I played against Roman there as a senior and would have been thrilled to play at the Palestra in college. That would have been incredible, so I assume that they’ll be excited to come down here and play. And our guys are excited to play any game. We can’t wait to get out there. We’re looking forward to it and I’m sure they are.”
That guess.
“There wasn’t much arm twisting,” Kay said. “As soon as he asked me, I said, ‘Yeah, we’re in.’ I didn’t think about it and I didn’t second guess it.”
PSU-Brandywine has a Division III schedule but has not become a fully affiliated Division III member as yet. The school is working toward that status, as five other Penn State satellite schools have done.
The local Lions have played at the Palestra five times since 1995, but that was when PSUBrandywine was a two-year school, and not the four-year institution it is today. Those games were against Penn’s JV squad, not the varsity squad that plays in the Ivy League. This is the first game in PSUBrandywine (and formerly PSUDelco) program history against a Division I opponent, according to the team. “We’re excited,” Kay said. “It’s once-in-a-lifetime experience. a was a very educated We’re going to go down there, breathe that Palestra air and take in the history. It’s going to be great.”
The Lions have no delusions of grandeur. They’re decided underdogs and know it. Brandywine has four players between 6-3 and 6-6 and is 13-61 over the last three seasons. The Quakers have eight players 6-7 or taller, yet the Lions are looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s a confidence builder,” said Winfield, who went to Simon Gratz High School. “If we can go out and compete at that level against those caliber of players, I think it will help us when we get to conference play.”
“It’s a test to see where we stand,” Brown added. “We’ll learn a lot about ourselves, find out what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
The best part is the Lions get to see where they stand against a Division I foe in the greatest gym in America.
“It’s a mecca,” Fisher said. “Everyone from Philly wants to play in the Palestra and we’re going to get that chance. We’re exited about it.”