Andreas Schreiber missed all but two games last year as he suffered from a separated shoulder injury.

It appears he’ll miss even more time.

Multiple sources have confirmed that the Swedish forward/center has re-injured his shoulder and will be out indefinitely. He’s started both games so far this year yet only averages 5.0 points and one rebound per game. He technically is a senior, but has junior eligibility due to the injuries.

Two games down for M. Hoops, and two losses to BCS teams. But as my colleagues Neil Fanaroff and Ari Seifter asked, how much can we learn from these two defeats about the 2009-10 men’s basketball team? Neil believes, not much, since this is way to soon to make snap judgments about the team. Ari believes we can make broader statements about the team’s ability to compete with top-flight teams.

Not to cop out, but they’re both right.

Clearly this Penn team, especially this early in the season, isn’t suited to compete with a top 5 team like Villanova. And there’s a good chance the Quakers’ trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium will result in an equally lopsided loss to Duke.  But that doesn’t mean that Penn will be irrelevant against better competition forever.  Ivy teams in general aren’t irrelevant nationally. Cornell beat Alabama this weekend. Harvard beat Holy Cross and Williams and Mary, two better mid-majors. Even Brown — which was last in the Ivies last year — was semi-competitive agains Virginia Tech. Penn has awhile to go before they can be as successful as Cornell is right now, but that doesn’t mean they’ll go winless in the Big 5 from now until they quit out of desperation.

On the other hand, Neil’s right that losing to Penn State and Villanova tells us very little about Penn’s Ivy chances. The fact of the matter is this season will be a success or failure depending on Penn’s Ivy play. If Penn goes 4-10 in non-conference play like it did last year, people will surely be up in arms, calling for Glen Miller’s head. But then if the team were to somehow go 10-4 in League play, perhaps beat Cornell at the Palestra, go at least 1-1 versus Princeton and not lose to Dartmouth — twice. I’m not saying they necessarily would do that. And Tyler Bernardini’s injury could affect them significantly. But frankly it’s too early to tell if they can compete with teams more equal to their caliber.

I realize some of you already posted your thoughts on Ari’s initial column. But feel free to do so again here on The Buzz, especially your thoughts on this year’s team.

Also, read after the jump for two more Hoops items

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Fresh off clinching at least a share of the Ivy League championship, the football team got some recognition yesterday after their 17-7 win
over Harvard.

For the first time since the 2005 season the Quakers entered the national rankings, as their 367 votes earned them 24th in the latest
Sports Network Football Championship Subdivision Media Poll. Penn’s 7-2 record is 18th best of any ranked team, and its two
losses were to No. 2 Villanova (14-3) and No. 22 Lafayette (20-17 in overtime).

In addition, the Quakers got two Ivy Player of the Week awards. Senior linebacker Jake Lewko won Defensive POY after a career-high 15
tackles, while senior quarterback Kyle Olson won Offensive POY after scoring both of Penn’s touchdowns.

Another Quakers win, another week of What the Other Side is Saying. This time let’s look at the Brown Daily Herald’s coverage, as well as that of the Providence Journal.

The Daily Herald just had a simple recap of the game, leading with a quick recap of Penn’s overtime woes since 2006. Two interesting stats from the article:

1) If the Quakers had shut out Brown — and they were a pick six away from doing so — it would’ve been the first time Brown failed to score since 1996.

2) Brown running back running back Zach Tronti didn’t touch the ball in the second quarter and got only six handoffs in the final two quarters, yet somehow had 63 yards on 11 carries, making him only the second running back to gain over 60 yards against Penn this season.

That second stat about Brown’s limited success running the ball led to two comments on the Pro Jo recap. The two comments astutely called out Bears coach Phil Estes for relying heavily on the pass. Meanwhile, Penn’s vaunted rush D did give up 5.7 yards per carry to Tronti, yet he didn’t even get a dozen carries. Considering Penn — usually a run-first team — focused on its passing game, perhaps if Brown had gone to its rushing game more often it would’ve compensated for the below-average performance of its Ivy-leading passing attack. Then again, it’s easy being a Monday (afternoon) quarterback.

Hopefully not as desperate as this woman.

Susan Finkelstein, who ESPN describes as a “43-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate student,” was so motivated to get World Series tickets that she posted to Craigslist the following message:

“DESPERATE BLONDE NEEDS WS TIX (Philadelphia)
“Diehard Phillies fan—gorgeous tall buxom blonde— in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable— I’m the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!”

An undercover police officer soon answered the request, and when she allegedly told him she’d perform sex acts for tickets, she was arrested for prostitution charges.

However, it appears she’ll get her tickets! Wired 96.5’s Chio in the Morning will apparently give her two tickets in conjunction with a car dealer.

So perhaps those of you who really want to go, can think of other creative ways to score free tickets. (As always, an ideas in the comments are welcome).

(Thanks to Ari for the tip, who also found her facebook profile.)

Last week I started this new feature of linking to the opposing school’s football stories. Week 1 illustrated the Columbia Spectator’s reaction to Penn’s 27-13 win. This week, let’s see what the Yale Daily News — considered one of the better Ivy newspapers – had to say about Penn’s 9-0 shutout.

The YDN only had one article, a standard recap with a sweet quote from Bulldogs coach Tom Williams, who said “we played with great violence.” (Notice the photo credit). Interesting facts from the recap: though Penn hadn’t shut out an opponent since November 2007, Yale was shut out as recently as the last game of 2008, and in fact didn’t score an offensive touchdown for the second straight week.

There were several comments on the article. Some were vehemently against Williams, who hasn’t thrilled Yalies in his rookie year as coach. But the one defense of him that I especially liked went for the French Revolution metaphor: “Roll the guillotine back into storeage for a bit. … Show Mr. Williams a year of mercy, since the unfortunate truth is that his current minions are all holdovers from the ancien régime.

I know it’s been a while, but here’s a Random Ivy notes:

1) Sure it’s been beaten to death many times before, but here’s another column decrying the Ivy League’s ban on football postseason play. I’ve already stated I’m pro-football playoffs, and won’t rehash the arguments. But this column, written by someone from Delaware of all places, emphatically believes it’s “the dumbest, most unfair rule in sports” that the Ivy champion can’t play in the FCS playoffs. (Some background: when he’s talking about Delaware playing Delaware State, he’s referring to the Blue Hen’s refusal to play their in-state rivals.)

2) As a hard-hitting linebacker (and center) for Penn and the Eagles, Chuck Bednarik probably would’ve liked the Penn-Yale game Saturday that ended 9-0. He actually was present at Franklin Field, signing copies of an oral history about him. Although we were told not to talk to him, Soft Pretzel Logic got a short video interview with the Philadelphia legend.

3) The Cornell Basketball Blog has an index of season previews, and not surprisingly the Big Red are the consensus preseason No. 1 Ivy team. Penn’s preseason ranking is extremely more volatile, ranging from second to seventh.

(Ed Note: I spotted Keiffer Garton the other day in Annenberg on crutches. So I asked Staff Writer Eli Cohen to follow up at practice. Here’s what Eli got).

Last Saturday against Columbia, junior quarterback Keiffer Garton — who had missed the previous two games with an elbow injury — rebounded from a two-interception first half to throw two touchdowns and lead Penn to a decisive 27-13 victory.

Coaches as well as spectators were curious as to whether or not Garton would be able to play like he did in the second half when Yale comes to Franklin Field Saturday.

Now, coach Al Bagnoli and the Quakers won’t have to worry about how Garton will perform against the Bulldogs.

Because Garton won’t be playing.

The Castle Rock, Colo., native sustained a knee sprain during Tuesday’s practice, and was heavily bandaged and on crutches by the next day.

Bagnoli is not optimistic about Garton’s chances of playing soon, and doesn’t really know what to expect.

For the time being, however, senior Kyle Olson, who Bagnoli claims is 100 percent healthy and ready to go after recovering from his own knee injury, will start for the Quakers as they try to continue their three-game winning streak.

(Be sure to check thedp.com/sports later today when we post our preview of the Yale game for more info).

I’m going to try a new feature on The Buzz this week. Each Monday I’ll try to find stories on the football game from the past weekend written by the opposing team’s student newspaper (and in the case of the more rural schools the local professional papers as well). Obviously I’m a few days behind, but with Fall Break at Penn earlier this week, The DP only published our own stories today so I didn’t think of this idea until now. So sorry the Columbia Spectator stories are a few days old.

First is the standard recap. Interestingly, while we refer to the Lions quarterback as M. A. Olawale, The Spectator uses his first name, Millicent. Also, Lou Miller led the Columbia defense with 10 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and five tackles for a loss, and earned the inaugural John Toner Columbia Football Homecoming Player of the Game award for his efforts.

They also have a sidebar on turnovers, which is similar to my column that ran today, though of course without opinion. (There was no column.)

In addition, since it’s already Wednesday, The Spectator has their equivalent of an Ivy notebook. They focus on the fact that just three Ivy teams won, including Penn and Brown who beat League foes Columbia and Princeton, respectively. Of note, it also mentions that Princeton star linebacker Scott Britton suffered a knee injury in the loss and probably will miss the rest of the season. That marks the second Tigers standout — after running back Jordan Culbreath – to suffere a season-ending injury.

Friday marked the beginning of college basketball season as teams were allowed to start officially practicing. Many schools celebrate the start of the year with Midnight Madness. Thought up by former Maryland coach Lefty Driessell in the early 1970s, the tradition has developed into a major event at many Division I schools.

Midnight Madness is basically a glorified pep rally to kick off the season in which the team is introduced and sometimes scrimmages or practices, fans compete in contests and the coaches make spectacular entrances. Well maybe that last one only applies to Maryland coach Gary Williams, who has exploded out of a box (or something like that) and entered the Terrapins’ stadium on a motorcycle. In addition many schools use the event as a recruiting tool, with an estimated 160 blue chip recruits attending a Midnight Madness event in 2007.

But one team that doesn’t do a Midnight Madness event is Penn. (Interestingly, no City Six team had events yesterday, though La Salle and Saint Joseph’s have similar events planned for next week.)

Former coach Fran Dunphy liked the event, and the last one took place in 2004 (in 2005, Dunphy’s final season, the night coincided with Fall Break, like it does this year, so the event didn’t happen.) However, since Glen Miller has been here the Athletic Department hasn’t organized an official Midnight Madness.

Of course, instead Penn has the Line. This year’s Line certainly was closer to a Midnight Madness format than say 2007, as Miller and several players stayed quite late into the night. Yet the Line is restricted to current students who are interested in spending an entire night in the Palestra in order to get season tickets. But what about alumni? What about students who don’t want to spend an entire night in the Palestra? What about Penn fans who don’t want to buy a full set of season tickets? Furthermore, since the Line was before the official Midnight Madness start date, no practicing could legally happen.

Meanwhile, while Penn Athletics did acknowledge the start of practice today, the opening session was closed to the public, as well as the media. (In fact Miller doesn’t open practices to the media until a couple of weeks into the season.)

So do you think Penn would be better suited to have a Midnight Madness event, complete with players practicing? Perhaps the Athletics Department can create an event in conjunction with the Line. Under this system, a practice open to the general public could happen at midnight, followed by students spending the rest of the night in the Palestra to get the tickets.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.