Report: Mike Martin a finalist for head coaching job at Brown

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According to a tweet from Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, Mike Martin was chosen be the new head coach at Brown:

However, no official announcement has been made, and a follow-up tweet from Jeff Goodman, also of CBS Sports, said that the deal was not finalized:

With Brown graduation over the weekend, it is unlikely the University will announce anything before the middle of next week, according to GoLocalProv.

Martin has been an assistant coach at Penn for six seasons. He came to Philadelphia after playing and coaching for the Bears. He was a four-year starter at Brown and finished his college career with a 63-45 record. He graduated in 2004 and was an assistant coach at Brown in 2005-06 before coming to Penn.

Ivy ADs decide against postseason basketball tournament

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We learned last month that the Ivy League basketball coaches were proposing the league develop a postseason tournament instead of having the regular season winner  represent the conference in the NCAA tournament.

It's an interesting idea that would fundamentally change the league. I didn't like it. Neither did Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky. Neither did Eamonn Brennan from ESPN.

Today, after the Ivy League's spring meetings concluded, the league office released this statement that the proposals had been denied by the athletic directors:

RED BANK, N.J. -- The Ivy League announced today that its directors of athletics have decided not to move forward with proposals for postseason tournaments in men's and women's basketball.

"After careful consideration of these proposals, the athletics directors decided that our current method of determining the Ivy League Champion and our automatic bid recipient to the NCAA Championship is the best model moving forward," saidRobin Harris, Ivy League Executive Director.

In men's and women's basketball, the Ivy League plays a 14-game, double round-robin schedule where each team plays each other home and away. The team with the best conference record in each sport is awarded the Ivy title and the League's NCAA Tournament automatic bid.

The Ivy League athletics directors discussed the proposals at their annual meetings, which concluded Thursday afternoon in Red Bank, N.J.

And that's the end of that chapter.

Ivy League reups TV deal with NBC Sports for football, basketball and lacrosse

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If you enjoyed seeing Ivy League football on the Versus network last season, you'll be happy to know the rebranded NBC Sports Network has renewed it's contract with the Ancient Eight.

If you didn't enjoy the lack of basketball coverage fo the Ivies last season, you should be very excited to hear that with the new two-year deal, NBCSN has added "six-to-10 men's basketball games" annually and up to four men's lacrosse games in addition to the six-to-10 football games.

The league office announced the deal today.

"The Ivy League is excited to continue our relationship with the NBC Sports Network," said Robin Harris, Ivy League Executive Director in a statement. "The NBC Sports Network has been an outstanding partner and we appreciate their interest in enhancing our existing relationship by increasing the number of games and sports. We are pleased to showcase more Ivy League competition nationally to our passionate fan base which has a thirst for Ivy League athletics."

The deal also includes the rights to broadcast "The Game," Harvard and Yale's annual end of the season football rivalry match. There is no mention of the Penn-Princeton men's basketball games, though these may be valuable properties the NBC decides to pick up. According to the release, "Even more Ivy League games may be seen on a national basis within this agreement as the NBC Sports Network has acquired the rights to sublicense additional football and men's basketball games to a national sports network."

UPDATE (4:45 PM): Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky has commented on the deal: "I think this is a great television package for the Ivy League and will allow a national audience to become more acquainted with the high level of talent that exists among our schools. Kudos to Robin Harris and her staff for getting this accomplished."

Penn women’s lacrosse earns at-large bid to NCAA tournament

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The Penn women's lacrosse team thought its NCAA tournament chances were slim after its 6-4 loss to Dartmouth Sunday in the championship game of the Ivy League tournament.

But Sunday night, the Quakers learned that they had earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. They will face No. 6 Loyola (MD) on May 13 at 1 p.m.

Loyola earned an automatic bid after winning the Big East tournament. The Greyhounds beat powerhouse Syracuse in the championship game and enter the tournament with a 12-5 record.

This will be Penn's sixth consecutive tournament appearance. Last year, the Red and Blue fell to Duke in the first round, 12-9.

This is the first time since 1983 that Penn and Loyola will meet in the tournament. The Quakers beat the Greyhounds, 9-5, in their first-ever NCAA tournament win.

Check out what Penn coach Karin Brower Corbett and senior co-captains Emily Leitner and Erin Brennan had to say about their bid after the jump.

Continue reading →

History will be made

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In case you haven't heard, the women's lacrosse team is the No. 1 seed in the Ivy Tournament. And since Franklin Field will be occupied by the Heps track meet this weekend, the lacrosse tournament will be held at Penn Park. If you're into being a part of history, I suggest heading down to Dunning-Cohen Champions Field (former home of the Bubble... I mean, seasonal air structure) at 5pm Friday, where you will witness the first ever varsity game on the field (it's Dartmouth versus Cornell). If you want to see the second varsity game on the turf at Penn Park, wait until 8pm when Penn takes on Harvard. 

Tickets are $10 for students, but Penn Athletics has put together a nice deal. The team is on Locust Walk today until 2pm and tomorrow from 11-2 giving tickets to anyone who can score on a goal. Apparently it's pretty easy, so save yourself the money and take a shot!

The winners of Friday's games will face off in the championship round Sunday at noon, also at Dunning-Cohen. Definitely check it out.

Ticket info: If you can't get free tickets, Friday's tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students. It's $10 and $5 on Sunday, and the weekend costs $20 for adults and $10 for students. 

He’s baaaaack: Glen Miller a candidate for Brown head coach job

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Glen Miller might be the smartest man to ever coach Ivy League basketball.

Word up the Northeast corridor is that Miller is a candidate for the head coach opening at Brown in the wake of Jesse Agel's firing. Miller was the most successful coach in Bears history, before he left to take Fran Dunphy's coveted position coaching at Penn in 2006. After devastating the Quakers' program in 3.5 short years, Miller was fired, and has since served as Basketball Operations coordinator and an assistant under Jim Calhoun.

GoLocalProv.com has more on the short list for the Brown job (which includes Penn assistant and stud Mike Martin).

So why is Miller the smartest coach in the history of the Ancient Eight? After running the Penn program into the ground during his tenure here, he destroyed the League's most successful program over the previous decade. It was all just a beautifully concocted mastermind plan to derail the competition and, when he returns to coach the Bears, bring an Ivy title to Providence.

Inception.

Penn men’s golf wins Ivy title in playoff

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Yesterday I took a drive to Atlantic City — not for the usual reasons — but to see my friend Scotty Williams compete at the Ivy League men's golf championships at Galloway National Golf Club.

It was a fun time (and Williams had quite the entourage following his round), but apparently I should have gone down today. The Quakers came back from a 16-stroke deficit on the final round to tie Dartmouth forcing a team playoff, the first ever in Ivy championship history. All five competing members from each squad would play the 18th hole, the best four scores would be added up. Incredibly, they all tied. Let's let @PennGolf tell the story:

And here's a shot, courtesy of Penn Athletics, of the team with coach Scott Allen and Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris holding up the trophy.

You can read more about the match here.

Penn softball guarantees share of South Division title with sweep of Columbia

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In Wednesday’s edition of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn softball was announced as the DP’s team of the year on the women’s side.  Of course, the Quakers had yet to even finish regular season play.

If there was any doubt as to the softball team's claim to this award before, it should no longer remain.

With one weekend of Ivy play remaining, the Red and Blue could guarantee at least a share of the South Division title by sweeping Columbia in their four-game series.  It would be the Quakers' first division title since 2007.

Penn not only swept, but decimated the Lions.  In doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday, the Quakers outscored Columbia 33-5 and won at least one game each day by mercy rule.

While Penn’s offense shelled its opponent, pitching virtuoso Alexis Borden had the most impressive performance of the weekend.  The freshman pitched every inning for the Quakers against Columbia and gave up just five runs in 33 innings.  The four wins boosted Borden’s record to 23-4 on the season and helped Borden pass Jessie Lupardus for most wins in a single season in Penn history.  Lupardus had 20 wins in 2008.

Penn (32-15, 15-5 Ivy) will now keep a close eye on Cornell (22-21, 13-5), who was tied with the Quakers for the lead in the South Division entering the weekend.  Two games into its four-games series at Princeton, the Big Red is still in contention for the division, as it won both games today.  However, Cornell will have to sweep again on Sunday in order to keep pace with the Red and Blue.

If Cornell wins both games on Sunday, then the Quakers and the Big Red will play a one-game playoff to determine which team will play in the Ivy League Championship series against Harvard next weekend.

Though the Crimson have run the table this year largely untouched, Penn’s dominant performances of late have made the Quakers a serious threat for an Ivy League title.  In particular, the best of three setup of the Ivy championship series would benefit the Red and Blue, as Borden could feasibly pitch the entirety of the series.  With this in mind, Penn seems well positioned to spoil Harvard’s otherwise easy travels in the Ivy League this season.

 

Daily Trojan hoops writer comments on Alexis Moore

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In order to gain a better insight into the play of USC transfer Alexis Moore, we asked The Daily Trojan men’s hoops beat writer Joey Kaufman for some much-needed intel.

You’re going to glance at Alexis Moore’s stats, and they won’t exactly tell you much. He started 18 games last season and averaged 4.3 points and two rebounds per contest — nothing really to write home about.

 

Part of the problem for Moore, a freshman, largely centered on the fact that he was playing too many minutes, as was the case for many members of USC’s men’s basketball team last season. He averaged roughly 25 per game, far more than what was anticipated when he was recruited out of Long Beach Poly.

So as you can imagine, he struggled a bit, particularly shooting-wise. He made just 28.7 percent of shots from the field and 28.3 percent from 3-point range. He isn’t a particularly explosive athlete. Not that quick. Average ball handler. Average defender. But he is fundamentally sound and that should help him in the Ivy League. He works very hard and should improve.

He’s one of those college players who will need a couple of years to develop, but once he does, he should be serviceable at the very least. [Moore] has a good attitude, smart guy and I’d expect him to improve over the coming years. Put him in a good system, and he should improve.