After my football recap, here’s my roundup of Penn Hoops news:
1) Over the last few weeks, it looks like Penn’s schedule is finally firming up. In fact, it appears that all but one game has been set. Unfortunately for the Quakers, getting that last game might be a little troublesome. According to the team’s twitter account, they can’t find anyone to play at the Palestra on December first. So if any ADs from Mid-Atlantic Mid-Majors read this blog, I'm sure Glen Miller would be happy to hear from you about that date. (On an aside, here's an article about some of the challenges of creating a Division I basketball schedule.)
2) Mid Major Madness is ranking every team in Division I, and Penn came in at 262 out of 344. The description of the team talks about the high hopes of last year, but says the Quakers went 10-18 since they weren't "able to handle the pressure" and "due to their poor performance at home in conference play" (can't argue with that). As for this upcoming year, they make the bold prediction that Harrison Gaines' transfer will affect the team's chances to rebound.
Previously, Dartmouth at No. 329, Brown at No. 307, and Columbia at No. 291 were ranked. That means Penn is behind Cornell, Princeton, Harvard and Yale (my guess for who they'll rank as the top four Ivy teams).
3) Sports Illustrated notes that several elite basketball recruits are considering Harvard due to its expanded financial aid package and Tommy Amaker's recruiting techniques. But that might come back to haunt Amaker. The former Michigan coach, according to the Cornell Basketball Blog, has recruited many players by promising playing time. As you can imagine, this is quite an attractive pitch. Yet it might just be false promises since the Crimson now have a surplus of players (possibly as high as 14--all juniors or younger--in 2010).
So far Amaker's stay in the Ivy League hasn't been great, as Harvard came in tied for sixth in the league last year (with Penn) and in a three-way tie for last in 2008. We'll see going forward whether or not Amaker finally breaches the top half of the league (I guess Mid Major Madness thinks that'll happen this year).
4) Looking at the Big 5 wire, Villanova senior Reggie Redding will be suspended for the fall semester after police found marijuana in his car. While that might not affect the Wildcats’ chance of returning to the Final Four, it does mean he won’t be able to suit up against Penn in December. Then again, he only scored two points on 1-for-6 shooting in last year's Big 5 game.
5) In other City news, the three enshrinees in this year's Big 5 Hall of Fame class are some of the biggest coaching names in the history of the unofficial conference: Chaney, Massimino, and “Speedy." Or for full disclosure: Temple's John Chaney, Villanova's Rollie Massimino, and La Salle's William “Speedy” Morris. The three have a combined 58 years coaching in the Big 5, as well as over a combined 15 Big 5 titles.
Tags: basketball, Big 5, harvard, Ivy League, rankings, Reggie Redding, schedules, villanova
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August 24th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Better make sure Penn's house is clean before you start talking about someone elses mess. How's Miller's act working for everyone?
August 24th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I sure hope the AD and his stooges (Mahoney, Rockwell, Jim Dunning)
find comfort in knowing that his keystone basketball program
has PLUMETTED to #264 out of #344
If this is not an indictment on the ineptitude of the AD, then nothing is.
This is a travesty and speaks volumes.
Bilsky and his team of overseers should be embarrased by this.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
FOJL -
Here's the real angst for Penn sports fans: In "Random Ivy Notes 8/9" there was a link to the NYT article on the league and the new office director. But the major take away was concern within the league "...a few issues are simmering — among them, whether wealthier institutions are gaining a competitive advantage by offering more financial aid..." A prime example of this is Harvard's BB recruiting per the above post.
AD Bilsky was prominently mentioned in the NYT article, and his comments should interest Penn sports fans and hopefully the DP staff as well:
“It’s a very challenging job because you’re managing presidents, and you’re managing admissions officers, deans and athletic directors,” said Steve Bilsky, the athletic director at the University of Pennsylvania. "
"Harris said she was already monitoring the question of whether a difference in financial aid packages was giving members with better endowments — Harvard, Princeton and Yale are the wealthiest — an advantage over others in recruiting top athletes. The Ivy League does not award athletic scholarships, but institutions may offer financial aid based on need.
"Bilsky, the athletic director at Penn, said the financial aid issue was among the top challenges the league faced. “We are a league that was formed originally based on an even playing field in terms of financial aid,” he said. “That’s now becoming more in doubt.”
Let's hope the DP will press AD Bilsky to clarify further the extent of the unlevel recruiting playing field, and what if anything is being done about it. Otherwise, what's happening in BB will permeate quickly to other sports, condemning more teams to mediocrity - which we already have in abundant quantity!
EN
August 25th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Beware. There is reason to believe that MMM missed it when they called the Lions at #291. In 2008-09 League games, they were tough at home (they had Cornell down at the half before losing) and losing to Penn [and Kevin Egee] only in the last second. They competed well on the road, even with a depleted squad.
Columbia lost three important starters fairly early to season-ending injuries; all should be ready to go for 2009-10 and they add a mobile seven-footer, to cover for the graduation of All-Ivy Jason Miller. Most importantly, Coach Jones has consistently done a nice job with his personnel on Morningside Hts.
It is not hard to see Penn also finishing behind Columbia.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Ernie makes a great point. I also have endorsed that someone
on the DP staff try and make inroads with the AD to get an
exclusve interview.
That would be real journalism. And would be more interesting
than linking stories from other outlets such as SI.com and
the always-popular Soft Pretzel Logic. That Tannenwald is
terrific. Real go-getter too.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
FOJL & DP Staff -
On a related topic, did you catch the NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/sports/ncaafootball/23harvard.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=harvard%20quarterback&st=cse on the Harvard QB - Andrew Hatch - returning after a couple of years at LSU to get 1 more year of eligibility at Harvard (6 years total). I can only speculate on the uproar if Penn tried to pull a stunt like this.
That there is an unlevel playing field in Ivy recruiting is bad enough. But when bad acting a la Amacker's documented and reported recruiting violations last year merely gets a tut tut, sorry, but why the *** is that allowed to stand? Here's a suggestion: Why don't the DP sports editors discuss this with counterparts from the non-H-Y-P schools and see if this issue resonates at other campuses. Left to their respective administrations to sort out has clearly resulted in nothing meaningful. If anything it seems to have emboldened Harvard!
EN
August 25th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
What's to moderate?
EN
August 26th, 2009 at 9:39 am
is there some sort of inside joke with jon lubin?
August 26th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Lubin is some sort of big time Athletic Supporter. Big player in NY legal circles and such.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
If there is an inside joke, I'm not in on it. I don't know who "Friends of Jon Lubin" is, and I'm not sure why he/she chose to use my name as his/her Publius. He/she doesn't speak for me, and his/her views don't represent mine. That having been said, he/she wants to see Penn Athletics do a hell of a lot better than the sad run we've suffered of late. And who can't get behind that?
August 28th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
How do we know you are the real Lubin from NYC?
And do we know for sure that the "faux" Lubin really isn't a Lubin?
What really makes a real Lubin ?