It's hard to pick just one, but the biggest testament to Chuck Daly's time on earth might be the sheer number of places where he left behind a legacy. Penn, which Daly coached from 1971-77, is one of them. I couldn't give him the kind of eulogy he deserves, so below are a few that might come closer.
Junior forward Andreas Schreiber was just one of many players who could have made a difference for Penn this past season had he been healthy. Now it looks like he might have two more years to make his mark.
In an interview with philly.com this week, coach Glen Miller said that the surgery to correct Schreiber's torn labrum had gone off without a hitch, that he was progressing well and that he has already started the process of petitioning for a fifth season of eligibility, which he could get since he played in fewer than one-fifth of Penn's games this past season.
At 6-foot-9 and 245 pounds, Schreiber is the most imposing of the Quakers' frontcourt options and the most important off-season rehab to keep an eye on outside of Darren Smith.
If you haven't yet, take a moment to read Andrew Todres's column from the most recent DP. His thesis is that hoops coach Glen Miller is a poor politician working a job that requires him to be one.
Miller's behavior has been undiplomatic at times, and he alone bears responsibility for that. What's especially baffling is that it represents a departure from how he once approached his off-court obligations.
Sports can be crazy stressful. Just ask Glen Miller, who was recently subjected to a basketball coach's equivalent of waterboarding. Or ask any diehard Quakers fan, who is distraught over two straight years of mediocrity.
So here is something to lighten the mood.
First, go to ESPN.com's topic page for the Cavaliers-Pistons playoff series by clicking here.
After the page has loaded, type the following: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, Enter. Hit Enter a few more times, and I defy you to say that your mood hasn't improved.
The first annual "town hall" discussion of the men's basketball team came and went this weekend. The DP's recap can be found here, and some additional notes of interest are after the jump, most coming from answers given by coach Glen Miller.
Tuesday's paper will have more analysis of what was said (and not said) at the meeting. In the meantime, fire away in the comments section with any initial reactions, especially if you were in attendance.
There's been no news about hoops coach Glen Miller lately, and no news is usually good news -- or bad news, if you're one of those who wants Miller gone.
Nonetheless, I think it's still possible that he could bolt from Penn in the near future if the right job somewhere else comes along. (Here's why he might, and here are some reasons he might not.)
So what positions are available? Based on this list, the following schools have recently lost an assistant coach who took the head job somewhere else: Villanova, Davidson, Georgia Tech, Hampton, South Carolina, Marquette, Nevada, North Carolina Central, Baylor, Portland State, Auburn, Florida, Xavier. As far as I know none of the vacancies have been filled, and there may be others, from assistant coaches who left a team for a different reason.
The only current head-coaching vacancies are at Appalachian State, Seattle and Texas-Pan American.
Could any of those openings entice Miller? I'm inclined to say no. The head-coaching jobs are unimpressive; plus Miller is an East Coast guy, and the only suitable East Coast option is Villanova, which lost Pat Chambers this month to Boston University.
Incidentally, before Chambers took over at BU, I heard whispers that he would get a hard look if Penn were to find itself needing a new head coach. He's a Philadelphia University alum and former Episcopal coach, well-regarded and on the rise.
Without a miraculous turnaround, it seems likely that next year the clock will run out on Miller. A ways off, yes, but it's never too early for empty speculation.
Your thoughts on any of this?
"Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" is a documentary of the most famous game and headline in Ivy League history. It was directed by a guy who happens to be George W. Bush's first cousin (don't worry -- he's apparently a liberal) and released in November. It has started playing in a couple dozen theaters nationwide, and if you can get past the film's clunky title and want to see it, times and locations can be found here. If you're in Philadelphia, the closest showing is in nearby Ambler, Pa., beginning Friday. Reviews have been almost all positive.
Last week the Albany Times-Union interviewed ex-Yalie John Waldman, who was called for pass interference on a two-point conversion play that Harvard would then convert to get within eight points. Waldman disputes the call in the article and offers a few a few other fresh insights for scholars of that game.
So does anyone who's seen the film think it's worthwhile for me to go?
Construction work has begun on the George A. Weiss Pavilion, the first tangible product of the Athletic Department's plan to expand its facilities as part of Penn's broader push to the east.
The Weiss Pavilion will sit on Franklin Field's northern facade and is slated to open next spring. It will contain retail space and training facilities, which will expand the Robert A. Fox weight room -- where the football team works out -- to roughly twice its current size, around one-third the size of Pottruck.
The Athletic Department has smartly produced a five-minute video on the construction, which has details on the project's now-completed design phase and where the project goes from here. For more background reading, some of the DP's stories on Eastward Expansion are here, here, here and here.
The Penn basketball team's 51-50 win at Columbia on March 7 was a great memory in a season mostly full of bad ones. The Quakers spent most of the night playing catchup and were down a pair with 1.9 ticks left, but senior captain Kevin Egee drilled an impossible three-pointer off a flawless inbounds play to snatch the game away. It wasn't being televised, but someone in the crowd that night had a camera rolling and later posted a grainy clip of the final play on YouTube, where Egee's moment could live on forever.
Or perhaps not. The video has since been removed at the request of Columbia's Athletics Department. See for yourself: The original link, which had been posted on The Buzz, now just gives a message reading "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Columbia University Athletics." So far as I can tell, there are no other versions of it floating around.
What childishness. Columbia obviously has the right to decide where and how recordings of its teams' games appear online, but was removing that video from YouTube really necessary? Was Columbia losing any money because it was there? Was there an important precedent at stake? Did Columbia have to deny fans, recruits and casual observers -- not to mention Egee's family and Egee himself -- the chance to relive that great moment online?
The answer is obvious. Which might explain why there are plenty of other Ivy League basketball clips on YouTube -- some from games that were broadcast, some from games that were not. Those clips have stayed there for years, unmolested. Why this one was judged to be so damaging, I don't know.
If athletic administrators want to spend their man-hours policing YouTube, that's their right. But erasing the memory of Egee's shot -- a game-winning, Columbia-beating shot -- just reeks of sour grapes.
An hour-long Q&A with Glen Miller? And it's open to the public? Has the world gone mad?
Apparently not. If you've got a burning question for Penn's basketball coach -- or, more likely, a bone to pick -- here's your chance. The Athletic Department announced in an e-mail today that it will host a town-hall-style "open discussion" of the hoops program at the Inn at Penn on April 26. Miller is not normally one to discuss his job so publicly, but from 10:30-11:30 a.m., he will field questions from any season-ticket holder who shows up. The event is free to enter, and for $40 you can stick around afterward for the team's annual banquet.
The e-mail announcement, in full, is after the jump.
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