According to NBA.com and SNY.tv writer Adam Zagoria (of ZagsBlog), sources close to Penn have said that Jerome Allen will be announced as full-time Penn coach sometime before the Final Four.

"Not only alum [sic] have gone to AD Steve Bilsky, but boosters, donors, parents and players have pledged their unconditional support,” a source told the blog. “They might not even interview outside candidates."

After taking over for Glen Miller seven games into the season, Allen has gone 6-14, including an upset of then-No. 22 Cornell in February.

Make sure to check back at thedp.com as we pursue this story.

(HT Noah Becker)

I was at the Brown game last night, but didn't go to the postgame press conference. However, Brian Kotloff did and passed along this quote from co-captain Zack Rosen about whether Jerome Allen should be hired full time as head coach:

"Undoubtedly. I don’t know if I’ve hinted at it or tried to hint at it in different ways without saying he’s our guy, but Jerome Allen is the right person for the job and they should hire him as soon as they possibly can. They should be begging him to stay.

"He demands respect. He knows what it takes to win and he’s gonna do everything that it does take. He’s willing to put in the work. He’s special with people. I could write a list on the top of this stat sheet for you and get it to you next game."

And at least one columnist at the DP agrees with that. What do you guys think?

In case you haven't heard, Penn had a pretty big win yesterday. In addition to reading our recap (which links to a full box score), check out our sweet photo slideshow from the game, taken by DP Photo Editor Pete Lodato. (You can also read the Cornell Daily Sun's recap if you so desire).

Upsetting the top team in the Ivy League would have been a pretty big deal regardless of the program. But throw in Cornell's No. 22 rank, and last night’s game is garnering national recognition.

Pat Forde at ESPN.com has a post that discusses three big games yesterday, including the Quakers' upset. He calls Penn's win "certainly the biggest league upset of the year nationwide. Might be the biggest upset, period." That link also has a video interview with Zack Rosen and Jerome Allen. Yahoo Sports also asks if this was the upset of the year.

In addition, here's another ESPN article about the wide-open Ivy race. On that note, Penn (3-2 Ivy) is technically in control of its own Ivy League title destiny, since it will take on both Cornell (6-1) and Harvard (5-2) again and has yet to face off against Princeton (5-0). As a friend of mine joked, if Penn wins the rest of its games this season, it will win the national championship. Of course that isn't going to happen -- nor is it even likely they will sweep the rest of the Ivy slate. But a team that many thought would struggle to win four or five Ivy games, has already won twice on the road and is now undefeated at home after upsetting the No. 22 team in the nation.

Sure the Ivy League champion football season was great. And even if the basketball team is 3-15 at least there's a lot to talk about with the team.

Yet for those of you that know me, the one sport I really get excited for here at Penn is W. Lax. I've covered three runs to the final four, including last year's 13-12 double overtime loss in the national semifinals to archrival Northwestern. I even went to Evanston, Ill., last May for a game in which the Quakers fell 11-9 to the Wildcats. So excuse me if it seems premature to have a post about a team that doesn't start playing for over two and a half weeks.

But as you can see in our special online edition (Snow Day= no paper), the preseason coaches poll was released Tuesday and Penn came in third. But the Quakers will get a chance to prove they're No. 1 when they face No. 2 Maryland and No. 1 Northwestern in back-to-back weeks in early April. Both games will be at Franklin Field, and the two visitors each lost in their last appearance at 33rd and South. In the 2007 NCAA Tournament Penn beat the Terrapins 9-7 to advance to the final four and in 2008 the Wildcats lost 11-7 for the first time in 37 games.

As the article mentions, those aren't the only ranked teams Penn will play. Ivy League rivals Princeton (9), Dartmouth (15) and Cornell (19) were all ranked. And the Quakers will also face No. 4 North Carolina on the road. At the same time, this isn't new. Penn basically plays the same teams every year, though this year Maryland replaces Penn State. So coach Karin Brower Corbett -- she got married in the offseason-- doesn't have an extra hard task compared to past years.

Back in September I predicted the Quakers would win the national championship. I do realize Northwestern's the favorite to six-peat, but they are a young, albeit still very talented, team. (Then again, the last time Northwestern was this young they beat Penn in the NCAA championship game). So just because Penn's third doesn't mean I'll change my prediction. It's been three straight years of Widlcats dispatching Quakers on the final weekend of the season. Is fourth time a charm? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

I don't want to cut off the good discussion we're having about Cornell's Top 25 spot.  However, I've seen in a few places, including Soft Pretzel Logic, Yahoo and this ESPN video, that it appears discussions are moving forward to expand the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament to 68 or even 96 teams.

The expansion won't occur until the NCAA manages to opt out of its current TV deal with CBS -- who has had the broadcasting rights since 1982 -- and renegotiate a new one. But one source claims expansion is "a done deal" and could happen as soon as 2010-11. If the tournament were to expand to 96 teams, then a cable network would broadcast the first round(s) in addition to a network broadcaster covering the latter rounds.

Expanding to 68 teams would create a play-in game for all four regions, instead of just the one play-in game that currently exists. Personally, I wouldn't have any strong objections to this format. I've always thought that the one seed that played the play-in winner had an inherent advantage since the 16 seed has just three days to prepare. Then again, No. 1 seeds have never lost in the first round, so it's not exactly a huge advantage. In the end, the net effect would probably just be three more at large bids to power conference teams.

On the other hand, expanding to 96 teams seems a bit excessive. Frankly, it would cheapen the value of making the NCAA Tournament. Sure, 96 out of 347 Division I teams is still a small percentage. But let's be honest: those 32 extra at large bids are more than likely going to go to power conference teams that had middling overall records but a strong SOS, than decent mid-majors who have better overall records but subpar strength of schedules and RPI.

However, I could see some positives with 96 teams. They could create a rule that any small conference team that clinches the regular season title would be guaranteed a berth to the big dance. Right now these teams are already guaranteed an NIT bid, but I suspect the NIT will be basically worthless if the NCAAs are expanded to 96.  In addition, theoretically another round of single-elimination basketball sounds exciting. I just fear it would make subsequent upsets rarer.

So in the end, what exactly would the effect of expansion be on the Ivy League and Penn? If expansion just ups the field by three, the only impact would be that Ivy teams would get worse seeds, especially in years when there isn't a dominant team like this year's Cornell squad. However, if 32 teams are added, I could see a potential year like this one-- or at least before Cornell throttled Harvard -- in which two Ivy teams are in legitimate contention to make the tournament. And if somehow the NIT does survive, then I definitely could see an Ivy team make that with more frequency than they do now.

What do you guys think about NCAA expansion and its effect on the Ancient Eight.

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Here's the stat of the week for you: According to one Basketball-U poster, since 1990-91 Princeton has won the Ivy League every time it swept the Brown/Yale roadtrip, while every other year it's lost at least one of those games. Extending it back to 1980-81, the pattern holds for 11 out of 12 titles.

This past weekend Princeton swept those two.

Of course, that doesn't indicate they'll somehow beat Cornell once, let alone twice, and win the League. But as a history major, I'm certainly intrigued by interesting trends.

(HT Noah Becker)

As Penn enters the double-round robin Ivy Season this weekend, I'll write some previews of the other Ivy games coming up. (And on Monday I'll to bring back the "What the other side is saying" feature I did for some of the football games in the fall.) But to make these posts more exciting, I'll pick the games using the spread. Because let's face it, without a little (hypothetical) gambling, who really cares about Columbia versus Dartmouth?

So let's get started after the jump

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After witnessing another Penn loss despite another great effort by sophomore guard Zack Rosen, I was thinking about just how much worse (if that's even possible) this Penn team would be without the red-haired floor general.

In fact, you could make the case that no player in the Ivies is more valuable to his team than Rosen. For example, take away Ryan Wittman and Cornell would still be good. But take away Zack Rosen ... and Penn would still be bad? Well OK obviously it's not like Zack Rosen himself wins games for Penn. However, looking at the top scorers for each Ivy team, Rosen has scored the highest percentage of his team's points (this is similar to baseball's Value Over Replacment Player stat):

Ryan Wittman (Cornell): 18.6/75.9=24.5%
Alex Zampier (Yale): 18.4/68.4=26.9%
Noruwa Agho (Columbia): 17.4/64.3=27.1%
Zack Rosen (Penn): 17.3/62.8=27.5%
Jeremy Lin (Harvard): 17.0/77.2=22.0%
Douglas Davis (Princeton): 13.4/57.9=23.1%
David Rufful (Dartmouth): 8.5/55.4=15.3% (not a typo; Dartmouth doesn't have any scoring more than 8.5 points per game)

So in short Zack Rosen is this year's Alex Barnett. However, unlike last year's senior at Dartmouth, there's very little chance he'd win Ivy League Player of the Year since it's not strictly a Most Valuable Player award. As for POY, I'd say it's 60-40 Wittman or Lin, depending on whether Cornell or Harvard win the Ivy title.

I realize the conclusion that Zack Rosen is critical to Penn isn't groundbreaking at all. But it's interesting to quantify the impact he's had on the team. Feel free to leave your thoughts about Rosen's skills in the comments.

Philly.com is reporting that St. Joseph's Prep senior Sean McGinn will attend Penn in the fall. He's 6-foot-4, 255 pounds and started at defensive end as a junior before also playing offensive tackle this past year.

He was also looking at Brown, but loved Penn from the beginning.

"When you combine the good academics and football with the fact that Penn's so close to home, it just makes sense," he said. "Growing up, going to games at Franklin Field and the Palestra, I always had a good feel for Penn. And during this process I've only heard good things."

Of course, winning the Ivy League championship can't hurt.

In addition to gridiron news, the article also mentions that Fran Dougherty, a 6-8 center on Archbishop Wood's basketball team, will announce his college decision today at 1:30. (However, I don't think it'll be televised like those press conferences top-level football recruits have on ESPNU.)

Despite the recent troubles of the Penn program, the Quakers are believed to be the favorite with Princeton, Lafayette and New Hampshire in the mix. Then again, he should fit right into this Penn team: he's currently sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot.

(HT Tannenwald)

This year might not have been the best for Penn sports. But that's not to say that it wasn't an exciting year, with plenty of big news stories. So here is my personal top 10 moments ("moments" loosely defined) of the year. And yes, some are positive, while some are negative.  So continue after the jump for the picks.

(more...)

Welcome to the Palestra. I'll be providing live game updates as the Quakers (0-5) take on Albany (3-6), looking to break through into the win column for the first time.

Click Here for the Cover it Live Updates. You can also get twitter updates from Eli Cohen.