The Harvard Crimson is reporting that seven-foot center Ugo Okam from Montverde Academy in Florida committed to Tommy Amaker and the Harvard hoops program tonight. According to multiple reports, including my own investigations, Okam narrowed down his choice to either Harvard or Penn weeks ago. He was Penn’s best remaining prospect as a true post presence.

I spoke with Okam’s coach, Kevin Sutton, a week ago and he indicated that Ugo would be waiting until early November to announce his decision, when he can sign a commitment during the early signing period for the Ivy League. Sutton said that Okam is a tremendous shot blocker with excellent timing, but “his defense is way ahead of his offense at this point.” While you have to take any coach’s praises with a grain of salt, he added that Okam is an extremely hard worker who has showed vast and rapid improvement since picking up the game four years ago after moving from Nigeria. He mentioned that Penn’s coaches were blown away by his improvements every time they saw him. On the offensive side, he said he still has a lot to improve, but noted a good ability to finish when he catches the ball in the post and added that he shoots around 63% from the line.

I have no information on why Okam chose Harvard, and neither does The Crimson. While Glen Miller has already put together what seems like an already stellar class of recruits, you never want to lose out on a legitimate seven-footer who can probably contribute immediately on defense and rebounding. Harvard really needed him, as they had just one other recruit despite an ambitious recruiting season. From what I know of Amaker’s recruiting tactics, I’m sure he made that abundantly clear. That’s not to say Miller and Co. weren’t just as aggressive, but it’s the only analysis I can offer at this point.  I’ll try to get some more information in the next couple of days.

UPDATE: Here’s the link to the pdf of the football supplement.

Tomorrow begins the 133rd year of Penn football. Unlike Harvard and Princeton — which both mention how long they’ve been playing football in the headlines of the athletic releases linked above — Penn rarely flaunts the fact it’s played football for over 130 years. (For example, in the equivalent press release it’s mentioned in the seventh item.) I’m sure some of our readers might consider it good marketing, but personally I think it’s snobbish to say “Finally, 141st Football Season Arrives …”

That said, for the annual DP football supplement (which prints today), our centerpiece story by Neil Fanaroff covers the last six score and 13 years of Penn football history. It’s a long, long piece, but a must read for any Penn football fan. Actually it’s a must read for any college football fan, since you’ll come across well-known names such as Bednarik, Munger and of course Heisman.

(I should add that this story is best seen in the actual paper and not online, since it’s been beautifully put together by our design editor Michael Gold. So  if you’re on campus I strongly encourage you to pick up the paper for the double truck spread. If not, check out the pdf file linked to at the top of the post.)

But while Neil’s story is definitely the longest, that doesn’t mean the other stories aren’t important. My favorite non-centerpiece story was one Noah wrote on Bradford Blackmon’s dad who hasn’t missed one of his son’s games — since he was in fifth grade! David also wrote a very interesting piece on the politicking and economics behind television packages for Ivy football. Perhaps the best part of the story is that we’re breaking the news that Penn’s game with Dartmouth was picked up by Versus just yesterday.

There’s also a position-by-position breakdown of the freshman class; a feature on former defensive back Jordan Manning who is back as a football operations assistant director; and a Penn bettor’s guide (I have to admit not one of my best pieces).

If you’re focused more on tomorrow’s opener versus No. 2 Villanova, here’s our advance of the game as well as a look at the other contests with Ivy teams this weekend.

Enjoy the 2009 football season Quakers fans.

After Penn nabbed its second 2010 recruit earlier this month, it appears that Glen Miler has grabbed two more recruits.

And just like Austin Kelly, these new recruits hail from the Los Angeles area.

According to the LA Times,  Capistrano Valley (Mission Viejo, Calif) teammates Casey James (6-foot-3 guard) and Kevin Panzer (6-8 forward) have both committed to Penn. James originally gave an early verbal commitment to San Diego back in 2007 (according to ESPN insider), but he’s since backed out of that.

ESPN gives James a 76 grade and in December 2007 called him  “the most prolific shooter in the west” alongside a Santa Clara signee. But perhaps Panzer is the bigger catch. For one, he definitely is coming to Penn, as ESPN insider, Rivals and CBB all have him listed as a Penn commit (ESPN has yet to change James’ status from the SD verbal). Though he’s just the 164th best forward, Panzer gets a 78 from ESPN, which last September said “At his size there may not be another 4-man around the country that can shoot like him.” He looked at four Pac-10 schools (Cal, Arizona State, Stanford and Washington) as well as San Diego, Colorado and Gonzaga (the last two schools were on his short list with Penn).

If nothing else, check out this myspace video with Panzer and James. It looks like Penn is going to get some more dunkers.

But with the addition of Panzer — will there be Panzer tank-inspired roll outs?– and probably James as well, Penn would have six players from California on its 2010-11 roster: Panzer, James, Kelly, incoming freshman Malcolm Washington (Denzel’s son), and rising juniors Conor Turley and  Tyler Bernardini.

Of course, that’s assuming no more Californians transfer away.

* * *

In other Ivy recruiting news, it appears that Pe’Shon Howard has backed down from his earlier statement (see #3) that he’d attend Harvard if admitted. Now, in an email to ESPN.com, he said after discussing the matter, he’s “wide open and considering every school in the country.” In addition to the Crimson, he’s looking at Maryland, Stanford, Arkansas, Xavier and other big conference schools.

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.

Done with the jokes, back to reality. Here we go:

1) This year the race for Big 5 Most Outstanding Player was pretty close. In my opinion, Dionte Christmas was the best player in the City, leading the Big 5 with 19.5 points per game. Dante Cunningham had the best postseason of anyone in the Big 5.  But in the end Ahmad Nivins won the award. In some ways this is similar to Alex Barnett winning Ivy Player of the Year.  Simply put, without the output of these two players, their respective teams clearly wouldn’t have been half as good as they were.

2) Despite claiming to cover Ivy sports, Ivy Gate rarely has done so over the last couple of years (only 15 posts have the “sports” tag dating back to the start of 2007).  However, in the last few weeks contributor Max Wasserman has created an Ivy Sports Roundup that covers the past weekend’s games.  Each of the eight schools get an entry, including who they have bragging rights over. This week Penn ranked seventh (ouch) yet had bragging rights over Harvard.  If nothing else, check out the hilarious video from Conan O’Brien on old timey baseball.

3) A Big 5 coach is leaving.  So is an Ivy League one.  Ok, so they’re both assistants.  First, Villanova associate head coach Patrick Chambers was introduced yesterday as Boston University’s new head coach.  Cornell head coach Steve Donahue was a leading candidate early on to replace Dennis Wolff, who coached the Terriers for the last 15 years, but he said he wasn’t interested. In addition, there were rumors that Chambers might be a candidate to replace Glen Miller, if and when the Penn coach left the program.

Meanwhile, Harvard’s Fly By Blog is reporting that Harvard assistant coach Will Wade is leaving to become an assistant coach at VCU under newly hired head coach Shaka Smart. Wade was a key recruiter under Harvard’s Tommy Amaker (HT Timothy Walsh).

Sorry it’s been awhile since I last posted these notes, but unfortunately I’ve been quite busy as the semester is starting.  So without further ado here are some Ivy and Big 5 notes:

1) Harvard might be losing its All-Ivy quarterback Chris Pizzoti to graduation, but a familiar face might still be the Crimson’s signal caller.  Andrew Hatch, who was last seen throwing passes in Death Valley for LSU, will transfer back to Harvard. Hatch threw for 282 yards, two touchdowns and one pick for the Tigers this past season, but lost the starting job to Jarrett Lee.  He previously played in Cambridge in 2005 on the Harvard JV team.

2) I know it’s a little outdated, but Dave Zeitlin has some good Ivy information over at Rush the Court.  Highlights include discussion of Harvard’s epic win over then-No. 24 Boston College, the first win for the Crimson over a ranked opponent, Cornell’s new transfer from Kentucky — as if they didn’t need anymore help — and of course Penn’s woes against Temple.

3) Again, it’s been a long time since I posted these, but here are all of the Schuylkill 16 polls, including several that I didn’t post.

Note: As we move into basketball season, items about the Big 5 will be included in “Random Notes”

1) Philly.com has launched a new college basketball blog dedicated to City Six hoops. Not only will the blog have posts from the Inquirer’s college sports staff of Mike Kern, Bob Cooney and Dick Jerardi, but five of the six City Six coaches will also post their thoughts.

Interestingly, Villanova’s Jay Wright — in classic we’re-too-good-for-the-rest-of-the-city fashion that Villanova demonstrated when it almost left the Big 5 — “was not able to make the commitment because of his busy schedule during the season,” according to the first post. Is his schedule really that much busier than any of the other coaches? The only possible answer is that the Big East does involve more traveling than the other conferences represented in the city, as the Wildcats travel to Wisconsin, Florida, Illinois and Indiana for conference play. (Ironically, their farthest non-conference game is at Madison Square Garden.)

2) Nittanydelphia, a blog dedicated to Penn State and Philadelphia sports, is publishing previews of all Big 5 teams.  Here is Penn’s entry. From there you can find the other schools’ as well.

3) Many preseason publications had the Harvard men’s basketball team finishing as high as third in the conference. One key reason voters saw the Crimson moving up from seventh to third was 6-foot-10 freshman sensation Andrew Van Nast. However, Van Nast has injured his shoulder and will miss the entire year. The Crimson are not completely out of luck, since they do return all five starters from last year.

4) Looking over the Sagarin NCAA football ratings, four Ivy League teams are ranked above at least one FBS team. Harvard is the top Ivy team at no. 135 and is ahead of eight FBS teams, including Washington State of the PAC-10.  No. 156 Brown is ahead of two FBS schools, and both No. 162 Penn and No. 165 Yale are ahead of No. 171 North Texas.

Don’t know how this one fell through the cracks, but director Kevin Rafferty submitted a film about the infamous 1968 football game between Harvard and Yale that ended in a 29-29 tie to the Toronto International Film Festival last month. Here’s a review of the film.

The Harvard men’s basketball team might have been cleared of any wrongdoing in recruitment, but coach Tommy Amaker is back in hot water.  According to a New York Times article, Amaker recently cut five players, including all three of the team’s sophomores. Most importantly, all of the five were recruited by his predecessor, Frank Sullivan.

Now, in any Division-I conference except the Ivy League, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal (or so says the Times).  But besides going against the spirit of the Ivy League, Amaker did this in one of the worst ways possible.  Instead of making the cuts either in the spring or summer, which would have given the players a chance to transfer to another school, he waited until they had registered for fall classes. Furthermore, he didn’t even give them a chance to compete for their spots this year. In fact, the three sophomores who were kicked off all started at least one game last year, yet they were shown the door — presumably just to make room for Amaker’s own recruits.

This forced exodus isn’t breaking any rules.  But for the second time in the past year, Amaker’s management of the team has clearly been questioned.

This happens every year. Every sore loser around comes out of the woodwork to say we should have it. I got an email from another do-gooder yesterday imploring me to investigate this glaring oversight.

So, new rule: No more talking about a postseason tournament for the Ivy League. It’s not going to happen. Nor should it. Look at the Cornell squad that went 14-0 and might have a good chance of beating a four-seed and tell me you wouldn’t want that team in the Dance 100 percent of the time.

I was disappointed to read the Harvard Crimson whining about this dead issue again a few days ago. I won’t rehash the arguments except to say enough already. The Ivies don’t have a tournament and the league is the better for it. No one sneaks into the postseason through the back door. If you want to get to the Tournament, try building a program, and no, cheating doesn’t count.