Got to start off the new month with a new "notes." Here we go:

1) Today marks the start of a new era in Ivy athletics, as Robin Harris officially takes over as Ivy League Executive Director. She'll replace Jeff Orleans, who had led the league for 25 years as the first official director in league history.

(As a heads up, expect a column about the challenges Harris will face in the next issue of the Summer Pennsylvanian, which comes out a week from tomorrow.)

2) Which would you rather do: play professional sports or go to Harvard? Well Louis Leblanc might get to do both. Despite being drafted in the first round of the NHL draft by his hometown Montreal Canadiens, he's decided to attend Harvard in the fall and play for the Crimson hockey team.

3) Here's a rundown of the Ivy League M. Hoops scene from Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman, although the Penn stuff  -- games at Duke, Penn State and Villanova and home games against Temple, St. Joe’s, La Salle and Drexel, as well as Harrison Gaines transferring to UC-Riverside --  is old news (HT CBB).

1) Here is week seven of the Schuylkill 16 poll.  After Villanova defeated Temple last Monday, it seems unlikely that the Wildcats will lose the top spot especially with just one more game against a S-16 opponent (Rutgers).  Meanwhile even if they lose in the Big East, it won't be to a terrible opponent since right now every Big East team remaining on Villanova's schedule is above 134 in the Ken Pomeroy rankings.  (Penn, on the other hand, only plays five games against opponents above 134: Temple, La Salle, St. Joe's and twice against Cornell).

2) In conference news, Dave Zeitlin checks in yet again on Rush the Court, asking Glen Miller to give a "state of the program address."  He also sees the league as Cornell vs. everyone else, which at this point is probably what it's going to be. (He also mentions item number 3.)

3) I don't quite know how this fell through the cracks, but Princeton is going to name the floor at Jadwin Gymnasium "Carril Court" after Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril who invented the Princeton offense.

4) Moving away from basketball, Penn might not have a varsity ice hockey team, but that doesn't mean the rest of the conference's teams don't get national attention on occasion. In fact, Ted Donato, the Harvard coach, recently got a write up in the New York Daily News since he is a former Ranger and Islander.  (HT David Gurian-Peck).