The Ivy League Preseason Women’s Basketball Media/SID poll was officially released today. I’ve covered Penn for the past two years, so this year I was given the honor of having Penn’s media vote (over women’s basketball guru Mel Greenberg).

Apparently, I did a pretty good job — or I was engaging in groupthink — because my rankings matched the final results. Below are the results of the 16 votes (one media and one SID vote per school), with first-place votes in parentheses.

Pts.

1. Dartmouth (11) 123

2. Harvard (5) 115

3. Princeton 86

4. Columbia 83

5-t. Cornell 57

5-t. Yale 57

7. Penn 36

8. Brown 19

I thought it would be a useful exercise for discussion purposes to release my votes, and the reasoning behind them. So follow along after the jump for my breakdown.

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Pat Knapp — the former Penn women’s basketball coach of much wit but not enough wins — has signed on as an assistant with the University of Hawaii.

“He will provide an increased geography base in the recruiting department as he is well respected on the East Coast,” first-year coach Dana Takahara-Dias told the Honolulu Advertiser. “He comes with skills that can help us off the bat.”

Penn decided in March not to renew Knapp’s contract. In his five years at the helm, the Quakers were 48-90 (.348) overall and 28-42 (.400) in the Ivy League. Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said in a press release at the time that “We are disappointed that we did not attain the levels of success we anticipated.” Knapp declined comment upon his departure.

Still, Knapp’s latest stop comes as a bit as a surprise. No doubt the weather is beautiful down in the Aloha State. But Knapp was a head coach for 26 seasons, including 18 at Georgetown. He won two Big East championships and was the 1992-93 Big East Coach of the Year.

Now he’ll be sitting second-chair to someone with no collegiate coaching experience. And, at least to my knowledge, Hawaii is not a step up on the ladder. The school was 300th in last year’s year-end RPI rankings — 20 spots below Knapp’s 9-19 Quakers.

Meanwhile, the Penn program — now led by Mike McLaughlin — announced its 2009-10 schedule today.

Knapp is set to begin his new job on Monday.

(HT: Brandon Moyse)

Women’s basketball coach Pat Knapp was never one to stay mum (well, except when his anger forced him to resort to hand-written statements, or when it came to possibly revealing any strategy).

But when I finally got a hold of him this afternoon — two-plus weeks after the Athletic Department announced that his contract would not be renewed — Knapp had no desire to speak. After I introduced myself, he immediately replied, in one breath:

“I’m sorry, I have no interest in talking, thank you very much (click).”

This from a man who guaranteed victory, then backed off; who cited Einstein and rocket science; and who invoked “Yes we can” well before Barack Obama took center stage.

Knapp didn’t like the past. But we do, so after the jump, here are some of the best Knapp quotes of the last three seasons, to honor his silent departure.

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