Ivy cellar won't suit new Elis and Bears head men

Yale's James Jones and Brown's Glen Miller hope to reverse the fortunes of two weak programs that each went 4-22 last year. Taking over the helm of a struggling Division I men's basketball team is a daunting task. Expectations are naturally high for the new coach to turn around the program, recruit more talented players and produce victories right away. But when you're coming on board as the coach of an Ivy League team that is not named Penn or Princeton, this assignment borders on the impossible. This winter, freshman coaches Glen Miller at Brown (6-10, 3-1 Ivy League) and James Jones at Yale (5-12, 3-1) are charged with the rejuvenation of what are arguably two of the worst men's basketball teams in the nation. Both the Bears and the Elis hobbled through the 1998-99 campaign, compiling identical stomach-turning 4-22 marks, 2-12 in Ivy play. Few positives could be taken away from the cold, dark winter that descended upon southern New England last season. It came as a surprise to no one, then, that when this fall rolled around, both Providence and New Haven had a new face in town. Miller came to Brown quietly, pledging to rebuild the Bears over time. And by already surpassing last season's win total, he is off to a good start. But this is nothing new for the 37-year-old Groton, Conn., native. An assistant for seven years at UConn, Miller spent the last six seasons at the helm of Connecticut College. During his tenure there, he turned around a program that went 4-20 his first season and led it to a 28-1 record and the Division III Final Four last March. "If you look at the last few years and what we have in the program now, we definitely need to increase the talent level," Miller told the media at a press conference announcing his hiring. "People will appreciate how hard we play on a daily basis. When we increase our talent level and combine it with our work ethic -- that's when we're going to win." Increasing the talent level has gone nicely for Miller, as evidenced by the play of freshmen Earl Hunt (17.1 ppg) and Alaivaa Nuualiitia (13.7 ppg). In a promising sign for the future, Brown's top nine scorers are either freshmen or sophomores. Still, success is something that Miller is not willing to put off forever. Following a season-opening 73-63 loss to Providence, Miller told the media that, "We're certainly not taking any moral victories. "We're just going to go 100 percent forward; we're going to be positive; [and] we're going to develop our young kids." In sharp contrast to Miller's laid-back style, Jones came out swinging. The 35-year-old Long Island, N.Y., native previously served as an assistant at three schools -- Albany from '90-'95, Yale from '95-'97 and Ohio for the past two seasons. And this Division I experience has led Jones to take a slightly more in-your-face approach to the Ivies. "I didn't really put our goals in terms of we're going to win 12 games or 15 games, because I think when you start doing that, you give yourself problems," Jones said. "We have 27 games on our schedule, and unless we're determined to win each and every one, do you say to yourself that you'll only win 12 games? Well, then what 15 do you want to lose? "So our goal is to go in and try to win every game. Obviously, that's not the most realistic thing, but that's what our goal is." With a dozen defeats thus far, all has not gone as planned. So, coming into the weekend that saw Yale score a 60-58 upset over Princeton a year ago, one might think Jones would tug on the past to guide his squad -- but that's not the case. "What I did when I first got here, we had a picture in our locker room from the New Haven Register: 'Yale in a Stunning Upset over Princeton' -- I tore that up," Jones said. "And I tore up our stats because they don't mean anything. What we did against Princeton last year doesn't mean anything?. It's a different game now." A critical factor for any new coach is the reception he receives as the new face in town. The transitional process has been greatly eased for Jones -- during his stint as an assistant with Yale, he helped in the recruiting of current Elis such as 6' 10" junior center Neil Yanke. "I was happy when he was picked [as the new coach], because he's the guy who recruited me, and he was a big reason why I came to Yale," Yanke said. "We've kept in touch and he had no real reason to keep in touch, so that just shows that he's a good guy. I didn't get a chance to play for him, so now I get that chance." Other Elis echoed Yanke's sentiment. "I feel great about the upcoming season," Yale captain John Kirkowski told the Yale Daily News this fall. "There's a new outlook of things. Coach Jones, he's changed our mentality as well as our productivity, which is up a hundredfold." But while Jones replaced Dick Kuchen, who led Yale to seven consecutive losing seasons, Miller took over for one of the more highly regarded coaches in Brown's history, Frank "Happy" Dobbs. Miller's team, however, feels that he has connected just as well with his squad as Dobbs did. "It's a lot more fun to play on this team," two-year Bears starter Travis Brown told the Brown Daily Herald after a 98-64 win over New Hampshire. "Everybody contributes. Everything's more dispersed, whereas last year we seemed to focus on getting the ball to one player." And former Brown players feel that the Bears program is moving in the right direction as well. "From what I hear, Miller is a very good coach," said Penn reserve center Oggie Kapetanovic, a former Brown starter. "The coaching change already has been affecting the program -- [Brown's] record is better than it has been for the past few years." Kapetanovic, who transferred to Penn in 1998 after two years with the Bears, still keeps in contact with the few current Brown players who were around during his Providence days. "I don't know [Miller] personally, but from what I hear, though, he gets on them and makes them play hard, and it's showing a little bit of results," Kapetanovic said. "He's committed to winning, and he doesn't mess around. But they're a young team. "They're on the way up -- best of luck to them." Much to the chagrin of their fellow coaches in the Ancient Eight, Miller's and Jones' charges head into this weekend in an unfamiliar place -- right in the hunt. While a 3-1 Ivy mark is not yet reason for jubilation, both squads nonetheless stand in third place and have Ivy coaches worried for a change. "I've gotten to talk with Glen Miller more than James Jones, but I know that Miller has won with his own program for a lot of years and has been a successful coach, so I'm not surprised by what I see," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "And James is just a hard worker. I see how hard he works and how dedicated he is to putting a good product out there, so I'm expecting both of those programs to flourish in the future." Dunphy, who owns a 31-9 career mark against these two schools, sees big things down the line. "Each team has ingredients to it that I think are going to prove very fruitful for them in the future," Dunphy said. "Hopefully it's not this weekend where it proves fruitful in terms of the Penn experience." Optimism is there for both Miller and Jones, but so is respect. The coaches realize they are just starting out, and though their dreams may have no bounds, their teams may.

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