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While the Penn men's basketball team is one of four Ivies without a black coach, the Red and Blue is still doing its part to support diversity.

This weekend, the Quakers will compete in the Black Coaches Invitational, an event sponsored by the Black Coaches Association.

The tournament features Penn, Syracuse, St. Francis (N.Y.) and Texas-El Paso. While only one school, UTEP, actually has a black head coach, the event hopes to promote the BCA and raise funds.

"The purpose of the tournament is to give teams an opportunity to play three games in three days," BCA Executive Director Floyd Keith said. It also takes "some of the proceeds from the tournament to support our scholarship programs."

According to Keith, the BCA invites teams that represent different conferences. Penn is participating in this year's tournament because of a combination of past history with the organizing Gazelle Group, a sports consulting firm, and a desire to support the BCA.

Ivy League teams "have played in Gazelle Group events before," Penn coach Glen Miller said. "We like the location, we like the competition, and [the tournament] is for a good cause."

The Gazelle Group is a sports marketing firm that sponsors the BCA and several other events.

This good cause has expanded beyond Penn in the Ancient Eight.

Within the Ivy League, hiring minority candidates for men's basketball coaching positions has become standard practice.

Currently, four out of the eight head coaches in the league are black, and this positive trend toward racial equality in sports is growing across the country.

There has been "a tremendous commitment from the [Ivy] League to hire the most qualified candidates," Yale coach James Jones said. Jones and his brother, Joe Jones - the head coach at Columbia - represent two of those four, the other two being Dartmouth's Terry Dunn and Brown's Craig Robinson.

The hiring of minority candidates has proven to be beneficial for all parties involved - James Jones has made Yale a program on the rise. Other examples of success stories include Princeton's former coach John Thompson III, who won an Ivy championship before recently propelling Georgetown to a top-10 ranking.

However, many feel that work still needs to be done. Jones referred to the "major jobs"- top-25 programs in the country that have strong basketball history - as an area that still needs attention. Currently, only six head coaches of top-25 teams are black.

While this number seems low, basketball has typically been seen as a leader of diversity in the sports' world.

Some feel that the time has come for the progress in men's basketball to carry over to other sports.

"Men's basketball has been pretty respectable" in hiring minority candidates, Keith said.

The BCA does not feel the same optimism about women's basketball and football. Both sports have faced constant scrutiny about their hiring processes.

For now, it seems as though all parties are pleased with the progress the Ivy League has made in men's basketball.

"I personally believe in diversity and opportunity for everybody, and I think that we are seeing more of it," Miller said.

The BCA just hopes that Penn and the rest of the participants can build some excitement and recognition for a good cause. Perhaps the rest of the NCAA can follow the Ancient Eight's progress.

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