Knapp not returning and Random Ivy notes 3/12

1) It might be spring break, but big Penn sports news keeps on coming. In a move that isn't that surprising, Penn will not re-sign women's basketball coach Pat Knapp. That's what happens when your winning percentage at Penn is .348.

2) Here is the final Schuylkill 16 of the year. I've really enjoyed participating in this poll, and hopefully it'll continue next season. Something I never really noticed until now, but the college basketball regular season (well including this Championship Week) is 17 weeks -- just as long as the NFL.

3) In exactly a week one of the best-attended NCAA tournaments will being -- I'm talking about wrestling of course. Surprisingly, one of the biggest challengers to the perennial Big 12 and Big 10 favorites is Cornell, who is ranked second in the nation. The Wall Street Journal, of all things, has a nice profile on the Big Red and their unprecedented dominance this year.

Since there's a chance that you might need a subscription for that link to work, I'll excerpt the first part of the article after the jump.

Ivy-League Cornell Takes On College Wrestling's

Giants

By DAN ACKMAN

Arising from the east may be the most prodigious group of red wrestlers since the fall of the Soviet Union -- and the least likely. Cornell University, coming off its third straight victory in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament held this past weekend in Philadelphia, has the second-ranked wrestling team in the nation. Rarely has an East Coast team been ranked so high; for the Ivy League, it is unprecedented.

Cornell has had good wrestling teams before -- the team placed fourth in the NCAA tournament in 2005 -- but this year its wrestlers and coaches talk openly about challenging the mighty University of Iowa, winner of 20 team titles in the past 30 years, for the national title at the tournament in St. Louis starting on March 19. It could happen -- if everything breaks just right for the Big Red.

Cornell's rise to the top wrestling ranks is part "Field of Dreams," part fund raising, and part the story of two unlikely champions. Head Coach Rob Koll, an NCAA champion and the son of a three-time NCAA champion, is wrestling royalty, but he has charted his own path.