First off, congratulations to senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber for winning the Ivy League Player of the Year award for the second year in a row. He is the first person to do so since Penn's Ugonna Onyekwe did it in 2002 and 2003.
Joining Jaaber on the first team was fellow Quakers senior Mark Zoller, who I'm told finished a very close second to Jaaber in POY voting. It's too bad that the numbers didn't work out for them to share the award, because they both deserved it.
Junior guard Brian Grandieri was named to the second team, and probably could have been on the first team, but was passed over. He will have his chance again next year though, that's for sure.
And I think that the coaches did a great job by not including Harvard center Brian Cusworth on any of the teams. Cusworth graduated after one semester and didn't play in Harvard's last 10 or so games. He was great while he was here, but if you only play in 18 games, you don't get postseason awards.
And now, on to the rooting.
Yesterday was OK for Penn, with Villanova, Syracuse, Fordham and Saint Joseph's winning (against Temple), and UTEP blowing an 11-point second-half lead against Rice was the only blemish.
Here are today's games to watch:
Eastern Michigan vs. Toledo, 12 p.m. -- Toledo is currently below Penn, but can threaten the Quakers.
Villanova vs. Georgetown, 12 p.m.
Syracuse vs. Notre Dame, 2 p.m.
Idaho vs. Nevada, 2 p.m. -- Penn would need a big upset to get help from the WAC -- like a five or six seed winning the conference
Fordham vs. Rhode Island, 2:30 p.m.
TCU vs. BYU, 3 p.m. -- same deal as the WAC in the MWC
Wyoming vs. Air Force, 5:30 p.m. -- see above
Central Michigan vs. Akron, 7 p.m. -- another MAC threat
Marshall vs. Memphis, 7 p.m. -- Penn could use an upset winner of this league
Boise State vs. Fresno State, 8 p.m. -- another WAC upset
Saint Joseph's vs. George Washington, 9 p.m.
W. Michigan vs. Kent State, 9 p.m. -- the last MAC threat
Utah vs. UNLV, 9 p.m. -- another MWC upset
La. Tech vs. New Mexico St., 10:30 p.m. -- another WAC upset
If you notice, there are a bunch of games here, but every one of them is the lower-seeded team. Obviously Penn doesn't need every one of these to happen, but the more the merrier.
Enjoy the couch (or the beach).
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Coming to you live from the Atlantic 10 Tournament in AC, where first-round action just started this afternoon.
La Salle's 3-13 record put it in last place in the conference, one in which the bottom two don't make the conference tournament. Later on, (6) Saint Joseph's takes on (11) Temple for the third time this season. The first two meetings were each close at the beginning, but the Hawks pulled away both times in the second half.
(6) St. Joe's 66 (11) Temple 62 FINAL
Christmas gets an open look at a three, but he's just off, and St. Joe's gets the board.
Calathes hits two more free throws.
Tyndale gets a quick two with 6.5 to go, but it's about over down by three at the line the other way.
Although ... Carter misses his first, but makes the second.
Salibery dunks it with 3.5 to go off off some great cross-court passes, and the lead is two as Govens goes to the line.
He's all ice water -- the two are all nylon, and the Hawks are through to round two.
(6) St. Joe's 61 (11) Temple 58 0:22.5 2nd Half
After breaking the press, St. Joe's gets it to Calathes, who gets fouled. He hits the first, another timeout is called, and he makes the second.
(6) St. Joe's 59 (11) Temple 58 0:34 2nd Half
Carter's all net on the two free-bees, and finally, the Hawks take a one-point lead.
After working the ball around for a while, Tyndale airballs a jumper, and St. Joe's gets the board and calls timeout.
(6) St. Joe's 57 (11) Temple 58 1:05 2nd Half
Nivins grabs his own miss and puts it back to cut it to one.
Then after a Tyndale miss, Williamson gets an offensive rebound and hits one to tie it up. The A-10 gods really don't want the Hawks to ever take the lead. They still haven't had one, outside the very beginning, yet.
(6) St. Joe's 54 (11) Temple 56 2:53 2nd Half
Govens hits Nivins in the transition for a nice alley-oop layup and it's a one-possession game.
After a call their way, a Hawks fan forgives the official, "you're ok now."
Christmas -- who torched Penn in the loss at the Palestra earlier this year -- has been quiet so far, and misses a three off the back iron. Tyndale hits a layup, though to keep the lead at five.
Carter nails a three to cut it to two.
(6) St. Joe's 49 (11) Temple 54 7:51 2nd Half
D.J Rivera hits Ferguson on a sweet behind-the-back pass.
Calathes seemingly makes it 54-51, but the official determines that Nivins -- streaking toward the basket for a putback -- grazed the net, so it's a goal-tending call and going the other way.
(6) St. Joe's 47 (11) Temple 50 9:26 2nd Half
Nivins gets doubled-down on, but gets fouled and makes two.
Salisbery hits a wide-open three from the corner, and Temple's lead is up to nine. The Hawks have got to contest these threes. Temple is a tough team to defend when it can hit the open shots.
Tyndale and Nivins collide for a rebound, and the foul is on Tyndale. They've both been beasts this game.
Temple has missed a few threes, and the Hawks are creeping back. Carter exhibits some blow-by speed, and the crowd erupts as Dunphy calls a timeout.
(6) St. Joe's 39 (11) Temple 47 12:14 2nd Half
Salisbery drains a three, but St. Joe's finally goes inside to Nivins for a turnaround over Dacons.
Tyndale responds, like he's been doing all game with a tough and-1 with the left hand.
(6) St. Joe's 35 (11) Temple 40 2nd Half
A big block from Olmos -- who started but played only five minutes in the first half -- sparks an "Ole, ole ole ole!" chant from the Owls fans. The Hawks' student section has the last laugh though, as their side ties it up.
Tyndale nails a quick three though, and Brooks follows it up with another. The next possession Jawan Carter (who has been quiet) returns the favor with another from deep.
Olmos scores to make it five, but picks up his fourth foul on a reach-in. Not a smart play, let's see if the Hawks can capitalize by going inside.
Temple has led almost the entire game even though it's been close throughout. There's only been one lead change.
(6) St. Joe's 28 (11) Temple 32 HALFTIME
Tyndale nails a nasty jumper in Calathes' eye. Needless to say the "Pat Calathes" chants of about five minutes ago have long died out.
The big man has a nice dish though to Govens for a three, and it's tied.
But just then, Salisbury finds Dacons wide open under the hoop to take the lead back.
After a free throw, Salisbery decides a one-point lead isn't enough going into the break. With a few ticks left in the first-half, he launches one from 30+ thats strikes all nylon. The senior holds his follow-through for the full effect, and the Temple fans approve.
STATS
Brooks leads the way for the Owls with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. It's been a fairly even game so far, each team shooting in the mid-forties. The Hawks have only four turnovers, but are actually getting out-rebounded 18-15. Dacons leads the way with seven boards.
(6) St. Joe's 24 (11) Temple 25 2:51 1st Half
Tyndale keeps up the cushon with a nasty and-1 three from the corner, and completes the four-point play.
The Hawks are now bringing up the pressure on defense with some trapping -- and a nice steral by Govens on Christmas.
A Govens three from the corner cuts the lead to one.
(6) St. Joe's 19 (11) Temple 21 5:53 1st Half
Christmas drops an inbounds pass. He hasn't been a big factor offensively so far.
On the other end, Nivins gets a pass over the fronting defender for an open dunk. Then Calathes -- the 6-foot-10 guard -- hits a long three to cut it to two.
(6) St. Joe's 14 (11) Temple 21 7:09 1st Half
The crowd opposite the benches looks to be about 2/3 full, while the other half is much more sparse. In all the attendence looks to be about triple that of the last game.
Dacons gets a layup off of an offensive rebound and Brooks hits another long jumper to boost the Temple lead to seven.
Tyndale then goes hard into the lane and gets rejected by Nivins.
(6) St. Joe's 10 (11) Temple 14 10:51 1st Half
Both teams are in the man defense, and as a result there have been a good amount of close-in shots given up. But Temple starts to heat up from three, as Ryan Brooks nails a three to take the lead.
The Owls are fronting the nig men in the post and bothering them enough so that they haven only mildly taken advantage of their size. Temple's pressure on the perimeter has forced a lot of early turnovers. If Temple can keep this a guards' game it will most definitely be to its advantage.
(6) St. Joe's 7 (11) Temple 7 14:49 1st Half
Dunphy sends out the 7-foot Olmos in the starting lineup, that extra possession at the tip helps.
Calathes opens up the scoring for the Hawks after a few bricks from each side. Nivins follows it up by taking a tough charge from Tyndale.
Nivins then uses his size advantage to rock the rim with a dunk.
Starters:
Temple
G Mark Tyndale
G Dionte Christmas
G Dustin Salisbury
F Dion Dacons
C Sergio Olmos
St. Joe's
G Garrett Williamson
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
C Ahmad Nivins
F Rob Ferguson
_______________
(7) Saint Louis vs. (10) Duquesne
The Dukes had a lead, but a 19-4 run by the Billikens took it right back. From there it's been back-and-forth, and with 2:31 Duquesne ties it up at 76.
Saint Louis goes up by two, 78-76, and the Dukes have 0:37.7 left to make something happen. Point guard Reggie Jackson drives and kicks to freshman swingman Robert Mitchell, who turns it over.
But they'll get one more shot, as Ian Vouyoukas misses the front end of the 1-and-1.
Mitchell tries an off-balance floater and misses, but another freshman, Scott Grote gets the offensive rebound, and gets fouled. He drains the first free-throw, but bricks the second off of the back iron. Ouch. There are still 6.5 seconds to go, so they should still have a shot at the win or tie. 78-77 SLU, :06.5
Vouyoukas misses another front end of a 1-and-1, and the Dukes get the rebound. Sophomore guard Aaron Jackson takes the pass on the perimeter, but gets stripped on the way up by Kevin Lisch, and that's your ballgame. 78-77 SLU
If you missed the Yale game, see the audio slideshow.
OK, this is starting to get a little dicey. Penn continues to get no help in improving its seed, and was dropped to a 14 by Joe Lunardi in today's "Bracketology" having been passed by Wright State, who beat Butler for the Horizon League title last night.
Penn needs Wright to lose some ground or for the Quakers to gain some ground with some opponents winning to boost their RPI.
Either that needs to happen or there has to be some more upsets in some of the mid-major conferences to get Penn a 13. It looks like a 12 seed is out of the question.
No automatic bids of consequence are handed out today, but a number of Penn opponents are playing, which can help the Quakers out. Penn opponents are in bold below.
Villanova vs. DePaul, 12 p.m.
UTEP vs. Rice, 1 p.m.
Connecticut vs. Syracuse, 2 p.m.
Richmond vs. Fordham, 2:30 p.m.
Temple vs. Saint Joseph's, 9 p.m. -- it doesn't matter who wins as long as the winner goes far in the A-10 tournament
Penn could still get conference help in the America East, A-10, Big West (maybe), Conference USA, Mountain West (unlikely), WAC (unlikely) or Patriot League (maybe) -- with a bottom-feeder in a major conference possibly also helping, although that has never happened to my knowledge.
At least the Quakers have done their part by finishing 10-0 (the longest winning streak of Glen Miller's D-I coaching career)
Stephen Danley played only two minutes against Princeton due to back spasms, but coach Glen Miller said he should be good to go for the NCAA Tournament next week.
The coach said the senior forward's back had stiffened up, and that Danley didn't practice on Monday. He apparently has been plagued by back problems throughout the year.
"It's something he's dealt with for a while," Miller said. "It just needs a little rest; he's going to get that in the next couple of days"
Penn 64, Princeton 48 FINAL
It wasn't Penn's best performance - 12 turnovers to 11 assists and a fair defensive effort ... but it was more than enough to beat Princeton by a comfortable margin. The 17-for-21 from the line and +7 rebounding margin both look good though heading into the Tournament.
Penn 64, Princeton 48 :14 2nd Half
All the subs come in for both teams. Gill, Cohen, Lewis, Franklin, Schreiber.
Franklin airballs a three from the side. It looked good -- from three feet closer in.
Princeton going for the safety school chant. Not sure who chucks up more threes, Cohen or Franklin, but they each are 0-1 tonight.
Penn 64, Princeton 44 1:30 2nd Half
The student section thrilled to see Justin Conway in on senior day. He's not got any minutes so far, and due to injury hasn't practiced all week.
Penn 64, Princeton 43 3:18 2nd Half
Jaaber an acrobatic layup, that could have been an and-1.
Danley played two minutes in the first half, and hasn't been back in. Word is that his back has tightened up, and Glen Miller's not going to push him tonight.
Man, this game feels long.
Penn 62, Princeton 41 4:37 2nd Half
Penn hasn't scored in over a minute, and the student section starts getting into it a little. The few Penn fans starting to give a few responses, "you're down 20", "last place" and "stop your whining" in response to a response to a foul call.
Buczac hits a layup, why isn't he playing much? O right, he's six inches taller than me (6-9) and only 10 pounds heavier (205). Zoller's arm is the same size as his leg.
Penn 54, Princeton 37 7:36 2nd Half
A tip in attempt each from Jaaber and Grandieri doesn't go, and Grandieri gets fouled but misses the free throw.
McMahon playing some defense, stuffing Schroeder on a short J, subsequently forcing a second shot-clock violation.
Penn 54, Princeton 37 8:35 2nd Half
The 2-3 zone really isn't doing very much good, as Jaaber waltzes in baseline and gets fouled, making both on the 1-and-1.
Strittmatter takes a nice inbounds pass for an and-1. Gunn splits the defense with a great pass to Finley (who beat Reilly backdoor).
Princeton gets a taste of its own medicine as Zoller goes backdoor for yet another layin. On the other end, Egee finally gets a hand in a three-point shooter's face, and it's way off. Savage drains a wide open one short after though. Jaaber was the closest to him, and he was some five feet away. Still, the Tigers have a long, long, way to go.
Penn 48, Princeton 28 11:48 2nd Half
An offensive board for Princeton. Of course on a long rebound.
The Penn transition game is way too much for the Tigers, as Grandieri hits a layup. You don't expect much transition in a matchup with the Tigers, but Penn has done fairly well pushing the rock.
A Jaaber steal and a pass under the basket from Egee to Reilly makes it a 20-point game.
The 25-person Princeton student section proclaims Reilly needs a haircut. They should know.
Thanks to Steuerer, we've got uncontested layup #5. As you can see from the last two posts, Penn's on a 10-2 run.
Penn 38, Princeton 26 15:22 2nd Half
Gunn drains a three over Smith, but Zoller's layin makes it 30-20.
Princeton's matchup zone is still going, but Smith and Zoller get two hard layups against it.
Owings hits a nice hook off of a post-up, but the PA announcer credits it to Finley. All these guys look alike.
Zoller is heating up. He gets trapped under the basket, but powers his way to an and-1.
Penn 28, Princeton 17 HALFTIME
Finley notches the fourth missed uncontested layup. A left hand is a little too much to handle.
Zoller (getting taunted by the slim Princeton crowd, which seems to be purposely mis-pronouncing his name) is having a rough half. He gets caught with the shot clock running down, and gets called for a violation. The Orange and Black miss at the halftime buzzer.
STATS
Zoller leads the Quakers with seven points, while Jaaber and Smith each have six. Savage's two threes lead the home side with six points.
Jaaber has three steals, but also only two assists and two turnovers. The Tigers have four assists, and all of them are from Schroeder. They'd have more if they'd gotten here earlier for layup lines.
The Quakers are out-rebounding their opponents 17-8, with only four of the game's 25 boards coming on the offensive end.
Penn 28, Princeton 17 1:33 1st Half
Jaaber finally gets a rest, and Egee's man subsequently gets open for a layup. Yes, he made it this time.
McMahon hits a contested three, and it's eleven, he's got five. Zoller follows with an airball, but Grandieri pulls down an offensive rebound amongst the trees.
Penn 25, Princeton 15 3:41 1st Half
Jaaber's now taking over. He turns a steal off of a bad pass from Michael Strittmatter into a dunk, then gets another steal and turns it into two, and then rejects Schroeder on the next possession.
Jaaber won't stop the abuse as he hits Smith off of an inbounds pass for an easy layin. Owings keeps it at a double-digit deficit with a missed layup that was way off. So far I've counted three uncontested layups Princeton has missed, and total layup bricks must be well over five by now.
Penn 19, Princeton 15 6:41 1st Half
Zoller can't get out on a three, but fortunately for him Savage can't get it to go. Jaaber gets a layup to go to extend the lead to three, and then another to make it five. Penn only has hit one jumpshot so far, by Zoller on a fade.
Savage then hits a trey in Egee's grill as the shot clock winds down. Not bad defense, just a nice hit.
Lincoln Gunn gets a pass backdoor but Zoller's right there to help, so he decides to just throw the ball out of bounds.
Gunn comes back with one from deep. The Tigers are now burning Penn from downtown, and it's not just Savage doing the damage.
Tommy McMahon, now in the game, follows an earlier layup by getting his left-hand attempt rejected by 6-9 205-pound freshman center Pawel Buczak.
Jaaber is really saving the Red and Blue by getting to the basket with regularity.
Penn 8, Princeton 7 11:57 1st Half
Shot clock violation count: 1
Finley, though makes up for it with a sweet hook.
Tigers go into a zone, looks like one of the matchup variety. With 13:20 on the clock the Quakers get their first foul, to Grandieri. Aka none yet to Zoller.
Savage nails a three to get within one. Just as I say this Zoller gets whistled for a foul.
Penn 8, Princeton 2 15:44 1st Half
Finley starts off the scoring for the Tigers, after a few missed shots by each team, but Zoller quickly ties it. Finley misses another wide open layup for Princeton.
Danley has already been pulled in favor of Brennan Votel. With a little more athleticism in defense following a few lapses, Jaaber deflects a pass that head the other way in transition for a Smith layup.
Both teams seem to be in a man defense, though Penn isn't doing its usual switching off of screens. This means the Red and Blue will let Princeton fire away from deep and try to protect against the backdoor cuts. Probably a smart decision.
_______________
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Welcome to Jadwin Gym, it's about 20 degrees outside so it's nice to be indoors.
The Quakers go for their 13th conference win and try to sure up their NCAA Tournament resume against the disappointing 2-11 Tigers.
Starters:
Penn
G Ibrahim Jaaber 36.9 mpg
G Darren Smith 13.8 mpg
G Brian Grandieri 31.5 mpg
F Mark Zoller 31.0 mpg
F Stephen Danley 29.1 mpg
Princeton
G Marcus Schroeder 38.9 mpg
G Lincoln Gunn 32.4 mpg
F Luke Owings 18.8 mpg
F Kevin Steurer 14.7 mpg
C Zach Finley 12.0 mpg
So here's what we know going into tonight's games:
Total automatic bids given out: 9
Teams definitely below Penn: 3 (Belmont, Niagara, Eastern Kentucky)
Teams definitely above Penn: 5 (Winthrop, VCU, Creighton, Davidson, Gonzaga)
So Penn (ESPN RPI of 86) will not be playing in the play-in game, and will need loads of help to move further up then it is now, which is probably around the 13/14 line. Obviously, the Quakers need to win tonight to keep that hope alive.
Here's the rest of tonight's games with the Penn-centric rooting preferences:
Hampton vs. Howard, 6:30 and Bethune-Cookman vs. Coppin St., 9:00 -- these games in the MEAC are irrelevant, because even if top seed Delaware State wins the tournament, it will be seeded below Penn.
Montana vs. Northern Arizona, 7:00 and Portland St. vs. Weber St., 10:00 are also irrelevant, with Weber State, the top seed in the Big Sky, well behind Penn.
Oakland vs. Oral Roberts, 7:00, Mid-Continent final -- Root for Oakland (No. 122) to win, although if ORU (no. 93) wins, it still may not pass Penn, but we'd rather not take any chances.
North Texas vs. Arkansas State, 9:00, Sun Belt final -- Doesn't matter, either team will be well below Penn.
Butler vs. Wright State, 9:00, Horizon League final -- This one is tough. Wright State (no. 81) is ranked just above Penn right now, and Butler is way ahead of the Quakers. I suppose that you should root for WSU because if it gets in, there is a chance that it can be below Penn, while if Butler wins, Wright State's spot is taken by a bubble team that will definitely be above Penn.
Idaho vs. San Jose State, 9:30, WAC 1st round -- This game is irrelevant, as is the WAC tourney, with the winner being above Penn unless it comes from one of the lower four seeds in this nine-team event. More on that tomorrow.
New Mexico vs. TCU, 10:30, Mountain West 1st round -- Penn will be helped if one of the top four seeds doesn't win this tournament. This 8-9 game doesn't matter.
By the end of tonight, there will probably be seven teams in the field below Penn, which with a win against Princeton, can assure itself of no worse than a 14 seed. Therefore, here's some more details about what Zachary was talking about below.
Penn won't be playing one of the top eight teams, and probably not any of the top 10 teams. With the pod system, and the fact that we know who most of those teams are, we can be relatively sure where they will be playing. Unless anything seriously surprising happens, we can be fairly sure that Wisconsin and Kansas will be in Chicago, Florida and Texas A&M will be in New Orleans, Ohio State will be in Lexington, North Carolina will be in Winston-Salem, and UCLA will be in Sacramento.
If Penn doesn't end up playing one of these teams, which I think is unlikely, then that leaves one spot in Lexington (which will be Memphis as a 2 or 3 as long as the Tigers don't lose their first C-USA tourney game, and therfore not likely to play Penn), one spot in Sacramento (probably for Wash. St), two spots in Buffalo (one probably for Pittsburgh), one spot in Winston-Salem (probably for Georgetown), and two spots each in Columbus and Spokane.
As the week continues, we'll try to have some more travel analysis.
Finally, if you've made it this far I won't bore you with more about Princeton's uniforms; you can just look at the first post here. Penn is looking to go 4-1 against this design this season.
One note though -- Penn will be wearing blue tonight, and the Quakers have not lost in that color to Princeton since at least 1998. I went back to 1999 and was able to find Penn's uniform color at Princeton, and the Quakers have gone 3-0 in blue and 3-2 in red since then. In the home whites, Penn is 6-3 since 1999.
The Boston Herald sheds a bit more light on the firing of Frank Sullivan this morning. Apparently, Sullivan was going to get his walking papers unless he "[cracked] the stranglehold of Penn and Princeton atop the Ivy League standings [this year]." Win the Ivy League with Harvard sans Cusworth, or get fired? Sullivan should have started packing his things in December.
Meanwhile, Brandon's post about Ibby and the NBA (I think it's the fourth post down) reminded me about something that happened last year. The athletic department held its "Dining with Dunphy" event at Hill House, and at the end there was a Q-and-A period with then-coach Dunphy. One guy asked about Ibby and the NBA. Dunphy responded favorably, adding that "people have likened him to Tony Parker." Here's the link, it's about three-quarters of the way into the clip.
I can't wait to go to Princeton.
Most of you probably aren't saying that, but then again, most of you are probably spring breaking in a normal place like Florida. Meanwhile I'm sitting in latitudinally-challenged Albany, putting on layer-after-layer of clothing to go out and rescue my newspaper from this morning's 20-below wind chill.
So I'll go short and sweet today and not miss my train to Princeton. Predictions time.
Three things that WILL happen:
The Quakers WILL send a message to selection committee chair Gary Walters, whose side job is as Princeton A.D.
Penn pulls another double-digit win over the Tigers.
The Quakers WILL continue to get no love in conference tournaments, but still manage a 13-seed.
The difference: momentum. Last year, the Quakers lost twice on their second trip through the Ivy schedule. Not so this year, when they'll enter with the all-important 10-0 record in their last 10. A 13-seed it is.
The DP WILL blow its travel budget on a trip next week to Spokane.
The way I see it, as a 13-seed there could be a 67-percent chance of this happening on selection Sunday. There is nobody beyond Washington State, who has the resume to be a protected (1-4) seed from the Northwest. And the Coogs are the host institution, so they're out. Meaning the spot will probably go to four seeds. Among them could be Nevada or UNLV, or the odd-team out that loses out to two better teams for a nearby site (say Virginia or Maryland losing out on Winston-Salem to UNC and Georgetown). So it's likely two of the four No. 4 seeds in Spokane. How's that 67 percent? It's not, but one of the other 4s could very easily be Texas with a good run in the Big 12 tournament, and Penn can't play the Longhorns because they met in the Tournament last year. So start studying up.
Three things that WON'T happen:
Penn will NOT play a mid-major in the Tournament.
The selection committee has a history of under-seeding teams with weak schedules. They'll look for anything to hold against you. See Washington, George in 2006. I don't put GW in the category of "mid-major," which has somehow come to mean "low-major," but the 26-2 Colonials got hosed on the basis of not playing a power schedule and got dropped to an 8-seed. Butler is a possibility for Penn with a win tonight. Southern Illinois likely not with their loss to Creighton. Note: I don't count the WAC and Mountain West as mid-majors, because then I'd have to count the A-14 as one, which I'm not comfortable doing.
There will NOT be three Penn players on the All-Ivy first team.
Jaaber? Here. Zoller? Here. Grandieri? Grandieri? Not the PC thing to do. Without Brian, there's no way the Quakers will be 21-8, but Naeve and McAndrew are locks and Hughes or Flato is a definite possibility as a way to represent the league's second-best team. Strangely, Brian Cusworth is still tossed around as a possibility, even after missing the last month due to complications from graduation.
Speaking of PC, Harvard will NOT follow its own lead and hire a woman to replace fired men's basketball coach Frank Sullivan.
Thus saying that there are still innate differences somewhere. Anybody else smell faculty senate vote?
When Reggie Williams' 30-foot three at the buzzer was off the mark, I kicked the chair next to me and pouted for the next few minutes. No. 6 VMI lost an 84-81 decision to No. 1 Winthrop in the final of the Big South Tournament, and another chance to knock off a team slightly above Penn in the RPI went awry. Another few upsets last year and Penn might have been playing No. 3 Iowa instead of No. 2 Texas.
But Monday night, I was on the other side. After watching No. 1 seed in the Colonial Athletic Conference Virginia Commonwealth get to the championship game with a tough seven-point win over Drexel, I was really pulling for VCU to knock off No. 6 George Mason - a team that went 9-9 in the regular season, and whose RPI (120) is a good ways behind VCU (51). The Commodores went 16-2 in the CAA (13th toughest RPI conference) and 26-7 overall. But with a loss, they would not have much of a shot at the Tourney.
But even though George Mason would be one more team behind Penn in the tournament, I was happy to see the Patriots lose. For one, I really wanted to see Drexel in the Tournament, and George Mason winning would hurt the Dragons, because there aren't going to be 3 or 4 teams from the CAA.
I had also followed the Colonial some this season - heading to the DAC to see Drexel play VCU, watching bits of the conference tournament and then seeing the rematch Sunday night. For this reason, I took a sigh of relief when Eric Maynor plucked two different players to go coast-to-coast in about 10 seconds to take VCU's rightful spot in the Big Dance. I would have hated to see a team that fully deserved the Colonial title go down to a George Mason squad that went 0-6 against teams better than it - Drexel, Hofstra, Old Dominion (twice) and VCU (twice) - in the regular season.
So I guess it depends on what angle you take, but in the end, I don't think it's so bad that Winthrop (14-0 Big South) eked one out against VMI (5-9). The best sporting event in the world will be better for it, and so will the conferences that base their bids on a few high-stakes games.
Here's a win that would really help the Quakers' seed that's not even in a conference tournament: Penn beating Princeton.
Thought this was an interesting little find. Among SI's Chris Ekstrand's list of mid-major players with a legitimate shot at playing in the NBA was none other than Ibby Jaaber .
This isn't the first time that "pro" and "Jaaber" have been heard in the same sentence. Just-fired Harvard coach Frank Sullivan has said that Ibby has "pro hands and pro quickness." While this may not be the best time to reference Frank Sullivan's basketball knowledge, Jaaber does possess some pro tools.
Firstly, he's third in the entire NCAA in steals per game. Weak conference or not, that's significant. Secondly, he's proven that he can play well even against strong opponents -- he went 8-for-12 with 21 points, eight assists, and only two turnovers against UNC and their pressure defense. Finally, he's a great athlete. Sullivan already talked about his hands and quickness, but Jaaber also has good elevation and great stamina, as he routinely plays 35+ minutes a night.
While Ekstrand is right that Jaaber's shot is shaky (and his poor free throw shooting doesn't help), he is excellent at getting into the lane and as a result he shoots over 50% from the floor.
Everyone at Penn should be rooting for Ibby on draft day. While he may not ever play more than 10 minutes a night if he does get drafted, he's already done a lot for Penn and we should all be grateful for that.
So with Frank Sullivan leaving Harvard, as Sebastien tells us below, that makes his term as "dean of Ivy League coaches" only one year.
The man taking his place as the longest-tenured Ancient Eight coach is Yale's James Jones, who has been the head man in New Haven since 1999-2000.
The rest of the list is as follows:
Steve Donahue, Cornell -- first season was 2000-01
Joe Jones, Columbia -- 2003-04
Terry Dunn, Dartmouth -- 2004-05
Joe Scott, Princeton -- 2004-05
Glen Miller, Penn -- 2006-07
Craig Robinson, Brown -- 2006-07
Harvard -- ?
Before Sullivan was the dean, it was Penn's Fran Dunphy, who had held that title since the 1999-2000 season.
Here's the all-time list of deans since the Ivy League officially began in 1955-56:
1955-60: Franklin "Cappy" Cappon, Princeton (tied with Cornell's Royner Greene in that they both had coached since 46-47, but Cappon had a previous stint with Princeton so he gets the tiebreaker, plus he lasted a year longer than Greene
60-67: Alvin Julian, Dartmouth
67-69: Stanley Ward, Brown (and Floyd Wilson, Harvard, in 67-68 only)
69-75: Joseph Vancisin, Yale
75-96: Pete Carril, Princeton (Ivy all-time win leader)
96-99: Dick Kuchen, Yale
99-2006: Fran Dunphy, Penn
06-07: Frank Sullivan, Harvard
Other than Carril, it's not been a long-held title, with every school but Columbia getting a piece of the action at least once.
After its second straight 5-9 Ivy season, Harvard has had enough.
The Crimson athletic department announced today that head coach Frank Sullivan "will not return" after 16 years at the helm. Some perceived Sullivan to have underachieved in his last years with the Crimson, particularly after two poor showings in the league despite having some of its best frontcourt talent.
Sullivan finishes his Harvard tenure 178-245. His best year in the Ivy League was in 1996-97, in which the Crimson finished with 10 wins in conference play.
Not a great day for the Quakers on Sunday. Penn got only one of the upsets it wanted.
Vermont and Albany, both of whom could threaten No. 78 (RPI) Penn, advanced in the Northeast Conference.
Western Kentucky, the only team out of the Sun Belt that could challenge Penn, advanced with a win over Florida Atlantic.
In the Patriot, Holy Cross and Bucknell both advanced, though the Crusaders needed a 55-53 squeaker over American to do it. Not great for the Quakers.
And higher-ranked Gonzaga beat San Diego to advance in the West Coast Conference.
The only help Penn got was when George Mason knocked off Old Dominion in the Colonial semis, giving Penn a chance for help out of the conference if the Patriots wrap up the automatic bid.
We'll see if Monday goes a bit better. Look out for these games in conference tournaments:
In the Mid-Continent, root for No. 94 Oral Roberts to fall to No. 214 IUPUI.
In the Colonial finals, root extra hard for No. 116 George Mason to beat No. 48 and top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in the CAA finals. That would be huge for Penn -- the Patriots would take a seed below Penn in the field. The game starts at 7 p.m.
Once again, root for both Gonzaga and Western Kentucky to fall. The Zags face Santa Clara in the WCC tourney at 9 p.m., while the Hilltoppers face Arkansas State in Lafayette, La. at 10. Penn still might place ahead of WKU if it were to win the Sun Belt, but Gonzaga would definitely overtake Penn in the field.
And don't forget the elephant in the room -- Penn's crucial RPI tester on Tuesday at Princeton.
It's all about seeding for Penn now. The Quakers helped their cause by holding off Brown 67-64 at home tonight. Still, there are plenty of conference tournament games that can help or hurt Penn tomorrow. Penn fans should want lower-RPI teams to win conference championships, because automatic-bid teams that those conference championships produce would be seeded lower than Penn.
In the America East, root for No. 209 Maryland-Baltimore County to beat No. 76 Vermont, which sits just two places better than Penn.
No. 92 Albany would probably sit behind Penn if it were to win the league tourney, but just to be safe, root for the Danes to fall to No. 207 Boston University.
The only team in the Sun Belt conference that could threaten Penn is No. 91 Western Kentucky. But that's a longshot so don't be too scared if the Hilltoppers beat No. 143 Florida Atlantic in their tournament. New Orleans, Arkansas State, Louisiana Monroe, North Texas, Middle Tennessee State and South Alabama are all nonfactors.
The Patriot League could really help or hurt Penn. Root hard for No. 65 Holy Cross to fall to No. 187 American in the second round of the PL tourney. Also root for No. 81 Bucknell to fall to No. 233 Army. Don't count on either, although American did take HC to overtime at home during the regular season.
In the Colonial, No. 122 George Mason could help Penn by knocking out No. 33 Old Dominion. In the other CAA tourney game, both Virginia Commonwealth and Drexel (which gave Penn its best win this year) sit way above Penn.
In the West Coast Conference, root hard for No. 165 San Diego to beat Gonzaga. San Diego would be way below Penn in the field, but the Zags would not. No other WCC game matters for now.
The Missouri Valley Conference, Northeast Conference, Mid-Continent and Metro-Atlantic do not affect Penn, because the teams are all either well above or well below Penn.
So there you are. The numbers vary depending on what source you use, but the points should all hold. Be sure to check back with The Buzz for more scouting on Penn's NCAA Tournament placing all this week.
FINAL: Penn 67, Brown 64
The last-ditch three isn't even close, and Egee comes up with the ball afterwards. Game over. No worries of an RPI hit tonight.
Good night from The Buzz.
00:08.2, Second half: Penn 67, Brown 64
Wow. Robinson gets a timeout just before Huffman tumbles out of bounds under pressure. Brown has to get the last shot off here. With only eight seconds to go, letting Penn get the ball back and fouling isn't an option.
00:24.0, Second half: Penn 67, Brown 64
McAndrew picks up his fourth foul, and Grandieri hits both this time. That could be the game-changer, but there's still 24 seconds left.
00:45.4, Second half: Penn 65, Brown 64
Or maybe not. Hoffman is called for a reacharound on Danley on the inbounds. Penn ball after the timeout. Each team has two left. Ten team fouls for each side as well.
00:47.4, Second half: Penn 65, Brown 64
Darren Smith misses a runner, and after a jump ball Brown has 17 seconds to get a shot off and take the lead.
1:34, Second half: Penn 65, Brown 64
Kevin Egee corrals a bad pass and takes it to the rack for a three-point lead. Scott Friske sinks two foul shots to bring it back to one. Danley has four fouls.
2:13, Second half: Penn 63, Brown 62
MacDonald fouls out after smacking Grandieri after the two got tangled up on a rebound. He misses the first one badly, but collects himself for No. 2. One-point game until Jaaber takes a miss all the way to the rack for two.
3:05, Second half: Penn 60, Brown 62
Brown scores, then misses and again fails to get back on defense, where Kevin Egee puts in a bank shot and gets fouled. But his missed free throw could have put Penn up by one. Instead, Danley fouls Skrelja, and he make both. That is huge.
4:16, Second half: Penn 58, Brown 58
Becker shows great heart in coming out of a scrum around the basket with the ball for an easy layup. Jaaber quickly brings the ball upcourt and gets fouled, keeping the game tied.
5:17, Second half: Penn 56, Brown 56
Bad turnover by Darren Smith -- a wide-open look from the corner turns into a travel after he bobbles it. Penn still retakes the lead after drives by Jaaber and Grandieri. But sure enough, Skrelja drives for a layup and foul on -- you guessed it -- Zoller. Zoller's Palestra career is over, and the crowd gives him a standing ovation. As for the more immediate problems, the three-point play ties the game again, and a turnover at midcourt gives Brown the ball back.
7:29, Second half: Penn 52, Brown 53
Craig Robinson tells his player to "go right at Zoller" during the last timeout when he sees the Penn senior re-enter the game.
7:29, Second half: Penn 52, Brown 53
Kach misses an easy transition layup short. What a blown chance. Good thing MacDonald misses the front end of a one-and-one. After Grandieri drives baseline, the deficit is back to one.
9:40, Second half: Penn 50, Brown 53
Danley turns it over in a press, and Brown hits a three in transition to take the lead.
9:56, Second half: Penn 50, Brown 50
Jaaber finds McMahon open under the net for an easy basket, but Brown keeps on answering.
The Palestra just filled up with boos, and i can understand why. McMahon just got called for an up-and-down where it seemed clear that McMahon's feet remained on the ground.
12:31, Second half: Penn 45, Brown 43
Penn just picked up three fouls on one possesion -- two from Votel, one from Kach -- before Egee steals it away and hits one of two foul shots.
Justin Reilly is fouled next and hits both.
15:07, Second half: Penn 42, Brown 43
Brown's 1-3-1 zone is a tough nut to crack, and Penn is having no luck shooting over it either. Marcus Becker picks off a pass for a layup and McAndrew blows past Votel for two. But Jaaber completes another three-point play to keep it close.
Kach and McMahon in for Penn.
15:07, Second half: Penn 39, Brown 39
Oh, no! Zoller picks up his fourth foul. Votel enters to replace him.
15:30, Second half: Penn 39, Brown 39
Incredible play by Jaaber. He hesitated, drew the foul, popped up and drained an 18-footer. The three-point play ties the game for Penn.
16:00, Second half: Penn 36, Brown 39
Jaaber blocked a finger roll, took the ball up the court, lost control and regained it for a layup. The Palestra crowd went crazy but was quickly silenced by another Brown layup.
17:31, Second half: Penn 32, Brown 37
Terrible start to the second half for Penn. Turnovers, fouls, and some great Brown shooting give Penn a hole to climb out of.
Halftime stats:
The most salient ones at least.
Penn: 1-10 from three-point land. Brown: 6-13.
Penn: 6 offensive rebounds. Brown: 1.
Penn: 3-9 from FT line.
Huffman: 16 points. Rest of team: 16.
Halftime: Penn 30, Brown 32
Jaaber got space for a three, but it rattled out. Brown missed on an 80-foot heave and heads into the locker room with a two-point lead.
Halftime stats coming shortly.
0:33.2 First half: Penn 30, Brown 32
Penn is relying on Grandieri and Jaaber to break the pres by themselves every time, and they're having more and more difficulty doing it. Grandieri has a runner in the lane rejected and Huffman hits a jumper to give Brown the lead.
2:24 First half: Penn 30, Brown 30
Huffman is on fire. He made two threes on consecutive possessions to tie the game, and Smith commits a silly foul to give the Bears back the ball.
3:26 First half: Penn 30, Brown 24
Brown's Damon Huffman hit tough fadeaway three from the corner, Kevin Egee made a bank shot, but Mark McAndrew made a three from straightaway to narrow the deficit. Then Stephen Danley really turned it on to get a hoop and a harm, and will shoot a free throw when we come back.
5:12 First half: Penn 25, Brown 18
Kevin Egee takes one coast-to-coast, but Brown is looking better, and only a terrible tendency to miss layups is keeping them from pulling even.
9:26 First half: Penn 20, Brown 13
Robinson is fired up. He just told Glen Miller to "stop crying, it's a foul" after Miller questioned Mark Zoller's second personal, and follows that up with "don't let him push you around." McMahon in for Zoller.
9:23 First half: Penn 20, Brown 13
Bad breaks for Brown. Smith nailed a line-drive three pointer, then Friske deflects a pass right to a streaking Zoller for an easy two. Zoller follows that up with another great drive. In between, though, Brennan Votel, in the game for Danley, misses from point-blank.
12:20 First half: Penn 13, Brown 13
Darren Smith nailed a fine back-door cut and Jaaber just took one coast-to-coast, but Penn is still having trouble. Brown's presure defense is working.
Scott Friske completes a three-point play, and Brown coach Craig Robinson is screaming at refs about not "know[ing] the score!" No one has any idea what he's talking about, least of all the refs.
One other note: Brown's Sam Manhange may be a force at 6-6 and 265 pounds, but he is lacking in the skill category. He picked up an offensive foul for flagrantly bowling over Zoller and then turned in one of the most misjudged bank shot's I've ever seen. Six inches higher and it would have hit the shot clock, no joke.
15:27 First half: Penn 6, Brown 6
For those who couldn't figure it out, the outlier tonight is Adam Franklin, who is getting his first-ever start on Senior Night. He's fared alright thus far, alertly grabbing a loose ball and doing his best to not get in the way on offense.
Brown's pressure defense forced Penn into turnovers, but things have been much more under control lately. Mark McAndrew missed an easy layup after a turnover and Mark Zoller hit two tough baseline drives to help tie the game.
Penn is playing for seeding today, but for a team looking to win a game in the Tournament, that's everything. Here's the starting lineups. And a challenge for Penn fans: what's out of the ordinary about them?
G Mark McAndrew (6-2, 190)
G Damon Huffman (6-2, 185)
G Marcus Becker (6-2, 195)
G Chris Skrelja (6-5, 205)
F Mark MacDonald (6-10, 245)
G Ibrahim Jaaber (6-2, 170)
G Brian Grandieri (6-4, 190)
G Adam Franklin (6-6, 215)
F Mark Zoller (6-7, 220)
F Stephen Danley (6-8, 225)
Before we get into tonight's game against Brown and Tournament seeding (if VMI can't make a three for the win to help Penn who can?), you have to marvel at Penn's performance last night.
The 22 assists and the 57 to 35 shooting percentage were impressive, but have been done quite often this season.
But Penn outrebounded Yale 45 to 22. Let that sink in for a minute. Mark Zoller (17) and Brennan Votel (6) alone had more rebounds than the Elis. Travis Pinick had 10 boards off the bench, but no other player had more than two. The Quakers have been out-rebounded by 3.25 per game in their last eight in the Ivy League.
Whether Yale was nervous or even just thinking too much, it seemed like Penn just wanted it more. While many players were just beasts on the glass, Ibrahim Jaaber exemplified the aggressive rebounding attitude. Off of a free throw no one decided to box him out or go for the ball with any sort of tenacity, and the senior guard grabbed it right under the basket and put it up for two.
It was classy for the Penn student section (which was surprisingly full) didn't rush the court. I'm not going to say it would have been bad if they did, but it was nice to se some restraint.
The funniest part of the game (other than Andreas Schreiber falling out of bounds on his own) was when three fans got together and rushed. Usually this sparks a flood on to the hardwood, but no one followed them, and they got real embarrassed (one even took his shirt off) and went back to their seats.
As for tonight, Brown (6-7 Ivy) has been out of the title picture for a while, but has won four of its last five games, only losing to Cornell, and holding Dartmouth to 33 points. They're only 2-4 on the road though.
Tonight is senior night for the Quakers, but it is also for the JV team. Four-year seniors Peter Feldman and Mike Cosulich will dress for the big squad tonight. Dunphy didn't play Jeff Bilsky last year who dressed on senior day, but who knows, maybe Glen Miller will reward coach Bromwell's guys in case of a blowout. Pete is actually a former DPOSTM-ite, who wrote his freshman year.
It's the Saturday before Championship Week, so there are probably dozens of games that can affect Penn's seeding and RPI in some way or another.
But if you're looking for an abridged "Who to Root For" directory, there is one conference tournament final that could give the Quakers a big boost if the right team picks up the silverware.
Southern Conference: No. 1 Davidson vs. No. 3 College of Charleston
C of C (RPI 132) gave Penn a big boost when they knocked Appalachian State (85) out in the conference semifinals. But in order for that to mean anything, they'll have to beat Davidson (72). Davidson would almost certainly be seeded ahead of Penn, but Charleston probably wouldn't.
Meanwhile, in the Big South conference final this afternoon, VMI almost gave the Quakers a huge lift, but they lost by three to 28-4 Winthrop. So no Big South representative will be stacking the bottom of the bracket.
Of course, the real important game is at the Palestra in less than three hours. And it's a real shame that Senior Night ended up right during Spring Break.
I'm not really sure what to expect in terms of student attendance. But I'll guess that your chances of catching a t-shirt or playing in the Susquehanna International Group Shootout will be greatly increased if you show up tonight.
Darren Smith's three-pointer put Penn up 3-2 over Yale 70 seconds into the game.
The next 38:50 was a coronation.
The Quakers wrapped up a third Ivy League title in a row and pulled even with Princeton with 25 Ivy titles apiece.
Andrew Scurria will get you an online recap shortly, but here are a few notes from the sidelines.
If I asked you before the game, who would key a 19-0 run to put the game away, you probably could have gotten pretty good odds on Brennan Votel. But the sophomore came up huge, scoring 10 points in the first half, mostly on strong moves to the basket. Votel played with more confidence than I'd seen out of him yet this year.
Penn's seniors haven't played too many games in the last four years bigger than tonight's against Brown and Tuesday's at Princeton. Win these two and a 13-seed likely awaits, giving the Quakers a real shot at their goal of winning a tournament game. Lose one of them, and their fate as the second-best class never to win a tournament game becomes one step closer to reality.
In the strangest moment of the evening, Glen Miller received the Bill Parcells treatment, but not from his players. As Miller answered questions at the post-game press conference, statistician Stu Suss doused the soon-to-be NCAA Tournament newcomer with a Gatorade bath. OK, that's an exaggeration. He poured probably the first four or five ounces of the orange stuff on Miller's newly-dry-cleaned jacket. Don't think Miller was quite sure how to react, other than to send him the dry cleaning bill.
Penn goes for the Ivy title tonight against Yale at the Palestra. Here's what I wrote about the Quakers' two opponents last time around.
I just want to emphasize that it's ridiculous that Yale has a totally different home and road jersey. This kind of thing happens in hockey, -- Pittsburgh Penguins of the 1990s is one example -- the occasional baseball (Yankees or Cubs) but doesn't really happen in hoops. The differences, if any, are usually when a team will put the team name on the home jersey and the city name on the away jersey. Baseball teams do this too, occasionally.
But to have two different styles like Yale does is in my mind, unprecedented for a basketball team. And I'm not talking about third jerseys that look different, either.
Hopefully a large crowd will be there tonight to see the Elis' anomaly.
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