Team USA won gold at the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship this Saturday at the University of Manchester (England) with a 12-10 finals victory over Canada. But of particular note for the Penn community was the performance of current Quakers assistant and former pro lacrosse player Brian Dougherty. "Doc" --as he is known to many in the pro lacrosse world -- made 15 saves in the final game to close out his illustrious career.
The Episcopal Academy grad was the 1995 NCAA tournament MVP, won three championships as an all-star Major League Lacrosse player and was the starting goalie for the 1998 U.S. national team that won the World Lacrosse Championship. Now, the 36-year-old Dougherty has yet another piece of hardware, not to mention some great memories, to add to his collection.
As has been detailed in past issues of the DP, Dougherty is also the son of local hoops coaching legend Dan Dougherty, who coached Penn's Jerome Allen, Drexel's Bruiser Flint and Temple's Fran Dunphy during their high school playing days. Brian and Allen led the Churchmen to a fifth straight Inter-Academic League title as backcourt mates in 1991.
Expect more from this great story in next week's (final) issue of The Summer Pennsylvanian, after Dougherty returns home on Thursday.
Via Penn Athletics, here is a wonderfully written first hand account of their bronze medal winning race at the U23 world rowing championships, by Liz and Rebecca Donald.
We won BRONZE at U23 Worlds!
One of our teammates was able to videotape the race so we will send the link as soon as that gets up on YouTube. We thought many of you would be interested to hear the details of the race so here you go."Five minutes to the start" announced the starting official. Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Germany, and Italy were all locked into the starting platform; we were just backing in.
In the heat, our coach had suggested that we take a practice start at ¾ pressure once we were positioned in our lane prior to the actual start of our race. This practice start served as a good way to feel the conditions at the starting blocks; it also allowed us to get the blood flowing again since we had been waiting for the races before ours to get started.
At the final this morning, Rebecca asked me if I wanted to do a start. I instantly remembered a practice on Lake Hosmer, Vermont in which we had, as an entire group, set a start time for a race, but for one reason or another, Coach Gluckman was late to the start. All the crews had just waited, no longer warming up. As a result we had let our bodies cool down; we were no longer ready. Coach explained how poor that was to not have kept warming up as we would not be as prepared for the pieces. Remembering this practice as we locked into the starting platform, I quickly said, "Yes, let's do it." I told the stake boatholder (who was Belarusian): "We are going to go." I think he thought we were going to start the race early! We did a quick and light start five, glided the boat out and calmly backed the boat back into the starting platform where we had been moments ago.
"Two minutes to the start." We were ready and we were calm. Due to the very strong crosswind, we knew the course would have some swells and that it would be imperative that we stay relaxed and just keep it simple.
"Italy. Germany. United States of America. Belarus. Romania. Hungary. Attention..." We were off! We had a very clean start, and 250 meters into the race we had lengthened to our base rate of a 35/36. 500 meters into the race, Belarus and Germany were already pulling away from us as we moved away from Romania and the rest of the field. Our goal for this race was to get down the course as fast as possible and just try to put together the fastest race we could. We wanted to PR. Rowing through the first 750 meters, we were both internal and we were just focusing on our race, our strokes. Taking a ten-stroke move at the 750 and a 15 again at the 1,000 meter mark, we pushed away from Romania as we could no longer see or feel Germany and Belarus to either side of us. At the 1,000 mark, I thought of my brother Peter, who I knew would be up listening.
The wind bobbled us in the third 500 and we did not stay as relaxed as we needed to. We could no longer see Romania in our peripheral vision as they had gained ground on us. We did not look out of the boat but knew based on how little of them we could see that we needed to go.
500 meters to go. We could hear all the fans who packed the grandstands; we could hear the chant of "U-S-A!" As we pressed our legs down each stroke, we knew we needed to sprint. The yellow lane buoys turned from yellow to red. We were in the last 250 meters of our race and we were already sprinting. I didn't look down at my stroke watch to see what our rating was but only after the race learned we were at a 41. We pushed hard and fast as we sprinted to the finish line. Rebecca called "TEN!" Was it the last ten strokes or the beginning ten strokes? We both don't remember, but we just went. All we knew was that all the hard work; the many, many 500-meter pieces; the 250 meter pieces; the 40 at a 40 (40 strokes at 40 strokes per minute); and all our sprint work we had done in practice had prepared us for this moment. We needed to edge ourselves out in front of the Romanians. We needed to push harder, faster.
The horn signaling the finish line only sounded once. The race was too close to call. We immediately dropped our blades to the water as we stared at the screen waiting for the results.
Germany, 7:03.47, Gold. Belarus, 7:08.28, Silver. Silence, the results were delayed. United States, 7:20.46, bronze! Romania, 7:20.56. It took me a second to realize that the word "United" stood for the beginning of the team I was now representing. I stared at the board, and in an instant my hand flew to the air. WE DID IT! We edged out Romania by .10 of a second. An amazing margin.
We had practiced our sprint so many times at Craftsbury. 1,500m, 1,000, 500s, 250s, minute pieces, and two minute pieces; training and racing a lightweight men's single, a heavyweight men's single, a men's pair and a men's double, our training partners this summer helped us win this race.
Although we did not achieve a PR, we were both very happy with the final result. It is incredible to think that we managed to push our bow ball ahead and win by such a slight margin.
We finished third and the women's quad finished fourth, a huge improvement for the United States women's sculling team as both events finished last in the 2009 U23 World Championships.
Take care!
Liz and Rebecca
More accolades for Penn Athletes in the offseason: Penn Rowing twin sisters Rebecca and Elizabeth Donald finished third in the Under-23 finals at the world rowing championships. Their time of 7:20.46 was 17 seconds off the pace set by winners Germany. Belarus took home the silver.
The competition just wrapped up in Brest, Belarus.
The Sports Network announced its all-America teams today, and the only Ivy player to make the list: Penn offensive lineman Joe D'Orazio, who was named to the third team. D'Orazio was a first team all-Ivy selection last season, starting 10 games at center.
According to Penn Athletics, the Quakers will be back preparing to defend their undefeated Ivy title during the last week in august.
Because this story was just too wacky not to pass on, two Drexel basketball players are on the lam as they are wanted as suspects in a robbery of a fellow Drexel student.
From Philly.com:
Jamie Harris and Kevin Phillip, two Drexel University basketball players, stormed into a female Drexel student's apartment on Wednesday night brandishing guns, expecting to score a big stash of cash, police said.
But the plan kind of fell apart - the young woman didn't have any money - so Harris and Phillip grabbed her iPhone and took off, police said.
Their getaway was caught on tape.
Read the whole story. It's captivating. Harris was the Dragons' leading scorer last year as a junior.
I've been trying to post this for a day, but the blogging software seems to think differently. So I'll just have to link to Penn Athletics' page for the new women's basketball recruiting class, which is six deep.
The page includes some nice commentary from coach Mike McLaughlin,
Good news for the Ivy League — Jeremy Lin has found himself a real job after graduation: Playing for the Golden State Warriors.
Multiple outlets are confirming that the Harvard guard, who had a spectacular summer league showing, will sign with his home town team.
from the Boston Globe:
Former Harvard star Jeremy Lin, an undrafted free agent guard, was signed by the Golden State Warriors yesterday. He is the first Asian-American player signed by the Warriors since 1947. In an area with a large Asian population, Lin becomes an instant celebrity.
“This is unbelievable,’’ Lin told an array of television crews, photographers and print media in Oakland, Calif. “I’ve never been part of something like this.’’
He'll reportedly make $500,000 in his rookie year.
7 of 8 ain't bad, at least that's how many of the Penn recruits the DP knew about. So that leaves one question: Who is Chris Hatfield? Philly residents will associate the name with Hatfield Dollar Dog Night at Phillies games, a fine institution. I don't want to tell Aramark how to do its job, but if there isn't some sort of promotion with Chris Hatfield scoring and dollar hot dogs, I, for one, will be disappointed. Deeply disappointed.
Now, onto the freshman:
He's listed at 6-5/205, from Orinda, Calif. and went to Miramonte high school. His season stats, last year, according to MaxPreps.com:
| Stat Name |
Season Stats |
| Points Per Game |
18.5 |
| Assists Per Game |
1.7 |
| Blocks Per Game |
.4 |
| Rebounds Per Game |
6.7 |
| Steals Per Game |
1.9 |
| Points |
574 |
He was All-Metro Bay Area honorable mention for his area according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Prep sports blog.
Here's a photo:
Bad news for the Quakers on a day when they are celebrating an 8-man incoming freshman class. Dan Monckton had a microfracture surgery on his knee, according to a post on his facebook, which says that instead of sitting out a few weeks as he had planned, the recovery time will be a matter of months.
This is a considerable hit for Penn as the senior had a breakout season last year, and was looking primed to shine in his fourth year on the team.
Monckton started five games last season, racking up the third most total minutes, averaging 23.2 per game. He shot an impressive .467 from the floor and racked up 3.9 rebounds per game. He was fourth on the roster with 7.9 points per game, and frequently got the crowd riled up with his dunking abilities last season. His numbers for the Ivy season are higher across the board as his playing time was about 6 minutes more during that latter part of the season.
This morning Penn Athletics announced the incoming Freshman class for men's basketball — which includes eight players — bringing the roster total to 22 players (note: Ivy travel limit is 15 for men's basketball).
The class has three Californians, two Pennsylvanians, and one each from Jersey, Iowa and Illinois.
While we knew of seven of the eight recruits during the spring (several of whom strongly backed Jerome Allen during the coaching search), Chris Hatfield is a bit of a surprise.
Here are the vitals and bios from Penn Athletics:
MILES CARTWRIGHT
6-3 / 170
Van Nuys, Calif.
Loyola
High School: Lettered and captained his Loyola team for three years ... High school coach was Jamal Adams ... Led Loyola to Mission League titles in 2008 (20-8 record) and 2009 (26-7) ... 2009 Mission League MVP ... First-team All-Mission League in 2008 and 2010 ... First-team All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) in 2009 and 2010 ... Two-time ESPN All-California ... IRN Sports All-California in 2010 ... 2010 High School Academic All-American Classic participant ... 2009-10 Loyola Athlete of the Year ... Loyola Monogram Club member.
Personal: Son of Belinda and Ramon Cartwright ... Will enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences.
FRAN DOUGHERTY
6-8 / 230
New Britain, Pa.
Archbishop Wood
High School: Lettered three times in basketball and twice in tennis ... Two-year captain of basketball, senior captain for tennis ... High school basketball coach was Jack Walsh ... First-team All-Catholic League in 2009-10 ... Second-team All-Catholic League in 2008-09 ... All-city in 2008-09 ... Ferguson Award recipient ... Kairos leader.
Personal: Son of Deborah and Francis Dougherty Sr. ... Will enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences.
CAMERON GUNTER
6-8 / 190
Morton, Pa.
Ridley
High School: Lettered three times in basketball ... Served as team captain his senior year ... High school coach was Keith Heinrichs ... Second-team All-Delco as a senior ... Honorable mention All-Delco as a junior ... National Honor Society member ... Honor roll student.
Personal: Son of Tracy and Kevin Gunter ... Will enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences.
CHRIS HATFIELD
6-5 / 205
Orinda, Calif.
Miramonte
High School: Four-year letterwinner in basketball ... Two-year captain ... High school coach was Dave Brown ... Led team to 2009 Diablo Foothill League title with 24-6 overall record ... High school's all-time leading scorer ... Two-time first-team all-league League ... Honorable mention All-Bay Area in 2010 ... Honorable mention All-Metro in 2009 ... Clay Scholarship recipient ... Wendy's Scholar-Athlete finalist ... California Scholastic Federation and National Society of High School Scholars member.
Personal: Son of Rochelle and John Hatfield ... Will enroll in the Wharton School of Business.
CASEY JAMES
6-4 / 195
Capistrano Beach, Calif.
Capistrano Valley
High School: Lettered four times in basketball, co-captain of the team as a senior ... High school coach was Brian Mulligan ... Two-time Large School All-CIF Southern Section ... Two-time All-South Coast League ... MVP in Orange County vs. Los Angeles County All-Star Game ... 2010 High School Academic All-American Classic participant ... All-Trinity League at JSerra Catholic High School in 2008 ... Scholar Athlete at JSerra (2007, 2008) before moving to Capistrano Valley (2009, 2010).
Personal: Son of Colleen and Dennis James ... Father was an All-America basketball player at Azusa Pacific College and is in that school's Hall of Fame; he later played four years of pro basketball in Europe ... Will enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences.
DAU JOK
6-4 / 180
Des Moines, Iowa
Theodore Roosevelt
High School: Lettered three times in basketball ... Captain as a senior ... High school coaches were Paul Doerrfeld and Chris McMahon ... Two-time first-team All-Metro Conference ... Two-time all-district ... Two-time academic all-conference ... Third-team all-state and second-team Central Iowa Metro League (CIML) Elite in 2009-10 ... Iowa Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) All-Star in 2009-10 ... MVP of CIML All-Star Game after a 38-point performance ... Also lettered in cross country and helped team win conference ... Co-leader of PROUD ... Man4mation member.
Personal: Son of Amelia Ring and the late Dut Jok ... Counts the late Manute Bol and current Chicago Bull Luol Deng among his relatives ... Will enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences.
MARIN KUKOC
6-7 / 195
Highland Park, Ill.
Highland Park
High School: Lettered three times in basketball and twice in volleyball ... Two-year captain for basketball, one-year captain for volleyball ... High school basketball coach was Paul Harris ... Helped Highland Park to Central Suburban League North Division and regional titles in 2007-08 ... Two-time all-conference ... Illinois State Scholar.
Personal: Son of Renata and Toni Kukoc ... Father played in the NBA for from 1993-2006 and was a member of the Chicago Bulls' championship teams in 1996, 1997 and 1998 ... Father was NBA's Sixth Man of the Year for the 1995-96 season ... Will enroll in the Wharton School of Business.
STEVE RENNARD
6-2 / 175
Hazlet, N.J.
St. Joseph
High School: Lettered four times in basketball and was a three-year captain ... High school coach was David Turco ... Led team to Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division title and GMC Tournament championship ... Named Player of the Year by the Newark Star Ledger and the Home News Tribune ... Third-team all-state ... Second-team New Jersey All-Non Public ... Second-team All-New Jersey Senior ... First-team All-Middlesex County ... All-conference and all-tournament ... 2010 Primetime Shootout MVP ... Scholar Athlete finalist ... National Honor Society member ... Graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Personal: Son of Susan and Thomas Rennard ... Will enroll in the Wharton School of Business.
Remember the beginning of the Men's hoops season last year? Maybe you're trying to forget. But as teams around the nation release their 2o10-2011 schedules, information is trickling in about who Penn will play before the Ivy season kicks off, when and where it will go down. I'll try to continue to update this post as I find information. Should you see Penn show up on another team's schedule, please comment and I'll add it to the list.
Wednesday, Nov. 17: at Manhattan College
Notes: Penn hasn't played Manhattan since '03 at the Holiday Festival in Madison Square Garden. Though not much can be taken from that match (it was two coaches and two college generations ago) Penn eeked out a 49-47 win. For what it's worth, the Quakers also went 10-4 in the League that year, and trounced Harvard 104-69 (FREE cheesesteaks!) But then again, Jeremy Lin was a sophomore in HIGH SCHOOL.
Saturday, Dec. 4: Army at the IZOD Center (Meadowlands)
Notes: Penn-Army will be the precursor to a game that will be a rematch of last year's NCAA Championship: Duke v. Butler. That should make this a big ticket for the program. After last year's trip to Duke (Penn lost 114-55), Quakers' fans will be happy to see that Penn and Duke aren't on the same ticket anymore.
Wednesday, Dec. 22: at Delaware
Notes: After finishing finals...Penn will head down I-95 to take on the Blue Hens. The Quakers' record-breaking slump at the beginning of the season almost didn't happen, as Penn lost to Delaware in double OT 94-97 last year in the third game of the season. And the worst part? The 3065 fans who came were just 6 points shy of a free cheesesteak from Abner's.
Wednesday, Jan. 12: La Salle (Location TBD)
Notes: The first day of the spring semester!
Wednesday, Jan. 19: at Temple
Notes: Temple has penciled the Quakers in after another Big 5 rival, Villanova, but before heading to NCAA champs Duke. Those who remember the Temple game last year know that Penn showed a valiant 2nd half effort but, as was the story all season, an early (and deep) hole was too much for the Quakers to overcome.
-----
The Quakers will not be playing Penn State this year. Though the two schools have met in each of the last two seasons, Penn is not on the Nitanny Lions' schedule for 2010. No word as to whether we'll face past opponents Monmouth, UAlbany, Navy, or others yet.
It's been a slow week, and Danny Monckton is yet to respond to my dunk contest challenge, so here's a tidbit from one of my favorite sports blogs, the DC Sports Bog.
Apparently Harvard grad Jeremy Lin met John Wall in an NBA summer league game, and despite Wall's celebrity, Lin got the audience behind him with some excellent play. Check out the link above for some video highlights.
Unlike Wall, the #1 draft pick taken by the Wizards, Lin went undrafted, and is playing for the Mavericks summer team.
Playing a varsity sport and keeping up with classes at Penn isn't enough for some Penn soccer players, apparently.
The Quakers participated in a Penn study on Referees' calls, which found that due to our propensity to left-to-right action, such as reading and writing, we find right-to left things abnormal and thus more likely to be a foul.
You can read a blurb on the study in this NYTimes Blog.
The interesting part that the Times' writer points out: the results would likely be opposite in a Hebrew or Arabic speaking country. (Not sure how this would translate into traditional Japanese, which is read in columns....)
The Times' writer does not point out how this finding adds a whole new level to the pregame coin toss.
I was not around at Penn to see Ibby Jaaber play, but I have obviously heard great things.
Add this column from ESPN to that list.
I read earlier in the summer that Ibby was headed back stateside after playing in Europe since graduating, and it appears he's landed a spot on the Lakers' summer team playing in Vegas.
While his numbers haven't been through the roof, he is turning heads, and apparently has an "outside shot" at making the returning champion's roster come October.
My nugget here: should Ibby turn that outside chance into reality in the fall, he'll be doing it just as Penn's last NBA draft pick, Jerome Allen, will be kicking off his first season as head coach of the men's team at the same time. Talk about coming full circle.
EDIT: Lakers point guard Derek Fisher decided tonight to stay with the Lakers, which, as per the article about Jaaber, would make it harder for Ibby to make the team come next fall. But if he continues to play well, his future may be bright elsewhere.
Today's Summer Pennsylvanian, after it's mid-season hiatus, has a solid Sports section (and I say that as a mostly-non-biased observer). Highlights include stories about international recruits in 2 sports that could surely use fresh(men) talent.
- W. Tennis: Coach Sanela Kunovac, in her 2nd year as a Penn coach brings in a highly ranked freshman on the WTA circuit: Connie Hsu
- M. Golf: After sending Sophomore Scotty Williams to the NCAA tournament, Penn's first representative in recent memory, coach Scott Allen has picked up Francesco Melpignano, of Italian and British background, who he hopes will bring a new perspective to the team.
Also check out the great stories on Ivy Hoops. Kevin Esteves looks at Ivy players in NBA summer leagues and playing overseas, While SP Editor Brian Kotloff opines on the purity of the Ancient Eight.
In a move that had been speculated in the rumor mill over the past few weeks, the Journal Inquirer is reporting that ex-Penn basketball head coach Glen Miller will be hired as the director of basketball administration at the University of Connecticut. The official announcement should come in the next day or two, the article states, meaning Miller will have gone unemployed for about five months since his firing from Penn in December of last year.
Miller is a UConn graduate who served as an assistant under Jim Calhoun from 1986 to 1993 before taking head coaching positions at Connecticut College, Brown and Penn. Calhoun is apparently looking to renew old ties, as the Journal Inquirer is also reporting that his former player (and ex-Sixer) Kevin Ollie will be named as an assistant coach.
Just a little tidbit for a rainy evening here in Washington, DC:
Cornell big-man turned graduate Jeff Foote is headed to the Holy Land to play for Macabi Electra Tel Aviv. He signed a three year deal with Macabi Electra.
The best stat from Macabi Electra's website: Foote is 2.12 meters tall.
Foote should have a good time in the Middle East. I hear Tel Aviv is like the Miami of Israel. Party in the city where the heat is on.
According to a press release from Penn Athletics, M. Squash coach Craig Thorpe-Clark has resigned.
He offered a simple reason; the job meant to much time commuting and traveling with the team, which meant time away from his family.
The team went 4-7 in regular season play this year, but went on to win a title in the B division at the national championships.
Despite a losing season in 2009-10, Thorpe-Clark saw Penn Squash flourish in his 11 years — the program was ranked in the top 10 between 2001 and 2010 by the College Squash Association. He finished in the black, with a 95-79 mark overall.
The search for a new coach is underway, Penn Athletics says.
Okay. Just kidding. I've been waiting to make a post on this for a while and finally, there's a hook.
Thanks to an inside source at Penn Athletics, I received this extra-secret plans for the Ivy League expansion — which might just rival the Pac-10 (or whatever number it ends up at) in size when all is said and done.
Okay. I'm still kidding. But here is an interesting take on conference expansion in terms of media markets where the schools are and how the Ivy League could dominate. From ESPN's Page 2:
Super Ivy East
| School |
Academic Rank* |
Media Market** |
Market Size Rank** |
| Brown |
16 |
Providence, R.I.-
New Bedford, Mass. |
53 |
| Columbia |
8 |
New York City |
1 |
| Cornell |
15 |
Elmira-Corning, N.Y. |
176 |
| Dartmouth |
11 |
Burlington, Vt.-
Plattsburgh, N.Y. |
94 |
| Duke |
10 |
Raleigh-Durham, N.C. |
26 |
| Georgetown |
23 |
Washington, D.C. |
9 |
| Harvard |
1 |
Boston |
7 |
| Penn |
4 |
Philadelphia |
4 |
| Princeton |
1 |
Philadelphia |
4 |
| Yale |
3 |
Hartford-New Haven, Conn. |
30 |
Super Ivy West
| School |
Academic Rank* |
Media Market** |
Market Size Rank** |
| Cal |
21 |
S.F.-Oakland-San Jose |
6 |
| Caltech |
4 |
Los Angeles |
2 |
| U. of Chicago |
8 |
Chicago |
3 |
| Emory |
17 |
Atlanta |
8 |
| Notre Dame |
20 |
Chicago*** |
3 |
| Northwestern |
12 |
Chicago |
3 |
| Rice |
17 |
Houston |
10 |
| Stanford |
4 |
S.F.-Oakland-San Jose |
6 |
| Vanderbilt |
17 |
Nashville, Tenn. |
29 |
| Washington U. in St. Louis |
12 |
St. Louis |
21 |
*Academic rankings courtesy of U.S. News and World Report
**Media markets and size rankings for 2009-10 courtesy of Nielsen
***Notre Dame has a large national TV following; for football purposes, generally considered part of Chicago market
Every academic year, the NCAA releases a list of Academic Progress Rates for its member schools. Each team on each school is rated based on the academic eligibility and retention of its scholarship athletes over the past four-year period. If a team receives a score of 925 (out of a possible 1,000), just 50 percent of its members are expected to graduate.
Out of the 224 Division I football programs, the Quakers scored the highest with a 998--though they were hardly Penn's highest-rated team. In fact, many of Penn's female athletes fared better; of the nine Penn programs to score a perfect 1000, men's cross country was the lone representative from the men's side (the others are field hockey, women's fencing, women's golf, gymnastics, women's lacrosse, women's rowing, women's swimming, women's tennis).
With a score of 978, men's basketball had Penn's second-lowest APR. But the dubious distinction of last-place was given to the men's fencing team.
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