Got to start off the new month with a new "notes." Here we go:
1) Today marks the start of a new era in Ivy athletics, as Robin Harris officially takes over as Ivy League Executive Director. She'll replace Jeff Orleans, who had led the league for 25 years as the first official director in league history.
(As a heads up, expect a column about the challenges Harris will face in the next issue of the Summer Pennsylvanian, which comes out a week from tomorrow.)
2) Which would you rather do: play professional sports or go to Harvard? Well Louis Leblanc might get to do both. Despite being drafted in the first round of the NHL draft by his hometown Montreal Canadiens, he's decided to attend Harvard in the fall and play for the Crimson hockey team.
3) Here's a rundown of the Ivy League M. Hoops scene from Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman, although the Penn stuff -- games at Duke, Penn State and Villanova and home games against Temple, St. Joe’s, La Salle and Drexel, as well as Harrison Gaines transferring to UC-Riverside -- is old news (HT CBB).
Mark DeRosa, probably Penn's most famous baseball player (with Doug Glanville a close second), is having a memorable weekend. On Saturday, the former Penn star who also played QB for the Quakers was traded from last-place Cleveland to the St. Louis Cardinals, who are currently tied for first in the NL Central. Although he went 0-for-3 in his debut game, he still made a very impressive catch in left field that was considered Sunday's second-best web gem (about 30 seconds in).
As a result of the publicized trade, many people were atwitter about the deal. Literally. As UTB observed, Mark DeRosa was one of the "trending topics" on Twitter this weekend, somehow only right beyond the misspelled "Micheal Jackson."
However, as for UTB's petition for DeRosa as commencement speaker next year, there's no way that's happening. Whether or not he'd be able to give a good speech, I somehow doubt he'll willingly take time off from the May baseball schedule to speak. But maybe in a few years when the 34-year old decides to retire he'll return to Franklin Field.
1) After renovating Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, St. Joe's will move back into the facility -- to be renamed the Michael J. Hagan '85 Arena -- after playing its home games at the Palestra last season. Right next to the expanded arena will be a new 20,000 square-foot basketball facility, named after legendary coach Jack Ramsay.The dedication ceremony of the facility is today.
Dr. Jack -- he received a Ph.D in education from Penn in 1963 -- coached high school, college and pro basketball, including an 11-year stint with the Hawks. He also led the Trailblazers to their only NBA championship in 1977. In 1992 he became enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and now does color commentary for ESPN Radio.
Take a look at an exclusive interview Ramsay gave me back in March 2008.
2) Following up on Noah's NBA draft post, Philly Hoops Insider has a breakdown of Philadelphia area prospects that were drafted last night. A quick rundown: three players who played high school ball in the area were drafted in the first round (Tyreke Evans, Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington) while two Big 5 players were drafted in the second round (Dante Cunningham and Amhad Nivins).
3) The U.S. women's lacrosse team will play in the finals of the FIL World Cup tomorrow, as it dispatched England, 20-3, yesterday. Although no Penn players past or present are on the team, there is a solid Ivy League contingent.
The NBA Draft is tonight, and one of the most interesting story lines is where Brandon Jennings will end up. After opting to forgo college and instead spend his mandatory one year of post-high school hoops in Europe, Jennings is going to be scrutinized forever as the trend setter of this decision (assuming others follow his lead in the future, which will in large part depend on where he gets drafted and how he performs in the NBA next year).
Recent mock drafts seem to have no consensus on Jennings, who is projected as either late lottery pick, or (more likely) a mid-first round pick. ESPN college basketball and NBA draft analyst Fran Fraschilla (also a college basketball coach for 23 years at Manhattan, St. John's and New Mexico) just said on ESPNEWS that Jennings' lack of experience running an offense is causing a lot of concern for NBA teams, causing his stock to drop in the last few days. Here's what Fraschilla has to say about Jennings on his International Player rankings:
"The former high school All-American who opted for Europe after not gaining academic eligibility at Arizona has had a season of mixed results. In his first season as a professional, there was no denying his outstanding athletic ability and great speed in the open court. That excites a lot of NBA teams. But his weaknesses showed in Italy's Lega A, where he displayed below-average outside shooting and the inability to run a team in the half-court offense.
One of Jennings' mistakes this year was in choosing a team with a number of experienced guards. He was not allowed to play through his mistakes and inexperience as he would have been at Arizona or with a smaller Italian club. While that has set his development back, he still remains one of the quickest players in this year's draft and a likely lottery selection."
Of course, as Fraschilla indicated and as most regular "Buzz" readers know, the main reason Jennings struggled with Virtus Roma was the stellar play of former Quakers star Ibby Jaaber. Jaaber started for Virtus Roma and relegated Jennings to limited opportunities off the bench. In 2009 Euroleague play, Jaaber averaged 26.1 minutes, 3.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.9 steals, and 10.4 points per game, compared to 19 minutes, 1.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.2 steals, and 7.6 points for Jennings. In Italian League play, Jaaber led Roma in minutes (30.2) and points (14.9), while Jennings averaged just 17 minutes and 5.5 points. You can find all of Roma's 2008-09 statistics here.
Interestingly, the Philadelphia Daily News listed Jennings among eight players that might be drafted by the Sixers at No. 17. That would certainly be a big disappointment for Jennings. In the story the DN mentions that Jaaber was asked to compare Jennings to likely top 3 pick and international sensation Ricky Rubio, and Jaaber said Jennings is the better athlete.
If Jennings slips tonights, Quakers fans can smile big knowing the biggest star in recent Penn hoops history had a direct impact on the NBA draft. Either way, Jennings' draft status appears to indicate that Jaaber has a chance to test the NBA waters himself. Jennings is younger and more athletic, so his potential is definitely higher than Jaaber's, but I see no reason why Jaaber shouldn't be considered as a second-round pick. If his back-up does end up in the top 10, Jaaber's stock can only go up. I'm still hoping to catch up with him soon to get the real scoop on his NBA prospects.
Update (June 25, 8:33 p.m): Jennings was just drafted No. 10 overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. Going in the top 10 somewhat justifies his decision to play in Europe, and certainly is a good sign of Jaaber's ability and potential NBA prospects.
1) It's been a rumor for a while, but the Indiapanolis Star reported that Tommy Eggleston (brother of hoopster Jack) is officially Penn-bound. Tommy was being recruited in football and basketball, but years of growing up with Jack must have worn off on him, because basketball was his first love. So when his best football offers were to be a recruited walk-on at a D-1 school, he switched his focus to basketball and chose to commit to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Football inevitably complicated the situation, because Tommy applied to Penn after visiting as a football recruit, but was accepted after switching his focus to basketball. Glen Miller and Co. apparently had recruited him a bit early on in the year, although they did not mention him in any recent comments on recruiting. They did not speak to him until he was accepted (one month after he committed to UWM). The Ivy League education and chance to play with his brother was enough to persuade Tommy to come to Penn.
Tommy is a 6-5 guard who was a safety in football. I don't know too much about him as a player, but he must be a hard-nosed kid that can probably help the Quakers' backcourt off the bench. UWM is a solid program that makes the tournament pretty regularly and made it to the Sweet 16 in 2005.
2) Various Penn recruiting classes were "officially" announced in the last few weeks. Of course, most of these recruits have been on the radar for a long time now, but as the applications were completed the official Athletic Department announcements were made. Here are links to the 2009 classes for defending Ivy League champion M. Soccer, W. Soccer, Volleyball, Wrestling, Softball, M. Tennis, and W. Golf.
3) The NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Committee decided that the 2010 Women's Lacrosse Final Four will once again be held in Towson, Md. It marks the third time in a row that Towson University hosts the event, and the 12th time since 1986 that the championship games take place in Maryland. (1986, 1987, 1993, 1994 – University of Maryland, College Park; 1998 – University of Maryland, Baltimore County; 1999, 2001 - Johns Hopkins University; 2002 – Loyola College (Maryland); 2005 – U.S. Naval Academy).
We reported earlier this year that former Penn basketball player Harrison Gaines decided to transfer to a new school. He later cited his relationship with coach Glen Miller as his specific reason for transferring.
Now we know where Gaines will finish his college basketball career. Jim Wooldridge, the head basketball coach at the University of California-Riverside, confirmed today that Gaines has chosen Cal-Riverside as his new school. Wooldridge would not comment on the process of Gaines' transfer or his feelings on Gaines as a player, but indicated that the school's close proximity to Gaines' hometown of Victorville, Calif., was a major factor in his decision.
His decision comes as a bit of a surprise considering Gaines' initial indication that he wanted to choose a school with strong academics. Cal-Riverside ranked No. 89 on the 2009 US News and World Report college rankings. So it seems that basketball was more important than academics for Gaines. The Highlanders' hoopsters finished with a 17-13 record in 2009 playing in the Big West conference. Their top distributors were guards Javon Borum and Sean Cunningham, who averaged 2.7 and 2.4 assists per game, respectively. Both were juniors and will graduate before Gaines is eligible to play, so his desire to be a lead guard seems likely to come to fruition.
I have sought an interview with Gaines himself and will post his comments as soon as I can.
Although Penn Athletics probably won't officially release the M. Hoops schedule until September like last year, a few more non-conference tidbits have come to light. First up, it's been confirmed that Penn will host Delaware some point this November.
But the juicier tidbit I've heard from multiple sources is that Penn will be traveling back to Tobacco Road. But this time they won't be playing defending champion North Carolina, but instead rival Duke. It appears that the Quakers will play at Cameron December 31. So 't make sure your New Year's Eve plans include a TV; the game is rumored to be nationally televised.
Penn last played the Blue Devils in December 2005, losing by a respectable 13 in Durham. However, despite that one-game away series, there will not be a return contest in the Palestra, a source said.
Meanwhile, Penn won't be the only Ivy to face a potential preseason top 10 team during winter break.
1) The final women's lacrosse media and coaches poll came out earlier this week, and despite losing in the semifinals, Penn was voted second in both polls. The Quakers edged out actual runner up North Carolina in both polls, while Northwestern unsurprisingly was unanimously voted No. 1.
2) Brown became the second Ivy to officially announce their incoming men's basketball freshmen class. (Columbia was the first). The Bears nabbed two McDonald's All-American nominees, as well as current forward Peter Sullivan's younger brother. Guess some Ivy League hoopsters like to play with their brothers not against them. (Via CBB).
3) Today's the 65th anniversary of D-Day, in case you forgot. It's also the birthday of rising sophomore soccer defender Nick Unger. (Yeah I was desperate for a thrid item).
1) Yesterday I talked about how it's only 110 days until football season. Well you know what that means. Time for magazine previews. I picked up my copy of the Sporting News college football preview the other day. The Ivy League got a full page, as did almost all FCS conferences.
According to SN, Harvard will win the Ivy League, but Penn has the best chance of preventing a Harvard three-peat. The magazine especially likes the Penn defense, as the headline of the Ivy section is "Penn defense aims to make Crimson blush" (yeah stupid pun). As such, the Penn @ Harvard game on November 14 is the Ivy game to watch.
(Don't know if I agree that Brendan McNally and Kyle Olson are the top candidates for QB, since Olson is recovering from the triple knee injury, while McNally is a converted safety. Instead, Keiffer Garton looks to be the top gunslinger.)
Penn also has some individual hype. Senior CB Chris Wynn is listed as the top Ivy defensive player, while WR Joe Holder, despite being listed as a sophomore on Penn Athletics, is listed as the top Ivy newcomer. In addition, kicker Andrew Sansom is listed as the first team All-FCS kicker.
In terms of Penn's non-league opponents, Villanova is predicted to finish third in FCS, though second in their CAA division behind Richmond, who SN predicts will be No. 1 in the nation. For the Patriot League teams, Lafayette is predicted fourth (though with the league's top defensive player, LB Mark Leggiero) and Bucknell is predicted sixth (out of seven).
2) The sports twitterati just grew a little larger as now Cornell M. Hoops coach Steve Donahue is on Twitter. I wonder what a Glen Miller twitter account would look like. Something like this? (HT CBB)
Sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but I was reading Monday's Washington Post and came across this column by John Feinstein. He discussed two recent examples illustrating "why college athletics are such a mess."
The less important item to Buzz readers was about the John Calipari-Derrick Rose scandal. But the item he first discusses at length is a response to the Wall Street Journal article about the fall of Ivy sports.
Feinstein criticizes Ivy League administrators for their snobby attitude, such as quotes like "It's another week of being out of class. In our league, that matters" by Columbia's athletic director. (Coincidentally, commentator Ernie also called out Murphy's time away from classes excuse in response to my original post.)
The article gets a little sanctimonious in calling out pretentiousness, and of course the author of The Last Amateurs had to throw in a reference to the Patriot League. But it's still a good read on the League.
As for my opinion, as I think I've said on the blog before, I'm pro-football playoffs, anti-basketball tournament and have mixed feelings about the lack of scholarships. But it definitely can be ridiculous at times how League administrators, especially the Presidents, have a holier than thou approach to sports. On the other hand -- and sorry if you've heard me say this before -- but I strongly believe the Ivy League is the only league in America that doesn't try to maximize profitibility.
Update: going along with the lax awards, freshman shortstop Derek Vigoa was named the Big 5 Baseball Rookie of the Year today.
1) It's postseason awards time for women's lacrosse, and Penn has done well so far. The Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Associatoin revealed their All-America and All-Region teams last week, and Penn had two first team All-Americans, juniors Emma Spiro and Ali DeLuca. In addition, junior Courtney Lubbe and senior Becca Edwards were named to the first and second Mid-Atlantic Region teams, respectively. Ironically, Penn had one more first team All-American than national champion Northwestern.
2) Of course, that one selection for Northwestern was Hannah Nielsen, quite possibly the best player ever. She solidified herself as one of the game's greats with her second-straight Tewaaraton Trophy.
3) With spring sports almost all but over (rowing is still going), it's never too early to look towards football season (only 110 days left till the opener versus Villanova!). But before looking ahead, The Harvard Crimson looks back on last year's Ivy Champion.
4) Here are some other recaps of the past year in Ivy League sports (sorry some of these are old): The Brown Daily Herald has a standard review; The Daily Princetonian names a female and male Athlete of the Year; The Columbia Spectator sports page has an article on each team as well as senior writer columns; The Cornell Daily Sun picks the top 25 senior athletes, naming quarterback and third baseman Nathan Ford the Cornell Player of the Year.
In a thought-provoking, albeit a little too familiar, article, the Wall Street Journal's Darren Everson asks if the Ivy League needs fixing.
Using the decline of national success of Ivy football, basketball and hockey, he writes about the luster Ivy Athletics has lost in the last 20 years or so. The standard reasons for the Ancient Eight's fall are there -- no scholarships, no football playoffs, no basketball tournament and of course rigorous admission standards for athletes -- but he does make a good point that the Ivies theoretically are at a crossroads with Robin Harris starting her job July 1.
So what do you guys think? Does the Ivy League need to seriously adjust their standards? Or is it OK that the league does well in second tier sports like lacrosse, wrestling and of course in lower-level sports like squash and fencing but can't make noise in the bigger ones? Let me know in the comments.
Since there's a possibility that link won't give you the entire article, the full text is after the jump.
But before that, here's some other Ivy news. I wrote a few months ago about the possibility of a Washington, D.C., "Big 6" version of the Big 5. Well Connecticut of all places has beaten out the nation's capital. Well kind of.
For the next three seasons, the Connecticut 6 Classic will take place at the beginning of every season, as Yale, Sacred Heart, Hartford, Quinnipiac, Fairfield and Central Connecticut State will compete in a triple header of games. So it won't be exactly like the Big 5 since it won't be round robin. Instead it'll be more like the Philly Classic that started two years ago.
(via Cornell Basketball Blog)
Can the Ivy League Get Its Game Back?
Lackluster teams prompt calls for change; a new chief’s listening tour
The schools of the Ivy League are among the nation’s finest and richest, with billions in endowments under their command. From law to business to medicine, they’re No. 1 in practically every department but one: sports.
Why are the Ancient Eight increasingly irrelevant in the most competitive arena of all? The short answer, the long-accepted one, is that they choose to be: that they won’t sacrifice their academic ideals by giving athletic scholarships to athletes. But other factors—like a long-standing ban on postseason football games and the schools’ academic standards for athletes—appear to be dragging the league down.
As college sports’ most austere conference nears its first leadership change since 1984—executive director Jeff Orleans is retiring at the end of next month, to be replaced by Robin Harris, a lawyer and former NCAA official—the Ivy League is at a crossroads. With the league becoming weaker in sports like basketball, football and hockey, some argue it needs to make major changes, like creating a basketball tournament, ending the postseason football ban, or even adjusting admissions standards. “I still believe the Ivy can compete for national championships,” says Lane MacDonald, star of Harvard’s 1989 national champion ice-hockey team. “I’d love to see that happen.”
The Ivies vehemently dispute the notion that they don’t win and don’t care. “We take sports very seriously,” says Columbia athletic director M. Dianne Murphy, ticking off a series of strong showings this season: Cornell in lacrosse (the Big Red reached the men’s national-title game, losing to Syracuse Monday), Columbia in fencing, several league schools in soccer and wrestling. The more visible sports, she says, “have been a challenge for us the last few years.”
In men’s and women’s basketball, the Ivies have not won a NCAA tournament game since 1998. The league that spawned the Princeton offense, a thinking-man’s attack that once brought death by deft passing, has lost by double digits in nine of its last 11 men’s tournament appearances. In men’s ice hockey—long a point of pride for the six participating Ivies, especially Cornell—just one Ivy member has reached the Frozen Four national semifinals since 1995. The ban on postseason football, which exists because the Ivies don’t want to take up players’ time, prevents players from competing for titles and gaining exposure.
The Ivy is never going to be the Southeastern Conference—and nobody is suggesting it should be. The schools don’t need the exposure of sports to attract students and alumni donations. But some of the league’s alumni complain that the schools offer their students the best of everything, except in this one area. “Why not give them the same opportunities and the same platform in athletics that you do in academics?” says Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL defensive end who played at Columbia in the 1990s. “I think they should revisit everything.”
The incoming executive director, Ms. Harris, says she’s reserving judgment on these issues and planning to go on a listening tour among the schools after she comes aboard in July. Mr. Orleans, the outgoing director, declined to be interviewed for this article.
The Ivy League is home to some of the country’s oldest colleges, which once played the best football. Led by pioneering Yale coach Walter Camp, who helped devise the sport’s rules near the turn of the 20th century, the colleges created examples that others followed. Harvard was so good in the early days that when it defeated Oregon, 7-6, in 1920 in what is now known as the Rose Bowl game, the Los Angeles Times called the outcome a “triumph” for the underdog loser.
Two forks in the road caused the Ivies and major college football to diverge. The first was the formation in the 1940s and ’50s of the Ivy League, whose founding principles—that student-athletes must be representative of the student body academically and that they not receive athletic scholarships—mean its members have a shallower pool of available talent than other colleges. Still, Ivy teams didn’t immediately become irrelevant. Yale appeared in the Associated Press top 20 as late as 1981. “We played the military academies and Boston College and Miami of Ohio, and we won some,” says Carm Cozza, Yale’s football coach from 1965 to 1996.
The second shift was the Ivy’s 1981 expulsion from Division I-A, college football’s premier classification, which occurred because larger-conference schools desired greater control over TV-contract negotiations. They voted to restrict I-A membership to schools that had 30,000-seat stadiums or averaged 17,000 in attendance over the previous four years, which not all of the Ivy League schools did. The Ivies didn’t contest the decision.
“It was clear that’s not where the Ivy should be,” says Derek Bok, Harvard’s president at the time who scoffs at the idea that the Ivies must excel in all endeavors, athletics included. “If we have a bit of humility, we have to understand that nobody can be excellent at everything. There’s no reason why, because you’re good at teaching and research, that you have to be good at football. That’s a historical accident, not a necessity.”
While Ivy football was officially relegated to a lower level decades ago, the decline of the Ivies in basketball and hockey has been more recent and gradual. As late as 1998, Princeton earned a No. 5 seed in the men’s basketball tournament—a designation that indicated the Tigers were one of the 20 best teams in the nation—and Harvard shocked Stanford in that year’s women’s tournament, still the only No. 16 seed of either gender to defeat a No. 1. Three of the six hockey-playing Ivies (who compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference) reached the men’s NCAA tournament this season.
But 20 years have now passed since Harvard’s men’s hockey title, the Ivy’s last, and it’s been more than a decade since Ivy basketball teams made noise during March Madness. One theory why is that the Ivy League’s Academic Index, which all the schools abide by, is increasingly hurting its teams. The index is a mathematical measuring stick for admission that combines test scores and high school performance; a school’s athletes must average out to within one standard deviation of the student body. “There don’t seem to be as many great student [athletes] anymore,” says Mr. MacDonald, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top player for Harvard’s championship hockey team. “If the Index went back the other way a little bit, that would be interesting. But I’d be surprised if the league would do that.”
Indeed, last year, after Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker, a former Duke guard and Michigan coach who was hired to revive the Crimson’s long-dormant program, landed a highly touted recruiting class, controversy erupted. Yale coach James Jones said there appeared to be a shift in Harvard’s admissions standards. Mr. Amaker’s program was also investigated by the league for overly aggressive recruiting tactics—and cleared. But Frank Ben-Eze, considered the best of his recruits, later decided to go to Davidson. Harvard tied for sixth place last season in the Ivy. A Harvard spokesman said Mr. Amaker and Harvard athletic director Bob Scalise were unavailable to comment and he had no further comment.
The Ivy still holds its own in many respects. The league still compares favorably with the Patriot League, another group of Eastern colleges that mandates its athletes be reflective of the student body academically. Most of the Ivies rank ahead of the Patriot members, which include Lehigh and Holy Cross, in the latest Directors’ Cup standings (which rank the nation’s college-sports programs), and the Ivy went 9-9 against the Patriot in football this season. Harvard finished 14th in the final Football Championship Subdivision coaches poll last season, and might have been a factor in the tournament were it allowed to participate. “I’d personally like to see our programs in the Ivy compete after the regular season,” says Cornell athletic director Andy Noel. “I don’t think it’s an investment in time that’s detrimental to those athletes.”
But the league remains ambivalent about taking steps that would appeal to fans and players alike. The Ivy is starting a lacrosse tournament next season, which Mr. Noel says will provide some insight about the viability of a basketball tournament. For now, though, the Ivy remains the only Division I conference that doesn’t hold a basketball tournament. The athletic directors are split down the middle on the matter, says Ms. Murphy of Columbia—who counts herself on the against side. “It’s another week of being out of class,” she says. “In our league that matters.”
Write to Darren Everson at Darren.Everson@wsj.com
On Sunday Northwestern destroyed North Carolina, 21-7, to clinch its fifth-straight NCAA title. They're still two titles away from tying Maryland's streak from 1995-2001. The game saw a record for margin of victory in a championship game, as well as a tie for most total goals. Katrina Dowd finished with four goals for Northwestern, pushing her record for most goals in a tournament to 22.
Here's a very interesting write up of the game by Michael Wilbon. For those that don't know, the Washington Post writer and ESPN personality is a Northwestern alum and has a cousin/goddaughter on the Wildcats lacrosse team. For him, seeing NU win the national championship Sunday was the first time he'd ever seen his alma mater win a championship in any sport.
As for Penn, they earned two All-Tournament selections, Katie Mazer and Ali DeLuca. It should be noted, that in each of the previous two years senior defense Hilary Renna was an All-Tournament selection. However, this year she was declared ineligible for the Final Four.
Click Here
In case you haven't heard, there's a big game today at 6 p.m. at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Md.
So here is a bevy of preview material before No. 4 Penn (15-2) faces No. 1 Northwestern (21-0) in the Division I Women's Lacrosse Final Four. First, here is my own preview article. The Daily Northwestern does not have a normal preview of the match, but it does have a good profile of Hilary Bowen, who injured her anterior cruciate ligament in early April, yet recovered to play against Princeton last Saturday and will get some playing time today.
Here is The Philadelphia Daily News' preview, focusing on Penn seniors Becca Edwards and Kaitlyn Lombardo. Meanwhile Philip Hersh, of the The Chicago Tribune, continues his adoration of NU's Hannah Nielsen, asking if the Australian is the greatest women's lacrosse player of all time.
Here are some basic breakdowns of both the Penn-NU matchup and the second semifinal between No. 2 Maryland and No. 3 North Carolina: Inside Lacrosse, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post.
Of course, both Athletic Departments have their own preview materials. Penn's standard preview is here, and there are a lot of other good items on the W. Lax homepage. Northwestern has a standard preview.
In terms of following the game, you have several options. First, I'll have a live blog here on The Buzz (note: that link won't be live until later today). For a look back at last year's two Final Four live blogs, here's the semifinal against Duke (gets pretty crazy towards the end of the game) as well as the more somber Northwestern National Championship game. Also, the game will be televised on CBS College Sports for those that get it. Finally, Brian Seltzer and Mike Mahoney will have a live audio stream on Penn Athletics' website.
1) Tomorrow's big game is approaching as the the W. Lax team heads to Towson, Md., for the Final Four contest against Northwestern (much more on The Buzz tomorrow). Here's the last interview with some Quakers before they left West Philadelphia.
2) Today Penn Athletics formally announced the incoming football freshmen class. Perhaps the highlight of the 34-person class is quarterback Billy Ragone (Chesire, Conn.), who was a 2008 Wendy's Heisman nominee and Connecticut State Player of the Year, as voted by some publications.
3) Here's an interesting look at the commercialization of college sports. It's not specifically relevant to Penn (the Ivy League is the conference the least worried about increasing its profits, in my opinion), but it's a compelling look at the NCAA as a whole. However, you need an account with The Chronicle of Higher Education to read the article, so I'll paste the full text after the jump.
Commercialization in College Sports May Have 'Crossed the Line,' Congressional Report Says
By BRAD WOLVERTON
Washington
Big-time college sports programs derive 60 to 80 percent of their
revenue from commercial sources, suggesting that intercollegiate
athletics—at least at the elite levels—may have "crossed the line"
from an educational to a commercial endeavor.
That finding comes from a report, "Tax Preferences for Collegiate
Sports," released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The
office, a nonpartisan research arm of Congress, questioned whether the
rise in such commercial ventures should lead big athletics programs to
lose their tax-exempt status.
The report offers no position, but says removing the current tax
incentives would do little to bring in additional revenue to the U.S.
Treasury and would be unlikely to alter the growing commercial
activities in college sports.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has long argued that
athletics departments are no different from other university programs
that secure corporate deals to finance their operations. But the
report found that athletics programs bring in a far greater proportion
of their revenue from commercial sources than do colleges on the
whole. Over all, colleges derive just 11 to 14 percent of their
revenue from corporate deals.
The report, requested two years ago by Sen. Charles E. Grassley of
Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, covers
little new ground and left several observers scratching their heads.
"They ignored the basic principle that nonprofit organizations are
granted their special nonprofit status by the IRS to further their
mission, which in the case of universities and colleges is exclusively
educational," said Nathan Tublitz, a professor of biology at the
University of Oregon and co-chair of the Coalition on Intercollegiate
Athletics, a faculty-led reform group. He believes the report provides
strong evidence that intercollegiate athletics programs are primarily
a commercial enterprise and are moving away from their educational
mission.
The report's authors bemoaned the lack of readily available data on
college sports spending, but according to John D. Colombo, a professor
at the University of Illinois College of Law, they missed an
opportunity to call for athletics departments to disclose more
information on their federal tax forms.
The report discusses a number of policy options federal lawmakers
could take, should they decide that college sports programs are too
commercial in nature. Members of Congress could further limit the
deduction of charitable contributions, which have helped finance much
of the growth in college sports in recent years, for such programs, or
they could curtail athletics departments' use of tax-exempt bonds, the
report says.
If those tax breaks were eliminated, however, donors could simply
shift their contributions to a university foundation, still earmarking
them for sports.
And if lawmakers prohibited the use of tax-exempt bonds to finance
athletics facilities, colleges could continue using such bonds for
their sports programs by borrowing indirectly.
Questioning Tax Breaks
Senator Grassley, who has helped legislate broad changes to nonprofit
tax law in recent years, said in a statement that federal lawmakers
should take a closer look at college sports programs and demand that
they disclose more about their finances.
"Colleges should explain how they use their commercial revenue to get
the biggest bang for the buck in fulfillment of their educational
mission," he said.
But Richard A. Grafmeyer, a Washington lawyer and former tax counsel
for the Senate Finance Committee, said lawmakers are unlikely to have
much appetite this year for questioning the tax breaks in college
sports.
Some observers worried that imposing changes on the tax status of
athletics departments, or limiting their revenue, could have
unintended consequences—namely, that they might be forced to cut the
sports that are more closely aligned with their educational mission in
favor of those that just bring in the most revenue, said Glenn Wong, a
professor of sports law in the Isenberg School of Management at the
University of Massachusetts.
He sees the need for a different kind of clarification from the
federal government.
“I would love to see the tax code reshaped in a way that would
encourage institutions, if they want to retain their contributions and
deductions, to maintain their sports programs also," he said.
I realize that my year in review column might have seemed a little harsh to some, while others thought it didn't even go far enough in describing Penn's performance this past year. Since my column focused on Ivy regular season standings, I've now analyzed another indicator of athletic success, Penn's All-Ivy selections.
The post will be a little bit backwards. If you want to see how each sport did individually, continue after the jump. But first, here are some conclusions based on each team's individual honors.
Of Penn's 31 teams that are eligible for All-Ivy teams, 21 failed to receive a proportional amount of All-Ivy selections. In other words, when the Quakers only manage one All-Ivy selection in M. Hoops when there's 15 spots for the eight teams, that's a failing, since they would have been expected to have had roughly two. Of the 10 teams that were overrepresented on the All-Ivy teams, three won Ivy titles (M. Soccer, M. Fencing and W. Lax), as those sports earned 22, 41 and 21 percent of their respective All-Ivy selections. Wrestling also did very well, earning 32% of the All-Ivy nods.
Looking at individual awards, the Red and Blue did very poorly. Penn only received 1.5 Player of the Year awards (Kristen Lange won the W. Squash award and Emma Spiro was W. Lax co-Player of the Year) and just a single Rookie of the Year honor (W. Lax's Erin Brennan). Meanwhile, Dartmouth and Harvard shared the lead with five POY awards, and the Crimson dominated Rookie of the Year, with eight selections.
In the end, while maybe my original column marginalized the non-championship teams, it appears that the Quakers had a below average year on an individual level: Penn nabbed just 95 out of 862 All-Ivy selections. If all eight Ivy teams participated in all Ivy sports, each team would "expected" to get 1/8 or 12.5 percent of All-Ivy selections. But because some sports have fewer teams, Penn would've been expected to get roughly 112 selections, or 13 percent. Thus, their 11.02 percent of 95/862 was below average.
Again, after the jump I have a breakdown of how Penn did for every sport, listed alphabetically. I'll give the rundown of Penn selections, including the fraction of total selections, followed by which school had the Player and Rookie of the Year.
Baseball: Zero people on the first team (13 players); three second team selections: sophomore 3B Dan Williams, freshman SS Derek Vigoa and junior OF Tom Grandieri; one honorable mention (junior William Gordon). Total: four out of 41 selections. Player of the Year: Dartmouth's Nick Santomauro, Rookie of the Year: Dartmouth’s Joe Scalafini.
M. Hoops: Zero first or second teamers, and only one honorable mention (sophomore Tyler Bernardini). (Despite winning Big 5 Rookie of the Year, Zack Rosen was not selected as the Ivy League equivalent.) Total: one out of 15. Player of the Year: Dartmouth's Alex Barnett. Rookie of the Year: Cornell’s Chris Wroblewski.
W. Hoops: Senior forward Carrie Biemer made the first team, but the Quakers didn't have another pick, including any selections on the freshmen team. Total: one out of 18. POY: Dartmouth's Brittney Smith. ROY: Brogan Berry of Harvard.
Cross Country: Literally zero selections on either men's or women's first or second teams (which is zero for 28). There wasn't a POY or ROY.
M. Fencing (All-Ivy teams are determined by winning percentage at the two-day Ivy Championship): Two first team sabres (juniors Andrew Bielen and Jonathan Berkowsky), two second team epees (sophomore Jacob Wischnia and senior Ben Wieder), one first team foil (Zane Grodman) and two second team foils (freshmen Alex Simmons and Vidur Kapur). That's seven out of 17. There isn't an official POY or ROY, but the highest winning percentage of anyone was Columbia's Jeff Spear, and the highest-scoring rookie was Alexander Mills of Princeton.
W. Fencing (chosen just like the men): Two second team sabres (freshman Dominika Franciskowicz and sophomore Danielle Kamis) and two second team foils (freshmen Laura Paragano and Mia Howell). Total: four of 18. Unofficial POY and ROY: Noam Mills of Harvard.
Field Hockey: Zero first teamers or honorable mentions, but three second teamers (seniors Margaretha Ehret and Rachel Eng and junior Sarah Warner). Total: three out of 31. League champion Princeton swept POY and ROY (Katie Reinprecht and Kathleen Sharkey, respectively).
Football: three first team selections (senior OL Chris Kovalcik, sophomore K Andrew Samson and junior CB Chris Wynn), six second team selections (sophomore RB Michael DiMaggio, juniors DL Joe Goniprow, LB Jake Lewko and LB Jay Colabella and seniors TE Josh Koontz and DL Joe Rost), two honorable mentions (Guillermo Ruffolo and Britton Ertman). That equals a respectable 11 out of 84. POY: Harvard QB Chris Pizzoti. ROY: Harvard DB Matthew Hanson.
M. Golf: Penn had two selections (senior Brett Rendina and freshman Scotty Williams) on the seven-person team. Dartmouth's Peter Williamson swept POY and ROY.
W. Golf: Zero people on the seven-person team. POY: Susannah Aboff (Princeton). ROY: Christine Cho (Harvard).
M. Lax: No first teamers, and just one on each of the second team (senior Craig Andrzejewski) and honorable mention category (senior Drew Collins). Total: two out of 32. POY: Jordon Burke (Brown). ROY: Rob Pannell (Cornell).
W. Lax: The best team at Penn in terms of quality All-Ivy selections, the Quakers led the League with four first team selections: junior midfield Emma Spiro -- who was named co-Player of the Year with Princeton's Holly McGarvie -- senior defense Hillary Renna and juniors Ali DeLuca and Courtney Lubbe (the first two were unanimous). The team also had two second teamers, senior Becca Edwards and freshman Erin Brennan -- who was named unanimous ROY. Finally Kailiegh Wright was an honorable selection. Total: seven out of 34.
M. Rowing (the teams that come in first and second at the EARC Championships, which includes non-Ivy schools, are considered the respective All-Ivy teams): For the lightweights, Princeton beat out Harvard, while Penn finished eighth. For the heavyweights, Brown outpaced Harvard while Penn came in 14th. No rower of the year.
W. Rowing (done just like the men): Yale and Harvard finished first and second, respectively, while Penn got seventh.
M. Soccer: W. Lax had more selections on the first team, but M. Soccer had a higher percentage of All-Ivy selections, as it had eight out of the 37 players (roughly 22 percent). First team: seniors Omid Shokoufandeh and Alex Grendi. Second team: seniors Brian Mascarenhas and Drew Healy. Honorable mention: seniors John Elicker and Ryan Porch and freshman Jake Levin. However, Dartmouth swept the individual awards (POY: Craig Henderson, ROY: Lucky Mkosana).
W. Soccer: Two first teamers (senior Natalie Capuano and sophomore Sarah Friedman) and three honorable mentions (Molly Weir, Marin McDermott and Ellen Larkin). Total: five out of 39 (12.8%). POY: Sophie Reiser of Columbia. ROY: Melanie Baskind of Harvard.
Softball: Despite their 15-18-1 record, softball did pretty well in All-Ivy selections, grabbing seven out of 42 spots: Alisha Prystowsky (a unanimous selection) and Kelsey Wolfe, both got first team honors. Jess Lupardus, Jamie Boccanfuso and Keiko Uraguchi all got second team. Finally, Sarah Patrick and Meg Krasne got honorable mention. League champion Cornell swept the individual awards.
M. Squash: The Quakers had zero selections on the nine-person team, as Princeton swept POY (Mauricio Sanchez) and ROY (Chris Callis).
W. Squash: Penn had two members on the nine-person team, including Ivy Player of the Year Kristen Lange. Harvard's Nirasha Guruge won ROY.
M. Swimming (whoever gets first or second in the 22 races at the Ivy Championships gets All-Ivy): freshman Brendan McHugh won the 100-yard breaststroke and finished second in the 200. Fellow freshman Jeff Cragg placed second in the 3-meter dive. Total: 3 out of 44. Swimmer of the Year went to Alex Righi of Yale. Diver of the Year went to Daniel Dickerson of Princeton. (No official ROY, though McHugh certainly would've been in the discussion.)
W. Swimming (just like the men): The women didn't have any top-two finishers, so total is zero out of 44. Princeton swept Swimmer and Diver of the Year.
M. Tennis: One first team selection (junior Hicham Laleej) and one honorable mention (senior Jonathan Boym who might have made either first or second team had he not been hampered by injuries). Total: two out of 18 singles players and zero out of eight doubles teams. Harvard (POY) and Columbia (ROY) split the individual awards.
W. Tennis: The women's team had three individuals, as Maria Anisimova got second team while Ekaterina Kosminskaya and Lauren Sadaka got honorable mention. Sadaka and Emily Wolf got honorable mention doubles. Total: three out of 19 singles and one out of nine doubles. Harvard (POY) and Princeton (ROY) shared the individual honors.
M. Indoor Track: All track teams, whether indoor or outdoor, men or women, had similar All-Ivy procedures. The two teams were based on the results at the Ivy League Indoor then Heptagonal Championships. Also, there were no individual awards. So for M. Indoor, zero first team runners, but John Carelli won the triple jump. He also finished second in the high jump, while Max Westman also was second, competing in the pentathlon. Total: three out of 38.
W. Indoor Track: Zero first teamers, but two second team selections: Hannah Cope (60-meter hurdles) and Anna Aagenes (800-meters). Total: two of 38.
M. Outdoor Track: The men did better outdoor than indoor, which isn't surprising since the Heptagonal Championships took place at Franklin Field. Darryll Oliver won the 800 meters, Westman won the decathlon and the team won the 4x100-meter relays. Joey Brown finished second in the 100 meters and Anthony Abitante came in second in the pole vault. Total: five out of 38.
W. Outdoor Track: Franklin Field couldn't help the women, as only Aagenes in the 800 again and the 4x100 relay team placed, both getting second. Total: two out of 38.
Volleyball: The Quakers had a first team selection (Julia Swanson) and a second team selection (Madison Wojciechowski). Total: two out of 21. POY was Cat Dailey of Yale and ROY was Anne Carroll Ingersoll of Harvard.
Wrestling: Penn did very well in All-Ivy wrestling, as eight of the starting 10 got at least honorable mention, although only 149-pounder Cesar Grajales (unanimous) and 141-pounder Rick Rappo got first team honors. In the end, they had eight out of 25 spots, which is a very good 32 percent (of course there are only six schools that participate in Ivy wrestling, but 32 percent is still about double the expected 16.67 percent).
I chose to devote the limited space I had in the graduation issue today to recognizing Penn's student-athletes. Here, I would like to offer thanks (in no particular order) to all of the non-athletes who made my experience writing for the DP memorable.
Thank you to...
The writers who showed me the ropes: Jonathan Tannenwald, Zachary Levine, David Burrick, Josh Hirsch, Ilario Huober, Josh Wheeling;
My loyal colleagues and fellow graduates: Andrew Scurria, David Bernstein, Krista Hutz, Sebastian Angel, Ashley Humienny;
The past, present and future: Matt Flegenheimer, Noah Rosenstein, Zach Klitzman, Hannah Gerstenblatt, Ari Seifter, David Gurian-Peck, Brandon Moyse;
Athletic Communications: Mike Mahoney, Eric Dolan (Rookie of the Year or MVP, you decide);
Coaches: Rudy Fuller, Zeke Jones, Ray Priore, Al Bagnoli, Perry Bromwell, Glen Miller, Fran Dunphy, Phil Martelli, Jay Wright (the last three coaches mentioned deserve special recognition as true class-acts and masters of their profession);
Brian Seltzer, the voice of Penn Athletics and the future play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football, for his invaluable guidance;
The readers, for broadening my perspective and making my job a rewarding one;
My incredible friends, for their continuous support and flexibility when my responsibilities interfered with plans;
High school English teachers: Adam Bresnick, for teaching me how to write, and Jim Reynolds, for teaching me how to be a journalist;
My brother, Stephen Todres, who at the age of 17 is already a better writer than I will ever be;
And my parents, Susan and Michael Todres, for their immeasurable love and support, and for always being my biggest fans.
My time is up. It's been a pleasure.
--Andrew Todres
Sorry we haven't had one of these in a long time. So without further ado, here you go:
1) Penn's landed its first 2014 men's basketball recruit, as Steve Rennard has given Glen Miller a verbal commitment. The Metuchen, N.J., native plays point guard and has been given an 80 grade on ESPN.com. According to ESPN/Scouts, "He's a floor general that makes everyone around him better" and has the potential to "be a very good Mid-Major lead guard." His other top choices were Iona and Vermont.
2) We've been hearing rumors for a while, but yesterday it was officially announced that Mark Fabish has been hired as Penn's tight ends coach. Fabish is a 1997 College graduate and played wide receiver for two Ivy League championship teams.
"We have actually been targeting Mark for a long time, and we are certainly pleased to have him join the staff," coach Al Bagnoli said in the press release.
The press release was actually better than your average one so I encourage you to read it.
3) Normally we don't talk about Quakers who get all-conference weekly honors since it's normally not that impressive. But Erin Brennan was named national Rookie of the Week by womenslacrosse.com after last Sunday's two-goal, one-assist output against Fairfield in Penn's first round win.
What's the only professional league to have two teams whose nicknames start with "U"?
Well after the introduction of the Philadelphia United Union, Major League Soccer will soon fit that description. (With of course D.C. Union United being the other squad).
Today the Philadelphia soccer franchise was finally unveiled, culminating two years of the Sons of Ben pushing for a Philadelphia franchise.
I'll admit I didn't fully follow the developments of the club over the last couple of years. But Soft Pretzel Logic certainly did, even if it has nothing to do with college sports, and today was front and center at City Hall for the unveiling ceremony.
And even though the inaugural season doesn't start for 11 months, you can buy tickets right now.
As for my opinion, I'm a fan of the name Union except for one thing: it's too close to the aforementioned D.C. squad. Yes I'm from the D.C. area and have been to several United games, so call me biased. But I think it's silly to have a name so similar to a rival squad. That said, while "D.C. United" works really well in chants, I'll admit Philadelphia Union makes more sense than D.C. United. It'll be interesting to see if there's a rivalry between the two squads due to the similar names or more importantly the proximity of the clubs.
(HT UTB)
Newer Posts
Older Posts
An RSS feed of The Buzz is available 