Last night the women's lacrosse team defeated archrival Princeton, 10-5, to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title as well as the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. First off, I want to apologize to anyone who was expecting to read live game updates here on The Buzz. For whatever reason my computer refused to connect to the internet at Franklin Field, so I couldn't post updates.
If you missed the game, you can read my recap and view the box score.
I also wrote a column, but due to time and space considerations I left some things out. So join me after the jump for a little W. Lax debriefing.
This win over Princeton was the team's third straight over the Tigers with the Ivy League title on the line. That's impressive in its own right considering 17 of the previous 18 matchups had gone to Princeton. But what makes the current winning streak all the more impressive is how Penn has beaten the Tigers. Yesterday Penn led 9-2 with less than five minutes to go before Princeton went on a meaningless 3-1 run. Last year it was 8-1 with 20 minutes to play before Princeton made it respectable with a 4-1 run. And then in 2007 it was 13-7 with under nine minutes to play before Princeton closed the game on a 3-1 stretch.
Simply put, Penn has been owning the Tigers. Even when they most recently lost it was a close 8-7 defeat in 2006. In all of the three wins Penn scored first, and even including the loss the Quakers led at the half.
And this has been the most significant thing about Penn's recent resurgence. The Red and Blue have come out strong in most games and never looked back, even with the pressure of facing a ranked team or an Ivy foe (or in the case of Princeton, both). In fact, in Penn's 55 wins since the start of the 2007 season, the team has only trailed at the half six times and it's been tied twice. (By comparison, in the four losses in that span Penn trailed at the half, so it's yet to choke away a lead.) Furthermore, outside of five one-goal wins and two two-goal wins, all of those wins have been by at least three.
With this level of dominance, at times it seems this team has a sense of destiny (at least in games against squads not from Evanston, Ill.) If the Quakers don't start strong, then they'll end strong; but somehow this team finds ways to go out and defeat their highly regarded opponents. So it didn't surprise me one bit when the Quakers were up 3-0 on the Tigers before a mere eight minutes had lapsed. Nor did the fact that they had one player (Erin Brennan) who had outscored Princeton until the 56:45 mark.
Of course players of any sport always believe, or even boast, that they can win any given match. But the women's lacrosse team is the only Penn squad that really can back it up. If the Quakers revenge last year's 10-8 loss to Stanford with a win at home May 2, then they will have beaten every team that they've played multiple times since 2005 at least once. Now that's impressive.
"Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" is a documentary of the most famous game and headline in Ivy League history. It was directed by a guy who happens to be George W. Bush's first cousin (don't worry -- he's apparently a liberal) and released in November. It has started playing in a couple dozen theaters nationwide, and if you can get past the film's clunky title and want to see it, times and locations can be found here. If you're in Philadelphia, the closest showing is in nearby Ambler, Pa., beginning Friday. Reviews have been almost all positive.
Last week the Albany Times-Union interviewed ex-Yalie John Waldman, who was called for pass interference on a two-point conversion play that Harvard would then convert to get within eight points. Waldman disputes the call in the article and offers a few a few other fresh insights for scholars of that game.
So does anyone who's seen the film think it's worthwhile for me to go?
One of the quirkier Penn Athletics personalities--if not the quirkiest--is football game day coordinator Dan "Lake" Staffieri. Or for those of you that don't recognize the name, the guy in the funny hat and pants that drives around campus in the helmet car on Fridays before home games screaming "Let's Go Penn!" He also always has a word taped to his forehead that's a key to the game.
Well Coach Lake, as everyone knows him by, will be honored this Friday. But not by the football team. Instead, the United States Marine Corps will honor him at the USMC Scholarship Foundation Philadelphia Ball with the Sportsman’s Award.
Staffieri served in the Marines before coming to Penn, and will be honored by the Corps "for his unselfish generosity to the USMC Scholarship Foundation."
Since joining the staff at Penn in 1977, Coach Lake has seen 12 of Penn's 13 Ivy League football titles. (In case you want proof, just look at the rings that he always wears on gamedays.)
But by far my favorite Coach Lake fact is that he was a player on Maryland's sole National Championship team (the 1953 version of the Terrapins).
Construction work has begun on the George A. Weiss Pavilion, the first tangible product of the Athletic Department's plan to expand its facilities as part of Penn's broader push to the east.
The Weiss Pavilion will sit on Franklin Field's northern facade and is slated to open next spring. It will contain retail space and training facilities, which will expand the Robert A. Fox weight room -- where the football team works out -- to roughly twice its current size, around one-third the size of Pottruck.
The Athletic Department has smartly produced a five-minute video on the construction, which has details on the project's now-completed design phase and where the project goes from here. For more background reading, some of the DP's stories on Eastward Expansion are here, here, here and here.
The Penn basketball team's 51-50 win at Columbia on March 7 was a great memory in a season mostly full of bad ones. The Quakers spent most of the night playing catchup and were down a pair with 1.9 ticks left, but senior captain Kevin Egee drilled an impossible three-pointer off a flawless inbounds play to snatch the game away. It wasn't being televised, but someone in the crowd that night had a camera rolling and later posted a grainy clip of the final play on YouTube, where Egee's moment could live on forever.
Or perhaps not. The video has since been removed at the request of Columbia's Athletics Department. See for yourself: The original link, which had been posted on The Buzz, now just gives a message reading "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Columbia University Athletics." So far as I can tell, there are no other versions of it floating around.
What childishness. Columbia obviously has the right to decide where and how recordings of its teams' games appear online, but was removing that video from YouTube really necessary? Was Columbia losing any money because it was there? Was there an important precedent at stake? Did Columbia have to deny fans, recruits and casual observers -- not to mention Egee's family and Egee himself -- the chance to relive that great moment online?
The answer is obvious. Which might explain why there are plenty of other Ivy League basketball clips on YouTube -- some from games that were broadcast, some from games that were not. Those clips have stayed there for years, unmolested. Why this one was judged to be so damaging, I don't know.
If athletic administrators want to spend their man-hours policing YouTube, that's their right. But erasing the memory of Egee's shot -- a game-winning, Columbia-beating shot -- just reeks of sour grapes.
Done with the jokes, back to reality. Here we go:
1) This year the race for Big 5 Most Outstanding Player was pretty close. In my opinion, Dionte Christmas was the best player in the City, leading the Big 5 with 19.5 points per game. Dante Cunningham had the best postseason of anyone in the Big 5. But in the end Ahmad Nivins won the award. In some ways this is similar to Alex Barnett winning Ivy Player of the Year. Simply put, without the output of these two players, their respective teams clearly wouldn't have been half as good as they were.
2) Despite claiming to cover Ivy sports, Ivy Gate rarely has done so over the last couple of years (only 15 posts have the "sports" tag dating back to the start of 2007). However, in the last few weeks contributor Max Wasserman has created an Ivy Sports Roundup that covers the past weekend's games. Each of the eight schools get an entry, including who they have bragging rights over. This week Penn ranked seventh (ouch) yet had bragging rights over Harvard. If nothing else, check out the hilarious video from Conan O'Brien on old timey baseball.
3) A Big 5 coach is leaving. So is an Ivy League one. Ok, so they're both assistants. First, Villanova associate head coach Patrick Chambers was introduced yesterday as Boston University's new head coach. Cornell head coach Steve Donahue was a leading candidate early on to replace Dennis Wolff, who coached the Terriers for the last 15 years, but he said he wasn't interested. In addition, there were rumors that Chambers might be a candidate to replace Glen Miller, if and when the Penn coach left the program.
Meanwhile, Harvard's Fly By Blog is reporting that Harvard assistant coach Will Wade is leaving to become an assistant coach at VCU under newly hired head coach Shaka Smart. Wade was a key recruiter under Harvard's Tommy Amaker (HT Timothy Walsh).
(Note: this appeared in conjunction with the DP's 2009 joke issue.)
This year Penn fans found a new source to view original reporting reposted DP stories on Fire Glen Miller, a student run blog.
But after seeing how low the standards were for starting a basketball blog, coach Glen Miller has decided to create his own blog for the 2009-10 season GlenMillerIsActuallyQuiteNiceOnceYouGetToKnowHim.com.
"It's important that the public gets my point of view of things, since not everyone can attend my press conferences in which I passive agressively blame Dunphy for this year's weak senior class," the third-year coach said.
Miller says some highlights of the blog will be the "Coachspeak Corner" where he'll define one phrase each day that Penn fans might not quite get (the first entry explains how "senior leaders" mean just him). In addition, he'll have a "One game at a time feature" which lists all of Penn's upcoming games -- starting and ending with the team's next game.
But without a doubt the feature Miller is most looking forward to is a form players can fill out announcing their attention to transfer from the program.
"This will be great," Miller said. "The best part is that it automatically sends a reply saying ‘I wish you the best in future endeavors.' God that was awkward with Remy and Harrison"
(Note: this appeared in conjunction with the DP's 2009 joke issue.)
In a stunning turn of events yesterday, the NCAA announced major sanctions on the Cornell University men’s basketball team, stemming from a discovery that the Cornell Basketball Blog has actually been run by Cornell Athletic Communications director Jeremy Hartigan.
Hartigan violated NCAA recruiting rules by enticing high school students with promises of extra press exposure and lucrative handles to post comments.
As a result, Cornell will be forced to vacate its last two Ivy League titles. That means Princeton and Yale — who tied for second place in the league this past season — were named co-champions for the 2009 Ivy campaign.
“How else could we win a title without earning it through the backdoor,” Princeton coach Sydney Johnson said.
Yale coach James Jones was unavailable for comment since he was still getting over the Penn Band yelling "Joe's a better coach" from point blank range.
As a result of the allegations, Cornell fired coach Steve Donahue. However, when pressed if he would fire Glen Miller in the hopes of recruiting Donahue — a former Penn assistant under Fran Dunphy — Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky said, “Why would I hire a coach accused of cheating when I know for a fact that I have a coach who either refuses to cheat or is incompetent at it?
"Plus I love zucchini muffins."
Cornell star Ryan Wittman, upon learning of the impeding doom of his program, had this to say: “Well at least now I can be an assistant water boy under my Dad on the Timberwolves … Oh wait.”
Meanwhile, upon hearing the news that his team was in a disaster zone, Jeff Foote went to his room for some quiet consolation. But upon looking at his reflection in a mirror, he realized just how ugly he was. Distraught that no one would like him if the basketball team sucked, he decided to become familiar with the bottom of one of Ithaca’s famous gorges.
Finally, the NCAA went back to the tapes and discovered that Big Red guard Louis Dale should've been called for an offensive foul 76% of the time when a defender was whistled for fouling him. As such, Dale's impressive 274 career made foul shots were taken away. The NCAA found that Dale used excessive force with his elbow to push off, yet somehow the refs looked the other way each time. It was later revealed that ad sales from the Cornell Basketball Blog were responsible for paying off said refs.
The Herb Good Basketball Club has given out some Philadelphia hoops awards, and Zack Rosen has won the Dave Zinkoff Award for Big 5 Rookie of the Year. He did not win the Ivy League equivalent. This is the second-straight year a Quakers hoopster has won the award. Last year Tyler Bernardini won it with 12.9 points, 26.7 minutes, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. Rosen's stats were arguably better (8.1 points, 31.1 minutes, 3.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists (which led the Ivy league) per game). Previously no Penn player ever won it.
Senior Kevin Egee also won the Harry Merrill Sportsmanship Award.
In addition, Villanova coach Jay Wright won Coach of the Year, which shouldn't come as a surprise. The Big 5 Player of the Year announcement should come soon (Dionte Christmas has my vote).
Although Penn basketball has historically dominated Penn State and in fact holds a 31-13 all-time record against its larger in-state rival with a similar name, the Nittany Lions had a resurgent season in the Big Ten this year. That includes a dominating performance against the Quakers in the first half that led to a 85-73 victory at the Palestra earlier this season.
While Penn State didn't survive the NCAA tournament bubble, tonight the Nittany Lions defeated Baylor, 69-63, to win the NIT championship.
With 36 busloads of students as well as Joe Paterno -- claiming that basketball is his second favorite sport -- in the crowd, the Nittany Lions came back after being down four at halftime.
Meanwhile, Penn also played earlier this season against two of the four teams still alive in postseason play -- North Carolina and Villanova, which square off in the Final Four. The Quakers lost by 15 to the Tarheels on the road in the season opener, while Big 5 rival Villanova drubbed the Red and Blue by 22 in early December.
So using margins of victory over Penn as a barometer -- and the fallacious transitive property of sports -- Villanova > UNC > Penn State. Perhaps the Wildcats will win tomorrow then?
In fact, if Villanova were to beat UNC and then beat the winner of No. 1 Connecticut and No. 2 Michigan State in the championship game, it would be the first time since 2003 that the NIT and NCAA Champion were from the same state. That year St. John's and Syracuse won those titles, respecitvely. That's the only time this coincidence has happened since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of one the most unique Penn sports scenes I have ever witnessed.
"You have been awful," softball coach Leslie King yelled at the home-plate umpire. "You have been awful. Everyone knows that you've been awful."
That came after a 10-second violation -- yes, in softball -- was called on pitcher Emily Denstedt. (And that wasn't even the most bizarre call; two innings earlier, the men in blue declined to call a hit-by-pitch, turning a walk-off win into a caught-stealing-third out.)
So we can use today to celebrate King's blunt assessment, matched only, perhaps, by Pat Knapp's unforgettable sayings.
It also gives us an excuse to reflect on softball's recent performance. At 6-17-1, the Quakers have the worst overall record, by 2.5 games, in the Ivy League. True, they're young, and they lost last year's stellar middle-infield tandem of Christina Khosravi and Annie Kinsey to graduation.
But numbers don't lie. Although Penn Athletics inexplicably provides incredibly detailed softball statistical breakdowns -- far more in depth than for any other sport -- it doesn't take budding sabermatricians to sort out the Red and Blue's ailments. Their on-base-plus-slugging percentage stands at a paltry .633, while opponents are hitting .323 against their staff. Only Jess Lupardus has an earned run average under 3.75, which is especially high for softball (a seven-inning sport). And Alisha Prystowsky accounts for all of the Quakers' homers and one-third of their extra-base hits.
That doesn't bode well for the Quakers. They did mercy La Salle, 9-1, on Wednesday, but they will need to follow that up with a string of strong performances to prove it was not a fluke.
Or, to honor King on this day, the verdict so far has been unfortunate but unmistakable: They have been awful.
As it is April first, two Ivy newspapers, the Brown Daily Herald and The Cornell Daily Sun, had April Fools issues today. So here are their joke sports stories for the day.
Brown only has one sports article, and it's about how bad Brown sports are/why they didn't cover all of the school's winter sports. Why they're writing about winter sports in April is besides me. And while the headline might read "Winter sports: Blah freaking blah," I was really thinking: "Daily Herald: Blah freaking blah"
Meanwhile, the Daily Sun "switched" to an all-twitter format. So I can't link to any of their articles online. However, here's the backpage of their issue today (HT CBB).
The lead story is that Ryan Wittman was accosted for physically attacking a freshmen who cut in front of him in a dining hall (making fun of Wittman's elbow against Missouri in the NCAA tournament). While not hilariously written, it's still a funny concept (at least compared to Brown's article).
The other back page story was that the NCAA couldn't find Bemidji State (the school that just beat Cornell in the ice hockey Elite Eight). Hence, they were banned from the Frozen Four. However, Cornell did not take their place, instead another obscure Minnesota school, Everest Institue, will "compete."
As for the DP's joke issue. Well you'll just have to wait and see.
1) As a follow up to my post yesterday about Cornell joining the Big Ten, Ivy Gate has their own take on the matter. I strongly advise you to take a look at some of the links in that article.
I should add that on the basketball-u boards, a similar discussion of Penn joining the ACC is happening, though most commentators realize that's not going to happen. Instead, there's interesting talk about a (hypothetical) conference of solid academic institutions that also have strong athletics (Penn, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown etc...).
FGM, meanwhile, believes Penn should join the SEC.
2) In Penn news, former Penn coxswain Colin Groshong was on Oxford's winning boat in England's famous competition between Oxford and Cambridge simply known "The Boat Race." Oxford won the 4.25 mile race on the Thames River by 3.5 lengths. The San Francisco native graduated from the College in 2007 and is in his final year as a graduate student at Oxford.
Below is a picture of Colin getting tossed into the river after the win (courtesy of former Penn assistant lightweight rowing coach John Fife).
In the outlandish pipe dream department, here's a post from The Cornell Basketball Blog arguing for Cornell's inclusion in the Big Ten. Now it's true that some of Cornell's academics -- especially the agriculture and hotel management schools -- are more befitting of an state school in the Midwest than the Ivy giants of the Northeast. But come on, let's not get ahead of ourselves here, Cornell.
Yes, the Big Red have made the last two NCAA Men's Basketball Tournaments. But they still have a measly three tournament appearances in the 70 year history of the event (granted that's three more than Northwestern). So it's not like they're a powerhouse in basketball.
However, in the post the claim is made that Cornell is a national power in track, wrestling, ice hockey, and lacrosse. I'll admit they've been impressive in wrestling and ice hockey, two sports in which the Big Ten is extremely successful. However, the Big Ten does not sponsor men's lacrosse, and in fact the only members of the conference that play the sport are Ohio State and Penn State (in the Great Western Lacrosse League and the ECAC, respectively). And somehow I find it unlikely that the Big Ten would want a school based on its track teams.
Similarly, the Big Ten prides itself on a strong football heritage -- recent BCS failings aside. Sorry Cornell, but you're not that good at football. In fact, it's impossible for Cornell to be a Football Bowl Subdivision team since the NCAA requires a school to average 15,000 fans per home game at least once every two years. Last year Cornell only averaged 7,075 fans per home game, in 2007 they averaged 8,897, in 2006 they averaged 5,008 and in 2005 they averaged 7,669. So clearly they don't meet the rule.
And from the Cornell administration's standpoint, it doesn't make sense to leave the Ivy League just so the Athletics Department can improve its reputation. From a University perspective, the academic prestige of being an Ivy League institution outweighs the athletic prestige of playing in a conference like the Big Ten.
Look at Northwestern. Frankly, does that school even get that much prestige from being in the Big Ten considering they get pummeled in basketball and football in most years and its best team -- women's lacrosse -- doesn't even compete in the conference?
In the end, while one can dream of the Big Red facing the Wolverines, or Hoosiers or Buckeyes or Hawkeyes, in reality, that's just not going to happen.
1) I know it's a little old, but here's Soft Pretzel Logic's look at Villanova's Elite Eight win. It's a little disjointed at first, but by the end Tannenwald makes sense.
2) The Cornell Basketball Blog has a look at next year's projected Ivy rosters. However, with recruiting not finalized, I don't know how accurate it necessarily will be. For example Penn is projected to have 16 players, which means they'd bring in four freshmen to complement the 12 returning players. Also, it says Penn will only have one senior, which is defined as a player in their final year of eligibility during 2009-2010. So unless Darren Smith and/or Andreas Schriber apply for a medical redshirt, Penn's number will actually be three.
3) Ok so there aren't any Big 5 or Ivy League coaches in this ad, but this Guitar Hero ad with Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino and Roy Williams is hilarious.
As the weeks before graduation tick down, maybe some seniors have compiled a college "bucket list" of sorts. Well, here's an item to add to it: being able to say that you ran in the Penn Relays.
You don't need to be a member of the track team or have a sub-10 second 100 meter time. Nope, you just need to be able to run three miles -- at any pace. Held on April 19th, the Penn Relays Distance Classic is an open race, either a 5K or 20K for the more ambitious. It starts and ends at Franklin Field, with the 3.1 milers turning around at the Art Museum. What better way to recover from fling...
Women's basketball coach Pat Knapp was never one to stay mum (well, except when his anger forced him to resort to hand-written statements, or when it came to possibly revealing any strategy).
But when I finally got a hold of him this afternoon -- two-plus weeks after the Athletic Department announced that his contract would not be renewed -- Knapp had no desire to speak. After I introduced myself, he immediately replied, in one breath:
"I'm sorry, I have no interest in talking, thank you very much (click)."
This from a man who guaranteed victory, then backed off; who cited Einstein and rocket science; and who invoked "Yes we can" well before Barack Obama took center stage.
Knapp didn't like the past. But we do, so after the jump, here are some of the best Knapp quotes of the last three seasons, to honor his silent departure.
Quotes from the 'Command of language' department:
- "It stinks. I can't give you any other word but it stinks, and I don't like it." [01/25/2007]
- "I don't know how to spell discombobulated, but it was a wreck." [12/09/2008]
- "I don't know if there's another guard in the country getting as many rebounds. ... So as they say in jolly old England, 'Bully for her.'" [02/16/2009]
- "Those numbers meaning nothing to me. It's all -- excuse my French -- bull crap." [02/16/2007]
The 'Can't comment on the officiating' department:
- "Reporters are always trying to get coaches to break rules." [02/16/2009]
- Defenders need only "breathe on" La Salle's Crista Ricketts to be called for a foul. [11/22/2006]
The 'Good pep-talk' department:
- "It's not the time for any sterling commentary by me." [11/04/2008].
- "I'm going to tell them on the bus again what I told them in the locker room...You should feel bad about losing. You should feel damn bad about losing." [12/04/2008]
The 'Coaching strategy' department
- "I lost track, I took so many people out for not boxing out." [01/25/2007]
- "You either use the whip, or you use calm, and calm didn't work." [12/06/2007]
- "I'm not gonna tell [my players] not to shoot. I can't bring freaking Kobe Bryant in to shoot threes. They are our shooters." [02/26/2007]
And last, but not least, his golden nuggets.
The 'Only Pat Knapp' department:
- "Joey and Monica are seasoned veterans, they are rock." [12/08/2006]
- On Kelly Scott's return to the lineup: "God, I hope it helps. I need a good rest tonight." [11/19/2007]
- "This team came in driving an Indy racecar. We showed up with a bicycle." [12/06/2007]
- "We're just going to shiver in our boots and fall over and just die. So we're not even going to show up." [02/06/2009]
- "I know nothing about Kelly's [horseback-riding] hobby, and it may be totally benign and safe. I do know you can bet on horses, though, under NCAA rules, because there's no horse racing as an NCAA sport." [11/12/2008]
An hour-long Q&A with Glen Miller? And it's open to the public? Has the world gone mad?
Apparently not. If you've got a burning question for Penn's basketball coach -- or, more likely, a bone to pick -- here's your chance. The Athletic Department announced in an e-mail today that it will host a town-hall-style "open discussion" of the hoops program at the Inn at Penn on April 26. Miller is not normally one to discuss his job so publicly, but from 10:30-11:30 a.m., he will field questions from any season-ticket holder who shows up. The event is free to enter, and for $40 you can stick around afterward for the team's annual banquet.
The e-mail announcement, in full, is after the jump.
Penn Basketball Alumni, Family and Friends,
The Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics and the John R. Rockwell Head Coach of Men’s Basketball, Glen Miller, would like to invite you to join Coach Miller for an open discussion of Penn Basketball on Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. at the Inn at Penn. This special “town hall” forum is intended to bring together season ticket holders, former players, alumni and select student supporters as well as long-time friends of the program for an extended question and answer session about Penn Basketball with Coach Miller. This gathering of former players and loyal, steadfast fans will last for approximately 1 hour and will be immediately followed by the 2009 Men’s Basketball Team Banquet beginning at 11:30 a.m.
If you are interested in attending the 2009 Team Banquet as well as the preceding “town hall” session, please feel encouraged to do so. We would welcome having you join the coaching staff and the division to help us honor the careers of this year’s departing seniors. The 10:30 a.m. “Town Hall” meeting will be a free, no charge event, but to attend the 11:30 a.m. 2009 Team Banquet the cost will be $40 per person. If you would like to attend either or both events, please indicate such and provide your RSVP to Joe Neary, Athletics Coordinator, at nearyjp@upenn.edu or 215-573-0315 by no later than Wednesday, April 22, 2009.
Sincerely,
Mary DiStanislao, GRD'05
Senior Associate Director of Athletics
As Andrew Scurria noted in the previous post, it is possible that Glen Miller might want to leave Penn. After the jump is my quick take on the situation, and I swear I'll actually be quick this time.
For as much as I think Miller has been unlucky throughout his tenure, the Penn community's reaction to this entire season -- culminating in the DP's Harrison Gaines interview -- has really compromised his ability to head up the program. For better or for worse, the very existence of a "Fire Glen Miller" blog and the constant threads and comments on message boards and the DP's website calling for his dismissal have surely made the process of recruiting much more complicated. I do think that if fans had given him a bit of breathing room and let him go about his business this year, he could have at least started to turn the program around, and Penn could have waited to reevaluate him until his contract expired. But if he were to leave during the upcoming offseason because of a general frustration -- because his ability to run the program has been compromised -- it might take even longer for the Quakers to recover.
Ultimately, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a wise decision for Miller to leave. These past two years will go on his resume regardless of whether he leaves now, is fired next year, or does not get a new contract down the road. I believe his best chance to advance his career is to stick it out at Penn -- if he can turn the team around next year, he will make it to the final year of his contract. As Penn fans know all too well, a lot can change in two years, and I still do think the team will get better over the next few seasons. (It can't get much worse). Furthermore, the money from the Penn head coaching position will likely be better than whatever an assistant job at a major program can put on the table.
That said, if Miller feels that his role has been diminished, or if he is not enjoying himself, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted out. The reality is that his position has been weakened, and the public outcry over his performance undoubtedly complicates the rebuilding process he has tried to lead. The real question is whether or not he can regain the respect and trust of the Penn community, or whether he is even willing to try.
Athletic Director Steve Bilsky and hoops coach Glen Miller had their annual season-in-review meeting the afternoon of March 18. The DP has since confirmed that Miller has not been fired. He is still Penn's head coach, and he will return for the 2009-2010 season.
That is, if he wants to.
The possibility of Miller leaving Penn in the next few weeks isn't as far-out as it might seem. He has a five-year contract, according to my colleague Andrew Todres; if he stays on board, next year will be his fourth with the Quakers. After that season, the Athletic Department will either have to grant him a contract extension or fire him, since I doubt it would want a lame-duck coach running its flagship program.
If the decision was made today, Miller would be out the door, no question. His teams have stunk. Fans are incensed. Players are deserting. So If Miller does return to Penn, he is banking on pulling off a dramatic turnaround to satisfy his bosses.
That is a big gamble, because if the team struggles and Miller gets the axe, his stock as a head coach takes a serious hit.
Obviously, he can avoid that risk by bolting for another job during the offseason. As a career move, it makes a lot of sense. His decision would depend in part on the following questions:
- How confident is he that the team will improve?
- How firmly are Steve Bilsky and Amy Gutmann committed to him?
- Can he mollify the alumni who are calling for his head?
- Will any suitable coaching jobs open up?
- What kind of position (head coach vs. assistant, mid-major vs. power conference) would he be willing to accept? And at what salary?
Ultimately, though, it's a question of how much Miller values his career. Is the mere prospect of being fired enough to scare him away from Penn? Or will he run that risk and try to finish what he started? The more he cares about keeping his resume clean, the likelier he is to skip town and avoid giving it any more black marks.
Obviously, I don't know what's in Miller's head, although I hope to speak with him in the coming days. His decision will have huge ramifications for the program and also for Bilsky, whose job security is closely linked with his own. The situation will remain unclear until well after the NCAA Tournament ends, when teams around the nation shuffle their coaching personnel.
For the sake of stability, I hope Miller stays. But if his one-on-one with Bilsky last week didn't go well, he might have already seen the writing on the wall. If Miller thinks he is history after 2010, he has every incentive to get out of Dodge as soon as possible. If he splits for an assistant-coaching gig in the Big East a few weeks from now, feel free to be bitter -- just don't be surprised.
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