Today's Ivy Football teleconference found a lot of kind words passed Penn's way after it was announced the Quakers had been selected to finish first in the league for the 2013 season.
Check out what Penn coach Al Bagnoli and Harvard coach Tim Murphy said in-depth and in full about their respective teams' 2013 outlook, as well as what high praise Columbia coach Pete Mangurian reserved for Penn fifth-year senior QB Billy Ragone.
Al Bagnoli: We’re cautiously optimistic. We think we have enough in place to be a competitive football team. We have our share of question marks. We’ve had some injuries coming from last year that need to be overcome, so even with our returning players, we have to deal with that. And we have some young guys that we’re going to have to integrate into prominent roles. Like everybody else, we’re cautiously optimistic. We thought we had a very good offseason. We had some momentum from last season carry over and we’re excited to get going. We certainly had our fair share of issues that we’re going to have to confront and address in a positive manner.
(on Penn being projected to finish No. 1 in the league) I think it’s normal for a defending champion, out of courtesy, to be picked number one. I think everybody’s echoing the same things, that this is going to be as competitive of a league as we’ve seen. We could realistically have multiple teams with real opportunities to win the championship, so I don’t put a tremendous amount of credence, to be honest with you. I like it better when we’re picked second or third more than when we’re picked first. I understand why we were picked first. But certainly, we’re wide open within the league. Multiple teams can all claim the ability to win the championship.
(on the return of Billy Ragone) I think we’re fortunate [to have him back]. Any time you have fifth-year kids, they have the perspective and the maturity. And obviously he’s been such a key component of our success, that’s a great foundation to start with. Now he still has to overcome probably as much psychological trauma off of that ankle injury, but he seems to have progressed really well in the offseason with his recovery, and I think he’s looking forward to getting out on the field and getting knocked around. I think when you have an established quarterback at any level, it gives you confidence that you can learn your offense. We also have Ryan Becker back, who missed all of last year, so we actually have two kids that will give us some maturity and game experience and some pretty good depth at that position.
Ideally you want a fifth-year guy and you want him healthy. Short of that, it’s nice to have a fifth-year guy with the experiences and the leadership quality and the game awareness that Billy’s had. We know we’re going to have to take things slow, we know we’re going to have to bring him back at a different pace than we normally would considering the injury that he had. But we also think ultimately that he’s going to be fine and that we really need to do a good job preseason and in those early games of getting him comfortable, having confidence that that ankle can withstand the rigors of football and then just getting him integrated back on offense.
(on Penn's confidence level for 2013 based off of the many close games Penn won a year ago) Hopefully we have confidence and belief that what we do works. That’s always a great starting point. But I think we’ve been in an awful lot of close games and have the confidence level that we can win close games, win it in the last drive, win it in the last two minutes. And I think we leave with a little bit of momentum coming from that kind of season. Hopefully that carried over into the offseason and into spring football. So we’re approaching it with a little bit of wind behind us but we’re also approaching it in that it’s very difficult to repeat in this league. It doesn’t happen very often in that you take everybody’s best shot and that you have to work even harder than what we worked last year from both a coaching front and a player front to achieve the same results you did last year. So we certainly have challenges in front of us in how we can navigate the psychological and physical side of it will determine our fate.
(on the loss of defensive linemen Brandon Copeland, C.J. Mooney and Taylor Brown) Obviously we had a combination of some senior leadership with those three, great individual player with Brandon Copeland. So obviously that’s going to be an area of concern for us. The good news is we have good, young, talented kids that played a little bit last year, weren’t household names but we’re going to have to do a good of job of creating them because we have far less question marks on the second and third level. We have some pretty dynamic players returning in the linebacking corps and secondary so for us, it’s going to be our ability to integrate some young, talented kids and bring them up to speed, get them ready for Ivy League play by the time we hit Dartmouth.
(on the return of fifth-year senior running back Brandon Colavita) We’re very fortunate this year with having a fair amount of fifth-year kids coming back. Obviously having Colavita back for a fifth year will certainly help our running game. He’s been a second-team all-league performer and he gives you a tough physical presence. I think he’s normally a very good tackle-to-tackle runner, very durable, competitive and tough. So I think that would be a pretty good starting point for us in our run game. Ryan gives us tremendous confidence that we don’t have to rush Billy Ragone back. We can take our time with Billy, we can be sensitive to the injury. We can kind of dictate our own time frame of when to use Billy and when not to use Billy. And we feel very comfortable that Ryan can run the offense, has been productive in the past and will give us a very seasoned approach so we don’t have to change the offense a whole heck of a lot.
[Billy’s] cleared, he’s been doing everything. I don’t think it’s as much physical. I just think with any injury, whether you’re talking about ankle, you’re talking about a knee or you’re talking about a shoulder, there’s a little bit of a psychological component that people have to overcome. Billy’s really a tough kid, and I think that’s one of the underrated things about him that people just don’t recognize. He’s very, very tough, a physical kid. He’ll be fine. We just have to be smart with him. I know he’ll want to do everything 100 percent right away, but we anticipate him being 100 percent physically and we’re working on the psychological part of it as we go through, [to] make sure he’s 100 percent psychologically as well.
Tim Murphy:
It’s gonna be an interesting year for Harvard football. We feel like we have the potential to be a very solid football team, but we have quite a few question marks on offense. On one hand, we had probably the most explosive offense we’ve ever had here, the highest-scoring offense in Ivy League history, but lose five unbelievable players who are practically irreplaceable. Defensively, we lost some depth but we have some quality leadership experience coming back at all three levels. We have an outstanding kicking specialist coming back in David Mothander. This is a team where there’s still a lot of question marks we have to answer.
We’ve had an unbelievable run with quarterbacks and I think we’ve done a pretty solid job of evaluating, recruiting and developing quarterbacks, right back to [Neil] Rose, [Ryan] Fitzpatrick, Chris Pizzotti, Collier [Winters]. But Colton’s a special player, and he wasn’t a special player in terms of mechanics, he wasn’t a special player, you know, a pro type of athlete. But he was one of the best at putting the ball where no one could catch it but our guy, great improvisational skills, tremendous leader and tremendous decision-maker. Replacing him is going to be very challenging. If you look around the league, we’re probably the only team in the league that has that question mark at quarterback. And of course, he had a great supporting cast. He had a tremendous running back in Treavor Scales, the best h-back we’ve ever had and Kyle Juszczyk, an outstanding offensive line with senior all-Ivy guys like John Collins and Jack Holuba.
But those guys have availability. The question is, do they have the improvisational skills, do they have the leadership skills, are they decision-makers. That’s to be determined. We do know they have ability, have the things to execute our system, but the quarterback question never gets answered until you really get in the fire.
I look at [the quarterback competition] as Conner Hempel number one, and Mike Pruneau a very close number two for the simple reason that Mike wasn’t quite full go in the spring so he got second-team reps, didn’t have any live reps. So Conner’s number one, Mike’s number two. They’re both junior years of eligibility. They’re kind of carbon copies of each other. They’re both 6-foot-3, about 212 pounds. Good athletes, can make all the throws. But a lot of guys can say that. We’ve gotta figure out the rest of it.
(on Harvard being picked second) Other than maybe the one you pick as number one, I think whether you’re two through four, it really doesn’t matter. I think the media in general has pretty much gotten into a groove to putting Harvard or Penn number one or number two. I think if I’m not mistaken we’ve been number one or number two in the league at the end of the year 12 straight years. That’s great, we take pride in that. But I think there’s more parity, more competition, more outstanding quarterbacks that can be difference-makers in the league. So whether you’re two or whether you’re three, four or five, I don’t see a lot of difference in those teams right now.
(on attitude of team after coming up short of Ivy title in 2012) I’ve said very bluntly that it’s probably the best Harvard team that we’ve had that didn’t win a championship. It came down to the last play in one of our last couple games and we just didn’t get it done. And that’s a credit to Princeton. We gave up 24 points in the last 12 minutes of a game that we had thoroughly dominated to that point. Really, really Harvard-like. But I think if you coach long enough, even with great kids, once in a while things happen where you just kind of scratch your head. But the bottom line is it was a great group of kids and we fell just short of our goal. I’m really proud of those kids. I hope and think it makes the kids hungrier. But we’ve always had such great and coachable kids that I’m not sure at this point in terms of the offseason or spring football that we noticed anything dramatically different from many teams in the past because we’ve had consistently good-character, highly motivated guys. I think we’re really going to have to keep building. Like anything else, it’s what you do in the very biggest of games. What are those games? Sure it’s against traditional rivals, sure it’s against teams like Penn but these days, everybody’s a good team and everybody can be a good game. Coach Archer alluded to, it’s going to be like bowl games. Everybody’s good enough to beat you if you’re not thoroughly prepared, healthy and ready to play.
Last year we scored a lot of points and we had a few sort of shootouts, games where we were pretty explosive. But I think our defense right now is the strength of our team, both in terms of leadership, experience and maybe in terms of personnel. Josh Boyd has been to date a tremendous football player and captain for Harvard. He’s an inner-city Boston kid, and he could do it all. Leadership comes very naturally to him, he leads by example but he’s not afraid to be vocal, not afraid to hold everybody accountable to his very high standards. He’s arguably one of the two or three toughest and most physical players of the league. He loves the game, he loves Harvard. We haven’t played a game yet but he’s a great offseason captain, and we certainly expect very big things from him.
My impressions [of Penn] are just similar to the past. Regardless of where they are, they find a way to be extremely tough, extremely physical, and extremely competitive. Whether they’re at the top or somewhere slightly behind that, they just get it done. I think it’s a tribute to coach Bagnoli and his staff and the individuals that they continue to recruit. They have their system, they know it inside out, they know what works for them. They know how to attack people, offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. And you just know they’re going to be a factor in the race, and this year’s no different, certainly. They’re coming off of a tremendous run with a great senior class last year, another great senior class this year, so to pick them first makes a lot of sense. They’ve got a quarterback that seems to have started about 50 games. He may not have the numbers that some of the other really outstanding quarterbacks in our league have, but he’s as good as anybody. I guarantee you he’s as good as anybody.
(on the loss of first-team All-Ivy offensive linemen Jack Holuba and John Collins) I think that [the offensive line] might be a position where we can make the transition a little bit easier than replacing guys like Colton Chapple, Treavor Scales, Kyle Juszczyk. We feel good about our line guys, both quality and depth. We’re probably going to be young at the tackle position but we’ve got some really, we think, talented guys. Cole Toner is a 6-foot-7, 290-pound sophomore who was a good basketball player from Indiana. We think he’s going to be a terrific player along the lines of James Williams, Kevin Murphy, those guys. Adam Redmond will be a sophomore as well, 6-foot-6, 285, athletic, tough. You always start with your tackles and your center, and I’m really enthusiastic about those guys. The center position is probably in more of a transition. I think guys like Dave Leopard, is gonna be the leading guy, a senior. We’ve also got a couple of other guys are going to give him great competition. We may move a guy from offensive tackle because we feel so good about those young kids, to compete for the center job. But offensive line may be less of a concern than finding those playmakers that we had so many of last year.
Pete Mangurian
(evaluating QB position after graduating 2012 starter Sean Brackett) You have to have good players around you, we all understand that. The bottom line when you’re evaluating quarterbacks is winning games. That’s what it’s all about. All you gotta do is look at the Penn team from a year ago. That guy wins games. You’ve got to be able to win football games. In my history, that’s how you evaluate quarterbacks.
Penn may be biding its time before it releases its men's hoops schedule, but thanks to Princeton, we now know the entirety of the Quakers' 2013-14 Ivy schedule. Like last year, Penn and Princeton will kick off their conference slates early against each other, squaring off on January 11 at the Palestra.
Other Palestra highlights include Harvard's February 21 trip to the Palestra and a February 28-March 1 homestand against Brown and Yale that should go a long way toward determining Penn's position down the conference stretch.
What we know of Penn's 2013-14 schedule after the jump:
Saturday, November 9: vs. Temple
Sunday, November 16: vs. Penn State
Tuesday, November 26: vs. Niagara
Saturday, November 30: at Lafayette
Sunday, December 29: at Rider
Saturday, January 4: vs. La Salle
Saturday, January 11: vs. Princeton
Saturday, January 25: vs. NJIT
Friday, January 31: at Dartmouth
Saturday, February 1: at Harvard
Friday, February 7: vs. Cornell
Saturday, February 8: vs. Columbia
Friday, February 14: at Yale
Saturday, February 15: at Brown
Friday, February 21: vs. Harvard
Saturday, February 22: vs. Dartmouth
Friday, February 28: vs. Brown
Saturday, March 1: vs. Yale
Friday, March 7: at Columbia
Saturday, March 8: at Cornell
Tuesday, March 11: at Princeton
Penn's No. 8-seeded toast throw finished third in SiriusXM College Sports Nation's "College Football Traditions Tournament. No. 3-seeded Army-Navy's March On knocked Penn out of the tournament with 54 percent of the vote.
The Arkansas Pig Sooie defeated Army-Navy in the final round after trumping the Nebraska Black Shirts in the Final Four. Penn was the only FCS school in the competition and had defeated traditions from Florida State, Mississippi State and West Virginia before falling to Army-Navy's March On.
For the third straight year, the Penn-Harvard football matchup will feature on NBC Sports Network. This season, that matchup will be nationally televised on Nov. 16 at noon.
All Ivies will feature in at least one game on NBCSN, but no team is included more than once on the NBCSN Ivy slate - except Harvard. The Crimson get three games on NBCSN, facing Brown and, of course, Yale in its other two tilts on the network.
It's interesting that defending Ivy champion Penn, which had three games televised on NBCSN each of the last two seasons, gets just one game on the network, while Harvard gets three. In a scheduling oddity, Lehigh features in more NBCSN games than Penn, as the Mountain Hawks have road games at both Princeton and Columbia which the network will televise.
Meanwhile, Penn's season opener against Lafayette on Sept. 21 will be shown on RCN and its battle with Villanova a week later will air on Comcast.
2013 Ivy League Football on NBC Sports
Schedule subject to change; all times EST
Sept. 21: Lehigh at Princeton, 6 pm
Sept. 28: Brown at Harvard, 7:30 pm
Oct. 12: Lehigh at Columbia, Noon
Nov. 9: Cornell at Dartmouth, 4 pm
Nov. 16: Penn at Harvard, Noon
Nov. 23: Harvard at Yale, Noon
Here's part 2 of my conversation with Ibby Jaaber, in which he shares his memories of Penn basketball and his hopes of getting back into the Penn community in the near future. Part 1, meanwhile, focused on the evolution of his Muslim beliefs and his professional basketball future.
Daily Pennsylvanian: No one else in Penn history has close to having as many steals as you did. I know you averaged almost two steals per game just in your last season in Euroleague. What is the key to you racking up so many steals and how big of a part was that of your defensive game?
Ibrahim Jaaber: Everybody asks me, ‘What’s my secret, what’s my secret?’ And I’m never really able to answer this question. It’s something that I’m just good at. And I think that many people with my level of athleticism and knowledge of the game could be good at it they were cultivated properly. I always had coaches that allowed me to develop that skill. In high school, I was allowed to develop that skill. In college, Fran Dunphy, and when I was at Peddie [School ], Chris Potash allowed me to develop this skill and make some mistakes. I gained the trust of the coaches and they recognized my ability, that’s the first thing. And second, most of it is timing and positioning. Knowing the habits of the person you’re guarding. Or with general basketball players, when they’re going to cross over, when they’re catch the ball and put it in the net. Knowing where the defender is going to put the ball next and to get into position just to get a fingernail on it.
DP: The 2004-05 team your sophomore year wasn’t expected to win an Ivy title from a lot of outsiders but you went 13-1 in Ivy play and proved a lot of people wrong. Did you guys go into that season thinking you were going to have that level of Ivy dominance?
IJ: I think one of the things that pushed us forward that year was that people underestimated us. We had this chip on our shoulder that we had to prove everybody wrong, this is number one. Number two, we had stubborn people as basketball players. Tim Begley was stubborn, he hated to lose. Mark Zoller, Steve Danley, these guys did not like to lose. I think we got that determination, that needed push from internally, knowing that all we had was each other and externally, that not a lot of people expected victory.
DP: You mentioned Mark Zoller –both really strong statistically in your Penn careers, you both had more than 1400 career points, both in the top six all-time in team history in steals. How do you think you and Mark complemented each other on the court?
IJ: Well me and Mark were roommates freshman year. And even Steve [Danley] and Ryan Pettinella were down the hall, so we developed a chemistry off the court. I think the best way Mark and I complemented each other, especially senior year, was our ability lead alongside one another. Mark was a leader, I was a leader, Steve was a leader, and we rarely came in conflict. Mark handled a certain aspect of the team, Steve and I handled certain aspects of the team. So when it was something I recognized in Mark, I would be out of the way. If it was something that I as the point guard and team scoring leader felt I needed to handle, they recognized that because we understood each other’s personalities.
DP: What would you say is the highlight of your Penn basketball career?
IJ: I really think—well, this is a tough one because there are many highlights. I think the junior season was really a defining moment for myself as a standout basketball player. It was my first year of getting the Ivy League title as a captain, so to speak. Begley had graduated and the team fell into our hands. Junior year, sitting on the rim after we had won the Ivy League championship, I think was the culmination of those highlights. Everything came up to that one point, all the question marks throughout the year. All the scoring and the steals were really secondary to accomplishing the most important goal, which was to actually win the Ivy League championship. To be sitting on the rim, holding up the net in the Mecca of basketball after winning the Ivy League championship my junior year was that highlight.
DP: Looking back on the run of three straight NCAA tourney appearances, do you feel like the team should have won one or even two of those games, or do you think that you guys were just outmatched?
IJ: I thought we should have won our senior year. I thought we were more equipped to take down a team like Texas A&M than we were to take down a team like Texas. Because [Texas] had an NBA roster and also Boston College, they really had an NBA roster as well and I don’t think that we were necessarily mature enough in having the experience to really have the confidence coming into the game, and the determination coming down the stretch. But Texas A&M, I thought we really should have taken them down. I remember the game coming down really close within the last five minutes and then they made a final run to take the game. It’s still disappointing, left a bitter taste in my mouth for a number of reasons I won’t mention, but that was the game I thought we should have won.
DP: There’s a long history of Penn basketball players going overseas to further their pro careers. Did you learn anything from guys like Michael Jordan, Jerome Allen and Jeff Schiffner about their overseas experience when you talked about it with them?
IJ: Oh, absolutely. They really broadened my perspective as a whole about what overseas basketball was. You have to understand, I was starting from zero. So when I saw guys like Tim Begley go over, and Michael Jordan and Jerome, Ugonna [Onyekwe] and Koko [Archibong], when they came back, they would be telling different stories about the basketball over there, and me also weighing myself against their abilities, being able to compete with guys like Ugonna, Koko, Tim and Jeff, that gave me a little bit of a boost in confidence. Like wow, maybe I can play professional basketball, at the end of my sophomore year and throughout my junior and senior years, really developing that confidence to say I am a professional player based on what I’m hearing and seeing.
DP: What did you find to be the biggest difference in styles of play between basketball on American soil and overseas basketball?
IJ: Basketball on American soil is twofold. You have college basketball and NBA basketball, which are two completely different things. And in between that is overseas basketball. You have certain elements of NBA basketball, shooting range, running game. And then you have certain elements of the college game. And then you have a certain part which is completely European. So it was really like a blend of what I’d already been exposed to and then the further end of my education aligned to new fundamentals, new techniques.
DP: What’s the European element to overseas basketball that’s not present over here?
IJ: The strategic approach to the game. Really looking into the details of who you’re playing against. When I was in Milan, our video guy, when he pointed out the weaknesses of a defender—for example, this guy goes right all the time—we’re never going to allow him to go right. This is one of the technical aspects of winning games. We watched video in college but it wasn’t to the extent that we really zoned in overseas. Also, footwork. There are certain steps you can’t take overseas. So you learn an entirely different skill set of how to move your feet, how to move around guys. You’ll see guys like Manu Ginobli, they move differently. Other overseas guys who come over, their footwork is a lot different and so to pick up on that footwork was really beneficial to my own game as well.
DP: How closely have you been able to follow Penn basketball over the last few years?
IJ: Not at all, not really at all. However, I actually don’t watch a lot of basketball. I haven’t watched a lot of basketball since I began playing professionally, and even before then. I really like to play basketball and do other things outside of basketball when I’m not playing.
DP: When I called you yesterday, you said you were in the middle of teaching a class. What was that about?
IJ: I’m developing a program with a few of my companions called Young Scholars, an apprenticeship program that’s really designed to cultivate the ambitions of young aspiring entrepreneurs. So every day from Monday to Thursday, I give a two-hour class regarding this project I’m working on.
DP: How long have you been doing that?
IJ: This is actually our first run. However, our director is more educated about particular types of fields than myself. However, I’m hands-on about teaching kids about developed business plans, video-audio editing and so forth.
DP: How did that idea come about, to go ahead with the Young Scholars program?
IJ: Most good ideas, I believe, come out of necessity. My brother came to me asking me if I wanted to run a summer program and I was kind of hesitant at first, but then I really took the time to contemplate it and everything just came out.
DP: Is there anything else you wanted to add?
IJ: Young Scholars is always looking for sponsors! And just in closing, I’d like to say that I really hope to begin to reach back out to the Penn community. It’s been one of the staples of my life and an experience that I truly appreciate. It’s a door that I don’t want to close, that I want to keep open. There are things that Penn can do that can benefit the things that I want to do as an individual.
DP: So you plan on reaching out to Penn in the near future?
IJ: Definitely. In fact, the process is already rolling.
DP: What’s going on?
IJ: That’s inside information.
DP: But we can expect you to be more involved in the Penn community this coming year?
IJ: I hope so.
The toast toss has highballed its way to the Final Four.
Penn's No. 8-seeded toast throw racked up 63 percent of third-round votes over West Virginia's Country Roads tradition in SiriusXM College Sports Nation's "College Football Traditions Tournament.
Now Penn faces No. 3-seeded Army-Navy's March On, another tradition often associated with Philadelphia. The toast throw has earned at least 61 percent of votes in each of the previous three rounds. Penn remains the only FCS school in the competition.
Voting takes place here through July 26, and you can see the entire bracket here.
Penn field hockey is about to enjoy the comforts of home more than it has in a long time.
The Quakers' field hockey schedule was released today and reveals nine games in a slate of 17 to be played on the new Ellen Vagelos Field, the first field hockey-specific surface in the history of the Penn field hockey program.
Nine out of 17 is an excellent percentage of home games for Penn field hockey.
Because AstroTurf teams generally do not want to play games on a non-AstroTurf field, Penn has had to dedicate nearly its entire nonconference slate to road games season after season. Just 29 of Penn’s 88 nonconference games have been home contests since 2003, which was also the last year in which the Quakers hosted more nonconference games than they traveled for.
But now Penn can finally enjoy some extra time at home, starting with its first game at Vagelos Field on Sat., Sept. 21, against Cornell. Penn also gets to play four of its final five games at Vagelos Field, and the Quakers will finish their regular season against national champion Princeton in on Sat., Nov. 9.
The Quakers open their season with three straight road games, beginning Friday, Sept. 6 at Lehigh.
I spoke with former Penn basketball phenom Ibrahim Jaaber last week shortly after this Grantland piece from DP alum Jason Schwartz ran.chronicled the evolution of his Muslim beliefs and reasoning for returning a six-figure sum to his Euroleague team Zalgiris in midseason.
Part 1 of my conversation with Jaaber focuses on the evolution of his Muslim beliefs, his professional basketball future, and what he thinks about the Palestra being referred to as the Mecca of basketball. Also keep your eyes on The Buzz for part 2 of this conversation, which focuses on his memories of Penn basketball and his hopes of getting back into the Penn community in the near future.
The Daily Pennsylvanian: What was it like to grow up in a family of 12 siblings?
Ibrahim Jaaber: It was normal for me because all I knew was having family around at all times. And it was exciting, it was fun. There were some difficulties but for the most part it was a very wholesome experience.
DP: How did having that large of a family influence your relationship with Islam growing up?
IJ: I think they go hand in hand. The foundation of the Islamic community is family. So the strong families and the tight-knit families are what make up a community. And so my entire experience as a young person, I basically associated Islam with family. The first thing on the list was Islam and the second thing on the list was family.
DP: Are your siblings all as devoutly Muslim as you are?
IJ: Devoutly? Well I wouldn’t call myself devout. I hope I’m devout. But we don’t call ourselves devout, we try to be devout. And for the most part my brothers and sisters are striving on the same path hopefully as myself. Many of them I work with now have been out of college on the Islamic side of things, working with the Muslim community and so forth.
DP: Were you aware of the beliefs of Muslim NBA players like Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf when you were growing up?
IJ: It was apparent, we recognized them by name. And for guys like Hakeem specifically, he was broadcasted as somebody who was fasting while he was playing. So it was very apparent, and I often refer to Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when I’m talking to the young people and looking at their success. So it’s something I use to motivate the youth and the value of having discipline and faith, how it benefits you in life.
And as well, Abdul-Rauf, I’ve dealt with him a little bit recently, we’ve shared the microphone in some events and so forth. But I didn’t know a lot about his career until recently.
DP: What have you worked with Abdul-Rauf on?
IJ: Well I met him for the first time this summer at a Muslim basketball event and they brought myself and him to talk to the youth about our stories and also enlightening them just about how to carry themselves in that type of arena. We have another project coming up that hasn’t been finalized but we hope to work together with them again.
DP: Did you feel like returning the cash to Zalgiris was adequate atonement for you or do you still feel some sense of regret for having been associated with that organization?
IJ: Regret? No, no, no. Because to me it was an innocent mistake. It wasn’t like I went into the situation with the same mentality as I came out with. So it wasn’t a regrettable situation. It was a benefit, because were it not for that situation, maybe I would not have perspective about professional sports.
DP: But returning the cash was a necessary step of walking away, obviously.
IJ: For me it was. I could have kept the money but for me it was bigger than the money. It was really a landmark, or a milestone in my life’s journey to be able to walk away from it and wipe my hands clean, and move onto the next stage of my life.
DP: Did you ask anyone for advice when you were working your way towards that decision, or was that really your decision alone from start to finish?
IJ: My decision first was based on a growing understanding of my purpose as a Muslim and once I began to look at the situation as I see it now, then I consulted people. I consulted my wife, I consulted my family and religious leaders and so forth. And as well I consulted the narration of our prophet, the one we follow whose name is Muhammad.
DP: How long did it take ultimately for you to make that decision once you had recognized further your purpose as a Muslim?
IJ: I think it was between 24 and 48 hours, no more than 72. The announcement took place in a very short period of time, with me contemplating over the matter, waiting for responses from certain people who I confide in, took the course of a few days.
DP: Do you still have an interest in playing basketball professionally, or is that over now?
IJ: It’s something I’m still praying about. There is really no answer to that. I’m still getting offers from teams, major, major teams over in Europe and even coming from the Middle East. I’m running a few projects now that I’m back home, religious and social as well as cultural development. So I have to weigh what I’m doing now against the benefits of what I would be doing by going across the border to pursue basketball.
DP: So you’re still at a stage of considering those offers then?
IJ: They’re on the table.
DP: Are there still benefits left in taking up professional basketball? It’s always a for-profit deal and there are always certain sponsorships that have the potential to put you in another situation like that again.
IJ: That’s the challenge. If it were possible, it would have to be the best-case scenario, and that’s why I mentioned the Middle East, where there should be little conflict with different things that the organization or the company is, number one, promoting, number two, distributing.
The other benefit and one of the reasons why I was thrilled to be a professional player was to be an example of what a Muslim is, especially in this climate, this day and age where there are a lot of misconceptions about what the Muslim is or who the Muslim is. It is important for the Muslim to be visible. However, not at the expense of your beliefs.
DP: When did you start Color Me Muslim?
IJ: Color Me Muslim was officially founded in 2011. However, it had been going at least a year before that.
DP: How important to you are the things that you’re doing for Color Me Muslim?
IJ: They’re paramount actually, as far as number one, social and cultural development in the Muslim community, and number two, outreach. In order to reinform people about the identity and personality of the Muslim. It’s one of the things that we’re lacking, the Muslim youth especially are losing out. We’re losing them to gangs, negative movement. Music, hip-hop. We’re losing them to other cultures and it’s really a negative reflection on the community and it’s tragic at the end of the day.
DP: How would you like to see Color Me Muslim grow in the future?
IJ: Well I think the potential is limitless for an organization with diversity and so forth, and dealing with professionals of all sorts. Athletes and authors, artists. Hosting different events for the youth could be anywhere in the nation. It’s not just limited to one place. But Muslim people really need something they can grab hold of, a type of movement, an organized entity to bring Muslims together and give them a new energy and new inspiration, to be proud about being Muslim. This is something that is very important to me for some of the struggles I faced myself growing up in America.
DP: What were some of those struggles you faced growing up?
IJ: Again, social and cultural voids, not really having a desire to be creative and express myself and to really see the beauty of this religion. However, that’s not Islam appeared to be when I was growing up. It’s still at a developing stage here in America. Now that I’ve come through all these experiences and I can see the swagger of Islam, this is something that I want to give back to the youth so they can be really proud of their religion and don’t have to succumb to the peer pressure and go through an identity crisis. They don’t have to go elsewhere for fulfillment, they can get fulfillment within the confines of this religion.
DP: What is the biggest thing that people often misunderstand about Islam from your perspective?
IJ: Well, for example we have events like 9/11. We have all of the distress going on in the Middle East, and it’s constantly replayed in the media. Negative images, negative images, right? So Islam is perceived as the villain. This is, whether people agree with it or not, this is what people see when they see somebody wearing a long garment or a woman who is cloaking her hair. This is what people associate that image with. And so it’s this false association that I think is one of the greatest obstacles for the Muslims. One of the greatest challenges now in being Muslim is not to redefine ourselves but to remove the stigma that people have placed upon us for whatever reason.
DP: How frustrating is it that so few other professional athletes, whether they’re Muslim or not, have made the same faith-based choice as you did to walk away from sports industries in the same state as the one you walked away from?
IJ: It’s not frustrating. There are very few professionals that believe as I believe, number one. Number two, everybody has their own degree. But for the most part, I think it is a reflection of the people at large. Our willingness to compromise. People don’t necessarily see alcohol as something that’s wrong. However, it results in the death of at least 75,000 or so just Americans every year. And most people would make the excuse of, ‘Okay, I’ll take the money that I made from doing so-and-so and give it to something good.’ However, if you were a drug dealer or something worse and you make this money and give it to something good, no, it doesn’t make sense. Because you’ve harmed more people in the process than you’ve helped at the end of the day.
DP: To what degree did you feel left out at Penn because other Penn people weren’t Muslim to the degree that you were or didn’t have the same perspective that you did?
IJ: No not at all. Like I said, it’s been a really growing perspective and understanding of my religion. The increase of knowledge and guidance that brought me this far – I can’t say that I was in the same place when I was at Penn. I can recall when reporters would come up to me and want to talk to me about such matters. And because I wasn’t equipped with knowledge, it was something that I shied away from.
DP: The Palestra is often referred to as—
IJ: The Mecca of basketball.
DP: Right. What do you think of that, as if it’s some sort of sacred dwelling that has spiritual and religious connotations for people?
IJ: Well it was something that I often thought about while I was there. The Mecca of basketball, as if it was a reminder for myself. However, it is not Mecca.
But it says something about the history of the Palestra, and also the knowledge of those who came through there that Mecca is recognized as a very, very sanctified religious place by non-Muslims. So it gave me a sense of pride to hear that people called this place the Mecca of basketball.
The Cos will be the coup de gras for anyone who thought the 33rd Street homecoming Penn football/basketball doubleheader on Nov. 9 wouldn't be a big deal.
It was announced yesterday by Penn Athletics that Bill Cosby will give a performance at the Palestra as the "grand finale" of the evening. Based on the relatively positive reviews his standup has been getting lately, Cosby will be quite the closer for a day in which Penn field hockey will compete in the morning, football will kick off at noon, women's hoops will tip at 2 p.m., men's soccer will do battle at 4 p.m. and men's basketball will tip at 5 p.m.
This better be a sellout, because who else has basketball-related standup material like this?
Could the toast toss go all the way?
Penn's No. 8-seeded toast throw racked up 61 percent of second-round votes over Mississippi State's Cow Bells in SiriusXM College Sports Nation's "College Football Traditions Tournament.
Now Penn faces No. 3-seeded West Virginia and its Country Roads tradition. Voting takes place here through July 19, and Penn remains the only FCS school in the competition. You can see the entire bracket here.
Penn men's and women's soccer have released their 2013 schedules, so now we know when and how often the Quakers will get to enjoy their new Rhodes Field playing surface.
And the men will have a lot more home field advantage than usual. While the Quakers haven't hosted more than eight games each of the last two seasons, Penn will enjoy 11 home games as opposed to just six road games in 2013.
Rudy Fuller's squad will open its season on Sept. 6 hosting Stony Brook before taking a Golden State trip that will see the Quakers playing Cal Poly and UC-Santa Barbara.
Meanwhile, the women will play nine of their 17 matches at home, kicking off their slate with three consecutive games at Rhodes Field and squaring off with Old Dominion for the first time since 1996.
What has Ibby Jaaber been up to lately and how could he return hundreds of thousands of dollars back to his Euroleague team?
DP alum Jason Schwartz goes a long way towards answering these questions in his piece for Grantland, "A Serious Man." In it, Jaaber's devout Muslim beliefs come to the fore and it becomes a lot clearer why Jaaber could not coexist professionally with raunchy cheerleader routines during timeouts and players' jerseys displaying logos of alcohol brands.
Jaaber sums up the tension between his basketball life and his religious beliefs in this piece he wrote for his new company's website, colormemuslim.com.
Mark Zoller told me last week that Jaaber is back in his hometown of Elizabeth, and I had already incidentally set up an interview with Mr. Jaaber for today prior to the Grantland piece coming out. So keep your eyes on The Buzz for more on Mr. Jaaber's past, present and future.
Bleacher Report, in its infinite wisdom, has targeted The Quaker.
In a countdown titled "Ranking the 10 Worst Mascots in College Basketball," the Quaker came in fifth. Featured columnist Doug Brodess notes that the nickname "Quakers" came from sportswriters taking their cue from Philly's own "Quaker City" nickname, not the Society of Friends.
And then Brodess concludes that without a connection to the actual Society of Friends, the Quaker mascot must be pointless. "To make matters worse, their mascot uniform is a pale-skinned, goofy-looking geek," he writes.
The No. 1 worst nickname? The Presbyterian Blue Hose. Yep.
What do you think of the Quaker's inclusion in this list?
The Palestra has gotten a lot of love on Twitter lately for its summer bleachers installation.
On Thursday, Penn assistant coach Jason Polykoff tweeted this pic to show "The evolution of the new bleachers in the #Palestra".
And earlier today, the official Penn Basketball Twitter page, often handled by Polykoff himself, tweeted out, "New bleachers in, baskets up, feeling good! #PennPride."
But bleacher renovations weren't enough to catapult the Cathedral to the top of Stadium Journey's Philly sports venue rankings. For those who missed it, the Palestra finished in the No. 3 slot behind Lincoln Financial Field and CItizens Bank Park, respectively.
Check out Josh Verlin's largely positive review for Stadium Journey here and Philly Mag rightly calling out Stadium Journey for ranking Wells Fargo Center (specifically for Philadelphia Soul games) ahead of Franklin Field here.
The toast toss is still alive.
Penn's No. 8-seeded toast throw routed No. 1 Florida State in the opening round of SiriusXM College Sports Nation's "College Football Traditions Tournament," for which voting began July 1 and ended July 7. The toss earned 2,833 votes and was pitted up against FSU's Chief Osceola's Flaming Spear, which notched only 1,151 votes.
Now Penn faces No. 4 Mississippi State's Cow Bells after the Bulldogs knocked out No. 5 Auburn's War Eagle in the first round. You can vote for the toast toss here until July 12 and see the entire bracket here.
The toast throw has been a staple of Penn football games since the late 1970s, after alcohol was banned at Franklin Field. Back in October, I wrote two pieces on the toast toss, one which chronicled how DP alum Alan Schwarz helped save the tradition in 1988, and another noting longtime Franklin Field head groundskeeper Donald Kelly's perspective on the tradition.
Now you have the chance to show your love for the toast toss.
The tradition was one of 32 selected for SiriusXM College Sports Nation's "College Football Traditions Tournament," for which voting began July 1 and ends July 7. Penn is a No. 8 seed in the tourney, matched up against Florida State's Chief Osceola's Flaming Spear.
You can vote for the toast toss here and see the entire bracket here.
The toast throw has been a staple of Penn football games since the late 1970s, after alcohol was banned at Franklin Field. Back in October, I wrote two pieces on the toast toss, one which chronicled how DP alum Alan Schwarz helped save the tradition in 1988, and another noting longtime Franklin Field head groundskeeper Donald Kelly's perspective on the tradition.
Nov. 9 will be a busy day on 33rd Street.
Not only will Penn football square off with Princeton at noon at Franklin Field, but, per DP alum Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com, Fran Dunphy's Owls will start their 2013-14 campaign at the Palestra in what will be the Quakers' earliest regular season game since...last year, when Penn tipped off its season against UMBC, also on Nov. 9.
But Penn basketball has never started a season before Nov. 9, and although Penn's schedule isn't nearly confirmed yet, it's highly likely that the Quakers' matchup with Temple will be their season opener as well.
The Temple matchup also falls on homecoming weekend for Penn, a weekend that doesn't normally include basketball.
Penn has never opened its season against the Owls, but Temple has been the second game on the Quakers' schedule several times. The last two games in this scenario both went to overtime (a 73-67 loss for Penn on Nov. 14, 2011 and a 73-70 win for Penn on Nov. 23, 1998).
With the Class of 2017 becoming finalized for Penn basketball, it is time to begin looking towards the next set of recruits. On May 3, Penn hosted Chaminade (Calif.) High School rising senior Jack Williams as they try to convince him to join the Quakers’ class of ’18. Williams, a power forward, has been raved about for his post game, specifically his rebounding numbers. This past season for Chaminade, the 6-foot-8 forward averaged 16.4 points and 16.4 rebounds a game, leading his region in boards by a large margin.
This past weekend, the Daily Pennsylvanian had the chance to talk to Williams about his visit to Penn, his place in the recruiting process and his thoughts about his playing ability on the court.
Daily Pennsylvanian: You had your visit to Penn on May 3. How was the visit? What did you do during the visit and what stood out to you about Penn?
Jack Williams: The visit was really good. I got there and I worked out with Fran [Dougherty] in the gym the first day that I was there.
The next day, I met up with all the coaches and we had breakfast. We took a tour of the campus. We went to the main part of campus – I saw a couple libraries. I went through Wharton and then we had lunch. And then we went around a little more – I got to see the Quad. And then I went and worked out with the guys and played with them in the gym. I hung out with them at night. I hung out with Camryn [Crocker] and Henry [Brooks] and Miles [Cartwright]. They were all really cool and I liked them a lot. I know Julian [Harrell] from where I live – he lives near me so I have known him.
The next day, we met up again and we had a couple meetings. We went to eat at some places that were a little far from where campus is, so we drove a little bit. Then I saw campus a little bit and went to gym and worked out. And then I left the next day on Sunday [May 5] morning.
DP: With your interaction with different players like Fran Dougherty and Miles Cartwright, what kind of advice did they give you about visiting Penn?
JW: They just told me to make the right decision and that Penn is a great place to be. The player who I hung out with the most was Camryn Crocker. I was in his dorm room at night and he was always wherever I was so I would say I bonded with him the best. He just told me to make the best decision for me and that Penn is such a great place and they would love to have me here.
DP: What is your relationship with the coaching staff and in particular, Jerome Allen and Scott Pera?
JW: Coach Allen and I met about four months ago. I didn’t know him before but I have a good relationship with him. From everything he’s told me, he’s one of the best coaches and people I’ve ever seen. I like him and really respect him a lot.
Coach Pera, I’ve known for about a year and a half. He was recruiting me when he was at Arizona State and then he left to go to Penn. Ever since he left, we have always been talking – I think I have talked to him every day. And it’s not like he is a coach – he is a friend who I talk to. I have good relationships with both of them so I have talked with them quite a bit.
DP: Did Penn’s coaching staff tell you anything about how they thought you would fit in their system?
JW: Coach Pera said I would be a great addition to the team. He thinks I would love it and I would help them out a lot and that if I came there, I could hopefully help them make the tournament. If I were to come, that would be the goal every year – to win the Ivy League and make the tournament.
DP: You go to school in California. Do you have any apprehension about going to a school on the east coast?
JW: I would say that I don’t. My mom and my dad might with not having me around. I’ll be fine on my own but I would say that if a school is the right fit, it wouldn’t be a problem. I still have to go over my options and I’ll probably know in October or November.
DP: Do you have any connection to the Philadelphia area, whether it is with family or friends?
JW: I have a connection to New Jersey but not really to Philly.
DP: On the court, you are known for your rebounding ability and post game but how exactly would you describe yourself as a player?
JW: I would say that I have a good motor. I won’t let people outwork me. I would say that I am a good rebounder. I play in my league and it is one of the best leagues in California and I led the league in rebounds by four or five rebounds.
Right now, I’d say I’m working on expanding my range so I feel comfortable hitting the three because I have worked on it so much. I have a good midrange game – I have a good 15 footer. Right now, I am working on my ball handling so I can become sort of like a guard and get rebounds and just push up the floor.
I would say I am a leader too. I like to be vocal. With practices, you will always see me – I try to coach all of the other players, especially the younger players. They make more mistakes because they are younger and inexperienced. I like to help make them better. I would say that all-around, I am a leader and vocal. I work very hard and doing anything to win.
DP: What can you tell me about your junior season at Chaminade and what things you are looking to improve heading into your senior year?
JW: I think we went something like 27-8. We lost in the CIF finals – the regional state final – and that’s obviously not what we planned on. We had a pretty good year. We went through a little bit of a slump halfway through the year where we weren’t playing as we expected and lost two games in a row. We turned it around and we didn’t lose for about a month and a half straight. It was a great year and we have some good people on our team. We have some great juniors on our team right now, some great sophomores, and, in particular, some really good freshman, one of the most highly recruited right now. I don’t think we should lose very often [next year] in my eyes. This next year will probably be one of the best years ever I’d say at Chaminade.
Despite having departed Penn for Duke, outfielder Ryan Deitrich has been recognized for his play as part of the Big 5 this season.
Deitrich was named the Philadelphia Big 5 Baseball Player of the Year for leading the Big 5 and Ivy League in hitting with a .382 average. He added four homers and 23 RBI for the Quakers.
In addition to Detriich’s honor, freshman second baseman Mike Vilardo was also recognized for his contributions, winning Freshman of the Year. He hit .320 with 19 doubles and 31 RBI.
Vilardo’s summer season recently came to an end after he broke his foot.
In addition to those two players, sophomore pitcher Dan Gautieri was named to the 2013 Philadelphia Big 5 team for his 2.17 ERA. Gautieri went 5-3 with 42 strikeouts.
Senior first baseman Spencer Branigan was named to the Big 5 All-Academic team. He ranked fifth in program history with 38 doubles.
Last night, Wharton graduate Josh Harris, the current managing owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as an Outstanding American.
He is the 48th person to be inducted into the hall with that distinction. Harris is added to a list that includes four former presidents.
Harris wrestled varsity at Penn from 1982 to 1986. He was the starter at 118 pounds.
Following his time at Penn, he went on to get his MBA from Harvard’s Business School.
Currently, in addition to owning the Sixers, Harris is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Investors Advisory Committee on Financial Markets and serves as chairman of the Department of Medicine Advisory Board for the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
In October 2011, Harris and his partners purchased the Sixers from Comcast-Spectacor.
His ventures into sports are not limited simply to basketball and wrestling. Harris also served on the Board of Trustees of the United States Olympic Committee.
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