As the NFL lockout continues to hang over our heads, it might be time to start gearing up for college football season. And if Sporting News' predictions are correct, it should be another year to remember for the Quakers.
Sporting News has issued its annual preseason rankings and has predicted that Penn will win the Ivy League championship this year for the third consecutive time. Before the season began last year, Penn was picked in the preseason media poll to finish second behind Harvard -- despite coming off an undefeated championship season in 2009 -- but the Quakers used the slight as fuel to run the table in 2010.
If the Quakers win the title this season, it would be the second time in school history that the team has won three consecutive Ivy championships. The last time it did so was in 1984 on its way to five consecutive titles from 1982-1986.
Not only is Penn predicted to win the Ivy title, but the Quakers are also predicted to be in the Top 25 in the FCS, coming in at number 24. Penn ended the 2010 season ranked 16th in the FCS. No Penn players made the magazines' preseason FCS all-American team.
Here are the full predicted Ivy standings:
1. Penn
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4. Brown
5. Dartmouth
6. Princeton
7. Columbia
8. Cornell
Do you expect the Quakers to bring home another Ivy championship this year?
Statues at Penn come in pretty much one mold: Ben Franklin. There's young Ben Franklin outside of Weightman Hall, Ben Missing a Button in front of College Hall, and everyone's favorite Ben Franklin Reading on a Bench at 37th and Locust. But if some avid Eagles and Penn fans have any say, that won't be true for long.
A great article in the Philly Daily News today detailed the saga of getting a statue for Penn great and Eagles Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik. Plans have apparently been in the works for some time to get Concrete Charlie — a lineman from Bethlehem, Pa., three time All-American for Penn and third-place finisher in the Heisman balloting in 1948 — in Bronze outside of Franklin Field. Bednarik was on the 1960 NFL Championship team that, as Penn historians know, also played at Franklin Field.
With a player so respected and tied to the stadium at 33rd and Spruce, a statue in his likeness there would seem incredibly appropriate. But as you may have guessed, there's one thing standing in the way: Money. A statue can cost as much as $100,000, according to the Inquirer article, and it's hard for Penn and the Athletic Dept. to prioritize money, even from gifts, towards a statue, even for someone like Bednarik:
The process for conceiving, financing and crafting statues is time-consuming and costly, which might explain why Penn director of athletics Steve Bilsky has declined to commit to a Bednarik statue other than to drop hints that it is a splendid idea that might or might not be carried through to fruition.
Bednarik, now 86, told the Daily News he would be thrilled to see himself cast at Franklin Field, and apparently an artist has done some preliminary work on the project, saying he was ready to move full steam ahead as soon as Penn committed to it. There was even a resolution in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives looking to build support for a Bednarik statue last year.
One comment on the Daily News' article suggested that if Eagles' fans could publicly donate to the cause, the statue would be paid for in minutes.
But until the funds are raised, supporters of the statue are going Bednarik or bust.
If all goes according to plan, Jack Eggleston and Andreas Schreiber will be getting paid to hoop it up in Europe next year.
Some more info on their plans and current situations:
Eggleston is working out in Indianapolis while interning with Indiana Sports Corp, a non-profit sporting event promotion and planning company. He has signed with the agency Pro One Sports Management. The link to his online profile is here. In early July, he'll attend a camp in Atlanta run by Michael Curry, an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers. Eggleston said that there will be European coaches there. He expects to be signed either in late July or early August.
Schreiber has been working out in Houston. Starting July 19th, he'll play and train with the Swedish national team for a couple of months. He'll treat this stint as a sort of summer showcase for him. He has also signed a one year contract with an agent, though his profile is not yet online. He expects to be signed sometime in September. He'll likely start off in LEB Oro or LEB Plata, Spain's second and third division leagues respectively. Spain's top league is called the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto, or the ACB.
Eggleston told me he sees two different models for going abroad to play: the Jeff Schiffner/Mark Zoller model and the Adam Chubb/Jerome Allen model. On which model was best for him, Eggleston still isn't sure.
"The former, they kind of went over, played for a couple of years, got their fill and it was a fun experience to kind of travel and experience the world and make a little money while playing basketball instead of sitting at the desk," he said. "It was more about the experience. Versus Coach Allen and Adam Chubb who is still over there, they just want to play basketball as long as possible. To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know which one is more suited to me right now."
Another interesting tidbit: Jerome Allen advised both men to work on their shot. When Eggleston walked in Allen's office to ask which areas to focus on improving, the coach stressed the importance of a consistent outside shot. Eggleston largely credits the improvement in his shooting percentage the subsequent year to Allen's advice. Schreiber recalls Allen, who played until he was 35, offering some sage words about longevity.
"Coach Allen said, when he first came in, if you want to play as long as you can, you’ve gotta learn how to shoot. Just because you can’t be banging inside for 6 or 7 years and expect to be healthy."
"I guess I gotta learn how to shoot sometime," Schreiber admitted.
While Schreiber and Eggleston plan on western Europe, their classmate Danny Monckton is headed west to Tulane University where he will use his final year of eligibility to play basketball while earning a masters in sustainable real estate development.
"Unfortunately with Ivy league rules, I was not granted a 5th year of eligibility and no grad students can play varsity sports in the ivy league as well so I had to go elsewhere and Tulane was a great fit," Monckton wrote in an email. After a breakout campaign during the second half of his junior season, Monckton sat his entire senior year after having microfracture surgery on his knee.
After a breakthrough season, Leslie Kovach is heading to Des Moines, Ia., to compete at the finals of the NCAA Championships.
The sophomore, who holds in the indoor and outdoor school record in the 5000 meters, used a sixth-place finish in the preliminaries to secure her spot at the championships. At 16:16.16, her time is four seconds from her personal best, which she set earlier this year.
Kovach will be joined by freshman Maalik Reynolds. Reynolds got back to his winning ways tying for first on attempts with a clearance of 2.17 meters. 2.17 become the cutoff as only 12 competitors could clear the mark. Reynolds qualified for the Indoor National Championship, but was unable to compete due to illness.
A few other Penn athletes had notable performances, but fell short progressing to the NCAA Championships.
Junior Victoria Strickland ran only the second sub-2:07 800 in Quakers history, but fell three-quarters of a second short from moving on. On the mens side of the 800, Darryl Oliver's 1:49.83 missed a top-12 finish by a half-second. Luke Grau also finished up an illustrious distance career at Penn. Although his 15:04.85 effort was less-than-stellar, the senior finishes up his career in top ten all-time at Penn in three different events, an outstanding feat that demonstrates his versatility and endurance.
After a promising start in which she bounced the overall No. 5 seed from the NCAA tournament, freshman Connie Hsu was ousted herself Thursday, 6-4, 6-4, by Virginia's Lindsey Hardenberg in Stanford, Calif.
Hsu took an early 3-0 lead in the first set, but it was an uphill battle from there on out as Hardenberg found her footing. She broke Hsu's serve twice en route to a 6-4 victory in the first set. In the critical fourth game, Hsu nearly broke Hardenberg and took a commanding 4-0 lead -- and had break points twice in the long game -- but lost. She won her next service before Hardenberg won five straight games to take the set. In the second set, Hardenberg opened up a 4-0 lead before Hsu staged a comeback, winning the next three games. The Cavaliers' No. 1 was able to hold off Hsu and win 6-4 again.
After Hsu's upset Wednesday she looked poised to make a deep run, however, the freshman will have to wait until next year for the chance to prove herself -- a win Thursday would have put her in the round of 16 and secured All-American status.
This loss may serve as an indicator that Hsu is not quite ready for the pro circuit full time. However, as the above quote indicates, perhaps the bigger tournaments this summer will serve as a better indicator.
For most students, summer means taking a break from the rigors of the school year. However, the same rules don’t necessarily apply to tennis prodigies.
Freshman standout Connie Hsu, the reigning Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Year, hasn’t taken a break from her usual practice regiment but has instead added to it in preparation for the NCAA Division I Singles Championships and it's paying off so far.
Earlier this month, Hsu received the automatic selection for the Ivy League, becoming only one of 15 players nationwide to earn an automatic bid into the tournament at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Ca. The tournament began last night and will run until the 30th.
“I feel really honored to be able to play in it,” an ecstatic Hsu said before her match. “I know everybody is going to be really good and I’m just going to go out there and play my best game.”
Her best led to the biggest upset of the day.
Going up against All-American and fifth overall seed Kristy Frilling of Notre Dame, Hsu took the first set 6-4 but Frilling responded promptly by taking the second set 6-1. In the decisive third set, Hsu shut down Frilling to win it 6-0, setting a second round match against No. 27 Lindsey Hardenbergh of Virginia.
Hsu's victory — her 21st straight win this spring season — was the biggest upset of the day in the women's draw as she was the only one to knock off a top-five player.
Her match against Hardenbergh is this afternoon at 3:30pm EST.
Dau Jok and Zack Rosen continue to bring some great stories from their trip to Rwanda on the blog they are doing for ESPN. Today's update was basketball-centric and also featured this anecdote from Dau:
Later, I ran into a shirtless young boy and thought of coach Allen (Penn's Jerome Allen). Coach had given his hooded sweatshirt to a man at a homeless shelter we visited during the season. As soon as I saw the boy, I immediately took off my shirt and handed it to him. The smile on his face was indescribable. Thanks, Coach.
With the NCAA East Preliminary Round for the Track and Field being held in Bloomington, Ind. this weekend, I chronicled the career of Darryll Oliver - one of the finest middle distance runners to ever run come to Penn. Right now Oliver is No. 20 in the nation with a time of 1:48.46, a time which he ran two weekends ago at the IC4A Championships. The article (which will appear in tomorrow's edition of the Summer Pennsylvanian) mentions two key turning points in Oliver's career.
The first was a victory in the 2009 Outdoor Heptagonal Championships when Oliver ran a personal-best by a second to beat heavy favorite Jeff Moriarty. The second was the 2010 Indoor Heps 4x800 when Oliver - who was only in his second meet back after an injury - ran a gutsy 1:49-split on hardly any training. I have posted videos of these races along with his second-place finish at this year's IC4A's below.
The annual academic progress rate (APR) scores — tracking classroom performance of Division I teams — were made available by the NCAA today. We spent all year writing about how the Quakers do on the field, so let's take a look at how they do in the classroom. For a little more on the scores:
"Every Division I sports team calculates its APR each academic year, based on the eligibility and retention of each scholarship student-athlete. Teams scoring below certain thresholds can face penalties, such as scholarship losses and restrictions on practice and competition. Rates are based on the past four years’ performance."
"The APR awards two points each term to student-athletes who meet academic-eligibility standards and who remain with the institution. A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time divided by the total points possible."
This year, once again, the Ivy League overall ranked tops in APR and led the nation in 16 of 29 NCAA sponsored/conference-wide sports. Per the league's statement, Yale had the most teams recognized as being in the top 10% (23), Brown was second nationally and Penn, as is often the case in national rankings, tied for fourth.
At Penn, the numbers were also impressive, though a little lower than last year (note: The latest data is from 2009-10). This year's Red and Blue averaged a 992.8 on the 1000-point scale, down exactly one point from the previous year's numbers.
And now for some statistical analysis:
Six teams scored a perfect 1000: Field Hockey, W. Fencing, W. Golf, W. Lax, W. Tennis and M. Cross Country. Note that these are all women's teams but one. Way to go, ladies.
Penn's lowest scoring team, and the only that was even below the national average of 970 was M. Fencing.
Overall, the women average 997.1 while the men were decidedly lower at 987.7.
The highest improvement over the previous year was M. Basketball, which jumped up seven points to 985.
The highest dropoff was M. Lax, which dropped nine points to 986 in 2009-10.
Brains lead to Ivy titles, apparently: the four squads that brought home a trophy last year averaged a 997.8. It's worth noting that three of four were women's teams (Volleyball, W. Lax, W. Golf and Football).
In the marquee sports: Penn football was 995, 49 points higher than the national average, M. Basketball was 985, 40 points above the national average.
16 Penn programs were in the top 10% of their sport nationwide: Baseball, Field Hockey, Football, M. Basketball, M. Cross Country, M. Soccer, M. Track, M. Wrestling, Softball, W. Basketball, W. Fencing, W. Golf, W. Lax, W. Soccer, W. Tennis, W. Track (Indoor and Outdoor).
For all you gymnastics fans out there, Makenzie Davis of Blue Springs High School has signed a national letter to attend the University of Pennsylvania. Davis initially took on the sport as a hobby but continued it even though it wasn't offered at her school. She continued training as a member of Al Fong's Great American Gymnastic Express for several years and states that the longtime coach of former Olympians Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool "helped her land with the University of Pennsylvania."
Davis joins a Quaker team that recently recaptured the Ivy League title and one that is retaining a young core led by rising junior and reigning Eastern Collegiate Athletics Conference gymnastics Athlete of the Year, Dana Bonincontri.
While much of Penn heads to New York for summer internships on Wall Street, a couple Quakers are taking a decidedly different route. Dau Jok, Zack Rosen and a group of about a dozen Penn students and faculty are now in Rwanda, on an "interfaith and inter-ethnic service learning that will bring together Penn students to explore the dynamics of cultural and ethnic violence and strategies for their elimination."
"We will spend most our time here at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village and the surrounding community of Rubona. It is our duty to connect, teach, and learn from the people here," Dau writes in the first installment.
The 12-day trip is led by Penn Hillel director Mike Uram, and it looks like an amazing experience for all involved. Dau and Zack were able to set up the blog with help from assistant coach Dan Leibovitz and Dana O'Neil of ESPN. Not coincidentally, O'Neil profiled Jok and and the trip for ESPN.com today.
While most of the students are there for 12 days, Dau will break off from the group on May 29 and head to his native Sudan where he will begin building the Dut Jok Foundation, an after school sports program in honor of his father (pictured above, with young Dau in red), which is funded by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace award. Dau won the grant this spring.
"I'm more excited than I am worried," Jok told ESPN. "It's like a dream come true. There's so much I want to get done"
Three women and four men will be heading to the East regionals in Bloomington Ind., next weekend to represent the Quakers at the NCAA track and field championships.
For the women, junior and 800m sprinter Victoria Strickland will be joined by sophomore javelin thrower Morgan Wheeler and sophomore Leslie Kovach, who is seeded eighth with her 16:11.59 time in the 5,000 at Penn Relays, which crushed the previous school record by 9 seconds.
He'll be joined by eigth-seeded 800-runner Darryll Oliver, 400 hurdler Tim Carey, and distance runner Luke Grau. Oliver and Carey are both veterans of the NCAAs.
All the qualifiers were within the top 48 in their events in the East region. The to 24 advance to the quarterfinals and the top 12 go to the semis and finals, held in June in Des Moines, Iowa.
Twenty-five year old Vasu Kulkarni, who attended graduated from Penn Engineering in 2008 and played on the Quakers' JV hoops squad his senior year, is now taking his passion for basketball and translating it into a successful startup company.
Krossover is a service that allows basketball and lacrosse coaches at small colleges and high schools to essentially break down game film more effectively. Coaches can upload their in-game video to the company's site, and Krossover will then tag specific parts of it, such as fouls, shots, etc. The service can also be used to make highlight reels, which can then be uploaded to social media sites.
Tying up a minor loose end from the recruiting trail, it appears that Aaron Best, a shooting guard/small forward prospect out of Ontario (with a sweet name) will not be joining Penn's already sizeable 2011 recruiting class.
Best had listed Penn in his top 2, along with Toronto's Ryerson, but the Cannuck chose to stay in the Great White North, according to this article from North Pole Hoops.
This recruiting class won't be without some international flair: Keelan Cairns is coming from Ireland and Simeon Esprit from England. For now though, we will have to settle for the once-a-year visit from Harvard sharpshooter Laurent Rivard.
Penn will take part in the 5th annual Thanksgiving Weekend Philly Hoop Group Classic.
The tournament will feature schools from around the region. Big East regular season champion Pittsburgh, as well as NCAA participants James Madison and Rider are confirmed. In addition North Eastern Conference runner-up Robert Morris and fellow Big 5 member La Salle will also participate. The competition will give the Quakers early season tournament experience, preparing them for Big 5 and Ivy League games.
This will be a homecoming of sorts for Robert Morris coach Andy Toole, who captained the Ivy-champion Quakers in 2003. He's now the head coach of the Colonials.
According to Hoop Group president Rob Kennedy in a statement released today via the Hoop Group website:
“We are once again excited to welcome some of the East’s top programs to the Palestra for Thanksgiving Weekend,” said Rob Kennedy, President of the Hoop Group. “Our first 4 years have featured nationally ranked teams, memorable games and outstanding play. This year promises more of the same, highlighted by Pitt taking on Penn on Friday November 25th.”
The tournament's preliminary games will be played from Nov. 13 - Nov. 23 at each of the participating schools, with final round games being played on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26 in the Palestra.
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The two-time defending champion Quakers will be reloading this fall with the addition of 33 incoming freshman. That group will join the 32 returning lettermen in the team's quest for a three-peat and an unprecedented third straight undefeated Ivy season.
"We are really proud of this group. We feel we have another tremendous recruiting class joining the program. This is a great credit to our coaching staff for its ability to to bring in such an athletically and academically talented group. We believe these 33 individuals will each become a great addition to our program and the University."
Of the 33, 18 will join the Ancient Eight's top offensive corps from a year ago, while 13 will look to find their place in the League's top defensive unit. The remaining two are kickers who will hope to fill the void left by Andrew Samson, only the school's all-time leading scorer.
We have talked to some of the recruits about their strengths, weaknesses, and their decision to choose Penn. Click on their names to find out more about the newest Quakers.
If you hadn't noticed already, we're on summer break and so is the blog — well, sort of. As things slow down for the summer, we won't be updating the site as frequently, as the editors and writers head off to various summer jobs around the country. When there is sports news, you can find it here and at thedp.com/sports, and you can follow us on twitter @dailypennsports. If you'll be around Penn this summer, we publish a weekly newspaper on Thursdays, so pick it up!
For those still around campus, our final issue of the year hits rackstands Friday, and as per tradition, contains senior goodbye columns from our writers in the Class of 2011. I'd like to thank all of our graduating writers for contributing their time and effort over the last four years — you will all be greatly missed. I'd especially like to thank those who served as editors, Noah Rosenstein and Michael Gold, as well as associate editors, Ari Seifter and Joe Sanfilippo.
Due to some technical difficulties over at thedp.com, here's Senior Staff Writer Jennifer Scuteri's recap of tonight's Penn loss to Princeton at Franklin Field. At the end are the post game press conferences:
It took an entire season, a full 60-minute tournament game, and two three-minute overtime periods to determine who would advance to the finals of Ivy League Tournament.
But eventually the fourth seeded Princeton women’s lacrosse team emerged victorious, 10-8, over the top seed and Ivy League co-champion, Penn (11-5, 6-2 Ivy).
“I’m just so proud and thrilled for our kids to get this win today,” Princeton coach Chris Sailer said. “It wasn’t always our best game, things didn’t always go our way, we struggled in certain areas but we persevered and we came through and we kept fighting. ”
The will to battle back certainly wasn’t lacking between the two Ivy League foes. The lead traded back and forth seven times over the course of the game. After losing to the Tigers (10-6, 6-2), at the end of April, the Quakers were certainly looking to redeem themselves in the Ancient Eight — but to no avail.
With 2:24 left in regulation, sophomore Meredith Cain netted her third goal of the night to tie the game at eight apiece. The Quakers won the following draw control and had the chance to notch the win, but couldn’t get a shot off as time expired.
Princeton was simply dominant in the two extra three-minute periods. With just 36 seconds remaining in the first overtime, sophomore Jaci Gassaway was left wide open to put the Tigers ahead. Just 30 seconds later, Gassaway struck again and netted her fourth goal to put her team ahead by two and ultimately ice the victory.
“It’s been a long four years since we’ve beaten Penn and so now to beat Penn twice in one year is really something special,” Sailer said.
Despite stellar offensive performances from Cain, Caroline Bunting, who registered two goals and an assist, and junior co-captain Erin Brennan, who notched four points for the night, the Quakers were haunted by the careless mistakes that have plagued them all season. Penn had 15 turnovers, many of which were a result of unforced errors and a sub-par passing game.
“It was a little frustrating,” Penn coach Karin Brower Corbett said. “We needed to finish better and we needed to take care of the ball better and I think that’s been a problem for us this year. To be a championship team, you have to play cleaner than this and we’re really struggling with that right now.”
The Ivy Tournament, which is now in its second year, has eliminated both Penn and Ivy co-champion, Dartmouth, from receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at the end of May. Now, Princeton will go on to face Harvard in championship Sunday at 1:00 p.m. on Franklin Field.
Sunday will prove to be a big day for the Quakers as well, as the selection committee will determine whether or not they will receive an at large bid to the big dance.
“I think that we should get in, but who knows,” Corbett said. Despite two losses to Princeton and one to Johns Hopkins, Penn posted upsets of ranked North Carolina and Duke this season. “With the two big wins that we pulled off and the strength of our schedule, I think that we have a good shot.”
We're having some trouble with getting stories up on thedp.com currently, so in the meantime, here's Senior Staff Writer Joe Sanfilippo's recap of Penn's loss to Harvard up in Ithaca today:
Penn’s Friday match-up with Harvard was a testament to how far the Quakers have come since a 1-5 Ivy record just last year.
Earning a No. 2 seed for the Ancient Eight tournament, the Red and Blue squared off against their Cambridge counterparts for a first-round game in Ithaca, N.Y. — the home of national powerhouse and nine-time reigning Ivy champs, Cornell.
But from the first whistle, it was the Crimson playing with shades of Big Red dominating the face-off circle early to come away with a 12-8 victory.
The extra possession time allowed Harvard (10-5) to take advantage of a Penn squad that is sorely missing injured All-Ivy defenseman Maxx Meyer, but the Crimson offense was far from sympathetic.
Making the most of his opportunities, Harvard junior Jeff Cohen notched a hat trick before intermission, hardly cradling the ball on any of his three touch shots.
Reminiscent of last week’s contest at Virginia, the Quakers (8-6) found themselves in a 7-1 hole — this time as early as the second quarter.
In two games since losing Meyer against Dartmouth, the Red and Blue have been outscored 23-10.
Penn coach Mike Murphy admitted the absence is noticeable, and his defensive unit may still be making adjustments.
“We did a few things today that were somewhat out of character for us defensively,” he said. “Maxx wasn’t there to back us up or be able to communicate through some of the slide packages.
“We’re not making excuses, but Maxx tends to do a lot of that stuff,” Murphy added.
The Red and Blue had signs of life to start the second half, with senior Al Kohart notching two of his three goals early in the third quarter.
It seemed Penn might close the gap further, down 9-5 with possession, when a penalty on freshman Drew Belinsky turned the ball over and led to a Crimson man-up score.
“We had the momentum, we started making the plays and then we did that,” Murphy said. “And even worse, we had a ground ball opportunity after that…and we just missed it.”
The Quakers would get no closer for the rest of the game.
When yielding ten or more goals, the Red and Blue had posted a 0-4 record on the season, and Friday’s loss against Harvard tacks one more onto that ‘L’ column.
But the real question going forward is what happens Sunday when the NCAA tournament field is announced.
Had Penn won Friday, their ticket would likely have been punched—regardless of the Ivy championship outcome.
Now it’s the waiting game as the Red and Blue have nothing more that they’re able to present to the selection committee.
“We didn’t help ourselves a whole lot today in terms of being selected,” Murphy said. “Most of our fate is not really in our hands at this point.”
Should the Quakers land one of the sixteen spots, it would be their first NCAA appearance since then-coach Brian Voelker led the team to a 2006 first-round contest with Johns Hopkins.
“I think we have a good shot from what people tell me — people who have looked at it more closely than I have,” Murphy said. “If we’re invited, we’ll be excited and have a good week of practice…if not then we’ll feel good about the year and all the seniors have done.”
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