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(09/10/98 9:00am)
Rudy Fuller takes over the Penn men's soccer team for George O'Neill. We should all wish that our college recommendations were as good as the ones new men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller received during Penn's search for a replacement for the departed George O'Neill. "I knew all of the candidates involved, and they couldn't hold a candle to Rudy," Johns Hopkins coach and one-time Penn coaching candidate Matt Smith said. "I told [Senior Associate Athletic Director] Carolyn Schlie Femovich that it was either Rudy or they had to open the search again. He will do wonders with the program." That is lofty praise for a 26-year-old who just landed his first collegiate head coaching job. So what is it that causes glowing remarks to fly from all directions about Fuller's potential to pull Penn out of its sudden collapse? "He is one of the most likable people," Fuller's former coach and boss at Georgetown, Keith Tabatznik, said. "[Players] respect the fact that he has a good grasp of the game." Fuller may be young for a head coach in a major Division I program, but he has apparently always been on the fast track of coaching. Before his senior season at Georgetown, Tbataznik discussed hiring Fuller to be his full-time assistant following graduation. Fuller was the first real full-time assistant the Hoyas hired in the program's history, as Tabatznik admitted he brought someone in during Fuller's senior season just to hold the position for Fuller. "He really read the game well and understood what we wanted to do," Tabataznik said. It was a tough transition for Fuller to make between the 1992 and '93 seasons as his former best friends became his responsibilities. "Three-quarters of the guys he had played with the year before," Adam Brick, a member of the Georgetown Athletic Administration, said. "That can be a danger, but he was very professional." Under Tabatznik and Fuller, the Hoyas made their first NCAA appearance in 1994, and reached the round of 16 last season. On the side Fuller continued his work with the Maryland Olympic Development Program where he began apprentice coaching while still a player. When Johns Hopkins' Smith moved from head coach to Region Administrator, he passed on the head coaching job to Fuller. "The three years he was head coach he was our region's most successful coach," Smith said. "The state could use him back." Unfortunately for Maryland, Penn needed him more. To their own admission, the 1997 version of the men's soccer team did not have their hearts in the game as the torturous season dragged on. Attitude was a major issue, and O'Neill was held responsible for his inability to continue to motivate the players. A lengthy search ensued after it was announced in December of last year that O'Neill's contract would not be renewed. The goal was to find a coach who could recruit better players, raise funds for the program and find a way to get a talented team to return to its 1996 form. "At a critical junction of the season [last year], six games in, they were 2-4 and had beaten the defending Ivy League champion [Harvard] away," Fuller said. "They went and played two difficult tournaments and lost tight games in each one of those four games. That's when the problems began. "I don't think it was reinforced to them that the reality is that they were 1-0 in the Ivy League. As loss came after loss, things kind of snowballed, and there was nobody pulling the team up." In an effort to both change the team's attitude and begin transforming the program into what he hopes to build in the future, the house cleaning has already begun. More than half a dozen players not returning to this year's team after meeting with Fuller in the spring. "What we have done over the first six or seven months is to trim the team down to players who really want to be part of the program. We have a group of guys who are working very hard to learn about the new coach, to learn about the new system, and have accepted the challenge of becoming a good team." "Coach Fuller demands the best and keeps all of us positive," junior midfielder Jason Karageorge said. "It got to the point where the team didn't even mind getting up for his 8 a.m. track practices this summer." With the players that are still at practice, Fuller is preaching his vision of the season as a journey -- one that could have some serious potholes at the beginning of the season. "We open the season with four very difficult games," Fuller said. "The most important thing for me is not the results of our first four games, but how we react to those results." Fuller said that this year's team will build its offense out of the back half of its field by playing strong defense and pushing to get numbers forward. Even without the personnel to employ an offshoot of the Georgetown system, Fuller thinks there is plenty of talent hanging around Rhodes Field to make this season a winning one. "He knows how to focus on achievable goals," Brick said. At the same time, no one will be shocked to discover that he will also focus attention this fall to his first full recruiting season, looking for players to build his program around. With only 14 field players on this year's roster before walk-on tryouts, Fuller has plenty of room to add his own recruits to the player mix. Smith is even more skeptical of the current state of the Quakers, saying that he expects Fuller to bring in up to 10 players next season, including a handful with the skill to start right away. Fuller is also inheriting a team that stylistically doesn't resemble the ones he has been around since the late '80s. Georgetown traditionally plays an attacking style of soccer, and Matt Smith modeled his ODP program after what he learned working with Tabatznik at Georgetown before Fuller arrived. Eventually, Penn will hopefully have the players to implement the system that has brought national recognition to Georgetown's program. National prominence is still a ways off for the Quakers, but it is certainly part of the itinerary for Fuller's journey. And if Fuller can put Penn on the same fast track his own professional career has taken, that journey may reach its destination more quickly than anyone could guess.
(09/10/98 9:00am)
In order to reach the top of the Ivies, Penn must deal with these seven other teams. The Penn men's soccer team wasn't the only Ivy League team that saw its record take a dramatic downturn in 1997. The top three teams from 1996 -- Harvard, Cornell and Penn -- finished sixth, seventh and eighth respectively last season, going from a combined 13 league wins in '96 to just four. Meanwhile, Brown went from a one win team in '96 to a 5-1-1 league championship and NCAA qualifying team in '97. So where does that leave everyone for 1998? "The league has even more parity than last year," Brown coach Mike Noonan said. "Every school but Princeton has about nine starters returning." "It represents the quality and competitive nature of our league that all of [Brown's] league games were decided by one goal. It should be the same this year." · Brown has plenty of its own starters returning looking to repeat as Ivy champs. The offense is led by unanimous First Team All-Ivy striker Mike Rudy, who netted five goals and five assists in league games last year. In the back half of the field, the defense returns Second Team All-Ivy Ryan Smith. One key loss for the Bears is defenseman Hans Wittusen, a unanimous First Team All-Ivy player in 1997. · Dartmouth would have been Ivy champs if not for a 1-0 overtime loss to Brown in their final game of the season. Second, however, was good enough for an NCAA tournament berth where the Big Green advanced to the second round before falling to Southern Methodist, 2-0. This season's squad will enjoy the return of three First Team All-Ivy players, two more than any other team. Goalkeeper Matt Nyman led the league with a 0.39 goals against average in the seven league contests. In front of the senior keeper will be nine other returning starters, meaning nametags certainly weren't necessary during pre-season workouts. Dartmouth's game against Penn to open league play, on September 19, will be an early indicator of both squads' potential for success this season. · Harvard is a program which, like Penn, is looking to rebound from a troubling season. The championship form of 1996 found the bottom of the Charles River before the '97 kickoff, as Harvard never rebounded from a season opening 1-0 loss to Penn. The Crimson face the further challenge of replacing the Ivy League Player of the Year for the second straight season. This year, it is Tom McLaughlin who will be missing from the pitch. It is unclear who will earn the job of picking up the goal-scoring slack left by McLaughlin as Harvard does not return another All-Ivy player in a forward position. · Princeton coach Jim Barlow will see a familiar face when he spies Rudy Fuller on the sidelines for the Penn-Princeton match. Fuller and Barlow have worked together in the past but now find each other on rival sidelines. This year's game may be for little more than pride by the time the teams meet in November, as Princeton gave up nearly a goal and a half per game in their Ivy contests. · Cornell will showcase Richard Stimpson, who ended 1997 as both Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-Ivy selection. The sophomore from Cheshire, England, led the Big Red in scoring with 18 points, and will have to put up big numbers again if his team wants to vault back up to its more traditional post at the top of the Ivy standings. · Yale posted a stunning 6-1 victory at home last season against the Quakers en route to a third place finish in the league. The rest of the Elis' Ivy games ended either as ties or with a one goal differential. If general league parity washes across the Ivies again this season, then Yale's ability to win its one-goal games will spell the difference between a winning or losing season. · Columbia has a fantastic soccer complex that Penn hopes to emulate with its current plans to update Rhodes Field. On the field, though, Penn hopes to fair far better than its urban neighbor. Columbia finished in the middle of the pack in both record and goals allowed, and returns just one player who was either First or Second team All-Ivy. There's no compelling reason to figure that much will change.
(09/09/98 9:00am)
How often does the best running back on the previous year's football team show up to fall practice hoping to land a secure seat on the bench and an occasional play or two on the field? Last year, junior Tim Ortman ran for a school Sprint Football (formerly Lightweight Football) record 977 yards in just six games. During a 15-0 skunking of Princeton in week two, he gained 226 yards -- 97 more yards than the entire Princeton team accumulated that night. Ortman was also the top rusher in the league and an easy first team All-League selection. So who's the moron who decided that it would be better if Ortman stood on the sidelines? Tim Ortman. Welcome to Ortman's first fall course: Decision Making 101. The problem for Ortman is that all those yards were piled up in Lightweight Football, which, as challenging as it is, doesn't provide the same feeling for him as the thought of bouncing off a 250-pound linebacker and finding open field in front of 10,000 fans. So Ortman, for now, has packed his bag and joined Al Bagnoli's slightly larger version of football. He wasn't guaranteed a spot on the team let alone playing time, but Ortman decided to give it a try. With two a day practices over, Ortman has a jersey if he wants it. Now it's his turn to evaluate what he wants from his final two seasons of college football. Ortman described the chance of coming out on the field with fans in the seats and radio and TV rolling as something that would get his "heart pounding a little more" than his current role as dominator of the Sprint squad. On the other hand, Ortman admitted that his "heart isn't pounding if you are on the sideline." He doesn't want to sit on the bench for two years, but is willing to put in the time learning the system this year if he gets a chance to replace the graduating duo of All-League tailback Jim Finn and Jason McGee next year -- getting the ball and "ducking through the tall guys" as he put it. So is it worth it? Ortman thinks so for now. He likes the thrill and challenge of getting to the highest level of competition. The option to move up to a tougher challenge while still in college athletics or really any college pursuit, as he correctly pointed out, is one that few people have. But given that choice, how many would take it? He gives up the chance to be The Guy on a team, to be feared and talked about by opponents and have the game and the ball placed in his hands play after play. He could continue to rack up school records. He could spare his body a bit of abuse by being hit by guys his size in a shorter season with fewer practices. And ask Ortman how many damn meetings these guys go to. In exchange, Ortman gets no guarantee of getting anything but splinters. It remains a long shot that Ortman will ever become the featured back for the Quakers, and this year will certainly be spent in a backup and special teams role. We haven't even mentioned that Ortman is also part of the Penn wrestling team. Wrestling at 150 pounds, the extra weight he has added to play football this year needs to be shed before he hits the mat in the winter. The circumstances, odds and history are all stacked against Ortman. Yet he has tentatively decided that it is worth it for a shot to prove that he isn't just a good lightweight football player, he's a good football player. "My dad said find the right place and don't regret your decision," Ortman said. "The best case scenario is to be a 1,000 yard rusher for this team. There is no worst case." There is also no chance of failure. Maybe next season Tim Ortman's picture will land on the cover of the homecoming program, or maybe he'll only be an occasional player, but at this point, no one should worry about that. He succeeded just by showing up.
(07/09/98 9:00am)
A lot of people claim to be fed up with the United States' two-party political system and the environment that surrounds the election process. A lot of these people live in New Mexico, where two weeks ago the city of Albuquerque went to the polls in a special congressional election and came away the collective loser. If the cost of campaigns can be agreed upon as a common gripe among voters, then the people in Albuquerque had plenty to gripe about. The Democratic candidate, Phil Maloof, spent $2 million out of his billion-dollar family fortune, more than $30 per vote, while the Republican candidate, Heather Wilson, spent nearly an equal amount trucked in from party supporters and political action committees from around the country. At least Wilson came away with a seat in Congress for her money. Of course, that seat lasts only six months until she faces the same opponents in a general election in November. Statistics from recent election cycles show an alarming trend with regard to campaign finances. Candidates for Congress who raise $600,000 lose. Candidates who raise more than $800,000 win. This holds true in the vast majority of cases. Out of disgust with the enormous costs and the bitter and incessant tone of the campaign, 16 percent of voters in Albuquerque cast their ballot for Bob Anderson, the Green Party candidate. Anderson's total campaign expenditures barely crossed the $5,000 level. Maloof and Wilson commonly spent that kind of money in an hour of ads on the evening news. But what did the voters receive in return for their mass protest of the "system"? A candidate who many abhorred, and seemingly few felt passionate about. If the city had been forced to chose between the two candidates who had a realistic shot to win, Maloof would have won in a close but decisive victory. The Green Party voters were of both parties, but heavily more Democratic than Republican. Does the action of these protest voters make a bit of difference in the fall elections? No. Both Republicans and Democrats will continue to raise money at a feverish pace in a fierce battle for control of the House of Representatives. And both parties will continue to slam the opposition, because despite what the voters in Albuquerque said in polls, most data show that negative campaigning is an effective tool. What New Mexico is left with is a second consecutive year in which an unpopular Republican won a congressional seat because a decisive number of voters became disenchanted with the process and voted for a third party candidate. How can voters who lack the financial resources to revolt against the system that exists now show their disgust in an effective way? That's exactly the problem. And there's no simple solution. As easy as it is to discuss the folly of voters who knowingly voted for a spoiler candidate, it is difficult to see how they had an alternative. There was a sign hanging in Spanish on the front door of one of Phil Maloof's field offices in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. It read, Su voto es su voz -- "Your vote is your voice." The people of New Mexico spoke. No one is listening. They have all moved on, leaving the people of Albuquerque silenced and alone in the desert again, led by a woman whom a majority of the city does not want representing them.
(06/01/98 9:00am)
Polytechnic School '96 Pasadena, Calif. "Rudy," as Fuller prefers to be called, will begin immediately but will be shuttling between his new office at Penn and his old one at Georgetown for the next two weeks in order to close out his nine-year career at Georgetown. Before becoming an assistant coach in 1993, Fuller played the previous four seasons on the Hoyas' varsity team. Women's soccer coach and selection committee member Patrick Baker said that he expected the new coach would have held at least a head coaching job at the Division III level prior to coming to Penn. Fuller, who is 26 years old, has never held a head coaching position at the college level. To his credit, Fuller was the head coach of the Maryland Olympic Development Program for the past three years and was named a staff coach to the Region I ODP this past summer. "I felt good about the interviews and the process, and I felt good about what I presented to the committee," Fuller said. "I think over the past five years I gained a lot of insight and experience at Georgetown ." While Fuller's resume does not appear to fit with what the search committee had expressed as far as previous experience requirements, his plan for the future impressed current team members and made them excited about his hiring. "What we really like about him was his vision to make it a complete program," junior soccer player and player representative Reggie Brown said. "He brought in a packet of information that was really well organized. His vision was to look at more than just the soccer field. It was an outline of his coaching style and his goals for the program." Fuller also meets the search committee's intention to find someone capable of recruiting athletes who fit the academic requirements of the school. Fuller said Georgetown is very similar to Penn in its desire to recruit high caliber students and in its decision not to offer athletic scholarships in the soccer program. The Athletic Department would no doubt be thrilled if Fuller can bring the national success he helped build at Georgetown with him to a Penn program which suffered a disappointing 4-12-1 season. Georgetown reached the NCAA Final 16 last season. "Their success the past five years has been outstanding for any program, especially a non-scholarship program," Brown said. In order to have similar success at Penn as he did while at Georgetown, Fuller's first job will be to try and salvage this year's recruiting process, which was badly disrupted by the search for a new coach. Fuller said he was directly contacted by the Athletic Department during their search in mid-December. His first meeting with the search committee was shortly before Christmas 1997, and he returned in early January for a final interview and a meeting with player representatives Mike O'Connor and Reggie Brown. Fuller was officially announced as the coach one day after agreeing to a contract. Fuller would not disclose the length of the contract, but said that it was for more than one year.
(05/21/98 9:00am)
The University promised to avoid knee-jerk reactions in response to the shooting outside the Palestra following the Philadelphia Public School league basketball championship in March. Unfortunately, we apparently have been given a typical over-reaching response to what was thankfully an isolated incident. The formation of a committee to review every proposal for a major campus event or visit is a sad attempt by the University to micro-manage the public perception of community events. Universities are supposed to be a forum for challenging contemporary ways of thinking. To have a committee overseeing the acceptability involved in hosting challenging events only highlights this administration's interest in stifling events with its desire for a positive public image. As well for who? The only issue should be that of security. In case anyone has forgotten, we employ a tremendous number of people who can properly handle security issues on this campus. Ultimately, the only role this committee can serve is as censors, a dangerous arena for a leading intellectual institution to be dabbling in. With regard to the basketball game itself, there is no rush to announce a decision as long as it does not unfairly hinder the Public League from finding a potential alternative site. What that decision must ultimately be, however, should not be in doubt. For next year, at least, the Public League needs to find a new home for its championship game. Hopefully the League itself will elect not to return to the Palestra next year. The attention on the event, which every year is considerable no matter what the circumstances, will likely focus next year far too much on this past year's tragedy, and far too little on the achievements of the teams and their coaches. Anxiety both on the court and in the Palestra will be too high to allow the event to remain an unadultered celebration of sport. If the game goes off without incident next year, then we can discuss the merits of having the game return to Penn. Students have a right to feel safe and a right to be protected by the University, but they do not have a right to close their eyes to the world and disallow the opportunity for any organization, basketball or otherwise, to prove with evidence that it can create a positive experience for the University. The DP also reported that the official memo discussing the new committee says events must be brought up before the committee if they have "significant public safety or security dimensions, significant open expression implications, significant public relations challenges or opportunities, the potential to attract a particularly large University audience [or] the potential to attract a particularly large external audience." This is a dramatic instance of over-managing a reality -- the potential for violence -- which the University ultimately has limited control of. Events with "significant safety and security measures" are the responsibility of the police and security forces on campus and in Philadelphia. Each year these two forces show the ability to smoothly handle an influx of 90,000 people during Penn Relays weekend. The new committee will have little data or insight of which the security detail on this campus is not already aware. If an event is deemed too dangerous to hold on campus, let Penn Police make that decision and notify the event planners. Furthermore, the committee is setting itself up for unimaginable attacks on its choices of which events to review. In her memo, University President Judith Rodin stated that the committee will not "reject any event based on the anticipated content of speech at the event." Rodin is treading a thin line here, having already faced a lawsuit from a University worker who claimed to be fired after being seen in pictures taken at a Louis Farrakhan rally. Race plays an integral, if unstated, role in how this committee will be viewed. It is not worth the potential uproar from constituencies which feel slighted for whatever reason. This University knows that there are always groups waiting in the wings to pounce on any perceived inequity. This committee will be a goldmine for these destructive and annoying tendencies. The University promised to consider the situation carefully after the tragic shootings outside the Palestra. It rightfully did so in private. Any new review policies such as the proposed one should have remained private. Cut the basketball game loose for a year to allow the game to escape the memory of last year's incident. Cut the committee loose before it publicly and unnecessarily intervenes in events and damages the Penn's credibility as a home for free expression.
(04/29/98 9:00am)
Penn Relays is not about Michael Johnson's new Nikes, despite Nike's opinion during its overblown but well-catered lunch Friday. Nike should have focused more on getting its athletes to work on their handoffs rather than polishing their feet, as slow transitions may have cost the 4x200 team featuring Johnson to miss its much-anticipated world record. Just hours earlier, world champion Marion Jones took off too early and left her Nike teammates with a disqualification for a time in the 4x100 relay. Only the American record set by Jones and her teammates in the 4x200 relay saved the day for the elite athletes. The best performances were in fact turned in by athletes who quietly scripted incredible stories that would have brought a chorus of cheers had they been placed with some fancy music and sappy voice-overs on CBS. Instead, they arrived at Relays, dominated their fields and returned to a much more empty track the following day to continue their training. It is for them that Penn Relays was created -- a large stage in which athletes can share their simple stories of success. · Robert Jordan of Millville High School in New Jersey had a tough act to follow. Last year's high school boys high jump winner was Mark Boswell, who set a Relays record and stunned the crowd by clearing 7'4.5". Jordan didn't match Boswell, but he was awfully close, leaping 7'2.25" to win the competition -- the second best high school mark ever at Relays. The junior who does double duty by playing on his basketball team tried to establish a New Jersey state record by going up and over 7'3.75", but could not find the extra pop. "I'm planning on getting [the record]," Jordan said. "I just have to keep on practicing and keep on working hard and I'll get it sooner or later. The higher they push me the higher I'm gonna have to jump." In a couple years Jordan, who has already received recruiting letters from colleges, may get to push Boswell, who came to Penn Relays this year as a Texas freshman. Boswell cleared the same height, 7'4.5", he did last year to win the college event by 1.25 inches over Gregory Roberts of Morehouse. Boswell has cleared 7'6" this year and finished third at indoor nationals. These two certainly made the east end of the stadium the place to sit. · Larry Colbert, 61, almost didn't make it to the Relays this year. A truck fell on his shoulder a few days earlier while he was changing a tire. But the head coach at local Eleanor Roosevelt High School recovered enough to defend his title in the over-60 running of the 100 meter dash. Colbert is the virtual king of the 60-plus circuit, having won the world championships in South Africa last year and tying the world record in the 400 meter run. Even without his victory, Colbert had plenty of reason to celebrate the weekend. His girls team finished in the top eight out of over 500 teams to reach the Championships of America in the 4x100 meter relay. "I have the Glen Arden Youth Program with 200 some kids," Colbert said. "We're constantly at the track. I'm in it just for the fun of it. Have fun, like I said, meet people, help to stay healthy, but the main purpose is to inspire young people. "My high school kids give me a lot of respect. When I see one of them doing something I know they can do better then I'll just take off my pants and they say 'coach, what are you gonna do?' and I say 'I'm running this one with you.' They say, 'no, no, no coach,' and I say, 'if I beat you, you're gonna do two extra ones,' and boom, they go. "I think I run more than I walk. My legs don't know nothin' but to go fast, even now when I'm walking." · Larry Colbert wasn't the only one struggling to defend his title. The St. Malachy's School of Belfast, Ireland, traveled across the Atlantic to repeat its win in the High School Boys' Distance Medley Relay. After smoothly riding the shoulder of the lead runner, St. Malachy's leadoff runner Joe McAllister broke away from the field on the final lap of his 1,200 meter leg. The rest of the race was an extended victory trot for the green-and-orange-clad team, as they won the race in 10:7.79. Last year Garreth Turnbull needed a superb anchor leg to win the race for St. Malachy's. With Turnbull graduated and entered in the Olympic Development Mile this year, the job of carrying home the victory fell to Colm McLean, last year's leadoff runner. "I started tying up in the last two laps," McLean said. "But I had a big enough lead to do the job.:" "It was an easy decision to make [to come to Penn Relays]. It is a great event. We heard it was one of the best meets in the world and that the competition was hot." Hot also described the weather the team has encountered during its week-long stay. Snow was still on the ground in Ireland when the team headed for Philadelphia. "I know it is cliche, but we find the friendship all the way through," St. Malachy's coach John Mowin said. "The reception we got today was first class." Being back next year may be even easier than Mowin had hoped, as a number of well-wishers offered to host the team during its stay next year. Part of St. Malachy's baggage may even need to stay behind. Last year, the team had tremendous difficulty getting the oversized Penn Relay championship trophy onto the plane home.
(04/23/98 9:00am)
The Penn baseball team's offense chipped in with 11 hits, but the pitching staff also hit six batters. and Kent Malmros The Penn baseball team traveled to West Point with one idea in mind -- winning. They came back with the same idea in mind? for next time. The Quakers (12-18-1) left for New York yesterday hoping to gain some sort of momentum against the Cadets (13-25), with a crucial four-game series against Princeton this weekend. After a 16-7 loss to the Cadets, the Quakers are going to have to find the winning way from within over the next two days before traveling to Princeton. The Quakers frequently throw a variety of pitchers during mid-week games in order to rest their stronger arms for the weekend. The expected pitchers for the first few innings, Armen Simonian and Sean McDonald, didn't make the trip, leaving Penn coach Bob Seddon left with only inexperienced arms to send to the hill. A professor wouldn't let Simonian out of his class. "[Simonian's a senior]. This is his last midweek trip, and he had to go to his class or be in trouble in his course," Seddon said. "McDonald had strep throat." Seddon didn't bring a couple of other tired pitchers on the bus. What was left was many of the younger staff members. They recieved a harsh welcome on the field as each of Penn's first three pitchers gave up at least three runs. Nicholas Barnhorst got the start for Penn and gave up four runs in the first. Only one of those was earned as an error by third baseman James Mullen, who kept the Cadets at the plate to score the rest. "Barnhorst actually threw very well," senior pitcher Travis Arbogast said. "He had a little bit of a rough going in the first, but really settled down in the second and third. Hopefully he can build on that." The Quakers' troubles came early and often in the bottom half of the fourth as new pitcher Todd Mahoney gave up five runs while recording only one out. Mahoney hit four of the six batters he faced, forcing in a run when he hit Army's Matt Sawyer with what was the final pitch of his outing. "He has had a horrendous year. He really hurt us," Seddon said. "He hasn't given us one good outing the entire year." Duff Blair entered the game for the Quakers with the bases loaded and promptly cleared them by giving up a two-run single. Blair then filled the bags again with a hit batter, and kept them full by walking home a run. Another run-scoring single was all it took for Seddon to yank Blair before he could record an out. All told, Army scored eight times in the fourth on just four hits. With the score 12-2, not even the potent Quakers offense could make a dent in the lead. The Quakers did score once in the sixth and twice in the seventh, but Army answered with three following the stretch on four singles and an error. The messy middle innings overshadowed what was another quick start for the Quakers. In true form, the Quakers came out of the dugouts and stepped into the batters' box looking to get the sticks of their shoulders. After Penn shortstop Glen Ambrosius singled in the second at bat of the game, just two batters later senior Mark Nagata blasted his eighth homer of the year. Just like that, the Quakers had a two-run lead. "You have to capitalize on the positives," catcher Ralph Vasami said. "If we keep hitting the way we are, we have a shot to win four games this weekend." Seddon said he will limit his staff to seven pitchers for this weekend's crucial four-game series against Princeton. With a reduced pitching staff and continued solid hitting, the Quakers are holding out hope that this game is not a premonition of this weekend's action. "You always try to get momentum, especially our team which has been so streaky this whole year, but I'm not going to say because we lost this game our season is over," senior center fielder Drew Corradini said.
(04/13/98 9:00am)
The men's lacrosse team lost at home, sending its Ivy League record to 1-3. Unfortunately for the Penn men's lacrosse team, Matt Schroeder is now intimately acquainted with the Brown lacrosse team's attackers. Schroeder came up with save after save of the Bears' shots from the perimeter, but half a dozen times he found opposing attackers standing virtually on top of him. Finding it hard to stop shots when they were being fired from inside the net, there was little the goalie could do as Penn sunk to the bottom of the Ivy League with a 13-9 loss Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field. The score was just 8-6 in Brown's favor after three quarters, but the Bears held the ball for seven consecutive minutes to open the final 15 minutes. By spreading out their offense and passing around the perimeter, the Bears kept the Quakers' defense moving and chasing, eventually wearing down the defenders. Penn's desire to force turnovers allowed Brown attackmen to slip into the interior of the defense and put three goals past a defenseless Schroeder. "We went into an offense that we normally play against a zone just because it was going to spread them out and give us easier opportunities to move the ball," Brown coach Peter Lasagna said. "They had to come out after us, which exposed them a little bit." The Quakers also were hurt by penalties. Junior defenseman Brett Bodner picked up a slashing call in the first minute of the fourth quarter. On the ensuing possession, Brown put together a couple of shots which were saved before freshman attackman Burke Gallagher netted one with 13:53 to play on an assist from Michael Satin. Quakers midfielder Bart Hacking landed himself on the sidelines for a minute with 8:43 to play. The Bears' Justin Clavadetscher capitalized 44 seconds later when he took a pass from attackman Michael Monfett and scored. "We had a couple chances where we got the ball on the ground and the got a stupid penalty and gave it right back to them," junior middie Jeff Zuckerman, who was the team's leading goal scorer on the day with three, said. Penn was also hurt in the faceoff category, where Brown won 20-of-25 faceoffs in the game and 7-of-9 in the pivotal fourth quarter. During its back-breaking seven minute possession, the Bears won both faceoffs immediately after its two goals, denying Penn any chance of getting an offensive possession. With the score 10-6 and only seven minutes remaining, Penn was unable to make up the deficit, having each of their goals answered by a Brown score. "We noticed that they were really looking tired," Brown sophomore middie Dwight Keyson said. "We put in our pressure defense and extended on them and it really seemed to work. That gave us the opportunity to get some transition and some good offensive opportunities." Brown's good opportunities would have turned into many more goals had it not been for the stellar play of Schroeder. The 6'2" junior, who entered the game with a .619 save percentage, picked up 23 more saves on 44 Bears' shots. Perhaps his most spectacular save of the game was a stoning of Monfett with one minute to go in the first half with Penn down 7-4. The Brown attackman had a clear run at the net after a Penn turnover deep in its own zone. Monfett charged to within feet of the Penn net, but he couldn't put the ball past the 220-lb. build of Schroeder. "I was seeing the ball real well in warmups and all through the game," Schroeder said. "Most of the goals they got on top were unsettled [balls]." The sunny afternoon at Franklin Field started much better for the Quakers than it ended. Penn scored just 56 seconds into the game on a goal by sophomore attackman Pete Janney. After a quick Brown response to even the score, Janney netted his second goal of the game two minutes later. "We had some intensity in the first couple of minutes [of the game]," Zuckerman said. "I think their goalie came up big; a couple of saves keeps us off the board in the first half. In the second half definitely the scrap was there. We started getting to the ground balls a lot quicker." The team suffered a major setback when Janney was knocked out of the game in the final minute of the first half with a sharp hit to the shoulder. The team was already playing partly shorthanded as senior tri-captain John Ward played the game with a heavily taped hamstring. Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said he was surprised Ward was even able to run on the field. With Janney down, Penn did not have much of a scoring punch in the third quarter. Down 7-4 at the half, Penn only put two goals home until Brown had gone up 11-6 and essentially sealed the victory. "I think a big part of [controlling the second half] is that our midfielders dodged really hard from the beginning of the game," Lasagna said. "The book on us is that you don't have to move to Brown's midfielders. Today Penn had to think about sliding to our midfielders." At one point midway through the third, Van Arsdale appeared especially frustrated, yelling, "Get your heads in the game," loud enough for most of the front rows of the crowd of 700 to hear him. "The physical effort is there for us most of the time, but a certain mental sharpness not being there," Van Arsdale said. "I'll take as much credit for that as anybody." The Bears, who moved to 2-2 in the league with the win, were just 1-7 entering the game after six losses to ranked opponents. Their two Ivy losses were to the league's top teams, Princeton and Harvard. Penn meanwhile has little chance to match last year's encouraging 3-3 league record. Having already notched three losses, Penn is almost assured of picking up another when it faces Princeton in a couple of weeks. Van Arsdale said he wants to take it one game at a time, but this season isn't turning into one to savor.
(04/03/98 10:00am)
The Athletic Department ended nearly a month of speculation yesterday when it confirmed that women's basketball coach Julie Soriero will have her contract renewed for next season. After finishing 3-23 during the 1995-96 season and 6-20 for the 1996-97 campaign, the Quakers showed dramatic improvement by finishing this past season at 13-13 and finishing fourth in the Ivy League with an 8-6 mark, their best mark since 1990-91. "It's nice to know that we can move ahead with confidence and the players can feel confident," Soriero said. "I'm excited because I think I have a great group of kids with their attitude and ability." The decision was reached following a performance review, which all coaches undergo at the end of each athletic season. Soriero said there was no single issue which carried extra importance, rather a combination of record, recruiting and fundraising all went under consideration. Next year marks the 10th season of Soriero's tenure at Penn. But Soriero, who has posted an 85-149 overall record at Penn, is not necessarily assured of having an 11th year as well. Athletic Director Steve Bilsky cited department policy in refusing to discuss terms of the new contract. "I think what is most important in this is that a strong message was delivered to Julie that Penn women's basketball must be of championship caliber, and that as head coach she needs to lead that effort," Bilsky said. "As the Athletic Department, we are here to expect that that happens. I think there was significant improvement in the program over the last couple years, but I don't want people to be complacent, thinking that improvement alone is satisfactory. I think Julie understands that. [Becoming Ivy League champions] is what we expect and that's our goal." In recent weeks, players and their parents have rallied around Soriero. Many parents called Bilsky to express their feeling and the players composed a letter which asked for Soriero's renewal. "Basically [the letter] said she did a good job and that she was capable of doing well," freshman center and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Diana Caramanico said. "She adopted her style to a very young team and made sure that no one felt overwhelmed. It was more written from a freshmen perspective [because 10 of the team's players are freshmen]. "I'm really excited. I thought we had something good going. I just adjusted to college and a new coach, so I did not want to have to adjust to a different coach." Since the Quakers finished their season Tuesday, March 3, with a loss to Princeton, the team has had no formal workouts. They met today for a team meeting, and with Soreiro's future decided, spring workouts will start Monday. "If we had a new coach, everything would be a mess and we wouldn't know what to do," freshman point guard Erin Ladley said. Both Ladley and Caramanico said while the team was aware of Soriero's contract situation during the season, Soriero herself never spoke of it in front of the team. "There was pressure on our team to win, but she never made us feel like we had to win for her," Caramanico said. Both players said interest and concern grew after reading about Soriero's contract situation in The Daily Pennsylvanian, and it was at that point the team decided to write a letter in support of their coach. Caramanico also said that the longer the process lasted, the more confident she felt that Soriero would receive a contract extension.
(03/04/98 10:00am)
It is not a novel argument, but it rang true last night. Princeton won in the end because its team is older and has played more minutes on the court together than the Quakers. "Yeah, I think [experience] had a lot to do with it," Carmody said following his Tigers' win over Penn in overtime last night. "Our guys are just older." The clearest example of this was in the personal foul department. Princeton senior Steve Goodrich picked up his fourth personal foul with 13 minutes to play in the game. After sitting on the bench for seven minutes, Goodrich returned to the floor and was able to play the final 10 minutes, of the second half and overtime, without picking up his fifth foul. "They fronted Paul [Romanczuk]," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "They worked hard not letting him get the ball to cause that fifth foul on Goodrich. I thought they did a nice job of adjusting their defensive sets." Meanwhile, Penn's catalyst for the evening, junior forward George Mboya, picked up his fifth foul on the first defensive play after returning to the game with 5:31 left to play. He was called for a foul as Goodrich, just back onto the floor from a bench stint due to his own four fouls, scored an easy layup. The three-point play made the score 58-53 with 5:10 remaining. Penn forward Paul Romanczuk suffered a similar fate. The 6'8" junior dominated the low post on offense and was key in getting Goodrich into foul trouble. Romanczuk picked up his fourth foul for leaning on Goodrich's back to prevent the Tigers center from establishing position on the blocks. The Quakers' power forward picked up his final foul by hitting the arm of Princeton junior forward Gabe Lewullis as he dropped in a layup -- the same type of play Goodrich allowed Penn to score uncontested. Lewullis's three-point play made it 72-68 with 2:20 to go in overtime. More importantly, it left Penn's two best inside scoring threats and its two best interior defenders on the bench with Goodrich still out on the hardwood. "I won't deny the fact that playing with four other starters for two years now has done great things for our program," Lewullis said. "We are doing things that we didn't do the past two years." Penn turned the ball over on a jump ball its next time down the court, and then Goodrich drove the final nail in the proverbial coffin by drawing a fifth foul on Jed Ryan with 1:45 to play. Goodrich's free throws made the score 74-68, and Princeton had its perfect 14-0 Ivy League season wrapped up. Goodrich finished the night with a season-high 33 points in part because he let Penn have a couple of points uncontested on offense. "I layed off guys. I had to give up some layups," Goodrich said. "But I had to do what I did to stay on the floor. Once [Romanczuk] got the ball I was really in jeopardy of picking up my fifth foul." Avoiding picking up a fifth foul was not the only area in which Princeton's experience showed. It was also apparent from the Tigers' ability to stop Penn from scoring on a handful of possessions in the second half when a Quakers bucket could have given the home team a lead. "I don't think we got frustrated at all tonight," Lewullis said. "The players kept their cool. Our players, our teams, our coaching staff, is not very emotional. We are not bumping chests. That might help when things aren't going well." After tying the game with 12:23 to play, Penn did not pull even again until there was just 4:16 left on the clock. Penn eventually tied the game and even moved out in front by a bucket. If the Quakers had taken the lead earlier, however, one can speculate as to whether Penn might have been able to open a wider gap. Four of Princeton's starting five has started every game over the last two years together. Over that span they have gone 50-5. Junior James Mastaglio replaced 1997 graduate Sydney Johnson in the lineup and has started every game this year. The players familiarity with being on the court together in pressure situations allowed them to make the adjustments necessary to win the game. "When the overtime started, I said, 'let's start confidently, you know what you are doing, I am not calling any plays,' " Carmody said. They switched Goodrich's assignments on defense, they stayed out of foul trouble, and they knew how to get the ball in low once the Penn interior had found seats on the bench. Princeton's greatest asset, its experience, will become the Quakers' asset next year. Garett Kreitz is the only player who will be missing from the current rotation, and the Quakers will be the ones who should know how to win the close games.
(03/02/98 10:00am)
Princeton gets its third straight Ivy title with a win over Columbia. NEW YORK -- The ninth-ranked Princeton Tigers clinched their third consecutive Ivy League title Friday night minutes after defeating Columbia 51-37 in front of 3,400 at a sold-out Levien Gymnasium in New York. As Princeton (25-1, 13-0) left the court, the players believed they were still one win away from clinching the league title. Halfway through the press conference, however, it was announced that Penn had lost to Cornell, thereby putting Princeton ahead by three games with two games remaining. The clinch also made the Tigers the very first team to secure an NCAA tournament berth. The announcement turned Princeton coach Bill Carmody, who had been terse in his post-game comments about the looming likelihood of the tournament berth and Ivy title, into a giddy and smiling winner. After checking to make sure the 73-70 Cornell win over Penn was official, the relieved coach went around kissing his players in celebration. "I feel great. This is great, it makes the bus ride worth it. Wow," Carmody said. Carmody is now 23-0 in Ivy League play during his two years as head coach, and said despite clinching this league title his team is still focussed on finishing out the Ivy season undefeated. "I'm happy for Billy. He has taken them to another level of execution," Columbia coach Armond Hill said. The game played out in the same fashion as the teams' first meeting at Princeton four weeks ago. In that contest, Columbia (11-15, 6-8) was even with the Tigers with 10 minutes to play before falling 58-45. Friday night, the Lions, bolstered by a home crowd that was loud if not entirely in sync with its cheers due to the fact that students rarely show up to games, jumped out to an early 7-3 lead three minutes into the game. "They know our stuff, they were well prepared and they have a lot of juniors and seniors out there," Carmody said, referring to the fact that Hill was both a player and an assistant coach under former Princeton coach Pete Carill and uses much of what he learned at Princeton in his own system with the Lions. Despite missing two wide open layups, the Tigers stretched the lead to 15-9 midway through the opening half. Meanwhile the Tigers could not force the ball inside to center Steve Goodrich and instead fired away from three-point land. Princeton's first four field goals were from beyond the arc, but those were intermixed with numerous shots that clanged off the rim. Princeton was just 6-of-25 shooting in the first half, and an even more dismal 4-for-15 from three-point range. Nevertheless, seven offensive rebounds and Columbia's failure to convert off the Tigers' seven turnovers kept Princeton in the game and gave them a one-point halftime lead, 18-17. "I don't think we come in tentative, it was just a long bus ride and a tough crowd, and I think that is what slowed us down in the beginning," Princeton junior guard Brian Earl said. The hope of an upset that both Columbia and Penn fans were clinging to during intermission was dashed when Princeton came out red hot in the second half. The Tigers shot 12-of-18 after the break, including 5-for-10 from downtown. Four of Princeton's five starters hit at least two three-pointers. "They are an experienced group, and as the game wears on, that's when they begin to get strong," Hill said. "I hope my guys learn from that." The Lions' star guard Gary Raimondo had seven second half points, but those were not enough to stop the flood of Princeton offense. "All of a sudden maybe we went on a run, like 8 to two, that's not even a run, but in this type of game that can make a difference," Carmody said. The Tigers did not put together one devastating run, rather they used little five-point bursts to slowly bury Columbia, who could not get the deficit below nine points in the final eight minutes. Even when Goodrich picked up his fourth foul with 9:47 left to play, the Lions could not break through. Nathan Walton replaced Goodrich throughout the game and did not let the talent level drop, scoring six points and grabbing five rebounds in 18 minutes of action. James Mastaglio ended as Princeton's high scorer with 14 points while playing all 40 minutes of the game. In fact, three of Princeton's starters played all 40 minutes, while Earl played 37. Among the starting five, only Goodrich spent significant time on the bench, and that was due to constant foul trouble. Penn's loss to Cornell only ended the Ivy League one night early. Princeton would have clinched the title itself the following night when it defeated Cornell in Ithaca, 72-59.
(02/18/98 10:00am)
Maybe they are that good. In a battle for first place in the Ivy League, eighth-ranked Princeton slowly wore down the men's basketball team last night, coming away with a 71-52 victory in front of a raucous 7,185 fans at Jadwin Gymnasium. The win virtually assures Princeton (21-1, 9-0 Ivy League) its third consecutive Ivy League title with five games remaining on its schedule. Not including its rematch with Penn March 3, Princeton beat its other four remaining opponents by an average of 24.5 points in the first round of Ivy play. The Quakers capitalized on two early Tigers turnovers and four Michael Jordan points to build an early 8-4 lead four minutes into the game. That lead was short lived, as Tigers center Steve Goodrich fueled a 10-0 Princeton run over the next two minutes to put the Tigers ahead 14-8. The Quakers would never draw closer. "Steve [Goodrich] was really productive in the low post," Princeton coach Bill Carmody said. "Every time he touched the ball he scored." Princeton steadily increased its lead over the final 30 minutes, as it shot 58.1 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from behind the three-point line. With five minutes, 23 seconds to play, Goodrich drove for a layup and was fouled by Penn sophomore Matt Langel. The ensuing free throw put the Tigers up by 20 for the first time, 58-38, and caused the frenzied student section to start chanting, "Warm up the bus." After the game, the Tigers gave a lot of the credit for their victory to the overflowing student section which stood and literally shook the floor up and down during the entire game. The students were ready to congratulate themselves as well, cheering, "Let's get loaded," as the game drew to a close. A home court advantage maybe could have helped Penn mount another miracle comeback similar to the one it had last week against Yale, but last night there was nothing Penn could do that Princeton could not deliver right back. Jed Ryan's three pointer cut the lead to 17 with five minutes to play, but the glimmer of hope was quickly dashed when Goodrich slammed home two more to push the lead back up to 19 with 4:27 on the clock. Goodrich was the story of the game, leading the Tigers with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting. The 6'10" senior had little trouble moving around Quakers junior George Mboya, who started the game in place of the injured Jed Ryan. After realizing that one Quaker was not enough to cover Goodrich, Penn tried to double down when he got the ball in the paint, but Goodrich turned the tables by dishing off assist after assist to open Tigers perimeter shooters. Goodrich finished with six assists and just two turnovers in 38 minutes of action. "[Mboya] is undersized a little bit, so I felt like I could shoot the ball over him and he couldn't stop me," Goodrich said. Afterwards, Goodrich said he was pleased that it was finally his turn to dominate the Quakers the way they dominated him when he was a freshman and sophomore. Last night's win was Princeton's fourth consecutive victory over Penn, dating back to the playoff game between the two schools in March 1996. "It took such a long time to learn how to beat [Penn]," Goodrich said. "Now, maybe they have something to overcome." While the Tiger's offense moved fluidly, Penn had trouble finding a rhythm. After opening the game by moving the ball effectively inside to junior forward Paul Romanczuk, Princeton clamped down their defense, which leads the country in fewest points allowed per game. Forced to look for open perimeter shots, the Quakers could not find the mark, draining just 1-of-8 three pointers in the first half. "We got a lot of shots, we just didn't make them," a quiet and disappointed Jordan said afterwards. Traditionally known for working the shot clock to near nothing before shooting, Princeton rarely took all of its time, choosing instead to put in open layups which it found by the barrel. The layups in turn freed up sharpshooters Brian Earl and Gabe Lewullis, who were a combined 6-of-10 on three pointers. Penn used every second it could get on offense. With 35 seconds, on many occasions, the shot clock forced the Quakers into shots it otherwise might have passed up. Senior guard Garett Krietz, who poured in a career-high 33 points against Brown Saturday night, mustered a stunning zero points and was 0-for-6 from the floor. Langel had been the other hot hand entering the game, but even he was just 2-of-9 from the floor and finished with five points. "We didn't do a good job running our offense in the first half," Dunphy said. "We needed Garett [Krietz] to make shots from the perimeter. "They are not as fun to coach against as they are to watch." The Quakers received a boost from the return of junior forward Jed Ryan, who played with a large bandage covering the outside two fingers of his shooting hand. After looking uncomfortable in his first stint on the floor, in which he played five minutes and missed his only shot, Ryan came back in the second half with seven points and two rebounds. "He came to me and said he wanted to play," Dunphy said. "He's worked so hard to get where he is, I owed it to him." Entering the second half down 31-20, The Quakers traded baskets with Princeton for the first 10 minutes of the half. When Jordan hit his second three pointer of the half to make the score 43-33 with 12:39 to play, it looked like Penn might have another comeback left in them. The Tigers, however, would not be denied their 14th straight victory, and looked to another Goodrich hook shot and forward Gabe Lewullis' three-pointer to push the lead up to 15. The Quakers shot well in the second half, hitting 50 percent on their shots from the field and 6-of-8 from downtown. Their transition game hurt them, as Princeton scored layup after layup off of Penn turnovers. Both teams committed 12 turnovers in the game, but Princeton scored 16 points off of those turnovers while the Quakers scored just 8. "They finish very well. We didn't get back on defense after turning it over," Dunphy said. Princeton also hurt Penn from the free throw line. In the first half the Tigers did not take a single shot from the charity stripe as the referees had little use for their whistles in the unphysical game. The second half was a different story, as Princeton paraded to the line 15 times, making 12. Princeton guard Brian Earl had to sit on the bench for the final five minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul, but no other Tiger was ever in foul trouble. Without a deep bench, the Tigers could have been hurt by a physical game, but Penn was forced into too many outside shots with the shot clock running down and was unable to pick up fouls in the paint. Princeton has now equaled its best start in school history. The 1924-25 team also began 21-1. The win was also the 12th straight double digit win in the Ivy League, and its 31st straight in the month of February. Despite being nearly assured of the Ivy title, Princeton needs continued victories to maintain both their national ranking and their Rating Power Index ranking, which is more important in determining seedings for the national tournament. "Our ranking is inflated," Goodrich said. "We are not defending our ranking against ranked teams every week. We are moving up because teams ahead of us are losing to each other." Whatever Goodrich's opinion of the national ranking, last night's precision drilling of Penn proved there is no question where Princeton stands in the Ivy League.
(02/12/98 10:00am)
and Kent Malmros We here at Ivy Roundup have been smitten by the outpouring of love on Locust Walk. It seems every student group on campus is out selling balloons, candy and other trinkets of affection. Cupid's arrow has caused Roundup to fall head over heels in love as well. To show our affection, we went out and bought every flavor of condomgram we could find, all in the hopes of wooing our new true love -- the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Yes, we are tired of CBS' inability to put out. In contrast, CBC's Olympic coverage is always ready for action and goes all night long. So in our lusty state we bring you the one you love, Ivy Roundup. WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE? OF THE WEEK Shaun Gee, Dartmouth forward? we heard he can play, or was that, he gets play? · TOP RANKED PRETENDER OF THE WEEK Princeton. No shock there. But this time they really earned the title. At Friday night's game at Leede's Arena in Dartmouth, the announcer introduced Tigers coach Bill Carmody as? "Bill Guthridge"? While there are plenty of similarities between the two -- both are named Bill and both served as assistants under "legendary" (rhymes with "old and decrepit" in Pete Carril's case) coaches -- Guthridge leads the nation's top ranked team, North Carolina. Just as Princeton is no North Carolina, Carmody is no Guthridge. The most obvious way to tell? Tar Heels do not partake in constant backdoor penetration. That was the other ACC team of the 90s (see: Blue Devils, Bobby or Christian, not Bill.) · UNFOUNDED RUMOR OF THE WEEK This fine report come to us via Phil, one of Dartmouth's janitors. After Dartmouth coach Dave Faucher appeared from the locker room yelling at the handful of remaining fans who were lingering in the arena following the Little Green's loss to Penn, Phil tipped us off as to why Faucher was rambling on. "The guy's sauced all the time," Phil said. "I played some good basketball in my time, and this guy don't show me shit. He looks tired or something all the time. I've been here for a long time, and he ain't no good." Although Phil's dentures fell out, and he can't see, Roundup found that to be no reason to discount credibility, or question his basketball knowledge. The fact that Faucher apparently can't hold his liquor too well would explain his wild quotes from earlier in the year. "I can't figure out why the Penn's women's team is so bad," Faucher responded when asked about the Quakers men's team's recruiting practices. · CHEER OF THE WEEK The best cheer of the week came from the Dartmouth cheerleaders. It went something like this? "???" Apparently eaten by the extra-large sized Harvard cheerleaders, there was no sight of anyone dressed in pom-poms cheering for Dartmouth. Not that the crowd minded, they were more than content to sit on their hands as they watched Dartmouth get crushed on back-to-back nights. Roundup would like to point out that the non-existence of Dartmouth cheerleaders still gave them an attractiveness edge over their Crimson counterparts. · DIRECTIONALLY CHALLENGED OF THE WEEK Anyone searching for the Harvard-Penn basketball game Friday night simply had to go the opposite direction of every other single human being in the vicinity. Having given up on the chronic losing tradition of their hoops team, the pucks up in Boston were all headed to the hockey arena to watch the Crimson down Union 3-1. A random survey of Harvard hockey fans found that zero percent had the faintest idea where basketball would be played in the area. Typical conversations between a Masshole and Roundup staff went something like this: RU: Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to Lavietes Pavilion? Masshole #1: What's that? Do they play hockey there? RU: No, it's the Harvard basketball arena. Masshole #2: No, but the hockey arena is that way. RU: We need the basketball arena. Masshole #1: Huh??? Does that game use a puck? Do you really pay $32,000 a year to be an idiot? Hours of searching the city of Cambridge ensued, only to find that the Quakers were busy beating Harvard in the building RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the hockey rink.
(02/06/98 10:00am)
This weekend Penn looks to take care of Harvard and Dartmouth, despite Jed Ryan's being shelved for the weekend. The Penn men's basketball team continued its impersonation of a hospital ward as forward Jed Ryan broke his hand during Wednesday's practice. Just as Penn thought it would have its starting five back together for the first time in two weeks with the return of sophomore guard Matt Langel, Ryan's injury leaves the Quakers without half of its inside game for at least this weekend if not the rest of the season. What remains of the Quakers (9-9, 3-1 Ivy League) will take on Harvard (9-8, 3-3) tonight at 7 p.m. at the Ray Lavietes '36 Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass., and Dartmouth (6-12, 3-3) Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at Thompson Arena. Ryan broke his right pinky finger, just above the knuckle, after catching it on teammate George Mboya's jersey in a drill during Wednesday's practice. The "freak accident" as both Dunphy and Ryan described it, left Ryan's shooting hand in too much pain to have any chance of being able to shoot, rebound or catch a pass. Doctors told Ryan that it will take three to four weeks to heal properly. Penn's final regular season game is scheduled for less than four weeks from now, March 3, at home against Princeton. "Four weeks doesn't sound real good, but I'm hoping for a lot sooner," Ryan said. "Your hand won't let you catch something if its broken. It's killing me right now watching practice." In addition to Ryan, sophomore Frank Brown will also be in street clothes this weekend. Brown continues to suffer from knee problems which resulted from his returning to action too soon after his knee was operated on last year. After initially saying that Brown's status was week to week, Penn coach Fran Dunphy confirmed yesterday that he doesn't expect Brown to return this season. Doctors have Brown rehabbing his knee three times per week at Society Hill Physical Therapy in downtown Philadelphia. "It's very frustrating sitting out last season and then sitting out half the year this season," Brown said. "They said I needed more rehab after the surgery. That was basically it. I'm just trying to encourage my teammates. " With Ryan down, Mboya and freshman Josh Sanger will be asked to pick up the work load inside, while Lamar Plummar will continue to see significant minutes on the perimeter with Langel coming off the bench. Dunphy will also probably need to dig deeper into his bench and throw Mike Sullivan or Jeff Goldstein on the floor for more than just the final minute. No matter who is on the court, the simple fact is that Penn cannot afford to come away with anything less than 2 victories. "We lose one of these, the team is in real trouble," Ryan said. Penn's biggest opponent this weekend is itself, as both of their opponents have shown inconsistencies over the season. Harvard comes in on a three-game losing streak, including losses to Yale and Brown last weekend. The Crimson is led by junior guard Tim Hill, who leads the Ivy League with a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio. A year ago, Hill hit a 19 foot jumper as time ran out in regulation to send the game into overtime. Harvard then took command of the overtime, winning 76-67. Penn will encounter a much different situation Saturday night when they meet a Dartmouth team which has shown dramatic improvement after what coach Dave Faucher termed a disappointingly poor start. Dartmouth is riding a three game win streak, including a weekend sweep of the Bears and the Elis. They are led by sophomore Shaun Gee, who leads the league in scoring at 17.3 points-per-game, and P.J. Halas, one of two seniors on the team. Faucher still figures his team has his hands full this weekend facing Penn and Princeton on back to back nights. Needing two wins while playing with depleted ranks means Penn has its hands full as well.
(02/06/98 10:00am)
Geoff Owens was joined on the court by an entourage of doctors and computers. Sophomore Geoff Owens returned to the Penn men's basketball team practice yesterday for the first time since being diagnosed with a serious heart condition. Owens was closely supervised during the practice by a doctor from the Underwood Hospital in New Jersey, who used a tylemetry transmitter monitoring system to monitor Owens' heart rate. The system included a square plastic unit with sensors which was taped to Owens' chest. Owens' struggled to keep the unit in place during the scrimmaging sessions and had to be continually checked by his courtside entourage. The sensory unit on his chest sent signals to sensory monitoring units at either end of the court, which transmitted information on Owens' heart rhythm to a transmitter placed courtside. The transmitter processed the data through a personal computer and sent the results to a monitor which showed Owens' heart rate and the rhythm patterns of his heart beats. "Your heart makes a motion. That motion is picked up on your skin as impedance. That gives you a rhythm on the screen," Scott Matlock, a sales representative for the system's developer, said. The monitoring system is not new, and is used frequently on hospital patients and in testing labs. Owens underwent weeks of workouts within a lab setting before being cleared to practice with the rest of the Quakers. "He worked twice as hard in the lab setting as he has ever worked in the practice setting," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We are going to get all of our guys to the lab next year." All of the equipment did not seem to slow Owens on the court as he practiced at full-effort level, but his father, who was also in attendance, admitted that watching his son on the court again made him nervous. "It's exciting for him. He really enjoys basketball and it has been a really tough period for him," Pat Owens said. "I talked to him last night, and he was a little apprehensive but very excited to be back with his teammates." Owens is expected to practice again on Monday under the close watch of his doctor.
(01/22/98 10:00am)
New Penn men's soccer coach Brian "Rudy" Fuller will need to convince players quickly to join his program. The Athletic Department's announcement yesterday of Brian "Rudy" Fuller's hiring as the new men's soccer coach completes its primary role in the improvement of the men's program, but Fuller's job is just beginning. Although he was officially hired Monday, Fuller has known since last Friday that he was the committee's selection. The former Georgetown player and five-year assistant coach will begin as soon as he can finish his responsibilities at Georgetown. Search committee chairperson and Senior Associate Athletic Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said she was "very pleased with the outcome of the search." "He came very highly recommended," Femovich said. "I was struck immediately when I met Rudy by his maturity, and I think coaching philosophies showed him to be someone who was mature for his years." Neither Femovich nor Baker expressed concern over Fuller's lack of college head coaching experience or his relatively young age, 26. Advertisements for the position only required that applicants have three to five years experience as a college coach, not necessarily head coach. Applicants were generally head coaches from schools in weaker conferences and assistants coaches such as Fuller, who were serving at current national powers. Georgetown reached the final 16 at last year's NCAA tournament. "At every juncture there has to be a time for assistants to break out and become a head coach, and he kind of fits that build," Baker said. "I don't see any disadvantage with his age because even though [Penn] is a long standing program, I think [the program] needs a big time injection of a youthful coach." There is little time for Fuller to acclimate to his new environs at Penn. He will need to restart the recruiting process quickly and work to convince players who applied while George O'Neill was the coach that he can build a successful program. Femovich expects Fuller's recruiting success at Georgetown will translate well to Penn because both schools are non-scholarship, urban schools with high academic standards. Recruiting was one of the main issues during the search for a new coach. Despite bringing in a high quality freshman class two season ago, former coach O'Neill was less aggressive than women's counterpart Patrick Baker in flying in multiple prospective students from around the country. "This whole thing centers around someone's ability to recruit," Baker said. "If you don't have the horses to run the race, you are going to finish last." Robert Koonce, who oversees athletic admissions, will provide Fuller's introduction to Penn's current recruiting situation. Patrick Baker will also work with Fuller on devising a plan to attract players to a program with a long history but few recent encounters with success. While going over the current applicant pool during the interview process, Fuller was already familiar with many of the names on the list, in part due to the crossover in Penn and Georgetown's recruiting strengths, and in part due to his familiarity with the players from the Maryland area. Baker will play a key role in getting Fuller adjusted to Penn soccer, but surprisingly he was not present for either of Fuller's two interviews. "We were playing a serious game of phone tag and just never really linked up," Baker said. "I was informed of his selection as coach an hour before I met him in person at the Adidas party at the coaches convention this past Friday night in Cincinnati." Recruiting is not the only issue Baker and Fuller will collaborate on. The need to find a strong fundraiser was another area which the search committee addressed, and Fuller was well prepared to present himself as a candidate who would be a successful fundraiser. He said that he built strong relations with the alumni and helped raised donations to the Georgetown program to five times the level they had been before he arrived. The recruiting and the fundraising will hopefully serve to quickly bring the men's program up to level of the women's team, which shattered school records for league wins this season. Meanwhile, Femovich will turn her attention to filling the open position in women's volleyball. Margaret Feeney, last year's coach, resigned just before the end of the fall semester. Femovich said she hopes to wrap up that search by the end of February.
(01/21/98 10:00am)
Ending nearly two months of searching, the Athletic Department yesterday tapped Georgetown assistant coach Brian Fuller to be seventh men's soccer coach in Penn's history. "Rudy" as Fuller prefers to be called, will begin immediately but will be shuttling between his new office at Penn and his old one at Georgetown for the next two weeks in order to close out his nine-year career at Georgetown. Before becoming an assistant coach in 1993, Fuller played the previous four seasons on the Hoyas varsity team. Women's soccer coach and selection committee member Patrick Baker said last week that he expected the new coach would have held at least a head coaching job at the Division III level prior to coming to Penn. Fuller, who is 26 years old, has never held a head coaching position at the college level. To his credit, Fuller was the head coach of the Maryland Olympic Development Program for the past three years and was named a staff coach to the Region I ODP this past summer. "I felt good about the interviews and the process, and I felt good about what I presented to the committee," Fuller said. "I think over the past five years I gained a lot of insight and experience at Georgetown putting together a program that has become very successful and well known nationally." While Fuller's resume does not appear to fit with what the search committee had expressed as far as previous experience requirements, his plan for the future impressed current team members and made them excited about his hiring. "What we really like about him was his vision to make it a complete program," Brown said. "He brought in a packet of information that was really well organized. His vision was to look at more than just the soccer field. It was an outline of his coaching style and his goals for the program, and when he presented it, it surprised us and we thought it was a pretty good idea." Fuller also meets the search committee's intention to find someone capable of recruiting athletes who fit the academic requirements of the school. Fuller said Georgetown is very similar to Penn in its desire to recruit high caliber students and in its decision not to offer athletic scholarships in the soccer program. The Athletic Department would no doubt be thrilled if Fuller can bring the national success he helped build at Georgetown with him to a Penn program which suffered a disappointing 4-12-1 season. Georgetown reached the NCAA Final 16 last season. "Their success the past five years has been outstanding for any program, especially a non-scholarship program," Brown said. In order to have similar success at Penn as he did while at Georgetown, Fuller's first job will be to try and salvage this year's recruiting process, which was badly disrupted by the search for a new coach. Fuller said he was directly contacted by the Athletic Department during their search in mid-December, although he also submitted a resume and cover letter into the regular applicant pool. His first meeting with the search committee was shortly before Christmas, and he returned in early January for a final interview and a meeting with player representatives Mike O' Connor and Reggie Brown. Fuller was officially announced as the coach today after agreeing to a contract. Fuller would not disclose the length of the contract, but said that it was for more than one year and it would allow him time to build his vision for the Quakers program. He will be on campus Sunday to meet with the whole soccer team for the first time.
(01/21/98 10:00am)
Thirteen men and 12 women posted for a shot at the Mr. and Ms. Penn titles last night. Ending nearly two months of searching, the Athletic Department yesterday tapped Georgetown assistant coach Brian Fuller to be seventh men's soccer coach in Penn's history. "Rudy" as Fuller prefers to be called, will begin immediately but will be shuttling between his new office at Penn and his old one at Georgetown for the next two weeks in order to close out his nine-year career at Georgetown. Before becoming an assistant coach in 1993, Fuller played the previous four seasons on the Hoyas varsity team. Women's soccer coach and selection committee member Patrick Baker said last week that he expected the new coach would have held at least a head coaching job at the Division III level prior to coming to Penn. Fuller, who is 26 years old, has never held a head coaching position at the college level. To his credit, Fuller was the head coach of the Maryland Olympic Development Program for the past three years and was named a staff coach to the Region I ODP this past summer. "I felt good about the interviews and the process, and I felt good about what I presented to the committee," Fuller said. "I think over the past five years I gained a lot of insight and experience at Georgetown putting together a program that has become very successful and well known nationally." While Fuller's resume does not appear to fit with what the search committee had expressed as far as previous experience requirements, his plan for the future impressed current team members and made them excited about his hiring. "What we really like about him was his vision to make it a complete program," Brown said. "He brought in a packet of information that was really well organized. His vision was to look at more than just the soccer field. It was an outline of his coaching style and his goals for the program, and when he presented it, it surprised us and we thought it was a pretty good idea." Fuller also meets the search committee's intention to find someone capable of recruiting athletes who fit the academic requirements of the school. Fuller said Georgetown is very similar to Penn in its desire to recruit high caliber students and in its decision not to offer athletic scholarships in the soccer program. The Athletic Department would no doubt be thrilled if Fuller can bring the national success he helped build at Georgetown with him to a Penn program which suffered a disappointing 4-12-1 season. Georgetown reached the NCAA Final 16 last season. "Their success the past five years has been outstanding for any program, especially a non-scholarship program," Brown said. In order to have similar success at Penn as he did while at Georgetown, Fuller's first job will be to try and salvage this year's recruiting process, which was badly disrupted by the search for a new coach. Fuller said he was directly contacted by the Athletic Department during their search in mid-December, although he also submitted a resume and cover letter into the regular applicant pool. His first meeting with the search committee was shortly before Christmas, and he returned in early January for a final interview and a meeting with player representatives Mike O' Connor and Reggie Brown. Fuller was officially announced as the coach today after agreeing to a contract. Fuller would not disclose the length of the contract, but said that it was for more than one year and it would allow him time to build his vision for the Quakers program. He will be on campus Sunday to meet with the whole soccer team for the first time.
(01/20/98 10:00am)
Drexel men's basketball forward Joe Linderman hopes to dominate scoring and bragging rights at the Palestra. Tonight's battle for 33rd Street supremacy between Drexel and Penn shouldn't be considered a city block fight, rather it should be termed a fight on the blocks. The small, blue rectangle at the side of the key will be a prized possession for whichever team, and player, can claim dominance over it. Although both teams have reliable outside shooters, neither team will be able to free up those players unless their inside game draws in the defense. If Dragons forward/center Joe Linderman controls the blocks against the Quakers in the same fashion he has in his team's first 14 games this season, it will be a happy walk home for Drexel students. Linderman, a 6'9" sophomore, is Drexel's leading scorer with 17.4 points per game and its leading rebounder at 7.9 per contest. His skill and production is unquestioned, but for a young Drexel team struggling through its conference schedule, his coach needs him to contribute more than just points. "He puts numbers up, he's our go-to guy inside, but right now what we're really searching for on our basketball team is leadership," Drexel coach Bill Herrion said. "We have nobody stepping up as a leader, and a lot of times your leaders are most of the time your best players." Penn coach Fran Dunphy left Herrion to be the one challenging Linderman to step up his leadership. Dunphy commented that he was impressed with Linderman's poise and thought he played with the confidence of a senior. While the sophomore has time to become a leader, he doesn't have time to take a break from being the team's main focus on offense. Without his ability to collapse opposing defenses inward, outside threat Mike DeRocckis would not have nearly as many open shots. "If I didn't have him, we might be 0-14," Herrion said. "He's only a sophomore, but I think he's obviously proven he's a pretty good basketball player. His strength is a back to the basket, finishing scorer inside. I think that's what a lot of the programs at our level don't have -- that legitimate inside guy. That's what he brings to the table." What Linderman brought to the table at Boston University Sunday night was a variety of post up moves which he used to carve up the Terriers defense. Drexel led 35-31 at the half after getting 19 from Linderman, before falling 69-62. Linderman finished with 27 points on 12-for-19 shooting in 34 minutes. Responding to the challenge of facing Linderman will not be easy for Quakers forward Paul Romanczuk, but the 6'7" junior hopes to keep Linderman away from his home on the blocks as much as he can. Romanczuk will also enter the game coming off a fantastic performance of his own. He scored a career high 25 Saturday against Bucknell. "What we have to do is deny him the ball every now and then, and maybe show some double team," Romanczuk said. "He'll get his points, we just have to contain him." Part of the Quakers plan will be to move Linderman away from the basket and push him outside -- both on offense and defense. "We need to try to get him off the block, but a lot of teams try to do that," Dunphy said. "He's got a myriad of low post moves, so you can't focus on one thing. He's starting to get such a tremendous repertoire of moves down there that he is difficult to defend." Moving him away from the basket while he has the ball will not only keep him from making easy layups, it will also allow Penn to extend its defense to cover Drexel's three point perimeter game, which has been making 33.8 percent of its shots. On defense, the Quakers hope Linderman might lose his place on the court when he wanders outside of the paint. "I don't think he is as comfortable away from the basket," Romanczuk said. "We'll see what he can do out there defending us." If it's up to Drexel, no one in the Palestra tonight will ever know if Linderman can play from the perimeter because they will be too busy watching him score from inside. "Our game plan on the offensive side of the floor is to pound it inside," Herrion said. While the students at the game are hoping for bragging rights over West Philadelphia, Linderman and his teammates will be satisfied if they can claim domination over a square foot of real estate on the Palestra.
