The Harvard Crimson reports on Havard’s acceptance of its secondary recruiting violation. It includes some statements from Harvard coach Tommy Amaker:
“These events occurred three years ago, and I’m pleased to bring this two-year review to a conclusion,” Amaker wrote in a statement to The Crimson. “This extensive and comprehensive inquiry yielded one minor and unintentional secondary. We’re excited about the future, growth and development of our basketball program at this tremendous institution.”
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A story in the Troy Record of Troy NY warns parents about chasing slim hopes of sports dreams when focusing on schools that give your children the best chances to succeed might be a better choice. The article uses Yale’s Alex Zampier as an example:
… Do not get hung up on the dollar amount offered in scholarships. Which school will give your child the best chance to succeed after graduation?
Consider the case of Columbia High School graduate Alex Zampier, who turned down an athletic scholarship from Siena College to pay-to-play for the men’s basketball team at Yale University. According to a report in Business Week magazine, the average median salary for a Yale graduate is $126,000, one of the highest in the nation.
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Cornell’s Ryan Wittman did not play yesterday in the Celtics game against OKC but might get a chance when Boston faces Philadelphia tonight at 5. PressConnects reports:
Ryan Wittman will have to wait at least another day to make his NBA Summer League debut for the Boston Celtics.
Wittman, a recent Cornell University grad, did not play in Monday’s AirTran Always Pro Summer League game. Boston blew a 15-point halftime lead in an 87-82 loss to Oklahoma City.
He may not have to wait long, however, to see his first action.
Boston plays Philadelphia at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The Celtics also have games scheduled this week Wednesday against Charlotte, Thursday versus Indiana and Friday with New Jersey.
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The Cornell Daily Sun reports on Louis Dale’s signing with a German team and Ryan Wittman’s Celtics debut.
All-IvyYale grad Alex Zampier took part in a tryout session last Saturday in Brooklyn NY for a cadre of foreign coaches, some in attendance and others who observed online. From Slam Online:
… You have a guy who could probably be earning big bucks in a different fashion rather than trying out for an overseas contract.
“I’m just here trying to get seen, just like everybody else,” says the 6-3 sharp-shooting guard Alex Zampier, who just graduated from Yale this spring after majoring in sociology and economics. “I went to a smaller school and I’m just trying to get as big an opportunity as I can to get my name out there and have somebody see me play. I just want to get a good contract, just like everybody else.”
Princeton rising sophomore Gus Gabel has apparently left the team. His facebook profile, for those who can view it, lists him as ” Arizona State University ‘14,” implying he might be transferring there.
I’m having trouble confirming this at an official site NBADL site, but Yale’sAlex Zampierapparently took part in NBA Development League try-outs last week. The site www.i95ballerz.com listed him among the standouts, saying “he can flat shoot the lights out”.
According to sources, former Pennsylvania and Brown head coach Glen Miller has emerged as a leading candidate for the director of operations, a job now referred to as the “director of basketball administration,” by Calhoun. Miller, who played for Calhoun at Northeastern, was an assistant coach at UConn under Calhoun from 1986-1993.
The Columbia Spectator previews this weekend’s matchups with Brown and Yale.
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The Columbia Spectator profiles Yale’s Alex Zampier. Zampier leads the league in scoring and has twice been named player of the week.
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The Cornell Daily Sun previews this weekend’s matchups with Brown and Yale.
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The Ithaca Journal previews Cornell’s Friday game against Yale, and notes that Yale’s coach Jones doesn’t plan on chasing Cornell’s shooters, as other teams have done, leaving Foote to wreak havoc inside. Yale has two 6′10″ men who might “lay on (Foote) pretty hard,” says Cornell coach Donahue.
Say this for Yale: a James Jones-coached team won’t allow itself to be physically manhandled like Harvard was Saturday night. The Bulldogs will push back, and they have the big-bodied personnel to do so.
Still, provided Cornell doesn’t let its new top-25 ranking negatively affect its play, it’s difficult to see Yale pulling off an upset in Ithaca. If Cornell continues to defend like it has in recent weeks, the Bulldogs will be unable to keep pace.
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The Columbia Spectator asks what it would take for other Ivies to root for Cornell.
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The Daily Princetonian previews Princeton’s Friday game against Harvard.
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The Harvard Crimson reviews the conference games so far, delcaring Cornell as the league’s Qdoba, Harvard and Princeton as the Chiplote’s, Brown, Columbia, and Yale as the Felipe’s, and Dartmouth and Penn as the 7-Eleven’s. They also provide some weekend picks.
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The Yale Daily News previews Yale’s weekend games @ Cornell and Columbia.
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The Daily Pennsylvanian previews this weekends Penn@ Dartmouth game. They notethe extensive similarities between the two teams:
The Big Green (4-14, 0-4 Ivy) have not won consecutive games this season either, and the similarities between Penn and Dartmouth don’t end there.
Both lost their head coaches midway through the season — Dartmouth’s Terry Dunn stepped down in early January — and are without last year’s leading scorers.
While forward Tyler Bernardini red-shirted this season due to injury, the Big Green lost forward Alex Barnett and his 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game to graduation.
And not unlike the injury depleted Quakers’ bench, the Big Green played with just nine available bodies against Columbia last week
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Four Ivy League athletes (Brown’s Matt Mullery, Columbia’s Patrick Foley, and Cornell’s Geoff Reeves and Chris Wroblewski) were named to ESPN the Magazine’s Academic All-District Team. Read the releases at Brownbears.com, GoColumbiaLions.com, and CornellBigRed.com.
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The Bleacher Report mentions Cornell among this weekend’s previews:
Cornell has two more home games against two of the worst Ivy League teams, Yale and Brown. Should the Big Red win (as they should convincingly), Steve Donahue’s team would move to 20-3 and 6-0 in the Ivy League. Cornell has moved up to 37th in Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency rankings. The Big Red’s recent improvement on the defensive end of the floor has spurred their jump from the mid 70s to the 30s.
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ESPN’s Jay Bilas thinks Cornell could pull a George Mason (i.e., make it to the final four):
The Big Red have experience, really good guards in Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman, and a very good big man in Jeff Foote. People forget this, but the reason that George Mason reached the Final Four is because it could guard and score in the post with wide-body Jai Lewis and lefty Will Thomas. Most mid-majors get hurt because they are unable to guard in the post. Cornell can do that.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Ivy League ruled in Penn’sfavor yesterday after reviewing the controversial ending of Penn @ Brown.
“The final determination of the outcome of the game rests with the game officials and their approval of the final score,” the league office said in a statement. Without a monitor to check a replay, “it is the direct knowledge and judgment of the officials that prevails.”
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Syracuse student paper The Daily Orange profiles Columbia’s Noruwa Agho.
The 6-foot-3 sophomore shooting guard does not play in one of Division I’s powerhouse conferences, but his name sits among the likes of Maurice Acker, Austin Freeman and Tim Abromaitis when it comes to 3-point percentage.
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The Albany Times Union congratulates Yale’s Alex Zampier, an Albany NY native, for an upcoming milestone:
Zampier one away
Yalesenior Alex Zampier of East Greenwich (Columbia) has 10 games remaining in the regular season and needs just one steal to become the all-time leader in that department for the men’s basketball team.
Zampier picked up four steals last weekend as the Bulldogs beat Penn but lost to Princeton. He has 49 steals this season and 157 for his career to share top honors with Daniel Okonkwo (1997). Zampier needs just six more steals to break Okonkwo’s one-season mark of 54.
Zampier, the team captain, leads Yale in scoring (17.8).
The TigerBlog doesn’t think the Ivy League needs a postseason tournament.
How many great games has Princeton played on Ivy League weekends that have shaped races? How many years did Princeton play with one eye on the Penn score from a different site, or vice versa?
The great drama of the regular season would be lost completely if there was an Ivy League tournament. And for what? To get one game on ESPN?
… Cornell will graduate the class that put it on the map after this season, and though much talent remains, more than half the league is loading up to seize the first opportunity in three years.
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The New York Post mentions Cornell’s Steve Donahue among those who should be considered as a replacement coach for the struggling St. John’s team:
Whatever you may feel about the Ivy League, it’s impossible to see what Steve Donahue has done at Cornell and not understand that someone is going to soon give him the chance to see if that transfers to a power conference
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The WVBR Sports Blog reminds Cornellians that although hockey and basketball get the most attention, lacrosse and wrestling are ranked too.
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Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News wonders which teams (including Princeton) will remain unbeaten in league play and whether Cornell could be a Sweet 16 team.
1. Of all the D-I teams still undefeated in league play, which ones do you think will end that way?
DeCourcy: It’s not surprising to discover there were only nine teams unbeaten against conference opponents heading into Wednesday night. I’m not sure Princeton should get a ton of credit for that, at least not yet — the Tigers have only played two Ivy League games.
2. Could Cornell be a Sweet 16 team?
DeCourcy: The Big Red are built for success against big-time teams. They’ve got size, an excellent point guard in Louis Dale and an elite shooter in Ryan Wittman.
A lot of this is going to depend on how the Big Red are seeded and in whose bracket they are placed. There are many instances of extraordinary mid-major teams playing just well enough to be buried in 8/9 games — such as Murray State at 29-3 in 1998, or Western Kentucky at 28-3 in 2002. It’s better to be slapped in the face with a 12 seed than to be “respected” like the Racers and Hilltoppers were.
SI’s Seth Davis thinks he should have picked Harvard’s Jeremy Lin over Cornell’s Ryan Wittman as a big time player in a non-BCS school:
I like your list of big time players outside of the big BCS schools, but what about Jeremy Lin of Harvard? Isn’t there NBA talk surrounding this player?
– David White, Ottawa, Canada
.. The more glaring oversight probably was Lin. I have to admit, when I was doping out the Harvard-Cornell game for my Pickoff column last Friday (naturally I picked the game correctly), I was looking at the respective numbers for Lin and Wittman and realized I should have had Lin ahead of Wittman. Not only is Lin ranked in the top three in the Ivy League in points (17.1), assists (4.8) and steals (2.94), he is also ranked fourth in blocks (1.31).
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The Daily Pennsylvanian profiles Penn senior Drew Godwin, who made the move from junior varsity to varsity this season.
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The Daily Pennsylvanian discussesPenn coach Jerome Allen’s pending commencement. Allen never graduated from Penn and plans to do so this year.
Yale’s Alex Zampier receives his second Ivy League Player of the Week honor:
After falling to Brown last Friday, Yale desperately needed a win, and senior guard Alex Zampier (East Greenbush, N.Y.) played a big role in helping to deliver it. He scored a game-high 22 points as the Bulldogs knocked off Brown 71-63 to even their Ivy record at 1-1. Nine of Zampier’s points came in the final 10 minutes of the game as Yale held off a Brown comeback. He was 7-of-15 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. In addition, he had three assists and four steals in 32 minutes. Zampier currently leads the Ivies in scoring at 18.6 points per game.
Harvard’sKyle Casey picks up his second Rookie of the Week honor:
Harvard freshman forward Kyle Casey (Medway, Mass.) turned in a clutch performance in the Crimson’s tough road win at Dartmouth with 19 points and 10 rebounds to log Harvard’s first double-double of the season. Casey currently leads all Ivy freshman in scoring with an average of 9.7 points per game.
The Honor Roll consists of Brown’s Garrett Leffelman, Columbia’s Niko Scott, Cornell’s Louis Dale, Dartmouth’s Robby Pride, Harvard’s Jeremy Lin, Penn’s Zack Rosen, Princeton’s Douglas Davis, and Yale’s Greg Magnano.
Freshman C.J. McCollum scored a season-high 31 points, including seven 3-pointers, to lead Lehigh to a 75-69 win over Yale on Tuesday night.
Lehigh led by as many as eight points in the first half before trailing 33-32 at halftime.
The score was tied four times in the second half, the last at 45 with 13:16 left. Over the next 2:40, the Mountain Hawks used an 11-1 run, capped by a McCollum 3-pointer, to lead 56-46.
Yale never got closer than six points the rest of the game.
Michael Sands had 17 points and Greg Mangano added 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulldogs, who outrebounded Lehigh 47-35.
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Yale’s Alex Zampier did not play the Lehigh game. He sprained his ankle on Monday.
The Morning Call, an Allentown Lehigh Valley paper, posted a review focusing on the performance of C. J. McCollum, the Lehigh freshman that scored 31 points in the game, including scoring all 13 points in a 13-4 run that allowed Lehigh to pull away when the game was seperated by only 2 points.
Back after a six-week absence, the University at Albany men’s basketball team was hard to recognize in its return to SEFCU Arena on Sunday afternoon.
There were the Great Danes, known mainly as a halfcourt team, using a running, pressing style to harass Yale.
There were the Great Danes, not usually a dynamic offensive team, setting a season high for points in an 89-68 domination of the Bulldogs before 2,931 fans.
“It’s not a 10-minute basketball game,” said Yale coach James Jones, a UAlbany graduate. “We played for about 10 minutes.”
Jones said UAlbany’s decision to go the press after falling behind turned the tide of the game.
“When you’re down by 10 points and you’ve been on the road for eight games and you’ve lost four in a row, you’ve got to try something,” Jones said. “They tried it, and it was successful for them.”
Note: the game was a homecoming game for Yale’s top scorer Alex Zampier, who played in the same gym during his high school days. Before the game, the Times Union reported:
Zampier, Yale’s top scorer, is making his first trip to SEFCU Arena since his Columbia High School career ended there four years ago with a loss to CBA in the Section II Class AA quarterfinals.
Zampier, the second-leading scorer in Columbia history, could have called SEFCU Arena his home. He was recruited by both the Great Danes and Siena.
“I didn’t really consider Siena or UAlbany,” Zampier said. “Nothing against their programs. I kind of wanted to get out of the area.”
Zampier will be supported today by about 50 to 100 fans, according to his father, including some fourth- through eighth-grade players from the East Greenbush Basketball Association program that Zampier once participated in.
Zampier, who has a 3.1 grade-point average, is on course to graduate from Yale as a double major in sociology and economics. That Ivy League degree won’t be put to use immediately, however, since he plans to continue playing somewhere.
“Where that will be, I don’t know,” he said. “I just want to get a good deal somewhere and play until my body gives out.”
Read the entire Zampier article, “Yale’s Zampier returns home,” here.
As the University at Albany team met at midcourt following Sunday’s game, sophomore guard Billy Allen was mobbed by his teammates and for good reason.
Allen scored a career-high 21 points, shot 8-for-9 from the field and gave the Great Danes a huge spark in the first half as they dumped Yale 89-68 in a non-conference game at SEFCU Arena.
The 12 3-pointers hit by UAlbany were the most for the program since the 2006-07 season and the 89 points were the most the Great Danes (5-10) have scored this season.
Check team sites on game day to find
previews and game notes containing links to listening or viewing options. (Always check channelsurfing.net at game time to see if free streaming video is available.)
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Intro by Bill Bradley.