Ivy League Basketball News

Written by admin

August 20th, 2010 at 8:41 pm

Posted in Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale

Tagged with Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale

Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman on Jerome Allen; Bleacher Report on Columbia; Dartmouth introduces coaching staff

Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports has a blog post about Jerome Allen’s goal of reviving Penn’s basketball program. Excerpt:

Allen believes the Quakers can regain their spot atop the Ivy. Back when Allen was in uniform, Penn won three consecutive league titles and went a perfect 14-0 in conference play each of the three years.

“We try to use history to get guys to believe, but kids these days don’t remember what happened five years ago,” Allen said. “What people don’t know is that Penn is No. 10 in all-time wins in NCAA history – ahead of Indiana, Arizona and Louisville.

“Kids would think you were lying if you told them that,” Allen said.

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Sam Blum of the Bleacher Report previews NYC-area teams, including Columbia:

Columbia will enter this season looking at a whole different team. There will be no more Coach Joe Jones. After Jones left to join Ivy coaching counterpart, Steve Donahue at Boston College, Kyle Smith left St. Mary’s to come east for a job at Columbia.

As long as Columbia can stay defensive minded, Smith will have no trouble picking up where Jones left off, and he might get some wins in the process. They will return junior star Noruwa Agho, who might find himself the best player in the league now that Jeremy Lin has left Harvard and Ryan Wittman has departed from Cornell.

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Last week, Dartmouth coach Paul Cormier formally announced his coaching staff for 2010-11. Dartmouth Athletics reports,

Dartmouth men’s basketball head coach Paul Cormier today announced the hiring of his initial staff in his return to the Big Green for the 2010-11 season. Former UConn standout Ricky Moore, Joe Gallo, and Patrick Beilein have been brought on as assistant coaches, while Jordan Watson has been named the director of basketball operations.

“The first step of rebuilding our basketball program is in place with the hiring of these four tremendously talented and energetic coaches,” Coach Cormier stated. “I am confident that this staff will be terrific in player development and recruiting. And by putting together a couple of solid recruiting classes, our goal of winning an Ivy Championship will be within our grasp.”

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Written by admin

August 19th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Posted in Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn

Tagged with Columbia, Dartmouth, jerome allen, Penn

Rush The Court presents Ivy predictions

Rush The Court reviews the Ivy League’s summer — including coaching changes, Lin’s pro signing, and Harvard’s recruiting violation — and presents its predicted ivy standings for next year, which are as follows:

Harvard (12-2): Yes, they lose Jeremy Lin, but they return three ultra-talented sophomores, including Freshman of the Year Kyle Casey. The 6’7 forward began last season as the 6th man but started the last ten games, averaging ten points and five rebounds per game. They also boast a sophomore backcourt that we see as a potential top-10 duo in the country in Brandyn Curry and Christian Webster. The latter scored 24 points in only 28 minutes in Harvard’s postseason loss to Appalachian St. Sprinkle in another prized recruiting class that includes a few players in the top 150 and you have all the ingredients for an Ivy Championship.
Princeton (11-3): They were six points away from hoisting the conference championship trophy last season, as two heartbreaking three-point losses to eventual champion Cornell did them in. Most publications project the Tigers as 2010-11 champs, as this is another team that returns a talented trio in top scorer Doug Davis, leading rebounder Dan Mavraides and late-blooming freshman Ian Hummer. We see a nip and tuck race with the depth of the Crimson being the deciding factor.
Penn (10-4): Don’t be surprised if Penn projects itself into the Ivy race this season. And if they do, it will be most assuredly on the back of last year’s RTC Ivy POY Zack Rosen. The 6’1 junior was at or near the top in five key stats, including leading the league in scoring. If he continues to mature as a player, he very well could receive a lot of national recognition, a la Jeremy Lin and Ryan Wittman last season. Now, if only the rest of the roster can remain healthy — a difficult task the past two years — the Quakers can take aim at what they consider their rightful place at the top of the league.
Cornell (9-5): How the mighty have fallen; Is the reign of the Big Red over? Maybe not, despite huge losses via graduation. They return four players who saw considerable action during last year’s championship run (Chris Wroblewski, Errick Peck, Adam Wire, and Mark Coury), and thus have enjoyed and expect success. While this year’s freshman class was recruited by Steve Donahue, who is no longer with the program, they come with promising credentials. Should our projections hold true, the future in Ithaca should be bright. Remember, it was new leader Bill Courtney who recruited most of the George Mason NCAA Final Four team in 2006.
Brown (5-9): The bad news: the graduation of All-Ivy Matt Mullery, who led the Bears last season in several offensive stats. The good news: the next six scorers all return, led by Peter Sullivan and All-Ivy freshman Tucker Halperin. Brown could improve by leaps and bounds; They went 4-4 over their final eight league games, which included an almost unheard of weekend road sweep of Penn and Princeton. We would not be surprised to see the Bears make a run.
Columbia (4-10): One would have to consider the now-concluded Joe Jones era a disappointment. At times showing promise during his seven-year tenure (one top four finish), the bottom line is that the Lions were 20 games below .500 in Ivy play during that period. Enter Kyle Smith, the former associate head coach at St. Mary’s of California. He was responsible for running the offense and coordinating all recruiting activities. And lest you forget, St. Mary’s reached the Sweet 16 in last year’s tournament. Admittedly, it is not easy to build a program and win at Columbia — one has to go back to the Jim Macmillan/Heyward Dotson days. Maybe Smith, a master recruiter, is exactly what the Lions need.
Yale (3-11): There is still one Jones left in the Ivy League: James at Yale. And to offset the loss of All-Ivy swingman Alex Zampier, Jones brought in a national recruiting class, with players from California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and New York, all of whom were 1000-point scorers in their high school careers. Additionally, the Elis return six players who averaged more than ten minutes of playing time per game, led by second-leading scorer Michael Sands. If the class of 2014 can contribute immediately, Yale could be one of the deepest teams in the league.
Dartmouth (2-12): Hope in Hanover? Paul Cormier, who returns for his second tour of duty at Dartmouth, must think there’s some. The basis for such optimism lies in the fact that the Big Green, who amazingly had no player average in double figures last year, returns five of their top six scorers and eight players who averaged double figures in minutes played. This group is led by 6’1 Ronnie Dixon, the best shooter on the team. If the rest of the returnees can show some improvement, perhaps Cormier can lead his team out of the cellar.

Written by admin

August 9th, 2010 at 10:38 am

Posted in Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale

Tagged with Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale

Dartmouth releases 2010-11 basketball schedule

Dartmouth recently released its 2010-11 schedule:

Date	Opponent	Location	Time (EST)
Sat, Nov 13	Providence College	at Providence, R.I.	7:00pm

Tue, Nov 16	UNH	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Fri, Nov 19	Hartford	at Hartford, Conn.	7:00pm

Sun, Nov 21	Loyola College	at Baltimore, Md.	12:00 p.m.

Tue, Nov 23	QUINNIPIAC	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Sat, Nov 27	COLGATE	Hanover, N.H.	4:00pm

Wed, Dec 01	Vermont	at Burlington, Vt.	7:00pm

Sat, Dec 11	ARMY	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Tue, Dec 14	Saint Francis College	at Brooklyn Heights, N.Y.	7:00pm

Sun, Dec 19	Iowa State	at Ames, Iowa	tba

Tue, Dec 21	Drake University	at Des Moines, Iowa	7:05pm

Thu, Dec 30	Bucknell	at Lewisburg, Pa.	7:00pm

Mon, Jan 03	Army	at West Point, N.Y.	7:00pm

Sat, Jan 08	HARVARD *	Hanover, N.H.	4:00pm

Mon, Jan 17	Colgate	at Hamilton, N.Y.	4:00pm

Sat, Jan 22	Harvard *	at Cambridge, Mass.	2:00 p.m.

Fri, Jan 28	CORNELL *	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Sat, Jan 29	COLUMBIA *	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Fri, Feb 04	Penn *	at Philadelphia, Pa.	tba

Sat, Feb 05	Princeton *	at Princeton, N.J.	tba

Fri, Feb 11	BROWN *	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Sat, Feb 12	YALE *	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Fri, Feb 18	Columbia *	at New York, N.Y.	tba

Sat, Feb 19	Cornell *	at Ithaca, N.Y.	7:00pm

Fri, Feb 25	Yale *	at New Haven, Conn.	7:00pm

Sat, Feb 26	Brown *	at Providence, R.I.	tba

Fri, Mar 04	PRINCETON *	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Sat, Mar 05	PENN *	Hanover, N.H.	7:00pm

Written by admin

August 9th, 2010 at 8:00 am

Posted in Dartmouth

Tagged with Dartmouth

Rex Walters following Jeremy Lin story; new Dartmouth Asst. Coach Ricky Moore

San Francisco coach Rex Walters, a former NBA player who is half-Asian, has been keeping an eye on Jeremy Lin. From ESPN’s College Basketball Nation blog:

Walters, who starred at Kansas and played seven seasons in the NBA, as much as anyone else appreciates how Lin can be an inspirational figure for Asian-American players.

“I don’t look Japanese,” Walters said, referring to his mother’s heritage. “When they see him, it’s an Asian-American.

“It’s great for Asian-Americans. And he’s not 7-foot-4. It’s great to see that they can make it.”

Walters does his part to inspire as well. In the spare time he has away from rebuilding a Dons program that captured national championships in the 1950s, he also coaches his son and the rest of the fifth grade boys who play for the SF Flying Eagles — an Asian league team.

Walters grew up in San Jose playing for Asian league teams himself and looks forward to following Lin’s stereotype-shattering career.

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Eight Ivy League men’s basketball players were named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Honors Court, which recognizes student-athletes who excelled in academics during the 2009-10 season. From IvyLeagueSports.com:

Brown led all NCAA Division I teams with six honorees — graduated seniors Steve Gruber and Matt Mullery and rising seniors Garrett Leffelman, Peter Sullivan, Chris Taylor and Adrian Williams — and Harvard boasted graduated seniors Pat Magnarelli and Doug Miller to the list.

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TheDay.com, Journal Enquirer, and Middletown Press profile new Dartmouth assistant coach, former UConn star Ricky Moore. From The Day:

“I’m thrilled to have a chance to start at an Ivy League school,” Moore said. “Rumor has it was over 25 guys interviewing for the job. It’s a blessing (Cormier) gave me the chance. He’s the first person to take a chance on me. I’ve been sending resumes out for the last three years.”

Calhoun contacted Cormier on Moore’s behalf about the Dartmouth opening. Already deep into the interviewing process, Cormier offered the job to someone else but the candidate turned it down.

“I told him I’d love to have the job,” Moore said. “I kept calling him and harassing him. He told me that he wanted to meet face to face.”

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TheDartmouth.com profiles new Dartmouth Athletic Director Harry Sheehy, who has been the AD at Williams College for 10 years. Sheehy was also a basketball coach at Williams, where he maintained a .757 winning percentage.

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Written by admin

August 6th, 2010 at 7:08 am

Posted in Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard

Tagged with Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, jeremy lin, ricky moore

Odds & ends — Friday June 11, 2010

DraftXPress reviews this year’s point-guard crop and mentions Harvard’s Jeremy Lin in passing:

Andy Rautins’ unguarded catch and shoot PPP of 1.426 is very solid, with Cal’s Patrick Christopher finishing in second at 1.391 PPP, but Rautins is the second most turnover prone player behind Jeremy Lin despite playing a role that consisted almost entirely of deep jumpers.

Lin is also listed as an honorable mention on Hoopsworld.com’s list of 2010 NBA draft’s top shooting guards.

Speaking of honorable mentions, last week ESPN.com listed Penn’s and Harvard’s incoming recruiting classes as honorable mentions among non-BCS schools with talented prospects.

Incoming Ivy League players Laurent Rivard (Harvard-bound) and Manny Sahota (Cornell) willl be participating in Canada’s high-school all-star game on Monday.

Way back on May 28, ESPN.com’s recruiting blog commented on Dartmouth’s incoming 7-man class (subscription required):

It was just one month ago Paul Cormier was named the head coach at Dartmouth University, his second stint leading the Ivy League program. Since it was already April at the time of his arrival, the common perception around the league was that it would be too late for Cormier to add any players to his incoming freshman class due to the Ivy League admission standards and timelines.That perception was proven wrong this week when Cormier announced the seven members of Dartmouth’s 2010 recruiting class.

The vast majority of these players had to have their applications to the university submitted prior to Cormier’s arrival, which essentially means they were recruited by former head coach Terry Dunn or interim head coach Mark Graupe. Regardless, you have to credit Cormier for working quickly to keep the recruiting class intact, while adding a few extra pieces.

It is also important to point out that Cormier plans on having an open competition between the incoming freshmen and the 11 returning players, which is probably the best strategy for a coach that is taking over a team that was 1-13 in Ivy League last year.

Written by admin

June 11th, 2010 at 9:35 pm

Posted in Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn

Tagged with Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, jeremy lin, Penn

News Update – Tuesday June 8, 2010

The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Buzz Blog — Fitzpatrick to Bucknell

According to a tweet from his high school, rising sophomore Brian Fitzpatrick is leaving Penn to attend and play for Bucknell.

Fitzpatrick got into 17 games this season, averaging 9.2 minutes per game (that he played in. Over the 28 game season he actually got in just 5.6 mpg) and was 16-for-39 shooting on the year, averaging 2.4 ppg.

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Dartmouth Now — Pride Does Double Duty

Every spring for the past three years, Robby Pride ’10 has traded his Dartmouth basketball uniform for a Big Green lacrosse jersey, making the transition from playing guard to short-stick midfield, one of the most demanding positions on the field. In a time when two-sport collegiate athletes are a rarity, the Denver native was the country’s lone Division I athlete to play both lacrosse and basketball this year.

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The Daily News Record: Brady Aide leaving JMU (subscription required)

After a year at James Madison University, assistant basketball coach Carlin Hartman is leaving Matt Brady’s staff to become an associate head coach at Columbia University. Hartman declined to comment because the hiring has not been officially announced by Columbia, but Brady confirmed the move Wednesday. “He was recruited, for lack of a better word, to become associate head coach at Columbia University,” Brady said.

(Click here to see Carlin Hartman’s bio at jmusports.com).

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GoCrimson.com — Eleven award winners honored at Senior Letterwinners’ Dinner

The John P. Fadden Award, presented to a senior athlete who has overcome physical adversity to make a contribution to his or her team, went to Pat Magnarelli of the men’s basketball team. Magnarelli missed his entire junior year, but came back to shoot 60 percent from the floor as a senior and help the Crimson to a program-record 21 wins.

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Written by admin

June 8th, 2010 at 9:25 pm

Posted in Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn

Tagged with brian fitzpatrick, colin hartman, Columbia, Dartmouth, pat magnarelli, Penn, robby pride

News Update — Saturday May 1, 2010

New Haven Register — Solomon: Ivy should make postseason a tradition

The fall of the Penn basketball team may actually be an even bigger development to raise the argument for a postseason tournament in basketball. It’s been said many times and ways that Penn and Princeton have refused to concede even a hairbreadth of their regular-season monopoly.

But now that Penn has fallen off the face of the earth and Princeton hasn’t won the league title in seven years, it’s time for the league to come out in the sunshine and give its true student-athletes a positive postseason event.

Yale athletic director Tom Beckett, a proponent of postseason Ivy League tournaments, conceded that the motivation behind the lacrosse tournament differs from that in basketball.

But he added, “The Ivy League lacrosse tournament will certainly stimulate conversation about possible postseason tournaments in other sports, especially with a title sponsor and a national television opportunity. It can’t help but stimulate that conversation.”

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Daily Pennsylvanian’s Buzz blog — Panzer not coming to Penn

We’ve got a multitude of reports coming out right now that Penn basketball prospect Kevin Panzer will not be heading to Penn this fall. Instead, an NBC affiliate out of Northern Nevada has confirmed that Panzer will sign to the University of Nevada (the Wolf Pack) very soon. The report has since been picked up by KOLO-TV, out of Reno.

A classmate of recruit Casey James, who is expected to come to Penn, Panzer initially announced his verbal recruitment to Penn in August. But after the Quakers, under coach Glen Miller, had already lost four straight games, Panzer decommitted.

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4/29 Harvard Crimson — A Thank You from Coach Amaker

It was an unprecedented and record-breaking year for our basketball program, due to the hard work of our players, but also due to the incredible atmosphere and energy that you created in Lavietes Pavilion. We had sellouts! We had White Outs and Black Outs! It was a very special thing to see, and we are truly grateful. I hope you had as much fun as we did.

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4/30 Jeff Goodman, Fox Sports — Grading the coaching changes

CORNELL

The Old: Steve Donahue

The New: Bill Courtney

Courtney was key in putting together the team at George Mason that went to the Final Four, but he’s bounced around since leaving the Patriots’ program. He was at Providence for a year, VCU for a couple months and most recently, Virginia Tech for the past year. Plus, it’s going to be awfully difficult to have to follow in Donahue’s footsteps after what the Big Red have done the last three years.

Grade: C

DARTMOUTH

The Old: Terry Dunn

The New: Paul Cormier

Cormier, 58, returns to the place where he was the head coach from 1984-1991 and had two of the three most successful seasons in the program’s history. Cormier has been in the NBA for the past dozen years but will get another shot to bring the program back to respectability.

Grade: B

PENN

The Old: Glen Miller

The New: Jerome Allen

Allen got the gig after spending months as an assistant coach but did so due to the support of those close to the program since he was a star guard with the Quakers in the mid-1990s. Allen made a solid move with the addition of Penn alum Dan Leibovitz, who left his head spot at Hartford.

Grade: C+

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News Update — Tuesday April 27, 2010

Columbia Spectator — Cornell, Dartmouth fill head coaching vacancies

Cornell head coach Bill Courtney has reported hired two new assistants: Marlon Sears, a former Columbia assistant, and Jay Larranaga, son of George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga and former head coach of the Irish national team.

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Columbia hopes to follow suit as Athletics Director Dr. M. Dianne Murphy and her staff continue their search for the next Light Blue head coach.

… Sources close to the situation have said that the Athletic Department is looking to wrap up the search within a week.

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The Daily Pennsylvanian — Penn Basketball’s resident ‘bubbe’

On Wednesdays, Zack Rosen has a standing lunch date at Hillel.

The sophomore eats with Harriet Joseph, who is officially the Associate Director of the University Scholars program. But unofficially, she is the Penn men’s basketball team’s Jewish mother.

According to her husband, a monster was created after he took Joseph to her first Penn basketball game in 1974. She then began working with the university in 1987 and before long became the Athletic Eligibility Officer for the College of Arts and Sciences in 1990.

Given her love for Penn basketball, it was only a matter of time before Joseph befriended then-Penn coach Fran Dunphy and took his players under her maternal wing.

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Valley News — Back to the future for Cormier

Paul Cormier returned for a second stint as Dartmouth’s men’s basketball coach yesterday, telling a conference room of media, players and athletic department staffers he was sold on the job by the college’s renewed commitment to athletics.

Cormier said he would meet with Graupe yesterday afternoon and include him among what he described as “a lot of people who are candidates” for assistant’s roles on his staff. Paul “Doc” Donahue, an Upper Valley resident who assisted Cormier during his first stint at the college and who aided Graupe after Dunn’s resignation, is again expected to fill one of those slots.

Dartmouth sophomore guard Jabari Trotter said the players who met Cormier as part of his on-campus interview process were immediately excited.

“We were really impressed with his background, and we had enormous respect for him as soon as he walked into the room,” Trotter said. “Imagine if you were a high school senior and this man called you, and he’s got such a unique background. Me and everyone else on this team is excited to go out and play this game we love with the same kind of passion we had coming in to this program.”

Cormier said he’s been authorized to pursue qualified transfers from schools outside the Ivy League.

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Big Green Alert (a Dartmouth football blog) — Basketball press conference: Winning matters

While the press conference introducing Paul Cormier as the “once and future” head coach of men’s basketball was a bit of a dud from a media participation perspective – only one person asked a question until I tossed one out trying unsuccessfully to get the thing going – there was some good stuff that came out of the event, most of it from Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim.

President Kim told the audience that he watched the team closely this year, that he followed the NCAA Tournament with an eye toward what coaches might be available at season’s end, and that he spent at least an hour with each of the finalists for the Dartmouth position.

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DartmouthSports.com — Highlights from Paul Cormier’s press conference

Dartmouth College formally introduced its new men’s basketball coach, Paul Cormier, at a press conference beginning on Monday afternoon. Below are quotes from the participants in the press conference.

President Jim Yong Kim:

“A question every finalist asked me was whether or not Dartmouth cared about winning, and my answer was unequivocal – of course we care about winning … winning, to me, is simply an indication that our young people have done all that it takes, not only for success on the basketball court, but have built skills that will serve them extremely well for the rest of their lives.”

Acting Athletics Director Bob (Cep) Ceplikas

“I was here on campus, not in athletics, during Paul’s first tour of duty, and I sure do remember the level of excitement that was generated in Leede Arena when our team was making a lot of noise in the Ivy League. Not only did Paul’s teams twice finish in second place in the Ivy League, kind of breaking that Penn-Princeton stranglehold on first and second place, but he actually came within a free throw of winning the Ivy Championship. So I know that to some extent there’s a little bit of unfinished business to take care of here.”

Paul Cormier:

“The last Ivy title that was won here was over 50 years ago, and that’s ridiculous. That’s ridiculous. I’m here, with the help of a lot of people that are in this room, and with further help from people in this room, to get that goal accomplished. We have to get to a situation where we are competing, year in and year out, for the Ivy Championship, not to be just competitive.”

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