Ivy League Basketball News

ESPN.com’s College Basketball Nation blog has a post up about Glen Miller’s new job as the Director of Basketball Administration at UConn. It summarizes material from various papers:

According to the Hartford Courant:

The director of administration position, previously referred to as director of operations, has an expanded job description. The one-year deal Miller signed will pay him $120,000, and calls for him to perform a wide range of duties.

…
Miller will look at returning to Storrs as somewhat of a steppingstone back into coaching, considering what he told the New Haven Register:

“It is what it is,” Miller said on Friday. “It’s a step backward, the first time I’ve had to experience a step back like this, but I’m just very excited to get this opportunity. I’m looking at it as I’m not on the floor coaching this year, but I’ll have a chance to help in a lot of other areas, and it will enhance me as a coach.”

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Former Penn and Brown coach Glen Miller has resurfaced as the director of basketball administration at UConn under his former coach and boss, Jim Calhoun. Miller’s hiring is covered in the North-Central Connecticut Journal Inquirer and the Soft Pretzel Logic Blog.  John Tannenwald of Soft Pretzel Logic says,

I’m certainly not surprised that he’s back in Storrs. I had always figured he would end up there some day. Though way back when he came to Penn from Brown, I certainly didn’t think it would be in this capacity.

…

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

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’s Alex Zampier apparently 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”.

Former Penn coach Glen Miller might be returning to his Connecticut roots. The North Central Connecticut Journal Inquirer reported earlier this week:

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.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

ESPN’s Dana O’Neil discusses Penn’s Glen Miller + other firings in a post today.  Excerpts:

By the end of January 2009, two coaches — Mark Gottfried at Alabama and Dennis Felton at Georgia — had been giving their walking papers and coaches everywhere noted the disturbing trend in college hoops.

So where does that put this season? Two weeks before the anniversaries of Gottfried and Felton’s departures, three coaches are out: Glen Miller at Penn, Dereck Whittenburg at Fordham and now Jerry Wainwright at DePaul (Dartmouth’s Terry Dunn resigned). It is really strange when you consider that none of them were very good last year. For reasons that are every bit as perplexing as their in-season dismissals are surprising, all three were retained.

What changed: angry boosters, transferring players and most of all mounting losses. Penn was winless when it let go of Miller and it’s deep-pocketed alumni were staying away from the Palestra; Fordham was in the Atlantic 10 basement again and star player Jio Fontan decided to pull the plug on his time in the Bronx and DePaul, winless in the Big East regular-season last year, was starting on the same goose-egged foot.
Firing coaches mid-season is more than a dangerous trend. As the numbers show from one January to the next, it’s a growing trend.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Philly.com’s Dick Jerardi speculates on KenPom’s stats about Philly teams, including Penn:

So, what about Penn? Well, the projection is 3-25, 2-12 Ivy. The good news is that the Quakers have only a 2.19 percent chance of going winless.

Again, the projection can’t account for the coaching change. Glen Miller is out and Jerome Allen is in. Or the possibility that Tyler Bernardini will be back at some point.

It is difficult to quantify how a group of players will react to different voices in practice and in meetings. Anybody who understands the situation knows that Penn needed a change. We shall see how much it mattered over time.

Update: Rivals.com has the story “Amaker, Lin have Harvard thinking big”:

“I just thought of the potential magic that could happen with a brand name like Harvard,” Amaker said. “We’d never won the Ivy League in men’s basketball. That in itself was enticing as well. We’re the oldest school in the country. To say something’s never been done here is quite a statement.”

Harvard’s depth has helped the Crimson lead the Ivy League in scoring margin (plus-9.2), field-goal percentage (.483), field-goal percentage defense (.390), 3-point percentage defense (.295) and blocks (5.9). Harvard and Columbia are tied for the league lead in rebound margin (plus-2.7).

Washington Post: Hoyas Preparing for Harvard’s do-Everything Lin

Beware Harvard’s Lin-chpin.

Just four days after Old Dominion bounced Georgetown from college basketball’s unbeaten ranks, the Crimson come calling, and they boast Harvard’s hottest commodity since Matt Damon….

Bloomberg.com: “Harvard Basketball Faces Georgetown After Best Start Since 1984″

Harvard University, the oldest and wealthiest U.S. school, hired Tommy Amaker three years ago to build a basketball program that would compete for Ivy League championships. The investment is paying off. The Crimson, 7-2, have their best start in 25 years and face No. 14 Georgetown University today.

… “We’re not a nationally ranked team, yet,” Amaker said. “But we certainly believe it’s possible. The institution has put the pillars in place. We have a vision. We’re going to do this.”

… Wright, a sophomore psychology major from Suffolk, Virginia, who carries a 3.0 grade-point average, said he chose Harvard over Illinois, Virginia Tech, George Mason and each of the other seven Ivy League schools.

“At Harvard, it was about making history,” said Wright, who scored a career-high 21 points in the win over Boston College. “All the other coaches talked about being part of history, but Harvard doesn’t have any history.

CBSSports, ESPN and others have posted a preview of the game.

“We are preparing for this game no differently than we did for Bryant or Rice,” Wright said of Harvard’s earlier victories. “We can’t think of Georgetown as being, ‘Oh my gosh, these players are so great.’ They are basketball players. But hey, so are we.

….

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Cornell faces off against Davidson at noon while Dartmouth plays New Hampshire at 1 o’clock. Princeton’s game against Maine has been postponed. No date has been announced.

Mike DeMauro, sports columnist at Theday.com Connecticut, does not have nice things to say about Penn’s firing of former coach Glen Miller. ( Miller is a Groton Conn native and began his career at Connecticut College). A few excerpts:

…. Penn did Groton native Glen Miller a favor by firing him last week. Now Miller can collect the money owed him and find a job at a place where his considerable coaching acumen will be appreciated.

… In the news release that trumpeted Miller’s dismissal and the hiring of former Penn great Jerome Allen, athletic director Steve Bilsky said, “…. He represents to me the essence of what a student-athlete at Penn is.”

This seems the appropriate time to tell you that “the essence of what a student-athlete at Penn is” doesn’t have a college degree yet.

… Sources close to the situation say that Penn people are supposed to be smart. If that’s the case, shouldn’t Bilsky be on his way out the door, too, for hiring such an infidel in the first place?

… We watched Miller go 10-28 in his first two seasons at Conn … and then take the Camels all the way to the Division III Final Four. At Brown, we watched him win more games in his first seven years than any coach in school history (93), establish a school record for most victories (63) in a four-year period and get Brown to the postseason in 2003 for the first time in 17 years.

The guy can coach. He won’t have a hard time finding a job.

The Ithaca Journal reported late on Friday that Cornell has been working on defense in preparation for the MSG Holiday Festival that begins today. The Big Red expects the games to be a good test:

The collective talent of participants Cornell (7-2), Davidson (3-7), Hofstra (7-3) and the Red Storm (8-1) add significant punch to a format that has traditionally pitted two upper-level teams against, to put it bluntly, two cupcakes.

“It’s going to be a great test for us,” said Cornell senior forward Ryan Wittman, the Big Red’s leading scorer at 18 points per game. “That’s exactly what we want. All three of these teams are going to be very good. I think we’re all pretty evenly matched.”

(Note that Davidson’s 3-7 record is misleading, as it includes narrow losses to top teams like Butler, South Florida, and Gonzaga.)

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The Daily Princetonian previews the Tigers’ winter break games.

WMUR New Hampshire covers Dartmouth’s loss Lehigh 66-58 after a late rally from from 20 points down.

ESPN’s Andy Katz notes, on the recent firing of Penn coach Glen Miller,

Penn may flirt with current Siena and former Quaker coach Fran McCaffery but it might be considered a lateral move. McCaffery has told me in the past how much he loves his gig. Penn is arguably the best job in the Ivy League but Siena is the top job — with scholarships — in the MAAC.

Katz also notes, with regards to Harvard standout Jeremy Lin,

The Bob Cousy Award named its candidates for the honor for the top point guard in the country. Harvard’s Jeremy Lin was not one of them. According to at least one member of the committee Lin wasn’t nominated by the Crimson. But he will be added. He should. Lin is one of the top point guards in the country.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post