For a team with seven sophomores and freshmen and no seniors in the 10-man rotation, Villanova will look a bit different in the next couple of years.

The Wildcats had been as busy as any other college team last week. On Wednesday, Villanova lost one of the biggest recruits of the year to Memphis in Tyreke Evans.

This came days after Villanova landed a big transfer in Duke freshman Taylor King, and then two days later lost freshman guard Malcolm Grant to Miami.

In 9.7 minutes per game, the 6-foot-6 forward averaged 5.5 points and 2.0 rebounds for the Blue Devils. For the Wildcats, Grant averaged a similar 12.7 minutes per game and 5.6 points, but started four times and shot 47 percent from beyond the arc.

Grant played a significant role in the beginning of the season for Villanova, but gradually he fell out of favor with Jay Wright. After dropping 22 points in a 64-63 win over Pitt, Grant played zero minutes in the NCAA Tournament (against Clemson, Siena and Kansas), and one in the two games in the Big East Tournament.

After a season that lasts five months, players are, needless to say, exhausted. Still, college basketball teams have already started up workouts and semi-practices to get ready for the 2008-09 season.

Saint Joseph’s men’s coach Phil Martelli has a lighter, more unconventional approach.

“What we’ve been doing for the last two-and-a-half to three weeks is just shooting,” Martelli said. “We do some heavy lifting to try to get some bulk, but we try to stay off of their legs. We don’t let them play any pickup, and we very rarely will play one-on-one.”

Pumping iron is a huge part of any college basketball team’s offseason regiment, and the Hawks are no different. Players are often known to drop a lot of weight during the season.

“That’s something that we pay a lot of attention to, [but] we weren’t as bad this year,” Martelli said.

There has been vast debate among fans as well as experts about whether Villanova shooting guard Scottie Reynolds will make a good NBA player. Some people view him as a first-round pick, and others believe he’ll be playing the majority of his career overseas.

But that time might not come yet.

According to a spokesman from Villanova athletic communications, they “have no announcements planned for Scottie relative to the NBA and fully expect him to be a part of the men’s basketball team in 2008-09.”

Villanova would not make Reynolds available for comment.

After a spectacular freshman season, Reynolds was good in 2007-08, but he wasn’t Superman. The First-Team All-Big 5 selection averaged 15.9 points per game and hit 38.3 percent from three, but perhaps as a result of having to take the team on his back in the early parts of the season, he shot only 41.2 percent from the field and had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.06.

Coming off of the NCAA Tournament run, should Reynolds go to the league? Leave your comments below.

Penn grad Mark DeRosa cheated Philadelphia out of a victory.

DeRosa, the Chicago Cubs second baseman, hit a solo homerun with his team up on the Phillies 3-2 in the sixth inning Friday night. The problem was, it didn’t actually happen.

The shot went less than a foot outside of the left foul pole, but the umpires saw it otherwise, and while arguing the call, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel got tossed for the first time this season. The Cubs would go on to win in the 10th frame, 6-5, on a run scored on an error that should have ended the inning on a 6-4-3 double-play.

According to a couple media sources, Brown men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson will be the new coach at Oregon State.

Barack Obama’s brother in law took home an impressive 11-3 record in the Ivy League this year, losing only to Cornell (twice) and Yale in overtime. The Bears lost to Ohio in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational, 80-74.

Oregon State is a member of the Pacific 10, one of the best conferences (if not the best) in college basketball, but the Beavers went a miserable 6-24 record, and an even more pathetic 0-18 in the conference, losing their last 21 games. Yes, you heard me right, 21 games.

The Beavers lost at home to Washington, not a tournament team, 97-59. Their best win last year was against Idaho State. Needless to say, the man who may be leaving Brown after only two years has his work cut out for him.

Is this a good move for Robinson? Was he, in a way, using Brown, just coaching there for two years before leaving? Leave your comments below.

The Penn men’s lacrosse team is young, but it’s learning how to win close games.

After getting trounced by No. 8 Cornell at Franklin Field, the Quakers scored 28 seconds into overtime to beat Dartmouth, 9-8.

The Red and Blue have allowed three more goals than they have scored in the Ivy league, yet have come out with a 3-1 Ivy record. In all, Penn has played in four one-goal games, and has won four games (three in the league) by two goals or less.

After building up a 7-1 lead, Dartmouth stormed back by netting four goals in a row, and then tying it up at eight with just over two minutes to go. In overtime, though, Justin Lynch won the opening faceoff, and Penn called timeout to set up a play. A shot went awry, but just seconds later, Corey Winkoff found Garvey Heiderman for the game-winner.

The Quakers have a nice conference record, but have tough tests to go against Brown and Princeton if they want to win the league or make the NCAA Tournament.

– This post appeared in conjunction with the joke issue on April 10, 2008 – 

Just days after Brown basketball coach Craig Robinson left for Pac 10 bottom-dweller Oregon State, according to a source within the Penn basketball program, the Bears have an offer on the table to Penn coach Glen Miller, and there’s a good chance he’s going back to Providence.

Robinson, who posted an 11-3 Ivy League record and earned a berth into the College Basketball Invitational, left after only two years at Brown.

Miller struggled to a 8-6 league mark, breaking the streak of three-straight conference titles for Penn.

The Bears want to get their head coach locked up for next season, and don’t want to let a disgruntled Miller stay at Penn a minute longer than he has to.

Miller declined to comment when called on his cell phone, but the source (who would only go by the first name of “Vasu”) said the coach was stressed out, and fed up with “a number of things, the lack of [expletive] athletes, the egos on the team, losing to cow colleges like Columbia, Joe Gill, the crappy facilities and a junior varsity program that was able to beat the varsity team in a scrimmage, and let Miller know about it for weeks after.”

Apparently coming to Penn thinking he would receive the calls that Penn and Princeton typically get, Miller still got jammed up his ass by several officials on occasion this season.

Miller also has been disappointed with the city of Philadelphia, calling it, in a December 2006 interview, “filthy, dangerous and with an inadequate subway system that is inefficient, expensive and that’s lack of funding is the only thing worse than the manner in which it is run.” Miller also agreed with women’s coach Pat Knapp’s assessment that “The D.C. Metro is like a Formula 1 racing car, and SEPTA is like a bicycle.”

If Miller does decide to leave, Penn will have a long, tough search process ahead of it. It has been reported that the list of possible successors to Miller should include: Perry Bromwell, Chris “Bubba” Sparxxx, LaShawn “Obie” Trice, Friedrich Ebede, Stephen “I’m better at sports and smarter than you” Danley, Isiah Thomas, The ’stache, The Hawk (which will never die), Tim Legler’s hot Eagles cheerleader wife and Mike Jarvis.

For the Villanova-Kansas and Wisconsin-Davidson games Friday night in the Midwest regional in Detroit, Ford Field is going for a novel approach.

As done at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, many football arenas which host basketball games have always put the court in one end of the stadium and placed seats on one side of the court. But this season, in Detroit and Houston, the courts are going smack dab in the middle of the stadium. With seats all around (see below link for a picture) the court, it will be able to fit 70,000 people, and will be a new feeling for the players - especially for jump shooters with nothing behind the baskets.

As the New York Times reports (no, it’s not Stephen Danley), the court is also 27 inches above the ground, much like it is at Vanderbilt or Minnesota.

I can’t say if this will help one team or the other, but anything that could screw up a guy like Mario Chalmers or Brandon Rush is a good thing for ‘Nova.

I was surprised that Villanova made the NCAA Tournament, let alone won two games. The comeback against Clemson, a team that I though had Final 4 potential, was astounding. Then, the Wildcats certainly made Siena look like a mid-major in the second round, using good guard play to gain the lead, and an inside presence (14 after halftime from Dante Cunningham) to seal the deal.

Still, there are some other interesting Penn connections having success in the Tournament that you might not know about.

First, No. 13 Siena coach Fran McCaffery not only played for Penn in the early 80s, but was an assistant under current Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage a year later.

As a player, he let the Quakers to two Ivy titles and one NIT berth. He led the Ivies in steals in the 1981-82 season, and earned the coveted MIP, which, of course, translates to Most Inspirational Player. Don’t ask me what that actually means.

Also, Stanford’s Josh Owens, who had narrowed down his choices to Penn, Vanderbilt and the Cardinal, sees his club in the Sweet 16. In addition, Owens scored seven points in the rout of Cornell.

Owens has, in fact, been a monster against Ivy teams. In 75 minutes against everyone else, he’s scored 11 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. but in only 29 minutes against the Ancient Eight (Harvard and Cornell, he didn’t get minutes in the 11-point win over Yale) he scored 19 points on 62 percent shooting and corralled nine boards.

And finally, this isn’t exactly a connection, but a record that could be broken. Penn is the only team to have ever beaten North Carolina in the state of North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament - in 1979 the year the 9th-seeded Quakers went to the Final 4. This season, the Tar Heels won two games at North Carolina State, and now play Washington State and potentially the winner of Louisville-Tennessee in the Sweet 16 in Charlotte.

After beating Iona by four, the ‘79 Quakers went into Raleigh and knocked off No. 1 UNC, 72-71, as first-team all-East regional players Tony Price and Tim Smith carried the Quakers to the Final 4 in Salt Lake City.

To start off, I believe that as a Penn fan you have to root for Cornell.

Not only are the Big Red repping the Ivy League, former Penn assistant Steve Donahue is as likable a guy as it gets. Cornell is clearly better than anyone else in the Ivies and deserves to be there. The Big Red also don’t dive like Brown, cheat like Harvard, or pop their collars like Princeton. Okay, never mind, we like to do that too.

Anyway, No. 14 Cornell, No. 11 Saint Joseph’s, No. 12 Temple and No. 12 Villanova are all underdogs, but some aren’t by much.

In Vegas, No. 6 Oklahoma is a mere 1.5-point favorite over the Hawks - the only line that’s more even is No. 7 Miami vs. No. 10 St. Mary’s. Temple is +6.5 against No.5 Michigan State and Villanova is +6 against No. 5 Clemson. Finally, Cornell is getting 14.5 points against the No. 3 Cardinal.

First, I truly believe St. Joe’s is going to win. Not only are the Sooners slightly overseeded in many people’s minds, the Hawks are a very good team. Ahmad Nivins and Rob Ferguson are forces down low, Darrin Govens and Tasheed Carr are good ball-handlers and scorers, the lanky Garrett Williamson is a solid defender and 6-foot-10 guard Pat Calathes is a matchup problem for anyone. If you’re a traditional guard, he’ll shoot over you. If you’re a forward, he’s drive right past you.

Also, the Hawks play their best basketball when they are desperate.

St. Joe’s made a nice run in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, soundly beating Fordham, Richmond and then 3-seed Xavier, all games it needed to win. Perhaps once rumblings started of them being in the NCAA Tourney even with a loss to Temple, the Hawks lost the desperation Phil Martelli wanted them to be playing with, and dropped a 69-64 decision to their Philly rivals. When I stepped into their locker room, it was dead silent, and Ive never seen someone look as angry and depressed as the captain Carr was after that game. Look for St. Joe’s to come out firing against a team it can definitely beat.

Temple will have to play a very good game for an upset, while Villanova and Cornell will have to play great ones.

The Owls are playing great basketball, and should have been higher than a 12-seed. Michigan State is a great team, but not only guards Mark Tyndale (an absolute beast - had 15 rebounds against Charlotte in the semifinal) and Dionte Christmas (can score with the best of them) are playing well, the supporting cast - from 5-8 Chris Clark to 6-9 Lavoy Allen to 7-foot Sergio Olmos - is better than it ever has been. This should be a game, and it’s hard to pick against the Owls.

Villanova and Cornell may have a shot, but it’s slim. The Wildcats slip into the Tournament, and play Clemson, a team that really has Final 4 potential. The Tigers are 4-5 against Tournament teams, but four of those losses are to North Carolina or Duke, including having fallen twice to the Tar Heels in overtime and again last weekend by a thread. Scotty Reynolds is getting more help these days, but K.C. Rivers and Clemson’s multiple big men inside as well as shooter Terrence Oglesby should be too much for Villanova

True, it didn’t do much in the non-conference schedule, but it’s hard to go against Cornell’s win streak. Still, does it have a shot of stopping the Lopez twins? Probably not. But any team that shoots as well as the Big Red do, both from the field (49.2 percent, 41.4 from three) as well as from the line (76.3 percent) can be prime for a big upset.