Freshman guard Remy Cofield was still wearing a protective boot on his injured foot as he left campus today, but leave campus he did, with the rest of the team. That’s not to say Cofield will be available against Dartmouth or Harvard, but he could well be if he got good news from the medical staff. Coach Glen Miller had said on Wednesday that he would know more today. One thing’s for sure — if the injury were season-ending, he wouldn’t have made the trip. At least we know that much.
I planned on taking it easy on my live blog of the Hawks-Explorers game, maybe updating five times per half, but that plan went downhill fast. It was, legitimately, the most entertaining game I’ve seen all year, although all ESPN seems to show is the Big East, so that doesn’t say too much. You can look at the box score, but here are a few things you might not have noticed.
I will never stop liking St. Joe’s fans, but two of their roll-outs, while funny, were completely incorrect.
Now, here’s my top 5 plays of the game. As Chris Rock used to say as “Nat X” on Saturday Night Live would say, why only five? Because the Inquirer could get a top 10, but I work for a college newspaper and the man would let me get half of that. Okay, really I only have five good ones. (And I refuse to pull a SportsCenter and make “La Salle three-point shooting” one of the top plays.)
First, a couple honorable mention:
- St. Joe’s Ahmad Nivins throwing Jerrell Williams to the ground to make way for a wide open dunk on his team’s first possession. Oh how that was not indicative at all of what happened the rest of the way…
- La Salle’s Rodney Green blocking 6-foot-10 Pat Calathes from behind and going the other way. He got fouled, but didn’t make the layup, costing him a spot.
5. A Hawks fan in the Qdoba shootout won free burritos for a month, doing basically nothing. I what I believe was 35 seconds, he hit a layup, an elbow shot, an elbow shot from the other side and another layup. That’s pretty hard to screw up. In the Penn equivalent you must hit a layup, free throw, three-pointer and a half-court shot for the same prize. Even without the half-court shot the Penn contest is much harder.
4. On a drive in the first half, Calathes took it down the heart of the lane, and while getting his jersey pulled (by I believe Paul Johnson) he threw down a nasty dunk over the La Salle junior. After the play he slapped the ball into the crowd and received a harsh warning from an official (though he didn’t receive a technical).
3. With his team up by one with under 30 seconds to go, Kimmani Barrett got the ball in the post, was double-teamed, but somehow flipped the ball over the big men for the eventual game-winning basket.
2. Eight-minutes in, Williams went up for a monster dunk, taking off from outside of the lane on the right side, and Nivins absolutely rejected him. The 6-9 big man got his entire palm on the ball just before the height of its path, and threw it down. Needless to say, the Hawks fans went berserk.
1. With just over a minute to go and the game tied at 86, Yves Mekongo Mbala missed only his second shot of the night, but Green, a 6-5 guard came flying down the lane for a thunderous dunk to take a two-point lead. It was probably the loudest a La Salle crowd got since Donnie Carr. No Fran Dunphy. No Bill Raftery.
I don’t have much to say today about Penn basketball, but that Remy Cofield still isn’t practicing with his foot injury. Glen Miller wouldn’t say what it was, how long he’s out for, or whether or not he’ll play against Harvard and Dartmouth. He’s “day-to-day.” If the injury isn’t “out for the year”, chances are it’s “day-to-day.”
Getting through the seven-hour bus trip to Dartmouth can be rough, and Brian Grandieri will spend his time watching Lost. That show could even make the Hanover, N.H., trip seem quick. It’d take a bus ride to Japan and back to watch all the episodes of that show.
While Penn coach Glen Miller knows his team isn’t the League’s best in 2007-08, he certainly isn’t backing down.
Well, his mouth isn’t, anyway.
After the 74-58 loss at Columbia, Miller had this to say for his opponents reaping the benfits of a weaker Penn squad.
“I would just say to our opponents in the Ivy League: Enjoy it; it won’t last long.”
For anyone who followed Penn under Fran Dunphy, you’re probably as shocked as I am to hear a Penn coach talking in this manner. Dunphy couldn’t stop talking about how much respect he had for the other side, calling his adversaries a “very good basketball team” no matter what its record was. Pigs will fly before Dunphy says something like this.
Dunphy is politically-correct, Miller is entertaining, but Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli is the perfect combination of the two.
Martelli praised Penn for its rebounding after the 40-point loss and called Villanova still the premier program in Philadelphia after crushing them in the Holy War. But he could only think of criticism about No. 13 Xavier after the near-upset against the Musketeers.
“Is there anybody here from the Xavier administration?” Martelli said, after dramatically removing his glasses. “Do you know when graduation is? That goddamn [Stanley] Burrell, every goddamn game, makes a shot against us. He was averaging 7.5 points coming into the game, in seven or eight league games. He doesn’t look like the same player, playing great defense. Dagger.
“I want to be here to make sure that son of a bitch gets out of here to be honest with you.”
Martelli is the man. I’ve never seen a joke tirade like this before.
Everybody’s favorite blogger looks at the coaching philosophy of Glen Miller versus Fran Dunphy.
Harrison Gaines stood out on the court from day one.
While the rest of the team wears Nike Air Huarache Elite II, The freshman point guard has worn a different show almost the entire season so far – his pair of personalized Zoom Kobe II’s
“I asked [coach Glen] Miller before the season, ‘if I bought the shoe and personalized it would I be able to wear it?” Gaines said. “He said ‘fine, as long as it’s the Penn colors.’”
He personalized the pair on NikeId.com, and has worn them since.
But why these shoes when you have a perfectly good pair waiting for you in the locker room?
“People like Jordans because it’s Jordan, I like Kobe’s because it’s Kobe,” the Victorville, Calif., native said. “That’s probably the main reason [I like them] because it’s what Kobe wears.”
With the personalization, NikeID lets you put a nickname on the shoe. Ever since his cousin gave him the nickname “Goo” when he was little, he’s gone by that, and that’s what his Nike’s say.
“He said that I moved the defense like goo,” Gaines said. “It’s real corny, but it stuck.”
As has been the recent tradition, Penn will wear black shoes (which I believe are these, or something similar) during the Ivy League slate, so Gaines will have to retire his shoes until next season.
Just finished watching the Blue-bloods beat the Cherry and White easily at the Wachovia Center. No surprise there. The Dukies had plenty of help (from the guys who are supposed to be colorblind). Enough to build a 16-point lead before the refs realized, hey, we should give Temple a few non-calls to make this thing exciting. Alas, as always seems to happen, the officials righted their ship too late to save the integrity of the evening.
The Inquirer’s audio of the post-game conferences can be found here, here, here and here.
One of the ESPN announcers mentioned that the Big 5 is “down” this year as opposed to last. Numbers-wise, I’m not so sure. Let’s take a look.
Temple is in almost exactly the same spot. The Owls are 6-7 with an RPI of 71 (after tonight’s loss); they were an identical 6-7 at this point last year with a final RPI of 67.
La Salle was an even 6-6 twelve games into 2006 and is 3-9 now, but its current RPI is actually a bit better than last year’s finish.
St. Joe’s is 8-4 with an RPI of 36 (after tonight’s win); the Hawks had a slightly worse record a year ago, 7-5, and a much lower RPI at year’s end, 95.
Villanova has regressed a smidge, but the Big 5 is in roughly the same spot as last year — outside of Penn, which has spun backwards from its ‘07 team.
In another Big 5 item of note, the renovations to the Hawks’ Alumni Memorial Field House that we heard about in early 2006 will indeed force St. Joe’s to play its 2008-09 games at the Palestra, the Daily News reports.
Dick Jerardi also gives us a notebook on the local storylines.
Now on to the Quakers. Freshman point guard Harrison Gaines suffered another setback after playing 24 productive minutes against NJIT, coach Glen Miller told PSN’s Brian Seltzer.
“We’re a little worried about Harrison,” Miller said. “He probably came back too quick; he re-tweaked his hamstring and he didn’t practice yesterday and probably won’t practice today [Wednesday]. We really need him on the court.”
Miller didn’t say whether the injury came in the NJIT game or in a subsequent practice, but either way Gaines has another five days to recover before Penn faces La Salle. He had eight assists against NJIT.
While I’m not ready to eat my words just yet on Cameron Lewis, Miller had good things to say about him, which you would expect after the last two games. What are your thoughts on Cameron Lewis and the men whose minutes he’s taking, Jack Eggleston and Justin Reilly? Should Lewis continue to start?
As always, leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Here are my third Ivy Rankings installment. The number in parentheses is how far everyone’s RPI has risen or fallen since the last edition.
1. Brown [8-6; Previous Ranking: 3; RPI: 90 (+29)]
The Bears are still playing well despite a loss to Baylor, and Damon Huffman continues to be one of the League’s top scorers.
2. Cornell [6-5; Previous Ranking: 1; RPI: 123(-5)]
A 14-point loss to Duke won’t lose Cornell many points. Point guard Louis Dale is creating a lot of buzz around the League.
3. Harvard [6-11, 1-0 Ivy; Previous Ranking: 4; RPI: 281 (+20)]
Tommy Amaker’s roster changes are helping Harvard score, and the Crimson enter Friday’s rematch with Dartmouth riding two straight blowout wins.
4. Columbia [6-8; Previous Ranking: 2; RPI: 215(-12)]
Two steps forward (beating Lehigh), one step back (losing to American). Ben Nwachukwu might finally be picking up steam.
5. Yale [5-8; Previous Ranking: 6; RPI: 166 (-8)]
Another underwhelming week for Yale against three underwhelming teams; thumping 2-15 Longwood doesn’t prove much.
6. Penn [5-9; Previous Ranking: 8; RPI: 270 (-15)]
A bad loss (Miami) and a bad win (NJIT) were two more steps back for Penn this week. Continued struggles at point guard negate Lewis’s hot streak.
7. Princeton [2-12; Previous Ranking: 5; RPI: 309 (-18)]
A blown lead and overtime loss to Lafayette is a tough way to drop a record 12th straight game. Look for Sydney Johnson to shake things up even more than he already has to get the Tigers out of their historic funk.
8. Dartmouth [5-8, 0-1 Ivy; Previous Ranking: 7; RPI: 262 (-21)]
Dartmouth’s only game this week was that disaster against Harvard, so it drops into the cellar for the time being.
In last year’s home opener, the Quakers left their starters in until the final minute and scored 19 points in the last 5 minutes to put up 97 points (three away from giving the fans cheesesteaks) on Florida Gulf Coast in a 97-74 win.
This year a stronger, and newly Division I, FGCU team took that to heart.
“I remember distinctly when they were beating us and they got a steal and they were high-stepping and putting one arm out and trying to run a lob,” coach Dave Balza told The News-Press after the game this year.
As I’m sure you know by now, the Eagles held the Quakers to six points in the first half, winning 60-30. This year’s winning team didn’t rub it in (in fact Penn closed the game on a 12-0 run), but kind of wanted to.
“Guys were joking, ‘Let’s press them at the end,’” Balza said. “We remembered that last year and we sold that throughout the week and it paid dividends. I thought we were really dialed in.
“I would’ve liked to run the score up and pressed some, but I guess we gotta be classy.”
Ouch. If that’s not a shot at Glen Miller I don’t know what is.
Sorry, Andrew, one post illustrating what happened last night is not enough.
Penn’s six points, 5.9 percent shooting and one field goal in the first half were all the worst by any Division I basketball team in the shot clock era. Even the 30-point total was Penn’s worst in 40 years. Here are a few stats that I found must supplement the last post:
I could go on, but I don’t want to see grown men crying before New Years. Here are some quotes from Penn head coach Glen Miller after the game:
“That’s probably the worst performance that any of my teams have ever had — and I’ve been a head coach for a long time. I’m very disappointed.”
“We were just very lethargic and unsure of ourselves. We certainly didn’t handle the five days we had off. We’re a much better team than that.”
“I want to give [the Eagles] credit. I think they’re a better basketball team than their record [4-9] and I think that will come through when they get in league play.”
Since it’s a new year coming up soon, Penn fans can look on the bright side:
Scoring or passing? Talent or experience? When it comes to point guards, Glen Miller seems to be valuing the latter in each case, which is how Harrison Gaines has ended up with a reduced role in Penn’s last two games. Aron Cohen dished five assists in 25 minutes Thursday; Gaines had four fouls — chalk up at least one to frustration — in 15 minutes.
It seemed like Gaines had secured the spot before stepping on campus — and he essentially had. Before the season, Miller and his staff were telling anyone who would listen that Gaines was going to start and that he would wow them all. But Miller acknowledged after the Elon game that the dynamics at the position have changed. Gaines has lost that favor, at least for the time being.
“We were high on Harrison,” Miller said. “But he’s a young point guard … He’s learning, he’s getting to see a lot from the bench, and Aron’s done a good job of organizing us in practice, getting us into [our] offense, and on the defensive end he’s done some good things too … Right now Aron has more experience and that experience has come to the forefront.”
Putting both of them on the floor wouldn’t make much sense because it would require keeping a better scorer — Mike Kach, for example — on the bench. So who should the every-day point guard be come Feb. 1? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Thursday’s game had the feel of a bad dinner party. Not as many people showed up as you would have liked, and everyone couldn’t wait to get out of dodge once it was over.
The most-beleagured-award goes to Elon, though. The team drove from Chattanooga to Philadelphia after losing the night of the 18th; after losing to Penn, the team packed up for a bus ride that night to Charlotteville to play Virginia tomorrow afternoon. Three games in five days and 1,600 travel miles, according to the Elon athletic department. And still no road wins this year. Next time people get down on Penn basketball, remind them that the Quakers program is good enough that it can avoid anything near that scheduling hell (thanks to the Big 5, Drexel, preseason tournaments in Philadelphia and eager-to-play schools sprinkled throughout Jersey). Give some holiday thanks for that.
Phoenix coach Ernie Nestor said he made the decision to bus the entire trip because of “economics.” No kidding.
Not that the Quakers were riding on easy street, either. Miller praised his team for getting by during finals on miniscule doses of sleep and practice and still coming ready to play against Elon. Brian Grandieri called the last two weeks “miserable” and did his best to expedite the postgame proceedings. When Tyler Bernardini began to respond to the final question with an anecdote from his high school days, Grandieri slapped his leg, laughed, and gave the freshman a wrap-this-thing-up look. Bernardini obliged, and the Quakers were mercifully out the door, free to enjoy their first winning streak of the season.
I’d like to get your thoughts on a big personnel question during the final exams lull. How should Glen Miller divide up time in the Penn frontcourt over the next few games?
Well, it depends on the answers to a few other questions:
For a frame of reference, here’s how the minutes and points have been divvied up so far. I’m not counting Brian Grandieri in this group, although he’s been listed as a forward most of the year.
Eggleston: 10 GP, 26.4 mpg, 7.7 ppg, 51.8 FG% (29-56), (7-18) 3-pt. FGs, 4.7 rpg
Reilly: 10 GP, 18.4 mpg, 7.1 ppg, 46.0 FG% (23-50), (7-13) 3-pt. FGs, 2.3 rpg
Schreiber: 10 GP, 13.8 mpg, 5.0 ppg, 54.1 FG% (20-37), (3-14) 3-pt. FGs, 3.7 rpg
Votel: 9 GP, 9.4 mpg, 1.9 ppg, 33.3 FG% (7-21), (1-7) 3-pt. FGs, 2.6 rpg
Lewis: 8 GP, 8.1 mpg, 1.5 ppg, 33.3 FG% (4-12), (0-0) 3-pt. FGs, 1.3 rpg
Turley: 5 GP, 7.2 mpg, 1.4 ppg, 28.6 FG% (2-7), (0-3) 3-pt. FGs, 0.4 rpg
Leave your comments on this frontcourt mess below, but be fair. If you suggest that one player should see more time, please indicate who those minutes should come from.
Brian Seltzer’s weekly podcast offers some insight on Harrison Gaines’ absence from the starting lineup against Monmouth; Miller commented that he was looking for “more organization for our offense” and better decision-making — when to push things and when to put on the brakes. With a couple of days’ hindsight, I think it also had something to do with Gaines’ night against North Carolina, where he looked completely out of sorts.
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