News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, some news and notes...

• UConn Blog, ADimeBack, mentions Shonn Miller as a potential graduate student transfer target and notes, "Shonn Miller, a 6-7 forward from Cornell. Miller is forced to transfer because of the Ivy League’s rules against graduate players participating, but was one of the top players in the league this season, averaging 16.8 points and 8.5 rebounds."

• Barry Leonard talks a "little bit" about Steve Donahue's hiring at Penn with ESPN Ithaca.

• The New York Times notes, "An Ivy League team has not reached the round of 16 since Cornell in 2010, and that is the only time it has happened since Penn made a run to the Final Four in 1979."

• Nunes Magician's Sean Keeley writes on the NCAA Tournament, "I'd really love to see the Albany Great Danes make a magical run. What a great story that would be, even more shocking than when the Cornell Big Red did a similar thing a few years back. "

News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

Below, news and notes...

• Hampton Roads (VA) writes, "Here’s how some other local players did this season. Cornell G Darryl Smith (Norfolk Collegiate) 2.5 points, 20 assists, 13 steals."

• The Florida Times Union writes:

As usual, if the Ivy League wants respect in college basketball, it will have to be earned.

Even then, it might not matter.

Consider the latest slap at a league that usually finds a way to be in the middle of the conference RPI rankings: Yale went 22-10 but lost its final regular-season game to Dartmouth 59-58 on a shot in the final seconds, falling into a tie with Harvard for the Ivy League title and setting up a one-game playoff.

Yale then lost to the Crimson 53-52 on a 15-footer by Steve Moundou-Missi with 7.2 seconds remaining as Harvard earned the Ivy’s automatic spot in the NCAA Tournament.

The Bulldogs, who beat defending national champion Connecticut and Patriot League champion Lafayette, took Vanderbilt to double overtime before losing 79-74 and lost to tournament team Providence 72-66 on the road, didn’t even merit an NIT invitation...

Welcome to the Ivy League, where there is no margin for error when it comes to making the NCAA Tournament...

The Ivy League has never received more than a bid for its conference champion since at-large teams were added to the tournament in 1979.

Although there have been 18 Sweet 16 teams in league history, Cornell’s trip to the regional semifinals in 2010 — which started with victories over Temple and Wisconsin in Jacksonville — is the only one for the Ivy since Penn’s 1979 Final Four team...

One way to perhaps get a second Ivy League team into the tournament would be to hold a conference tournament. The Ivy is the only one of the 33 conferences that get automatic bids that still relies on the regular-season to decide a conference champion...

• The Daily Pennsylvanian notes, "[Steve] Donahue received his first head coaching opportunity with perennial Ivy bottom-feeder Cornell, spending a decade in Ithaca.  However, in ten seasons with the Big Red, he transformed one of the Ivy League’s worst programs into a powerhouse. In his final three years at Cornell, Donahue won three consecutive Ancient Eight titles, becoming the first team outside of Penn and Princeton to ever do so.  Following a Sweet 16 appearance in 2010, Donahue was hired at Boston College."  The DP also writes, "Tuesday also happened to be the 21st anniversary of the Quakers’ upset of Nebraska as an 11-seed in the 1994 NCAA Tournament, Penn’s last win in the Big Dance. Things have changed a lot since then – the Ivy League is almost unrecognizable compared to its former self. Heck, it’s completely different from what it was back when Cornell made three straight NCAA appearances under Donahue from 2008-10.  Face it. The days of Penn and Princeton winning the Ivy title by birthright are dead. A new approach is needed to restore the Red and Blue program to relevance. Luckily for Penn fans, Donahue is well aware of the conference’s paradigm shift. 'The days are over in this league where you can rely on this building [the Palestra] and the Big 5 to take you to the NCAA Tournament,' he said...Donahue is unafraid of scheduling the big boys. At Cornell, he took the Big Red to Assembly Hall to face Indiana, Cameron Indoor Stadium to play Duke and Allen Fieldhouse to play Kansas, in addition to their annual trip to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse. 'People thought I was crazy at Cornell. They thought I was crazy at [Boston College]. They may have been right,' he said. 'I had the hardest nonconference schedule in the country at BC. I had 18 road games my last year at Cornell. I will play anybody.'"

• The Philadelphia Inquirer writes on Donahue:

Without any prompting, Steve Donahue directly addressed one of the most important challenges he will face as the 20th head coach in the 115-year history of the Penn men's basketball program.
"The days are over in this league where you can rely on this building and the Big 5, and it's going to take you to the NCAA tournament," he said. "This league has changed. It has changed over the last 25 years, the last 10 years and the last five years... We just cannot afford to think this is enough."
Donahue remarks were a none-too-subtle reference to the rise of Harvard as the Ivy League's new superpower.
In addition to Tommy Amaker's recruiting skills, the Crimson have been able to use the school's unrivaled endowment; fundraising support from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former Staples chairman Tom Stemberg; and an athletics-friendly admissions department to become an unstoppable force in ways that extend beyond the walls of Lavietes Pavilion.
Donahue was also describing the Ivy League as a whole, which is stronger from top to bottom now than at almost any other point in its history.

"What I think happened as Penn and Princeton had such dominance in this league - and I was on the other side of that for a long period [at Cornell from 2000 through 2010] - the other schools in this league recognized how important it was to win at college basketball," he said. "Every single program made huge investments - that's not just financially, but that's in every aspect, to make sure that basketball was a priority."
Indeed, it's not just Harvard that has surpassed Penn in recent years. Columbia offers further proof of Donahue's point.
For decades, Levien Gym was a wasteland, save for the annual visits from thousands of Penn and Princeton alumni. The school's students boasted about how little attention they paid to their sports teams. Now, under current coach Kyle Smith, the program has improved, and there's a legitimate student section at every game.
But when Donahue said that the rise in quality across Ivy League basketball "has a lot to do with changes in financial aid at all of these institutions," the message was clear. It was a shot aimed straight from the banks of the Schuylkill to the banks of the Charles.
If Donahue is to end Amaker's reign atop the Ancient Eight, he won't be able to do it alone, and he knows it.
No one is going to directly ask Penn to lower its admission standards for the men's basketball team. But there are legitimate questions to be asked about how the university administration should support the athletic department and vice versa. As Amaker once told me, only in the Ivy League do secondary recruiting violations become big stories in the New York Times.
I would have liked to ask Penn provost Vincent Price, who serves as the primary liaison between College Hall and Weightman Hall, to answer a few of those questions. He was a key player in the hiring of athletic director M. Grace Calhoun last March. But when I approached him right after Donahue's press conference ended, he told me he had to run out and couldn't talk.
So it was left to Calhoun to do the talking. She did some of it unprompted, including a description of the coaching search during her opening remarks in the press conference.
"After performing a robust and year-long assessment of the men's basketball program, we entered the search process with a strong sense of the background, skills and character traits for which we were looking in Penn's next head coach," she said. "A list of 25 sitting or former Division I head coaches and four assistant coaches was thoroughly vetted. Quite frankly, Steve Donahue set a bar that no other candidate could overcome."
Donahue set that bar over the course of a five-and-a-half hour in-person conversation with Calhoun. Whether or not that time precluded substantive interviews with the other 28 candidates isn't known, and may never be. But I do know that Penn hired the well-known basketball coach search firm run by Eddie Fogler.
I also know that Yanni Hufnagel, the former Harvard and Vanderbilt assistant who's now at California, was contacted by Fogler's firm. His candidacy was championed by a sizeable caucus of Penn alumni, especially younger ones. But the search firm decided to go in another direction.
"We were also acutely aware that coach Donahue had multiple suitors, and that Penn would need to move swiftly to stay in front of other searches," Calhoun said. "While some may conclude that Steve was the obvious choice, or even go so far as saying that I read the newspapers and selected him, nothing could be further from the truth. Countless hours, conversations and negotiations went into making this happen."
(The author of one of the newspaper pieces in question, Mike Jensen, was sitting just a few feet away from Calhoun's podium. In his story for the Inquirer on Donahue's introduction, Mike Jensen paid particular attention to Donahue's remarks about recruiting, and for good reason.)
After the press conference ended, I asked Calhoun what priorities she set for Fogler's consultants.
"It has to begin with integrity - this is a place where character flaws will not be accepted, where winning in any other than the right way will not be accepted," she answered. "I then asked them to find me a proven coach, someone who was a known developer of talent... certainly a seasoned recruiter, someone who had a seasoned track record for being able to land prospects and really close the deal... and then I went through things that are really kind of Philly- and Penn-specific."
Calhoun may not be from the Philadelphia region, but when the Palestra hosted big crowds for Penn's games against Villanova and Saint Joseph's in January, she got a good helping of what the building is supposed to be like.
"There's something so special about Philadelphia basketball and Big 5 basketball that I really wanted someone who had some appreciation of that, who could recruit locally and had a good name locally," she said. "The Ivies are a different kind of recruiting war."
I also asked Calhoun for her perspective on the financial aid question. She cited an Ivy League policy which allows schools within the conference to match each other's financial aid offers, and said "there truly never should be a student-athlete that we lose out on because they got a more favorable package elsewhere."
But she also acknowledged that "there are some improvements we can make in how we administer that, and how we get peer-competitive packages immediately."
For as much has changed in the Ivy League over the years, the sense of familiarity that Donahue brought to the Palestra was impossible to miss. Whether or not you believe he was the safe choice, there's no question that he was the most familiar. You knew it from the accent, from his love of the Palestra, and from the first of his classic, razor-sharp whistles that shot across the floor as he chatted with old friends.
The first three words out of Calhoun's mouth as she began to recite Donahue's accomplishments at the start of her prepared remarks were "as you know."
Whether those words were intentional or not, everyone in the Palestra on Monday did indeed know.
"I wholeheartedly believe that Steve is the ideal leader to return Penn men's basketball to prominence," Calhoun said. "You can expect to see an exciting brand of basketball, and where players are left to play. He'll create a great environment at the Palestra, and his Quaker team will win games."
Those italics were Calhoun's, not mine. She is not one for speaking forcefully, but she put some oomph into that particular word.
"I was taken aback by his humility in describing his failures when he could have instead described circumstances beyond his control," Calhoun said. "After all, we are ultimately defined by our response to adversity."
I asked Donahue about one of the challenges he will face in addition to building a winning team: restoring basketball's pride of place in the Penn community, especially within the student body. No matter which City Six school you root for, you've surely seen attendance at the Palestra wither away over the last decade.
Donahue, much more than I ever heard out of Glen Miller or Jerome Allen, takes a personal interest in fixing that.
"Coaches forget, and I think players forget as well, that the main purpose of us being a basketball program is to enhance the experience of the student body," he said. "I'm going to do everything I can - if I have to drag them out, knock on their doors 10 minutes before the game, to get them down here. We're going to try to play - a lot of my reasons for the way we play is because it's fun to watch."
He also acknowledged that for as much as he wants his team to play a style of basketball "that mirrors what they try to do in their classrooms," results will matter most.
"You've got to have a winning team for the students to jump on," he said. "I'm pretty sure they will."
Donahue also addressed the struggles he has endured in his career, especially at Cornell and Boston College.
"When I went to Cornell in 2000, I thought I had all the answers," he said. "I was a bad basketball coach for a good stretch."
At Boston College, Donahue said, he "figured out an incredible growth in my personal development," incluidng the lesson that "failure isn't fatal."
"To land here with all that experience behind me can make me a much better basketball coach," he concluded.
Twenty-one years to the day after Penn's last NCAA tournament win - a game he witnessed from the sidelines as a Quakers assistant coach - Donahue was presented with a new kind of adversity. Now it's time for him and Calhoun to respond, and to create their ultimate definitions.

•  On Donahue, Comcast of Philadelphia writes:

Steve Donahue was all set to wear a green tie for St. Patrick’s Day, before changing his mind at the last minute. For his introductory press conference at the Palestra on Tuesday, the new Penn basketball coach opted for the red and blue tie instead.
You know, Penn’s colors.
Back with the Quakers after 15 years, Donahue just had to show off the pride he has for the university that made him into the coach he is today.
“This place,” he said, “is a place that is everything I could ever want in an institution.”
Luckily for him, Donahue is also everything Penn wanted in its next men’s basketball coach. And that’s why athletic director Grace Calhoun didn’t waste any time hiring the former Penn assistant and Cornell and Boston College head coach to help turn the floundering program around.
Donahue was hired Monday, less than a week after Jerome Allen stepped down following three straight losing seasons.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Donahue said. “We need to get back on top where we belong. I’m going to work as hard as I can to make sure that happens.”
If anyone knows the potential of Penn’s basketball program, it’s Donahue.
From 1990 to 2000, he served on Fran Dunphy’s staff at Penn, helping the Quakers capture six Ivy League titles, including four separate undefeated conference campaigns. During that span, Penn compiled a 182-91 record and a 114-26 mark in Ivy play. And exactly 21 years ago today, Penn won its last NCAA tournament game, beating Nebraska in the first round of the Big Dance – with Donahue on the sidelines and Allen starring on the court.
Of course, a lot’s changed since then. Back when Donahue was an assistant, Penn’s only real competition in the league was Princeton, as the two former Ivy powerhouses combined for every conference title from 1989 to 2007.
The league is a lot more competitive now with Harvard having won at least a share of five straight Ivy crowns and other teams rising from the bottom of the league and passing Penn in the conference hierarchy.
“The days are over in this league where you can rely on this building and the Big 5 to take you to the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “This league has changed.”
Donahue, interestingly enough, is one of the big reasons why the league changed. After Dunphy left Penn for Temple in 2006 – and Penn passed over Donahue for the job to hire the ill-fated Glen Miller – Donahue ended the reign of the big “P”s by leading Cornell to three straight Ivy titles starting in 2008.
The icing on the cake was Cornell’s magical run to the Sweet 16 in 2010, marking the farthest an Ivy League team advanced in the NCAA Tournament since Penn’s Final Four trip in 1979.
But getting Cornell to that point certainly wasn’t easy, as the Ursinus grad endured many losing seasons and failed efforts to get Philly-area recruits.
“When I went to Cornell in 2000, I thought I had all the answers,” Donahue said. “I was a bad basketball coach for a good stretch. Like all my experiences, I thought it enabled me to figure things out.”
Donahue wasn’t afforded much of an opportunity to figure things out at Boston College, getting fired after four years with the Eagles. Still, he doesn’t regret springboarding off his success at Cornell to jump to the ACC in 2010.
“I can’t tell you what an incredible experience that was for me and my family,” he said. “I had incredible growth in my personal development in that time. … I learned that failure isn’t fatal. You have growth and you move on. And I’m here.”
Because of his failures at Boston College, there were some Penn fans out there that hoped the Quakers would try to snag a younger coach on the rise. Some popular names were Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole and Colgate head coach Matt Langel, both of whom were star guards for the Quakers.
But Penn athletic director Grace Calhoun settled on Donahue after a five-and-a-half hour interview, while making clear she thoroughly vetted many other candidates.
“Doing your due diligence and making sure you make the right decision is critically important,” she said. “On the other hand, we’re in a competitive industry. And with a lot of jobs opening and searches gearing up, I certainly was acutely aware that our ability to talk to the most desirable candidates was going to be predicated on our ability to move quickly.”
Donahue confirmed he would have had some other opportunities after spending a year away from coaching as a TV analyst, but he made it clear that this job was far and away his top choice.
“A lot of people think, including my family, the main reason was this is in Philadelphia,” said Donahue, a native of Springfield Township. “I love Philadelphia. I love everything about it. But that has little to do with this decision, in all honesty. This decision is based on my research that, of the institutions that were going to open, this is flat out the best spot to win – with the right type of kids and the right way.”

News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Below, news and notes for Tuesday...

• Penn Athletics made the hire of Steve Donahue official (see the Press Release here).  Also check out the Associated Press and Inquirer stories.

• Listen to Bill Courtney's reaction on ESPN Ithaca on the Donahue news.

• Athlon Sports writes on Bo Ryan in the NCAA Tournament, "Wisconsin went to the Final Four last season, but before that Ryan-coached teams were eliminated by lower-seeded teams in three of their previous four Tournament appearances including by Ole Miss in 2013, Butler in 2011 and Cornell in 2010."

• Here is a quote from the DelCo Times on the Donahue hire:

“The Ursinus hotwire has been burning up all day,” said Springfield boys coach Kevin McCormick, who was a college teammate with Donahue. “It’s a great hire. He brings a wealth of experience to Penn. Look at the job he did at Cornell. If Penn gives him the opportunity, he’ll do the same thing there.”

• ESPN writes on the Donahue hire:

Steve Donahue was named coach of the Penn Quakers on Monday.
Donahue, who was an assistant coach at Penn for 10 seasons before leaving for Cornell in 2000, met with the Quakers on Monday night, sources confirmed to ESPN.com.

went 54-76 in four seasons at Boston College.

The school will introduce Donahue on Tuesday afternoon in a news conference, it said in a statement released Monday night.
"I am thrilled to be coming back to Penn as its head men's basketball coach," Donahue said in the statement. "Having been a part of Philadelphia and Penn basketball for the greater part of my life, I have a great passion for this city and this program.
"I spent 10 extraordinary years as an assistant here at Penn working with one of the great head coaches in all of college basketball, Fran Dunphy. That, combined with my experiences as head coach at Cornell and Boston College, have led me to this distinct opportunity to return the program that I grew up watching to national prominence. I plan to provide the energy and the enthusiasm that will put Penn basketball back atop the Ivy League."
Donahue spent four seasons at Boston College before being let go last spring. He was the coach at Cornell for 10 seasons, going to three NCAA tournaments and one Sweet 16 in his final three years with the Big Red.
He replaces Jerome Allen, who stepped down after more than five seasons in charge of the Quakers. Allen took over midway through the 2009-10 season, after Glen Miller was fired seven games into the campaign. Allen went 33-28 in his first two full seasons at the helm but struggled to a 26-61 record over the past three seasons.
Penn was 9-19 this season, finishing 4-10 in the Ivy League.
"After performing a robust and year-long assessment of the men's basketball program, we entered the search process with a strong sense of the background, skills and character traits we felt were necessary for Penn's next head coach," Penn athletic director M. Grace Calhoun said in the statement . "An impressive group of candidates were thoroughly vetted, and Steve Donahue clearly rose to the top.
"Coach Donahue is a nationally recognized coach and proven recruiter with unquestioned integrity," Calhoun added. "His deep knowledge of and appreciation for Penn basketball, the Ivy model of student-athlete development, and the Big Five were unparalleled in the search. We are confident in Coach Donahue's ability to return Penn men's basketball to prominence. We welcome Steve, his wife Pamela, and his family back to Philadelphia."

• The Daily Pennsylvanian reports the Donahue hiring:

Steve Donahue is the next Penn basketball head coach.
Sources confirmed Monday that Donahue will replace Jerome Allen, who spent five and a half seasons at the helm and had a 65-104 record as coach. A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the Palestra.
"An impressive group of candidates were thoroughly vetted, and Steve Donahue clearly rose to the top," Athletic Director Grace Calhoun said in a press release. "Coach Donahue is a nationally recognized coach and proven recruiter with unquestioned integrity. His deep knowledge of and appreciation for Penn basketball, the Ivy model of student-athlete development and the Big Five were unparalleled in the search.
"We are confident in coach Donahue's ability to return Penn men’s basketball to prominence."
"It's a great hire by Penn," 1995 College graduate Matt Maloney — who played for the Red and Blue while Donahue was an assistant — said in a text message. "Coach Donahue is going to do a fantastic job. He had an enormous positive influence on my career."
The hiring does not come out of the blue because of Donahue's connections to the Red and Blue. He spent 10 seasons as a Quakers assistant under former coach Fran Dunphy, helping Penn win six Ivy League titles in eight seasons in the 1990s, three of which came with Allen as the Quakers' star player. Additionally, Nat Graham — one of Allen's top assistants in 2014-15 — was Donahue's assistant at Cornell and Boston College.
“I am thrilled to be coming back to Penn as its head men's basketball coach,” Donahue said in a press release. “Having been a part of Philadelphia and Penn basketball for the greater part of my life, I have a great passion for this city and this program. I spent 10 extraordinary years as an assistant here at Penn working with one of the great head coaches in all of college basketball, Fran Dunphy.
"That, combined with my experiences as head coach at Cornell and Boston College, have led me to this distinct opportunity to return the program that I grew up watching to national prominence. I plan to provide the energy and the enthusiasm that will put Penn basketball back atop the Ivy League.”
Donahue left Penn to become the head coach at Cornell in 2000, where he also spent 10 seasons. In his final three seasons at Cornell, Donahue won three straight Ivy titles. It was the first time in Ivy history that a school other than Penn or Princeton won three consecutive Ancient Eight championships, a mark since replicated by Harvard over the course of the past five seasons.
"Steve Donahue was my assistant basketball coach in high school and my longtime friend, and there is no better basketball person than he is," current Lafayette coach and former Penn assistant Fran O'Hanlon said. "He's as good as anybody and it's a tremendous hire for Penn.
"I'm happy for my friend and for Penn because they have somebody who is familiar with the Ivy League, he's familiar with Penn and he's done an awesome job as a coach."
In 2010, Donahue led Cornell to the Sweet 16, the farthest any Ivy team has made it in the NCAA Tournament since Penn's 1979 Final Four squad. Still, he had an opportunity to return to the Quakers before his Big Red squads established themselves as an Ancient Eight powerhouse from 2007 onward.
Following Dunphy's hiring at Temple in 2006, Donahue was considered one of the leading candidates to replace his former mentor. However, then-Athletic Director Steve Bilsky opted to hire then-Brown head coach Glen Miller as Dunphy's successor, passing over Donahue for a different individual with Ivy League head coaching experience.
Nine years later, following Allen's dismissal at the end of this season, Calhoun quickly moved to bring Donahue back into the fold at Penn. After informing Allen on March 2 that he would not return in 2015-16, Calhoun hired Donahue as Allen's replacement less than a week after the former coach's final game with the Quakers, a 73-52 loss to Princeton.
"I certainly knew through other people, other friends that when coach Allen left, Steve would be one of the guys that Penn wanted to talk to," O'Hanlon said. "It's like family, we're all family. Jerome, coach Donahue, me, Dunphy.
"One of our family members happened to lose that job and someone else in our family got that job. It's the business we've chosen."
Allen's ouster did shake up that very same Penn basketball family, particularly those who played under him the last few seasons. Miles Jackson-Cartwright, a guard for the Red and Blue from 2010-14, was one of those who was shocked by Allen leaving, but even he thought positively of Donahue's hiring.
"He knows what it takes to win in this league," Jackson-Cartwright said of Donahue. "From that standpoint, past experience-wise, it seems like a great fit."
Jackson-Cartwright was around for the tail end of the last coaching transition for Penn — joining the Quakers shortly after the move from Miller to Allen during the middle of the 2009-10 season — and he thinks this changeover will go much more smoothly.
"It was a much different situation," Jackson-Cartwright said. "But now, I think it'll be great for the team because, firstly, they announced the new coach fairly early so you can start transitioning the guys with the new coach right away... I think it will be a much easier transition just because they'll have a lot more time to meet with each other before they play a game."
While Penn will see immediate changes to its program, it isn't the only Ivy program with interest in the coaching change. After Donahue's long tenure and significant impact in Ithaca, the news has piqued the curiosity of those currently at Cornell. In an interview today, ESPN Ithaca asked Donahue's successor — coach Bill Courtney — if he thought it was a good move by Penn.
"Absolutely," Courtney responded to the question. "I don't know that if you're Penn if you [can] go out and find a better guy than Steve Donahue. Obviously this league has become extremely, extremely difficult and there are quality coaches at every institution and lots of very good players who play in this league now.
"So when you out and get a guy like Steve who you know is a very good coach, that speaks well about your program."
The success at Cornell propelled Donahue to a job at Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2010. After a successful first season in which the Eagles went 21-13, the squad fell on hard times, finishing with a losing record in three straight seasons. He was fired after the 2013-14 season and spent last year as a broadcaster for ESPN.
"Coach Donahue brings great knowledge of the game in Xs and Os, as well as a great temperament and patience, something that is needed for developing young players," Maloney said. "He's a proven winner. Given the time he spent with the program earlier in his career, he definitely understands the history and tradition of Penn basketball and the Palestra.
"[The hiring] definitely puts the program in the hands of someone who will continue the proud tradition of Penn basketball and I have no doubt that coach Donahue is the person to do so."
Despite his struggles at BC, Donahue remained a popular option to fill Allen's spot on the Palestra sidelines among former players and the program's board members. In speaking with The Daily Pennsylvanian last week, Tim Krug — Allen's former teammate and a player with the Quakers while Donahue was with Penn in the 1990s — emphasized a significant amount of alumni support for Donahue.
"I think a lot of the former players and people close to the program ... I think it's common to have Steve Donahue's name close to the top of those people's lists," Krug said at the time. "I don't see how you can have a list that doesn't have Steve Donahue's name in big bold letters at the top. He coached here under two outstanding coaches ... and went on to do phenomenal things at Cornell. He won three Ivy titles at a school that had never competed for Ivy titles.
"To me, it's a no-brainer who the next coach should be."

• The Daily Pennsylvanian opines on the Donahue hire:

Well, that was easy.

Steve Donahue was the obvious candidate to replace Jerome Allen as Penn basketball head coach. And who did Penn Athletics select to fill the void left after Allen’s dismissal? Donahue.

Sometimes, it’s that simple.

In the end, Athletic Director Grace Calhoun went with the obvious hire, and, really, who can blame her? Donahue checks off everything you would normally be looking for in a new coach for the Quakers.

Overall coaching experience? No doubt, as the 52-year-old has spent 30 years in the business.

Penn and/or Ivy experience? 10 years as an assistant under Fran Dunphy and 10 years as the head coach of Cornell.

Ivy success? Three Ivy titles at Cornell.

His run at Cornell from 2008-10 was the best run ever by a school other than Penn or Princeton in the Ancient Eight ... that is, until Harvard’s reign began five years ago. That’s the issue: The current Ivy League is much different from the one Donahue left in 2010.

Since Donahue departed Cornell in 2010 for the job at Boston College, Tommy Amaker has built a dynasty at Harvard, painting the Ivy League Crimson with five straight Ivy League titles. Amaker has turned Harvard into what Penn and Princeton were for the last 50 years, an Ivy force that is renowned outside of the Ancient Eight. And while Donahue was at Boston College, he lost all four matchups with Harvard, struggling to compete with the Crimson in his own backyard.

It’s not just the Crimson either: The Ivy League as a whole is much better. Schools like Brown, Columbia and Dartmouth have emerged from the cellar of the Ancient Eight and put together squads worthy of postseason bids in recent years. Every squad outside of Donahue’s old Big Red squad has taken a turn in the league’s top four since he left and helped raise the profile of the mid-major conference.

And while Penn was still reeling after the Glen Miller firing when Donahue left Cornell five years ago, the program has seen further issues. The Quakers just endured their worst three-year stretch in program history, going a combined 26-61 while finishing tied for last place in the Ancient Eight this season.

Sufficiently scared? Don’t be.

At the end of the day, Donahue has won in the Ivy League. He has been through the process of building a program from the ground up and, while many cite luck in recruiting for his success at Cornell, there is no doubting his results.

“It’s not like he won a championship 20 years ago, his [last Ivy title] was within the last five years,” said 1978 College grad and former basketball player Stan Greene, who is also a member of the program’s board. “He took a bad program, made them Ivy League champions, became a top-25 team and advanced to the Sweet 16, so he’s proven and respected by the Penn community and the basketball community in general.”

Everyone around the program put in their two cents about the hiring, calling for up-and-coming assistants like Yanni Hufnagel or former Penn players like Andy Toole. Successful mid-major coaches like Jim Engles also received attention.

But Donahue was the obvious choice through and through. He is the man to turn around Penn basketball.

“If you hired the best search firm in the world and they did a really good job, I think that would be the first name they’d come up with,” said Fran O’Hanlon, a former Penn assistant alongside Donahue and current Lafayette head coach.

Donahue’s lack of success at Boston College appears to be the only drawback, but the job in Chestnut Hill, Mass. was simply too tough. The school’s priority is football, the Eagles can’t compete with ACC powers like Duke, Virginia and North Carolina and the resources available for the basketball program are limited.

Now Donahue is back where he belongs: at Penn and in the Ivy League. He isn’t a stunning, ambitious hire, but that isn’t what the Quakers need. The Red and Blue needed a proven coach who can take a strong freshman core and build.

“Even though we’re all shocked and sad that [Allen] is gone, it is still a breath of fresh air,” former Penn basketball guard Miles Jackson-Cartwright said.

And Jackson-Cartwright hits it right on the nose: This is a fresh start. A fresh start for Penn and a fresh start for Donahue after his firing at BC.

Getting back to the top of the Ivy League won’t be nearly this easy, but this is the right move by Calhoun.

So let the Donahue era begin.

• Big Apple Buckets opines on Donahue:

Penn announced the hiring of Steve Donahue as its new head men’s basketball coach Monday evening. Donahue, who will be officially introduced at a press conference this afternoon, was a Penn assistant from 1990-2000 before spending a decade as Cornell’s head coach and four years at Boston College. The hire, which was first reported by Dick Jerardi of the Philly Daily News, concludes a search that lasted just two weeks from when Jerome Allen was told he would not return next year.
The Quakers have won 26 conference titles, but none since 2007, when their three-year reign was snapped by Donahue’s Big Red. This season, Penn finished last in the conference (tied with Brown at 4-10), lost seven straight games for the first time, and capped three straight losing Ivy campaigns. Quakers fans are now counting on Donahue to return the program to glory.
The Ivy League is also counting on a Penn turnaround to continue its rise.
For most of the modern era, the Ivy League was a true low-major conference — one of the 10-12 worst overall conferences in Division I. Penn and Princeton were dominant within the league, producing some teams that ranked among the best mid-majors. But at the bottom, and even in the middle, the Ancient Eight was usually weak.
Things have been different this decade. Cornell broke up the Princeton-Penn hegemony with three straight league titles in 2008-10, while Harvard has claimed a share of at least the last five. Driven largely by improvements in need-based financial aid, the rest of the conference has started catching up, to the point where last-place finishers have won regular-season games over single-digit seeds in the NCAA tournament in two of the last three years (Columbia over Villanova in 2012-13, Brown over Providence this season).
As a result, the Ivy League has placed 14th in Ken Pomeroy’s conference ratings in each of the last two seasons, its highest rank ever:
Can the Ivy League keep rising from here? The following chart shows each team’s national rank from the last two seasons (per KenPom). It functions as a starting point to identify possible improvements:

KenPom Rank:	2014	2015	Avg.
Harvard	32	78	55
Yale	144	74	109
Princeton	101	150	126
Columbia	123	170	147
Dartmouth	236	160	198
Brown	160	256	208
Cornell	341	209	275
Penn	266	289	278

The Ivy League’s upside isn’t going to come from Harvard, which has already been a top mid-major in recent years. As long as Tommy Amaker’s recruiting machine keeps running, the Crimson shouldn’t fall too far. But they can’t expect to be better than a top 50-75 team year after year, and they’ll probably be closer to their 2015 level than their 2014 peak. Similarly, Yale has proven itself to be a solid program, but it will be hard to improve on its 100-ish average ranking.
Princeton should get better. After two years of key graduations, 2015 was something of a rebuild for the Tigers, who were better at the end of the year than the start. Princeton was between 75 and 100 in each of the prior three years, and it should return to that range going forward, perhaps as soon as next season. Columbia might also have some upside given its current momentum, though the Lions haven’t consistently put everything together yet.
Cornell’s disastrous 2014 skews the lower tier, and the Big Red, along with Dartmouth and Brown, will probably drift upward a bit over time, thanks to the effects of stronger recruiting and financial aid policies. But these are difficult places to win, and I don’t think any should be expected to consistently rank above the 150-200 range in the longer run. That’s not to say these teams can’t compete for the league title — there will be up years when everything goes well (as for Cornell recently), but also down years when they don’t.
That leaves Penn. Given their location, a history of success, and a passionate alumni base with an interest in supporting basketball, the Quakers have no business being last in the Ivy League. They were a top-100 team in four of Fran Dunphy’s final five years (and #106 in the fifth). If they escape their current doldrums, they can get back to that level, competing with Harvard, Princeton and Yale at the top of a stronger league.
Several Ivy League programs can improve in the medium-term, but Penn’s potential gains could have by far the biggest impact. If the Quakers had been an average D-I team this year, the Ivy League’s Pythagorean rating would have risen all the way to .520, leapfrogging the Big West for 13th place nationally. If Penn had been #100, the Ancient Eight would have been at .540, even with the Mountain West. Throw in better health for Columbia and a non-rebuilding year for Princeton, and the Ivy League passes the MAC and Missouri Valley for 10th — the range in which #2BidIvy is no longer a longshot.
I don’t know if Steve Donahue is the right person to lead Penn back to its former heights. But if he is, the Ivy League will be better off for it.

•  City of Basketball Love writes:

Before the 2014-15 season, after two straight years of single-digit wins and with a new athletic director in town, it was clear that Jerome Allen was running out of time at Penn if he didn’t turn things around.
And as the year went on and the Quakers limped along on their way to a 9-19 (4-10 Ivy League) season, one couldn’t help but start to think about who the potential replacements for Allen could be.
There was one name who always came first–Steve Donahue.
It made sense for a lot of reasons. New athletic director M. Grace Calhoun would want to go with someone who had Division I head coaching experience, something Allen had none of when now-retired AD Steve Bilsky promoted him from assistant coach–a position he’d held for all of seven games–after firing Glenn Miller that long into the 2009-10 season.
Donahue had 14 years as a Division I head coach, including a very successful 10-year run at Cornell from 2000-10 that saw him take the Big Red from a 7-win program in his first year to one that made three consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2008-10, culminating with a run to the Sweet 16 that got him a job at Boston College that offseason.
He wasn’t as successful at Boston College, going just 54-76 (.415) in four years there before his removal, but recruiting at the ACC level is completely different than in the Ivy League–and BC is the toughest job in that whole league. And Donahue knew Penn, having spent 10 years there as an assistant coach under Fran Dunphy from 1990-2000.
That’s far from Donahue’s only tie to the area. A Delaware County native, he coached at Springfield (Delco.), was an assistant to current Lafayette head coach Fran O’Hanlon at Monsignor Bonner HS in the 1980s and served under Herb Magee at Philly U for two years before joining Dunphy’s staff.
To top it all off, Donahue was working as a television analyst, and it was no secret he wanted to get back into coaching.
So maybe it’s no surprise it only took six days from the end of Penn’s season for Donahue to be announced as the 20th head coach in Quaker men’s basketball history, tasked with turning around a program that’s been historically one of the best in the Ivy League but had played its way down into the cellar.
He was the safe choice. But does that make him the right one?
Donahue wasn’t the only name out there that came up constantly whenever the prospect of a Penn coaching opening was discussed. Another Quaker alum and Dunphy disciple, Matt Langel, has increased his win total at Colgate in four straight years, and led a historically below-average Raiders program to a second-place finish in the the Patriot League this season and a program-best 12-6 record in league play.
One other current head coach whose name was mentioned was Robert Morris’ Andy Toole, who took the Colonials to the NCAA Tournament this season and gained national attention two years ago when RMU upset Kentucky in the first round of the NIT. Or Calhoun could have taken a riskier path and gone with a high-major assistant with Ivy League experience, like Cal’s Yanni Hufnagel or even one of Allen’s Penn assistants, Nat Graham.
They’re all younger than Donahue, though the 52-year-old is by no means anywhere near the end of his coaching career. They certainly don’t have the experience he does, but they’ve all been successful in what they’ve done thus far.
Clearly, Calhoun had her top target in mind all along, and got her man. While other coaching jobs across the country are just starting to open up as the season ends, she got a coach who would certainly have been fielding calls from numerous Division I institutions.
Ultimately, though, what Penn needed was a coach who could develop a group of players, because this isn’t a total reboot.
Donahue has some pieces to work with–while Allen couldn’t find success with his team in terms of wins and losses, he did a good job at bringing some talented student-athletes to Penn.
He’ll have a solid pair of seniors to help his transition next year in Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry, but what really makes the job attractive were this year’s freshmen. Guard Antonio Woods, sharpshooting wing Sam Jones and versatile power forward Mike Auger all look like they’re going to be mainstays of the Penn rotation for the next three years, and they’re going to be joined by some very talented newcomers in the fall.
Cherry Hill East point guard Jake Silpe and the Northfield Mount Hermon duo of big man Collin McManus and sharpshooting guard Jackson Donahue (whose older brother Sam played for Steve Donahue–no relation–at Boston College) all look like they’ll be playing right away, giving Donahue a very good young nucleus to build around.
That Calhoun made the least-risky hire, however, means that she and those around her will want to see improvement on a quicker scale than Allen brought it. If Donahue can’t starting winning with this group in a year or two, and can’t bring any talent in behind them, he won’t have six seasons to try and right the ship.
Donahue was the safe hire for Penn, and in all likelihood the smart one. It shouldn’t take very long to find out if he was the right one.

News and Notes:Monday Edition

Below, news and notes...

• Steve Donahue is the new head coach at Penn.  The Inquirer broke the news as follows:

Penn is set to announce that Steve Donahue will become the next head basketball coach, sources told the Daily News. A former Quakers assistant on the some of the best teams in school history before going on to be the head coach at Cornell and Boston College, Donahue, a Delaware County native who went to Ursinus, finished off a great run at Cornell in 2010 with three straight Ivy League titles and a Sweet 16 appearance. He parlayed that into the Boston College job, but, after some initial success (21 wins his first season), was let go after the 2013-14 season. He did not get to coach his initial recruiting class as seniors.
Cornell was 72-21 in his final 3 seasons. Donahue spent this season analyzing some games on television, but has always been anxious to get back into coaching. So the next coach knows the Ivy League, knows Penn, knows the Big 5 and knows Philly basketball.
A news conference will be held Tuesday at the Palestra to introduce Donahue.

• On Donahue, see a report from the Post Standard.  The Standard writes, "Steve Donahue, who took his 2010 Cornell basketball team on an improbable ride to the NCAA's Sweet 16, will become the new head coach at Penn, the Philadelphia Daily News is reporting.Donahue left Cornell for Boston College after guiding the Big Red to three straight Ivy League titles. His teams went 72-21 in his final 3 seasons in Ithaca.Despite his reputation as a solid, some said brilliant, strategist, Donahue's success did not spill over into his Boston College era. He was fired after four seasons at BC, where his teams compiled a 54-76 record.  The Daily News story said Donahue will be introduced at a news conference in the Palestra on Tuesday. He will replace Jerome Allen, who resigned last week. The Quakers were 26-61 over the past three seasons."  

• On Donahue, NBC Sports notes:

According to the Philadelphia Daily News' Dick Jerardi, former Boston College coach Steve Donahue has been named Penn basketball's next head coach.
Donahue started his coaching career at Cornell, posting a 146-138 record and making three straight NCAA Tournament appearances — including a Sweet 16 trip in 2010.
He was then hired away by Boston College, posting a 54-76 record in four seasons on Chestnut Hill. Donahue was fired following an 8-24 campaign in 2013-14.
Donahue's top assistant coach, Nat Graham, is currently on staff at Penn as an assistant coach. While Donahue spent the 2014-15 season working as a TV analyst, Graham chose to coach under the now-departed Jerome Allen.
The Quakers finished 9-19 in 2014-15, occupying sole possession of last place in the Ivy League for the first time in school history. They have not won an Ivy title since 2007.
According to Jerardi, Donahue will be introduced at a press conference at the Palestra Tuesday.

• The Daily Pennsylvanian writes on the Donahue hire:

Steve Donahue is the next Penn basketball head coach, according to Dick Jerardi of the Philadelphia Daily News.
If hired, Donahue will replace Jerome Allen, who spent five and a half seasons at the helm and had a 65-104 record as coach. A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the Palestra.
The hiring does not come out of the blue because of Donahue's connections to the Red and Blue. He spent 10 seasons as a Quakers assistant under former coach Fran Dunphy, helping Penn win five Ivy League titles in eight seasons in the 1990s, three of which came with Allen as the Quakers' star player. Additionally, Nat Graham — one of Allen's top assistants in 2014-15 — was Donahue's assistant at Cornell and Boston College.
Donahue left Penn to become the head coach at Cornell in 2000, where he also spent 10 seasons. In his final three seasons at Cornell, Donahue won three straight Ivy titles. It was the first time in Ivy history that a school other than Penn or Princeton won three consecutive Ancient Eight championships, a mark since replicated by Harvard over the course of the past five seasons.
In 2010, Donahue led Cornell to the Sweet 16, the farthest any Ivy team has made it in the NCAA Tournament since Penn's 1979 Final Four squad. Still, he had an opportunity to return to the Quakers before his Big Red squads established themselves as an Ancient Eight powerhouse from 2007 onward.
Following Dunphy's hiring at Temple in 2006, Donahue was considered one of the leading candidates to replace his former mentor. However, then-Athletic Director Steve Bilsky opted to hire then-Brown head coach Glen Miller as Dunphy's successor, passing over Donahue for a different individual with Ivy League head coaching experience.
Nine years later, following Allen's dismissal at the end of this season, Director of Athletics Grace Calhoun quickly moved to bring Donahue back into the fold at Penn. After informing Allen on March 2 that he would not return in 2015-16, Calhoun hired Donahue as Allen's replacement less than a week after the former's final game with the Quakers, a 73-52 loss to Princeton.
The success at Cornell propelled Donahue to a job at Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2010. After a successful first season in which the Eagles went 21-13, the squad fell on hard times, finishing with a losing record in three straight seasons. He was fired after the 2013-14 season and spent last year as a broadcaster for ESPN.
Despite his struggles at BC, Donahue remained a popular option to fill Allen's spot on the Palestra sidelines among former players and the program's board members. In speaking with The Daily Pennsylvanian last week, Tim Krug — Allen's former teammate and a player with the Quakers while Donahue was with Penn in the 1990s — emphasized a significant amount of alumni support for Donahue.
"I think a lot of the former players and people close to the program ... I think it's common to have Steve Donahue's name close to the top of those people's lists," Krug said at the time. "I don't see how you can have a list that doesn't have Steve Donahue's name in big bold letters at the top. He coached here under two outstanding coaches ... and went on to do phenomenal things at Cornell. He won three Ivy titles at a school that had never competed for Ivy titles.
"To me, it's a no-brainer who the next coach should be.

•  See the Boston College community reaction at BC Interruption and Legacy of Little Guys.

• An Ivy Hoops Online contributor is against a conference tournament and writes:

"The best Ivy team will have the opportunity to represent itself and the league against teams traditionally considered (sometimes for good reason) to be athletically superior. Cornell’s deep run into the Sweet Sixteen in 2010 was thrilling only because the Big Red were the best Ivy team and had a chance against teams like Temple and Wisconsin, ranked 12^th and 16^th in the country respectively, even though no one thought they did. They were outmatched in name alone, not necessarily in talent. The ability to actually compete with larger schools will be ceremoniously shot into the sun with the implementation of an Ivy League tournament."

• CBS Sports writes:

Saturday's 53-51 win over Yale at the Palestra gave the Crimson a fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance under Amaker. That's amazing, considering where this program was when he arrived in 2007. Before that, Harvard hadn't been in the Big Dance since 1946. Now, The Crimson are a symbol of Ivy League excellence. Princeton and Penn dominated the league in the 1990s and Cornell had a strong run under Steve Donahue from 2007-10. Now, Harvard is this league's flagship program. Keep this in mond when filling out youre bracket: Harvard has won Round of 64 games in consecutive years.

• Lafayette's Zach Rufer said he had an offer from Cornell in high school.

• The Washington Post on the firing of Paul Hewitt at George Mason writes, "This season began ominously with a home defeat to Cornell and six losses in the first eight games."

• Here is another look at Cornell's incoming 7-member frosh class for next season:

Stone Gettings (Loyola HS) Los Angeles, CA, 6-8, F
Matt Morgan (Cox Mill HS) Concord, NC, 6-2 G
Troy Whiteside (Webb School) Knoxville, TN, 6-4, G
Joel Davis (Wayne Country Day School) Goldsboro, NC, 6-3
Donovan Wright (Blair Academy) Blairstown, NJ, 6-6, F
Joseph Ritter (Woodrow Wilson HS) Dallas, TX, 6-8, F
Xavier Eaglin (Dayton HS) Raymond, TX, 6-7, F
Jack Gordon (St. Mark's School) Dallas, TX, 6-4, G

Matt Morgan was selected to the Carolinas All Star Classic, pitting the best of North Carolina against South Carolina.    Below are the rosters:

NORTH CAROLINA

Kentrell Barkley	Northern Durham
Jacque  Brown	East Carteret
Clarence Bryce	North Mecklenburg
Luke Maye	Hough	University of North Carolina
KiShawn Pritchett	Norman
Jerome Robinson	Broughton	Boston College
Matt Morgan	Cox Hill	Cornell
Hunter  Seacat	Lake Norman	William & Mary
Jaylen  Stowe	Hickory Ridge	Mercer
Jaquan  Wooten	South Lenoir

SOUTH CAROLINA

Andrew Brown	Travelers Rest	Furman
Malik Dunbar	Spring Valley
Karl Gamble Jr.	AC Flora	Middle Tennesee State
Deion Holmes	Chesnee	USC Upstate
Tyler Hooker	Hillcrest	East Tennesee State
Emarius Logan	White Knoll	Appalachian State
Tevin Mack	Dreher	VCU
Matthew Pegram	Wando	Wofford
Jaywaun Washington	Cross
Jalen Williams	Wade Hampton	Furman

News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, news and notes for Thursday...

• On Steve Donahue as a potential Penn coach, the Philly Inquirer writes:

There will be a caucus that backs Steve Donahue, as Inquirer columnist Mike Jensen does, and for very valid reasons. Donahue’s bona fides as a bench tactician are beyond reproach. his deep roots in the Philadelphia region.
But he’ll have to overcome questions about how much the Ivy League has changed since his glory days at Cornell and Penn.
And his backers among Penn alumni will have to overcome questions about what their true motive is. Do they truly believe he can win an Ivy League title, given how high Harvard has raised the bar? Do they see a Donahue hire as making good to their guy for his having been passed over in 2006, when Steve Bilsky hired Glen Miller?

• The Worcester Telegram lists Donahue as a candidate for Holy Cross, but Jersey Guy thinks he is a no brainer for Penn.

• The Auburn Citizen writes, "Well, you could root for another team and I have one in mind. As all of you know, Syracuse isn't the only Division I men's basketball team in upstate New York. Cornell, Colgate, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Buffalo, Niagara, St. Bonaventure, Canisius, Siena and Marist also play but sadly, their seasons didn't result in a NCAA tournament bid."

• The Tuscon Sun writes:

Cornell grad Tarwater benefitting Bears

Partly because it's pretty tough to get into one of Cal's postgraduate programs, the Bears had never had one of those increasingly common grad transfers join their program. Until Tarwater did this season, having brought in some significant academic cred as a graduate of Cornell.
Especially after sophomore Kameron Rooks went down with a knee injury last summer, the Bears needed help up front. And Tarwater said he wanted to play at the highest level of college basketball for his final season of eligibility when he graduated last spring.
"It worked out great," Tarwater said. "It's been an amazing opportunity."
Tarwater said he is planning to finish a two-year master's degree in Public Health next year.

• The Chicago Tribune writes of Highland Park High School,  "This year's seniors became just the second Highland Park senior class to register back-to-back 20-win seasons after former Cornell guard Chris Wroblewski led the class of 2008 to the same feat seven years ago."

• Anchor of Gold mentions Nolan Cressler.

• The Ivy League named Shonn Miller First Team All Ivy League and writes of him:

...Cornell senior forward Shonn Miller (Euclid, Ohio) came back from a season-long injury a year ago to earn his second first-team All-Ivy honor. He became the fifth Big Red player to earn first-team All-Ivy honors at least twice, joining Bob DeLuca (1965-66), John Bajusz (1985-86-87), Louis Dale (2008-09-10) and Ryan Wittman (2008-09-10). Miller ranked second in the Ivy League in scoring (16.8 ppg.), rebounding (8.5 rpg.) and free-throw percentage (.834) and among the top 10 in blocks (fourth, 1.8) and steals (eighth, 1.3)...

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Justin Sears, Yale (Jr., F - Plainfield, N.J.)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Miles Wright, Dartmouth (Fr., G - Boston)

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Steve Moundou-Missi, Harvard (Sr., F - Yaounde, Cameroon)

COACH OF THE YEAR
James Jones, Yale

FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY
*Maodo Lo, Columbia (Jr., G - Berlin)
*Shonn Miller, Cornell (Sr., F - Euclid, Ohio)
*Wesley Saunders, Harvard (Sr., G/F - Los Angeles)
*Javier Duren, Yale (Sr., G - St. Louis)
*Justin Sears, Yale (Jr., F - Plainfield, N.J.)

SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY^
Cedric Kuakumensah, Brown (Jr., F - Worcester, Mass.)
Gabas Maldunas, Dartmouth (Sr., C - Panevezys, Lithuania)
Alex Mitola, Dartmouth (Jr., G - Florham Park, N.J.)
Siyani Chambers, Harvard (Jr., G - Golden Valley, Minn.)
Steve Moundou-Missi, Harvard (Sr., F - Yaounde, Cameroon)
Steve Cook, Princeton (So., F - Winnetka, Ill.)
Spencer Weisz, Princeton (So., F - Florham Park, N.J.)

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Rafael Maia, Brown (Sr., F - Sao Paulo)
Tony Hicks, Penn (Jr., G - South Holland, Ill.)

*Unanimous Selection
^Second team expanded from five players due to ties in voting

• Cornell Athletics adds on Miller:

ITHACA, N.Y. – The ballots for the 2014-15 All-Ivy League team looked nearly exactly the same, and each listed senior Shonn Miller as a first-team pick. The Cornell electric forward became the fifth player in school history to earn first-team All-Ivy honors at least twice in a career when the league announced the results of the vote by the conference's eight head coaches.

All five first-team selections were unanimous, with Miller joined by Yale Javier Duren and Justin Sears, Wesley Saunders of Harvard and Maodo Lo of Columbia. Sears was named Player of the Year, Harvard's Steve Moundou-Missi was the Defensive Player of the Year and Dartmouth's Miles Wright captured Rookie of the Year. After guiding Yale to a share of the Ancient Eight title, James Jones earned Coach of the Year accolades.

After missing the 2013-14 season due to injury, Miller regained his spot on the all-Ivy League first team that he also was selected to in 2012-13. In doing so, he became the fifth player in school history to earn first-team All-Ivy honors at least twice. He joins a list that includes Bob DeLuca (1965-66), John Bajusz (1985-86-87), Louis Dale (2008-09-10) and Ryan Wittman (2008-09-10).

Miller ranked second in the Ivy League in scoring (16.8 ppg.), rebounding (8.5 rpg.) and free-throw percentage (.834) and among the top 10 in blocks (fourth, 1.8) and steals (eighth, 1.3). The conference's leader in defensive rebounds, he ranks sixth nationally (7.53 per game). Overall, he ranks in the top 100 nationally in 11 different categories.

A two-time Ivy League Player of the Week, Miller recorded 11 double-doubles on the season and matched a school record with 18 in his three-year career. Miller became the school's seventh player to reach 500 points in a season with his 505 as a season. He became the first player to score 500 points and register 250 rebounds in a season, and also became the first Cornellian and fifth Ivy player to record 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, 100 blocks and 100 steals in a career.

Miller closed his Cornell career with a flourish, scoring at least 23 points in four of his final five games and averaging 22.0 points and 9.8 rebounds per game over that span. He had three different games of at least 15 rebounds and 12 games with at least 20 points.

In just three seasons, Miller did his best making his mark on the school's record book. He sits in the top 20 all-time in scoring (19th, 1,065), rebounding (14th, 608), steals (11th, 126), blocked shots (fourth, 154), free throws made (13th, 266) and free-throw percentage (18th. .785).

With Miller back in the lineup, Cornell became one of the nation's most improved team. The Big Red improved by a school record 11 wins, improving from two wins to a 13-17 finish that included fifth place in the conference after being picked to place last in the preseason.

News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Below, news and notes for Tuesday...

• The Ivy League named Shonn Miller to its weekly Honor Roll and notes:

Shonn Miller, Cornell (Sr., F - Euclid, Ohio)
25 points, 8 rebounds at Princeton
23 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals at Penn

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Week 1, 11/17/14-Shonn Miller, Cornell
Week 2, 11/24/14-Justin Sears, Yale
Week 3, 12/1/14-Wes Saunders, Harvard
Week 4, 12/8/14-Javier Duren, Yale
Week 5, 12/15/14-Cedric Kuakumensah, Brown*
Week 6, 12/22/14-Maodo Lo, Columbia
Week 7,12/29/14-Shonn Miller, Cornell
Week 8, 1/5/15-Javier Duren, Yale
Week 9, 1/12/15-Henry Caruso, Princeton
Week 10, 1/19/15-Javier Duren, Yale
Week 11, 1/26/15-Justin Sears, Yale/Alex Mitola, Dartmouth
Week 12, 2/2/15-Justin Sears, Yale
Week 13, 2/9/15-Wes Saunders, Harvard
Week 14, 2/16/15-Justin Sears, Yale
Week 15, 2/23/15-Maodo Lo, Columbia/Wes Saunders, Harvard
Week 16, 3/2/15-Justin Sears, Yale/Malik Gill, Dartmouth
Week 17, 3/9/15-Maodo Lo, Columbia

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK

Week 1, 11/17/14-Antonio Woods, Penn
Week 2, 11/24/14-Mike Auger, Penn
Week 3, 12/1/14-Amir Bell, Princeton
Week 4, 12/8/14-Darnell Foreman, Penn
Week 5, 12/15/14-Sam Jones, Penn*
Week 6, 12/22/14-Kyle Castlin, Columbia
Week 7, 12/30/14-Aaron Young, Princeton
Week 8, 1/5/15-Kyle Castlin, Columbia
Week 9, 1/12/15-Makai Mason, Yale
Week 10, 1/19/15-Antonio Woods, Penn
Week 11, 1/26/15-Aaron Young, Princeton
Week 12, 2/2/15-Kyle Castlin, Columbia
Week 13, 2/9/15-Miles Wright, Dartmouth
Week 14, 2/16/15-Miles Wright, Dartmouth
Week 15, 2/23/15-Antonio Woods, Penn
Week 16, 3/2/15-Antonio Woods, Penn
Week 17, 3/9/15-Antonio Woods, Penn

* = Cornell idle

• Cornell is now the only Ivy League team to not have participated in the postseason since the 2010-2011 season.  See the Valley News on Dartmouth's invite to the CIT.  Other low points for Cornell in the last five seasons include the following:
• Last year, Cornell (2-26 in 2013-2014) suffered its worst season in program history, dating back to 1898;
• Cornell has suffered five consecutive seasons under .500 overall;
• Cornell has suffered five consecutive seasons in the "lower division" of the Ivy League;
• Cornell has suffered five consecutive overall losing seasons;
• Cornell has suffered four of its last five seasons under .500 in Ivy League play.

• On the NCAA Tournament, The Wichita Eagle writes, "The difference between a No. 4 and No. 5 is significant. In the past five seasons (ignoring First Four games), No. 13 seeds are 6-20 in the tournament with two schools (LaSalle, Ohio) in the Sweet 16. No. 12 seeds are 13-20 with three Sweet 16s (Oregon, Richmond, Cornell)."
  
  Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/shockwaves/article13097525.html#storylink=cp"

• The Daily Pennsylvanian analyzes Penn's coaching candidates and two of them have Cornell connections:

Steve Donahue

Current Position: ESPN college basketball announcer
Coaching Record: 146-138, 78-62 Ivy in 10 seasons at Cornell; 54-76 in four seasons at Boston College.
Resume: Of any candidate for Penn’s head coaching position, Donahue has the most Ivy League success on his resume. Donahue served as a long-time assistant at Penn from 1990-2000 under former head coach Fran Dunphy. The Quakers won five Ivy titles during that span, including three straight titles from 1993-95 with Allen as the star player. Donahue moved from an assistant at Penn to the head coaching position at Cornell, where he served for 10 years. His tenure started out slowly but his Big Red squads finished above .500 in Ivy play during each of his last six years.
From 2008-10, Donahue’s Cornell teams won three straight Ivy titles while making the Sweet 16 in 2010. It was the first time in Ivy history that a school other than Penn or Princeton won three consecutive titles, a mark that has since been achieved by Tommy Amaker and Harvard. Following the 2010 season, Donahue moved on to Boston College to become the head coach. The Eagles did not make the NCAA Tournament during Donahue’s four years at BC and he was fired after the 2013-14 season.
Why he should be hired: There are plenty of positives for Donahue, who ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reported will be a serious candidate for the position. He has a clear familiarity with Penn and the Ivy League from the first 20 years of his time as a Division I coach. He brings an analytical approach to the game (just watch one of his ESPN broadcasts) that could be an interesting change of pace for Penn. Furthermore, Donahue’s top assistant is already on staff for Penn as Nat Graham moved to Penn after Donahue’s ouster at BC. While any potential coach could choose to keep one of the current assistants on staff, that kind of familiarity between Donahue and Graham could prove invaluable.
Question Marks: While Donahue’s success at Cornell is undeniable, the question becomes how Penn will view his exit at Boston College. If Calhoun and company are willing to overlook his losing record in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Donahue’s chances of getting the job become significantly higher.

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Yanni Hufnagel

Current Position: Assistant coach at California
Coaching Record: No Division I head coaching experience
Resume: The 32-year-old assistant may be one of the hottest coaching commodities out there with a sterling reputation as a top-notch recruiter. Hufnagel graduated from Cornell in 2006 and moved to a graduate assistant role at Oklahoma while current Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin was there. After working in Norman from 2007-09, he found his way to Amaker’s staff at Harvard, where he flourished. The Crimson went 90-30 with Hufnagel on the sidelines while the young assistant had a large hand in getting some strong recruits to Cambridge. He also played a significant role in developing Harvard’s backcourt, including players like Jeremy Lin, Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers.
After four seasons at Harvard, Hufnagel moved to Vanderbilt last season to serve as an assistant for Kevin Stallings. He was Vanderbilt’s recruiting coordinator and helped land a strong freshman class for Commodores. Hufnagel joined Cal's new head coach, Cuonzo Martin, prior to this season, working as an assistant for the Golden Bears.
Why he should be hired: Hufnagel is a coach on the rise and will be highly sought after when he looks for his first head coaching position. His ability to recruit should have athletic directors around the nation drooling since he can turn around a program with quality players. His upbeat and positive personality is a plus as well. Hufnagel has also worked within the Ivy League recently and played a significant role into turning Harvard into the mini-dynasty the Crimson have become. Penn would likely be one of the jobs in the Ancient Eight that would entice Hufnagel despite his status as an assistant at a Power Five conference school.
Question Marks: The only question here is whether Penn is willing to overlook his lack of Division I head coaching experience. Hufnagel has proven himself within the Ivy League and is likely to be well on his way to become a head coach somewhere, but the fact remains that he does not possess the type of head coaching experience that Donahue and Toole (to name a few) do. Will that be held against him? Only time will tell.