Friday, April 28, 2006

Another Griffin?

(Originally posted Wednesday at 10:37 a.m., updated at 6:37 a.m.)

UPDATE:
Corky Blake of the Express-Times e-mailed us a little more on Kyle Griffin, the Germantown Academy junior mentioned in this post as having been offered a scholarship by Bucknell. Griffin is the son of Bill (former Lehigh standout of late 70s) and Mimi Griffin (former women's hoops commentator and big-time golf organizer). Kyle went to Allentown Central Catholic for two seasons, then transferred to Germantown Academy.

Bill Griffin, who ranks ninth on Lehigh's all-time scoring list, played at Lehigh from 1976 to 1979, his career overlapping with Pat Flannery's playing days at Bucknell.

ORIGINAL POST:
In a story on the Coaches vs. Cancer All-Star Doubleheader in Conshohocken (outside Philly), the Philadelphia Daily News reports 6-3 junior guard Kyle Griffin of Germantown Academy has two scholarship offers thus far, one from Bucknell, the other from Siena.

Griffin, who scored 11 points, dished a pair of assists and made 3 steals for a private schools side in a 96-89 loss to kids from the suburbs, is also receiving interest from Stanford, La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Old Dominion, Richmond, George Mason, UAB and Xavier, according to the Daily News.

While he shares a last name with Bucknell guard John Griffin, Kyle is not related to the Bison sophomore.

Rule change could aid scheduling

The old two in four rule that limited teams to two multi-team tournaments in four years was eliminated Thursday by the NCAA.

That could be good news for the Patriot League since, as the Albany Times Union reports, it paves the way for Siena to go ahead with plans for an eight-team conference challenge to be played in November at the Pepsi Arena in Albany.

The idea is a good one. One team from each of eight mid-major conferences, with each team playing one home and one away game before converging on Albany, where each will play two more.

The Times Union says the tournament would follow a "challenge" formula, with all teams playing prescheduled matchups, instead of an elimination "Tournament" format. No champion would be crowned.

The Patriot League is mentioned as one of the potential conferences that might participate, along with the Ivy League, Northeast Conference and Colonial Athletic Association.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Scheduling woes for Bucknell

Tom Housenick of the Daily Item checks in today with a story on Bucknell's scheduling problems.

Housenick says it looks like the Bison will be true road warriors this season, since Pat Flannery is having a tough time getting anybody to agree to come to Lewisburg. Right now, Northern Iowa's Bracket Busters return trip is the Bison's only non-conference home game. There is also a possibility the Bison could host a Bracket Busters game this season (they are set to take part again).

Otherwise, with what Housenick figures to be five dates yet to be filled on the Bison non-conference slate, even road games are tough for Flannery to find.
"We're working on trying to get some people to come here, to get some home games," Flannery said. "And we thought we had some guarantee games, but now, they don't want to play us."
Of course one possible solution Bucknell might have to look at is to use some of its NCAA Tournament bounty to buy a home date or two itself.

With Bucknell's attendance, it would be able to make such offers to visitors if it actually generated much revenue from its home games. But with the free tickets for students, faculty and staff policy, there's not much of a ticket sales pot to dip into.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Latest from Ralph

In his latest post on Coach Ralph.com, Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard takes issue with alums who were critical of his players this season and updates the status of a host of HC players with injury/health woes.

We've said it before, we'll say it again: Willard's site is a must-click for PL hoops fans.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Miller time?

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Brown coach Glenn Miller will be introduced Wednesday afternoon as Penn's new coach.

A former UConn assistant, Miller reportedly beat out three other finalists, former Penn assistant Steve Donahue of Cornell, Billy Taylor of Lehigh and Penn assistant Dave Duke for the job vacated when Fran Dunphy left to take the Temple job.

Meanwhile, Lehigh has released an excerpt from a letter Billy Taylor sent to Lehigh alumni supporters regarding the various jobs he interviewed for since the season ended. One of those schools was Penn, and Taylor had been considered the frontrunner there as late as last weekend.

Taylor's chances fading?

Just a few days after being anointed the favorite to replace Fran Dunphy at Pen, Lehigh coach Billy Taylor's star does not appear to be shining as brightly in Penn AD Steve Bilsky's eyes.

According to this morning's Philadelphia Daily News Brown coach Glenn Miller, a former UConn assistant, now appears to be the favorite for the job.

The People Paper reports that Miller and Cornell coach Steve Donahue, another former Dunphy assistant, have both had second interviews at Penn. Taylor has not had a return visit as of yet, the Daily News says.

Sources tell the paper an announcement could come as soon as tomorrow.

Sanchez returns to Worcester

From Holy Cross Sports Information:

The College of the Holy Cross has named Guillermo Sanchez an assistant men's basketball coach, as announced by head coach Ralph Willard. Sanchez replaces Darryl Hillard, who left recently to accept a position at Hampton University.

Sanchez comes to Holy Cross from Assumption College, where he served as an assistant coach during the 2005-2006 season. He previously served as an assistant coach at Dominican College in Orangeburg, N.Y., during the 2004-2005 campaign, helping the Chargers to a sixth place finish in the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference.

A native of Long Island City, N.Y., Sanchez graduated from Holy Cross in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He was a three-year letterwinner for the Crusaders during the 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 seasons, and was a part of two teams which won Patriot League titles and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

The Crusaders finished the 2005-2006 season with an overall record of 20-12, and finished in second place in the Patriot League with an 11-3 mark in conference games.

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