Q&A with Yale coach Allison Guth

IHO writer Richard Kent caught up recently with Yale women’s basketball coach Allison Guth as she enters her fifth season helming the Bulldogs, who have registered winning campaigns each of the past three seasons. (Ivy League Digital Network)

Ivy Hoops Online: Tell us a bit about your freshmen and how much contribution you expect to get from them.

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Penn needs to go public with the results and reforms of its admissions investigation

It has been 15 months since news broke about former men’s basketball head coach Jerome Allen receiving bribes from Florida businessman Philip Esformes to place Esformes’s son, Morris Esformes, onto the recruited athlete list for the entering Fall 2015 class.  The information, which was revealed as federal authorities were investigating the elder Esformes for healthcare fraud, led to bribery charges against Allen.  Since that time, Allen and Philip Esformes were found guilty and sentenced for their crimes, while the younger Esformes graduated from Penn’s Wharton School.

In March, Yale was caught up in the national Operation Varsity Blues admission scandal, when its former women’s soccer head coach Rudy Meredith was alleged to have taken bribes to place students on his recruited athlete list.  Meredith plead guilty to his actions and is awaiting sentencing.  Of the two recruited students, one was admitted for the fall of 2018 and had her acceptance rescinded.

Looking at the responses to these scandals by the two Ivy League institutions, one has been open and one has been far from forthcoming.

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Ivy League women’s basketball preseason power rankings

Ivy Hoops Online’s writing staff voted on where all eight Ivy women’s and men’s basketball teams would end up for the 2019-20 season. Our projected order of finish for the women:

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Ivy League men’s basketball preseason power rankings

Ivy Hoops Online’s writing staff voted on where all eight Ivy men’s and women’s basketball teams would end up for the 2019-20 season. Our projected order of finish for the men (and the women’s rankings here):

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Ivy 60 for 60: Justin Sears

Justin Sears excelled with joy in his four-year Yale basketball career, becoming just the sixth man to be named Ivy Player of the Year twice. (Justin Sears | Twitter)

Ivy Hoops Online announces the next entry in Ivy 60 for 60, our series running through 60 of the greatest players in Ivy League men’s basketball history to continue celebrating six decades of modern Ivy League basketball. An Ivy 60 for 60 for Ivy women’s basketball will follow.

He is the only player in the history of Yale basketball to be Ivy Player of the Year two years in a row. He was a fan favorite at John J. Lee Amphitheater throughout his career.  He hails from Plainfield, N.J.  He was a high school star with scholarship offers from many high level D-1 teams, but he chose academics first, much to the satisfaction of his parents.

His name is Justin Sears.

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Yale women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

Yale started out the last week of the summer by announcing a new set of admission policies for recruited athletes in the wake of the Operation Varsity Blues scandal on Wednesday.  Two days later, heading into Labor Day weekend, the athletic department followed with a posting of the women’s basketball schedule for the 2019-20 season.

Coach Allison Guth’s fifth season in charge of the Bulldogs features a strong 13-game non-conference schedule which will have her team facing nine teams that made the postseason in 2019. The Elis will challenge Mercer, North Carolina, Quinnipiac, and UCLA, which went to the NCAA Tournament, while taking on WNIT participants Fresno State, Loyola Marymount, Northeastern, Providence, and Sacred Heart.

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Ivy 60 for 60: Rick Kaminsky

 

Rick Kaminsky averaged 20 points and 8.3 rebounds per game over the course of his three-year varsity basketball career at Yale. (Yale Class of 64)

Ivy Hoops Online announces the next entry in Ivy 60 for 60, our series running through 60 of the greatest players in Ivy League men’s basketball history after a hiatus to continue celebrating six decades of modern Ivy League basketball. An Ivy 60 for 60 for Ivy women’s basketball will follow.

Bill Bradley is without question the greatest Ivy League player ever. The 1965 Princeton graduate and New York Knicks star was rarely, if ever, held at bay.

But there is one exception. And that player played for Yale.

Rick Kaminsky, Yale ’64, had many great duels and battles with Bradley, both home and on the road. Kaminsky himself may be the greatest Eli hoopster of them all.

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Ivy 60 for 60: John J. Lee

John J. Lee graced the cover of the Jan. 21, 1957 edition of Sports Illustrated, a cover that incidentally grabbed the attention of a high school freshman named Bill Bradley, who realized then that an Ivy League education could coexist with basketball excellence. (SI Covers).

Ivy Hoops Online announces the next entry in Ivy 60 for 60, our series running through 60 of the greatest players in Ivy League men’s basketball history after a hiatus to continue celebrating six decades of modern Ivy League basketball. An Ivy 60 for 60 for Ivy women’s basketball will follow.

There was a time when Yale basketball games were played at Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

The Yale men’s and women’s basketball teams now play at John J. Lee Amphitheater.

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Miye Oni signs contract with Utah Jazz

Miye Oni is under contract with the Utah Jazz.

Miye Oni is under contract as a Jazzman.

The Utah Jazz announced Monday that the team signed Oni to a contract, giving Oni an opportunity to keep his momentum toward a NBA career going after the Jazz got him in the NBA Draft last month with the No. 58 pick via a trade with the Golden State Warriors, becoming the first player drafted from the since Penn’s Jerome Allen.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Andy Siegel of Early Bird Rights reported on Twitter the contract was a three-year deal with only the first year guaranteed.

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