Courtney Banghart made her first assistant coaching decision on Tuesday, bringing former Princeton assistant coach Carrie Moore to Chapel Hill. In addition to being an assistant at North Carolina, Moore will also assume the role of recruiting coordinator. She worked for Banghart as the Tigers’ Director of Basketball Operations from 2008 – 2010 and an assistant from 2016-2019. From 2010-2015, Moore served as an assistant at Creighton.
“She has been a critical teammate with all parts of the Princeton program, and brings talent, compassion, enthusiasm, hard work, knowledge, and authentic care for others to her everyday,” Banghart told North Carolina Athletics. “She is a difference maker and simply put, I’m better when having her by my side.”
Another Banghart assistant, Cinnamon Lister, left the Tigers program and joined the UC Irvine in the same capacity. Lister spent one year at Princeton before returning home to Southern California. She started her basketball career at Boise State before transferring to Cal State Northridge, where she played from 2013-2015. After three years of pro ball in Morocco and Cyprus, she returned to enter the coaching ranks.
The Tigers were not the only Ivy power to lose an assistant coach this week. Long-time Penn women’s assistant Bernadette Laukaitis was named head coach of Holy Family University (PA) on Wednesday afternoon. Laukaitis played for Penn coach Mike McLaughlin during her four years, 1996-2000, at HFU and later joined his staff for the next eight seasons. After a one-year stint coaching Cabrini College to a 23-5 record and an appearance in the Division III NCAA Tournament, she came to Penn and rejoined McLaughlin. During the next 10 years, she helped the Quakers to six straight 20-plus win seasons, two Big 5 titles, four Ivy League championships, three NCAA Tournament berths and one Ivy Tournament championship.
“For the past 10 years at Penn and for over 20 years in all, I have been so fortunate to have had Bern by my side.” McLaughlin told Penn Athletics. “This is such a bittersweet time for me as I see her move on from Penn Women’s Basketball, a program that she has poured her heart and soul into every day for the last 10 years, but I am excited to see her take her talents to Holy Family University and ready to support her as she instills that same love and passion on the women’s basketball program there.”
With Moore and Laukaitis in new jobs, two of our potential candidates for the Princeton head coaching job are off the board. We still have Megan Griffith (Columbia head coach), Chessie Jackson (TCNJ head coach), Milena Flores (former Princeton assistant coach), Addie Micir (Princeton assistant coach), Mike Roux (Harvard associate head coach), Tricia Fabbri (Quinnipiac head coach) and Amy Vachon (Maine head coach) still on the board.
IHO veteran Ian Wenik wrote for Citywire about former Princeton All-Ivy selection Dan Mavraides working toward making it into the 2020 Summer Olympics via the games’ inaugural 3×3 Tournament.
William McCormack of the Yale Daily News has an extended profile of Miye Oni, the viola-playing, cereal-loving Ivy League Player of the Year, who is looking to be the first Ancient Eight player drafted since 1995. Expected to be a mid-to-late second round pick, the junior has until May 29th to withdraw from the draft and return to Yale for his senior season.
Princeton’s Bella Alarie, the two-time Ivy Player of the Year, was chosen by USA Basketball to compete on the national team for this summer’s Pan Am Games. Alarie, along with Penn’s Eleah Parker, were two of the 35 athletes invited to U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs between May 16th and 20th to compete for spots on the 12-person team that will compete in Lima, Peru from August 6-10. Alarie last represented the Stars & Stripes in the summer of 2017, when she was the starting forward for the silver-medalists in the U-19 FIBA World Cup.
Three graduating members of Brown basketball picked up honors at the Athletic Department’s 11th Annual Senior Celebration. Obi Okolie was given the Fritz Polland Award, which goes to the outstanding male varsity athlete of the year. This past season, Okolie was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, as well as a member of the All-Ivy second team. His teammate Chris Sullivan was named male Senior Speaker for the school’s May 26th graduation. Sullivan, the last of three brothers who played for the basketball team (Peter ’11, Matt ’13), was given this honor based on his commitment to athletics, academics and community service.
Women’s tri-captain Erika Steeves was given the Frederick “Doc” Marvel 1894 Award, which goes to one female and male senior varsity athletes who have best represented Brown over their careers by embodying excellence in scholarship, athletic performance, integrity, leadership, and community outreach. Steeves played in a program-best 114 games played, and leaves as the only player to score over 1,200 points, 800 rebounds and 200 assists.
At Yale Athletics’s recent Student-Athlete Reception, Trey Phills was named a recipient of the Ford Student-Athlete Community Outreach Award. The award goes to the male and female athlete who have demonstrated commitment to strengthening the relationship between Yale Athletics and the New Haven community.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee on May 10 proposed moving the three-point line to the international basketball distance of 22 feet, 1¾ inches. One rationale for the change is to slow the trend of the three-point shot becoming too prevalent in men’s college basketball by making the shot a bit more challenging, while at the same time keeping the shot an integral part of the game.
The rule would be effective for the 2019-2020 season, if approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel on June 5th.This rule change could significantly effect those Ivy teams that focused heavily on the three ball – Penn (three point rate 44.3%; #43 nationally), Cornell (42.4%, #86), Harvard (42.1%; #91), Brown (40.8%, #118), Princeton (40.5%; #125), and Dartmouth (40%, #139).
That same day, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee approved an experimental rule to use the international three-point line for postseason events in 2020, excluding the NCAA championships. The decision will move the line to 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches from its present 20 feet, 9 inches. This past year, Division 1 teams shot 31.6 percent from beyond the arc, averaging all-time highs of 6.05 made three point field goals and 19.13 attempts per game.
Penn alum John Engles (1972-1976) was inducted into the Old-Timers Hall of Fame May 3 by the Basketball Old-Timers of America. Engles, a Parade and Scholastic Magazine All-America at St. Peter’s High School in Staten Island, was named ECAC Rookie of the Year and Ivy League Sophomore of the Year. After two major knee surgeries, Engles returned to action in his senior year, averaging 16.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, while being named first team All-Big 5 and second team All-America. For his career, Engles finished with 1,038 points and was named to the Hall of Fames for the Big Five in 1995 and Penn Athletics in 2003.
That same evening, former Manhattan and St. John’s coach Fran Fraschilla, father of former Harvard player (2013-2017) and current Villanova Graduate Assistant Matt Fraschilla, was also inducted.
In Ivy League athletic news, the Boston Globe reviewed Ancient Eight coaching endowments and found that families endowed these coaching positions shortly before their children went on to attend these schools or would play on teams led by the very coach whose position or team the parents had endowed. The Globe and Inside Higher Ed reached out to experts to look at the ethical issues associated with this issue.