Penn women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

2019 Ivy League regular season co-champion Penn released its full schedule on Friday, revealing a 13-game nonconference schedule that is highlighted by games against Philly’s City 6 and holiday visits to Tobacco Road and Honolulu.

The Quakers, which went 4-1 overall against its neighbors and just missed out on winning back-to-back Big Five championships last season, will again face Drexel, La Salle, St. Joseph’s, Temple and Villanova.  The Red & Blue, which played four of those games at the Palestra last season, will have to play four of five on the road in 2019-20.

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Ivy 60 for 60: Steve Bilsky & Dave Wohl

Steve Bilsky (10) helmed the offense for the greatest team in Ivy League history .., 
… and Dave Wohl was a primary scorer in that offense. (Photos: Bob Immerman)

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.

In May of 1967, a cryptic but prescient one-paragraph article was to be found hidden away in the the nether regions of the Philadelphia Inquirer sports section. It stated that Steve Bilsky, Dave Wohl and Jim Wolf were about to become the core components of the 1967-68 Digger Phelps-recruited Penn freshman squad which could possibly be the “best freshman team in the country.”

In 1967, this meant a great deal.

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The Jerome Allen story: A closer read

Jerome Allen was inducted into Class X of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017. He’s no longer in the Hall of Fame now, and understandably so, But the good he did for Penn shouldn’t be shunted aside either. (Penn Sports Network video)

It was one year ago today that allegations that Jerome Allen took bribes were first reported by Bloomberg and the Miami Herald.

But the passage of time didn’t make Sports Illustrated’s deep dive last week into how Jerome Allen became guilty of bribery, wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion any easier to digest.

Most Penn basketball supporters will find it an uncomfortable read, but its revelations are simply too many to ignore.

They reconfirm what we already knew – one of Penn basketball’s most admired figures used his head coaching position for personal gain at the expense of the program.

But taken as a whole, the article’s revelations paint a far more holistic portrait than that.

Allen is and will always be more than an implicated figure on a witness stand, and his story as told by SI merits closer examination – as do the institutions and forces that shaped it. As someone who covered Allen and Penn basketball extensively for the Daily Pennsylvanian from 2012 to 2014, I thought I’d do a closer read of SI’s story, portions of which are italicized below.

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Former Penn captain Dau Jok deploys to Iraq

Dau Jok spoke at the Penn School of Arts & Sciences Commencement in 2014, one of many honors that Jok has earned through his educational programming and advocacy. (Penn Hillel)

WHO TV in Des Moines, Iowa reported earlier this week that Dau Jok, a member of Penn basketball from 2010 to 2014, departed Monday for Iraq as a member of the United States Army Reserve’s 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command.  According to the station, Jok and his unit will be in Iraq for at least a year.

Jok, along with his younger brother Peter were born in Khartoum, Sudan.  When Dau was six and Peter three, their father Dut, a general in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, was killed during the Second Sudanese Civil War.  Their grandfather Jok Dau Kachuol, the chief of their village, would be killed in 2010, during a clash between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers and armed civilians.

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Jerome Allen removed from Penn Athletics Hall of Fame

Jerome Allen was inducted into Class X of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017. (Penn Sports Network video)

Ivy Hoops Online reported early Tuesday morning on Jerome Allen’s sentencing in federal court for accepting bribes from a Florida businessman to place his son on the Quakers’ recruited athletes list.  At the conclusion of the article, we noted that Allen’s name was no longer on the online list of Penn Athletics Hall of Fame honorees.

While Allen’s individual Hall of Fame page was still accessible, his name could not be found on the site’s “Listing of Hall of Fame inductees by sport”.

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Jerome Allen to stay with Boston Celtics

Jerome Allen will remain with the Boston Celtics organization as an assistant coach following his sentencing to four years probation Monday for accepting bribes from a Florida businessman to place his son on the Quakers’ recruited athletes list, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Allen faces six months of house arrest, and the Celtics recently hired Joe Mazzulla and Kara Lawson as assistant coaches.
But Allen’s house arrest will allow him to travel to work, and the Mazzulla and Lawson hirings were not related to Allen’s situation.
The Celtics did not provide a statement on Allen after a request was made by Ivy Hoops Online.

Former Penn coach Jerome Allen sentenced to four years probation

Former Penn head coach Jerome Allen was sentenced to four years of probation in a Miami courtroom Monday afternoon for accepting bribes from a Florida businessman to place his son on the Quakers’ recruited athletes list.

“If there is any lesson here, you can’t pay your way in and you shouldn’t be able to pay your way out,” U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said. “There is a debt owed — it’s more than just a reputational cost to you.

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Yale junior guard Miye Oni declaring for NBA Draft

Miye Oni took game MVP honors after Yale’s 77-73 win over Miami on Dec. 1 Hoophall Miami Invitational at American Airlines Arena. (Next Ones)

ESPN reported Friday that Yale junior guard Miye Oni will declare for the NBA Draft after being named Ivy Player of the Year for the 2018-19 season.

“I plan on entering the 2019 draft,” Oni reportedly told ESPN via text message. “I submitted my name to the Undergraduate Advisory (Committee) to legally protect myself and my NCAA eligibility, but I have every intention of staying in the draft. I’ll be signing with agent Harrison Gaines of SLASH Sports.”

The 6-foot-6, 210-pound wing out of Northridge, Calif. contributed 17.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game this season amid Yale’s Ivy title run.

Oni also announced the decision on his Instagram page, saying that he made the decision to declare for the NBA Draft after discussing his options with his family.

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WNIT recap: Big East foes sweep Harvard and Penn to end season

Georgetown (18-15) 70 at Harvard (17-13) 65

The Harvard women found themselves down 14 points midway through the second quarter and 11 at the half, before rallying to take the lead with 2:45 left in regulation.  Georgetown senior Dionna White would respond with a go-ahead coast-to-coast layup with 33 seconds left to put the Hoyas in the lead for good and clinched second round WNIT victory over Harvard at Lavietes Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.

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WNIT recap: Penn and Harvard move on with wire-to-wire wins

Penn (23-6) 64 vs. American (22-11) 45

In a game between the regular season co-champions of the Ivy and Patriot Leagues, the Quakers dominated all facets of the game and ran away with a 64-45 victory. Penn jumped out to a 16-5 lead after one quarter and stretched it to 23 with just under a minute to go in the first half.  American scored the first seven points of the third quarter to make it a 41-24 game, but that would be the closest they would get.

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