UPIA1968
PhD Student
Posts: 1121
Loc: Cornwall, PA
Reg: 11-20-06
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05-09-18 10:25 PM - Post#256633
As we consider 2018-2019 prospects it is obvious that Harvard is the pre-season favorite. Only two buckets in their two away games with Penn separated them from a championship and a trip to the dance. Penn was the better team in 2017-2018, they lost two of their top six while Harvard lost no one and regains their excellent point guard from 2016-2017. Yale will clearly be improved, losing nobody important and brining into two good recruits. Princeton did lose Amir Bell, but they also have a good recruit. However, neither are close enough to challenge Harvard seriously, if things go according to form.
As to the Quackers – they will need significant help from first year players to content – always a chancy thing. So, they are not a good bet – still likely to be in the tournament, but no 12-2 Ivy record, especially with the improved status of most of the teams. That said, this year could be a ground-breaking year for the Donahue program. Due to injuries only one of last year’s strong recruiting class played much. This means that the three injured people involved, Williams, Scott and Jackson will join this year’s strong recruiting class to provide six credible players joining the team. Assuming that the last year’s trio qualify for an extra year, Steve will have them together for four full years. This class on paper is one of the very best Ivy classes in many years, rivaled only by the Harvard class of two years ago. If lightening strikes and we get two difference markers as freshmen, as we did with Brodeur and Betley a year ago, this group could win four consecutive titles. Here’s the point. With the two strong adds to this year’s recruits, Steve has pushed the incoming talent well beyond Ivy norms. There is reason from strong hopes looking ahead, even if they don’t top Harvard in the coming season.
Beyond that, 2019-2020 should be a very strong year with Brodeur and Betley as seniors, Simmons contributing as a Junior, two or three from this group as Sophs, and perhaps one from next year’s recruits. 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 could easily be a repeat of 1972 when the Corky bunch kept winning even after Wohl, Bilsky and Wolf left. What a change in prospects after the recent lost decade!
Here’s another way to look at it. There are three ways to win in the Ivy’s: The rarest way is to get one or two extraordinary recruits like Havard did two years ago. But that is a blue snow, even for Harvard not matter how much anguish is on this board. Amaker has done it once during his tenure and is unlikely to do it again. Oh, bye the way, his super class is 0-2 so far, including finishing second to a Penn team with a decidedly patch-work recruiting profile.
The second way is available to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn. That is to bring in one or two 3-star recruits each year and hope that one turns into an Ivy-caliber star. It might not fly in the Dance, but Franny rode that horse to dominance within the league. I write this piece primarily to point out that Penn adds four three-star talents this year.
The final way is available to all programs who feature excellent coaching. That is to recruit a bunch of two-star talent knowing that one has a sleeper or two each year. Penn won last year due to star level play from two such players in Betley and Foreman. Good coaching also develops a player or two from each such class into useful players – I give you Max from this year’s champs. So, Steve appears ready to move into the same exalted class as the sainted Francis as an Ivy recruiter and talent developer.
Three years ago, I accepted his appointment as a safe, practical bet, but was disappointed that they didn’t find a more interesting, even risky choice. Well, here we are still giddy from an unexpected championship, at least a year early, and with incoming talent well above the norms for Ivy benches. Okay, maybe the return of Aiken will send Lewis, Towns et al. into the stratosphere. But the talent on the Penn bench should make us very happy puppies for the foreseeable future. One can’t expect more from a non-scholarship league where the players actually are students. I for one am very satisfied.
P.S. My son, DPerry on this board had cancer surgery today. It went well and his prospects look good. Please keep him in your prayers.
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