Ivy League report

SportsLine.com Report
April 5, 2000

With freshmen and sophomores comprising six of its top seven players, there were no expectations of any kind regarding a revival on campus. First of all this isn't the Sixties, and second of all it has been about 60 years since such talk was heard.

Brown should be quite pleased that it doubled last year's win total, including twice as many Ivy League victories. But when the stakes were raised late in the year, Brown showed its true colors by losing its final six and 13 of its last 16.

Lots of youth, lots of losses (19) and lots of work to do. Measured by the league's elite, Brown lost to Penn and Princeton by a combined 102 points this season. That's an average of 25.5 each time out. Good luck.

A Glance at 2001

This is your basic good news-bad news outlook. Everybody's back. Is that good or bad when you went 4-19? Disregarding how the Bears did against Penn and Princeton, they actually played the other five Ivy schools pretty close. And they beat four of them. The potential is there for a big jump.

Who'll Be Back

In freshmen frontcourt players Alai Nuualiitia and Earl Hunt, the Bears had two legitimate rookie of the year candidates. That's a pretty nice base for the next few years. The backcourt is also in good hands with sophomore shooting guard Jesse Wood, as well as classmates Travis Brown and Omari Wood.

The Coach

Glenn Miller was looking like coach of the year following a weekend sweep of Dartmouth and Harvard back in mid-January. He had the Bears 3-1 early in the league. He knows he needs more talent, and like all young coaches that come into the league, he believes Penn and Princeton will have some company within the next few years.

Who's Gone

Only lead guard Corey Vandiver graduates, and takes a decent assist-turnover ratio with him.