The Guru Report: Covid Back Running Amok; Late Harvard Rally Carries Crimson Past Saint Joseph’s While Three-Point Deluge Sets Vanderbilt Records

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA — So much for coming out of the woods.

 

A little over a week ago on the Score apps the Guru uses for a quick look at running results against his specialized spreadsheet of local, national, and mid-major/low mid-major games to know what to discuss,  attend, etc., he noticed a tiny number of contests go off the daily books due to some positive tests from the latest corona virus pandemic phase.

 

Well, he thought,  at least it’s nothing like a year ago when double digit cancellations sprinkled with cobbled insertions were a way of life from the first day of the season’s delayed start.

 

Wrong!!!

 

After enjoying something approaching what passed for the amended old normalcy chaos has broken loose.

 

How bad has it become?

 

With conference competition about to step to the fore, 10 of the Guru’s 11 local Division I teams have been rocked this week since the resumption of play hampered by the Grinch who Christmas tossed back.

 

And the one, Villanova, which at the moment (6 a.m. pre-dawn Dec. 29) has a small collateral effect off Sunday’s Big East game here with St. John’s, the game moved two hours earlier from 2 p.m. to noon to switch TV outlets from the Big East Digital Flohoops platform to FS1.

 

Let us count the ways but before, understand, we believe that if a game is knocked out of it’s original date but the release says attempts are being made to re-schedule, than that game is postponed, not cancelled.

 

It’s no different than what is done when weather or other unforeseen circumstances change the reason the show won’t immediately go on.

 

If it dies, we will then call it cancelled and in retrospect note it aligned with NCAA “no game” policy.

 

And for standings purposes, or those conferences that do so, will note the win or loss as result of a forfeit.

 

“We got 32 conferences with 32 different policies right now,” said an NCAA friend as events began ramping up the wrong way.

Since that remark, the number has changed because some leagues have amended the original promulgation and aligned in common decrees, but others are already in their third adjustments more or less.

 

Anyhow, here’s the roll call from this week’s post-holiday readout into the weekend extending to Monday concerning the locals.

 

La Salle: Tonight’s Big 5 game (Wed.., Dec. 29) at Temple called off by the host Owls due to positive tests (yeah, they were at Northwestern as was your Guru before the Wildcats cancelled the Oregon game); and issues with VCU also put on delay the Expolorers’ home tipoff Saturday in the Atlantic 10.

 

Penn: Morgan State cancelled the Quakers’ visit to Baltimore set for tomorrow (Thursday, Dec. 30), and Penn found a replacement in Ursinus to visit The Palestra at 1 p.m. Perhaps you’ll watch what becomes a TV replacement for one of those cancelled bowl games.

 

 The start of the new-look Ivy schedule set originally for last season is still in play for Sunday when Penn visits Brown. So much for the traditional open here or there with Princeton, which, for the Quakers for several reasons, is a good thing.

 

Saint Joseph’s: It started with Norfolk State pulling out of the Hawk Classic and North Alabama went by the boards, but Harvard was ready to play a single match as was the host school.

 

“I thought we were out of these pause situations, but it seems we are back to where we were last year,” said Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin at the postgame presser after the contest got away in the last two minutes. (Game report below all this).

 

“You don’t have control over it. You can only do what you can do. At this point in time you want to play games and control what you can control. You’re back dealing with the unknown.”

Except it’s shaking to a different unknown.

 

Temple: The Owls, as already noted, postponed the visit from La Salle. They are seemingly set to open their American Conference slate at UCF Sunday at noon BUT UCF pulled out of today’s  (Wed.) visit to Princeton. With Temple and UCF both being the earlier problems, stay tuned on this one.

 

Villanova: The Wildcats in a Big East weekend host Seton Hall, Friday, at 2 p.m. and St. John’s Sunday at noon.

 

Drexel: The Dragons have issues. Both Friday’s visit in the CAA from Towson and Sunday’s from James Madison are postponed. Towson will be made up Tuesday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m., lame-duck CAA  member JMU still to be determined.

 

Delaware: Likewise involving the same two CAA visitors this weekend. JMU will visit the Blue Hens at 6 p.m. the same Jan. 18 night as the makeup involving Drexel while Towson at Delaware to be determined.

 

Rider: The Broncs have issues. Per Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) policy right now says Thursday’s visit from Niagara is a forfeit as is Saturday’s from Marist but the overall record stays the same. This may not be final.

 

Princeton: As mentioned, UCF pulled out of Wednesday’s visit, the Harvard opener in Jadwin Sunday is still on.

 

Penn State: The Lady Lions have issues and Thursday’s visit from Iowa in the Big Ten and Monday’s to Ohio State both need makeups.

 

Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights are veterans in all this from last year when they shut or were shut down in extended stretches.

 

The Big Ten visit from No. 8 Indiana on Thursday night needs a makeup while Sunday’s visit to Purdue is still on.

 

Give Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer on leave this season credit for clarity. Her worst fears over Covid becoming a factor have been realized.

 

We won’t even dare get into the rest of the nation other than for those who were set to watch UConn in the Big East today (Wed) or at DePaul (Fri) get a conference challenge this week and either sympathize with the former Top Ten Huskies over their injury/short roster problems or rejoice over seeing things you didn’t think you’d see in your lifetime that Geno Auriemma is dealing with (Heck, can’t believe my midseason ballot for one organization was totally devoid of anything UConn), find something else.

 

UConn has issues and needs two makeups and possibly a third with Georgetown shut down. 

 

Next stop right now, however, is likely here at Villanova, Friday, Jan. 7.

 

Saint Joseph’s Ivy Sweep Is Off the Books: Earlier this month the Hawks jump started their long slide the other way beating Yale at home at the finish and then went to Penn for a Big Five encounter and ended a slide against the Quakers.

 

Things looked great Tuesday when the home team roared to a start and in the second half freshmen Talya Brugler and Julia Nystrom helped fuel Saint Joseph’s offense.

 

But Harvard had their own newcomer threat in Harmoni Turner, whose game-high 25 points helped the Crimson (6-6) slip past the Hawks 73-70.  Lola Mullaney added 16 points and Tess Sussman scored 12.

Freshman Julia Nystrom had a career high 18 points for the Hawks (4-8)  while Katie Jekot had 13 points and a career-high eight assists along with six rebounds. Kaliah Henderson scored 11.

 

“We had control of the game until the last two minutes,” Griffin said. “It was anybody’s game. A play here, a play there. We gave up transition easy baskets at the end, and we weren’t able to to convert two layups in the paint. That was the game right there.”

 

Of Nystrom, the Hawks coach said, “It was great to see Julia put the ball in the basket. It will help us moving forward.”

 

Nationally noted: South Jersey’s Christina Foggie, who spent some time after her Vanderbilt career at Saint Joseph’s, no longer has the three-point game record shared with Meredith Marsh and Abi Ramsey for the program.

 

The Commodores set a game team record for the program with 17 and freshman Iyana Moore had nine of them in a 94-42 rout of Alabama State that got the game on the tracker because the visitors to Nashville were high on the SWAC conference preseason picks.

 

The team mark was set in 1993.

 

“The coaches told me I needed one more,” Moore said when asked if she was aware she was getting close.

 

George Washington (7-6) got ready for the A-10 at home finishing up non-league play hosting West Chester (3-8) and gained a 64-31 victory in the Smith Center in the nation’s capital.

 

In a game between two teams with good preseason votes in the Mountain West, UNLV (9-3) topped host Fresno State 73-63 leading all the way in a road win in the conference opener.

 

And that’s the report.