The Guru Report: Drexel and Princeton Win; Texas’ Harmon Has Season-Ending ACL; Impeccable Guru Timing Catches a “Bird” Becoming a Hawk!!!

By Mel Greenberg @womhoops

 

PHILADELPHIA — Two days from the end of 2023 there was much more news and amusement on Friday than games that were just local — just being Drexel here at the Dragons’ Daskalakis Athletic Center hosting area Division III Arcadia while Princeton was at the first of a two-game New England road swing visiting America East contender Vermont.

 

Both were handled with relative ease, Drexel winning 63-39 while the reigning Ivy champs cruised over the Catamounts 67-47.

 

Nationally, two ranked teams played, No. 9 Stanford opening PAC-12 play across the San Francisco Bay against its rival Cal in Berkeley, as Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer guided the visitors to a 78-51 win moving her within seven triumphs of becoming both the men’s and women’s all-time career achiever, while No.  22 Florida State downed visiting Atlantic Coast rival Georgia Tech 95-80 in Talahassee.

 

Saturday will be much busier before a sprinkling will be played on New Year’s Eve.

 

Before getting into the local action, the top story of the day was the announcement that Texas junior point guard Rori Harmon, the Big 12 preseason player of the year, is lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, a non-contact occurrence at Wednesday’s shoot-around prior the No. Longhorns’ 97-52 win against Jackson State later that evening.

 

The news comes on the eve of one of two opening conference Top 10 battle of the unbeaten teams set for Saturday.

 

In the Big 12, No. 5 Texas (13-0) hosts No. 10 Baylor (11-0) in Austin at 2 p.m. on FOX, while later that evening on the PAC-12 network at 8 p.m., No. 6 Southern California (10-0) will travel across town in Los Angeles to meet No. 2 UCLA (11-0) at Pauley Pavilion.

 

“I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to play with my teammates this season, but I’m going to support them and be the best teammate I can be,” said Harmon in the release issued by the university. “We have big goals. For this season and those are not going to change.”

 

Harmon, with an average of 14.1. points and 7.8 assists, was both the Associated Press and United States Basketball Writers Association national player of the week early this month when her 27 points and 13 assists led Texas to its first-ever win over UConn, which happened in Austin.

 

The Longhorns are also without 6-4 Taylor Jones, their leading scorer, who has missed two games with a. hip injury and her return to action remains unknown.

 

Holiday Cruising for Drexel and Princeton

 

Though Drexel got back on the winning side, departing from a three-game losing streak, people who thought the overwhelming matchup right before the holiday period concludes couldn’t possibly draw much were very mistaken, especially with Arcadia, once known as Beaver College, traveling very well crowd-wise from suburban Glenside to West Philadelphia.

 

The Knights, who play in the offseason in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s Summer Basketball League in Hatboro, Pa., arrived at 9-0 coached in her second season by Jackie Hartzell, who was temporarily sidelined when the University of the Sciences disbanded its sports teams during the merger with Division I Saint Joseph’s.

 

Part of the motivation to schedule Arcadia on Drexel’s part, the schools’ last meeting 52 years ago in 1971, was needing some kind of competition this weekend with the Coastal (Formerly Colonial) Athletic Association decision to begin conference competition a week later.

 

The CAA wasn’t the only mid-major to do so since this season the NCAA selections and tournament begin and end a week later than they did last March.

 

As was the case with UConn recently playing a game in Canada thought at first to be an exhibition but the NCAA saying its official and every aspect counts except it won’t be part of the .Net measurement the tournament committee uses to select the at-large teams and seed the field.

 

Friday’s outcome was determined quickly, Drexel (5-6) jumping to a 17-0 lead, though after that differential it stabilized until the Dragons moved further away near the end of the game.

 

Hetta Saatman and Chloe Hodges each scored 12 points for the winners, Villanova transfer Brooke Mullin had nine points and ten assists, Hodges, from Australia, also had seven rebounds.

 

With Grace O’Neill sitting this one out, Momo LaClair got to see more minutes as did other changes provide likewise for those normally relegated to the bench.

 

Hannah Rhoades, Arcadia’s leading scorer, had 17 points and was 5-for-11 from deep.

 

“Happy with today’s performance overall,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon.  “We were able to perform on some goals that we set.

 

“You look at 21 assists, that’s Drexel team basketball.”

 

The Dragons begin play in the CAA next weekend, hosting Hampton at 6 p.m. Friday night and Northeastern, 2 p.m., next Sunday. Both games are streamed on FloHoops.

 

Princeton, meanwhile, got 23 points, from Madison St. Rose,  and 17, including the 1,000^th career point, from reigning Ivy player of the year Kaitlyn Chen over Vermont (8-6).

 

Freshman Skye Belker added 11 for the Tigers (9-3).

 

The Catamounts got 23 points from Emma Utterback.

 

Princeton wraps up non-conference play Sunday moving over to Syracuse to play LeMoyne at 12 p.m., streamed on NEC Front. Row, the service associated with the Northeast Conference.

 

In the two national games of note, No. 9 Stanford, with its conference win over Cal, brings Tara. VanDerveer’s extended record women’s career total total to 1,197, which is eight ahead of UConn’s Geno Auriemma.

 

Both coaches have games. Sunday, Stanford hosting Morgan. State at. 9 p.m., while No. 15 UConn hosts No. 18 Marquette (12-0), off to its best start, in a key Big East game in Hartford at 1 p.m. on the Fox network that carries the SNY broadcast.

 

Retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski has the combined record at 2,202.

 

Talana Leopolo had a career-high 20 points, including 6-10 from beyond the arc, and Kiki Iriafen had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the winning Cardinal (11-1, 1-0 PAC-12).

 

“Today belonged to Talana and Kiki, inside-outside,” said VanDerveer. “These two, playing the way they’re playing, it was awesome.”

 

The game was the 100^th meeting between the two local rivals, both headed for the ACC next season.

 

Ioanna Krimili had 12 points for the Bears (10-3).

 

No. 22 Florida State (10-3), which visited Drexel on Dec. 17, got 30 points from Ta’Niya Latson, last season’s national freshman of the year, while Makayla Thompson had 20 points and 14 rebounds, her 19^th career double double.

 

O’Mariah Gordon scored 17 for the Seminoles.

 

Georgia Tech (9-4) got 24 points from Kara Dunn, while Kayla Blackshear had 22. Rusne Augustinaite had 14 points and Tonie Morgan scored 13.

 

Florida State stays home Sunday hosting Wake Forest, while Georgia Tech is off until Thursday, hosting Virginia.

 

In two other games that were on the Guru radar, Vanderbilt at home in Nashville beat Fairleigh Dickinson 73-41, improving to 12-1 while the visitors fell to 2-11.

 

North Dakota State took an 84-69 win at South Dakota.

 

Looking Ahead Locally: We start Saturday with St. Joseph’s at 11-1 visiting Fordham in Queens to open Atlantic 10 play at 4 p.m. on ESPN+, while on the same network at 6 p.m., La Salle does likewise at George Mason in Fairfax, Va.

 

Temple begins American Athletic Conference play hosting new member Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Liacouras Center, while Villanova resumes Big East play hosting Xavier in the Pavilion at 2 p.m. on FloHoops.

 

Penn at 1 p.m.  in The Palestra in a non-conference game hosts America East contender Maine on ESPN+. And NBCSP+, while on Sunday the Quakers still at home at. 1 p.m. on ESPN+ hosts Area Division III Gwynedd-Mercy.

 

In the Big Ten, locally on Saturday, Rutgers is at Northwestern in suburban Chicago at 3 p.m., and Penn State hosts Michigan State at 4 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center on the main Big Ten Network.

 

Rider and Lehigh are both local but not in the same conference as they meet at Lehigh’s Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., at 2 p.m. on the ESPN+ service.

 

On Sunday, not already mentioned among the three local games, Delaware hosts Harvard. In the Bob Carpenter. Center in Newark at 2 p.m. on. FloHoops.

 

Looking Ahead Nationally: As mentioned in a previous blog, there are only 10 teams in Division I yet to lose, and after the two games already mentioned, the number logically drops Saturday to eight before Sunday comes on the horizon.

 

And if UConn wins Sunday Big East game, the number is seven.

 

No.  23 TCU, one of the other seven with perfect performances begins Big 12 play Saturday at 5 p.m. on ESPN+ while another. Big 12 unbeaten, No.  25. West Virginia visits Kansas at 1 p.m. on. ESPN+.

 

Another key PAC-12 collision has No. 12 Utah at 3 p.m. visiting No. 8 Colorado at 3 p.m. on the PAC-12 network.

 

No. 1 South Carolina, which is unbeaten, at noon travels to defending AAC tourney champion East Carolina on ESPN+.

 

In the Big Ten at 2 p.m. No. 4 Iowa with Caitlin Clark has a matchup with Minnesota on the Big Ten network.

 

Other games of note, Saturday, in the Atlantic 10, preseason favorite Rhode Island is at defending A-10 tourney champion Saint Louis at 7 p.m.

 

No. 17 Ohio State at noon in the Big Ten is at Michigan on FOX.

 

Columbia finishes its West Coast Trip at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

Impeccable Guru Timing Catches a Bird Becoming a Hawk

 

Our tale starts on Wednesday coming out of the holiday break.

 

Looking ahead to Friday, the only option as the only local game was to be at Drexel for an early afternoon game.

 

So, as yours truly often does with the local pr types in town, especially when a season credential is the same for both men and women, with an early finish and a night wide open, I checked which men’s teams were playing to go kill time, perhaps continue there to build the two big March madness composite conference tournament skeds — one a conference by conference breakdown, the other a day by day version. 

 

Aha, Saint Joseph’s, not far from Drexel, was playing at 7 p.m.

 

So I called men’s SID Jack Jumper, who used to be a longtime women’s SID with the Hawks and was told not a heavy request load, seats available.

 

I arrived early and went to hang out for a while in the SID office.

 

I did hear somebody mention “…all these cameras.”

 

But then everyone I was running into as they sighted me, they gave me a big greeting, followed by oh, of course you’d be here. Or, oh I know why you’re here.

 

Huh?

 

Then it turns out my seat was floor level near the end opposite the home team bench.

 

After plugging in all the technology to operate, I headed to the concession stand to get some holdover snacks. 

 

On the way back a colleague at an adjoining table grabs me and says, “I’m told Sue Bird is going to be here, she’s filming some kind of documentary, and (alum) Natasha Cloud is also coming, point them out when you see them.

 

Turns out all-time men’s scorer Jameer Nelson was going to get a public address shoutout.

 

Then right before the game, a friend and Hawk Hill source said, with a smile, I can’t confirm or deny,  but Sue Bird is going around making an ESPN film on college traditions and is going to be the Hawk in the first half, and Cloud will be here to.

 

It was obvious it was her because there was an extra load of cameras filming every arm flap and move.

 

Then, it became funny because some of the original whisperers were telling me, “I don’t see her anywhere,” and I told them, she’s the Hawk.

 

I took some quick video with the phone and some stills and sent them around to common WBB media friends at UConn, telling them to pass to Geno, as well as at AP and a few others.

 

Imagine, once upon a time Geno was in the building sitting on a bench assisting Jim Foster while the Hawk was flapping all over the place.

 

He goes on to coach one of the great players the history of the game and one night years later, she’s on Hawk Hill as the active mascot.

 

It turns out, after she had filmed, Bird and Tosh were seated behind me with a clear path. I leaned over and I called to them, and they responded, and we exchanged pleasantries.

 

I said, they all think I’m here because of you guys. I’m here on a whim I set up two days ago.

 

They laughed and I turned back to prepare to file this report and now I’m done.