Big 5
Don McKee, Inquirer Sports Writer
Why doesn’t the Big East stop whining and show some backbone by going after Duke and North Carolina from the ACC?
Instead of worrying about which football rats are going to flee the sinking ship, grab Kansas from the Big Leftover and build a basketball conference to rival Tobacco Road.
If Kansas was brought in – and the nation’s most historic basketball power may have nowhere else to go – then UConn might stay in the Big East. Ditto Notre Dame.
Don McKee, Inquirer Sports Writer
Three nationally reknowned college basketball coaches who have their roots in the Delaware Valley, have been selected as recipients of the fourth annual Lapchick Character Award, one of the newer but more prestigious honors for college basketball coaches.
Fabled former Princeton coach Pete Carril, and equally well-known Mount St. Mary's coach Jim Phelan, and Virginia women's coach Debbie Ryan will be honored at a luncheon at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 17, it was announced Thursday.
Carril, still coaching at the age of 81 (he's an assistant with the Sacramento Kings), played for Bethlehem Liberty High and at Lafayette College. He coached at Easton High and Reading High, before spending a year at Lehigh, then moving to a nationally prominent tenure at Princeton. In 29 years, he compiled a 514-261 (.658 winning percentage) record, the best of any coach in Ivy League basketball history.
