Burned Ivy: The Brown Bears and a Recovery from Scandal

[PointGuard]

Dear President Orton,

It’s long been apparent that NCAA intercollegiate athletics and the academic program at prestiious Brown University are incompatible. Other alums, along with ourselves, have strongly encouraged you and your predecessor to just have club sports thus preserving funds for the academics that should be of primary importance at an Ivy university.

NCAA intercollegiate athletics not only reduce funding for more important programs at Brown but also lead to admittance of athletes who have substandard academic credentials thus depriving more qualified students o being admitted. And, as has been the case in the basketball program, the drive to have successful athletic teams leads to cheating which obviously is inimical to the traditions of Brown University.

We therefore demand that you immediately take steps to rid Brown University of NCAA intercollegiate athletics in all its forms.

Signed,

(Signatures of Cordell J. Funthuasen IV and 100 othere alumni of Brown University)

[jksander]

The Team
PG – David Linderman (6'5” 200 lbs Jr) Montpelier VT (U-32 HS) 4.0 GPA
SG – Charlie Engstrom (6'5” 182 lbs So) Tiverton RI (Tiverton HS) 3.4 GPA
SF – Kenyan Walker (6'9” 216 lbs Jr) Portsmouth RI (Portsmouth HS) 3.3 GPA
PF – Ron Sharpe (6'8” 245 lbs Jr) Cranston RI (Cranston East HS) 3.6 GPA
C – Dylan Clayton (6'10” 256 lbs Jr) Westerly RI (Westerly HS) 3.2 GPA

6 - Tobe Paulding (6'0' 188 lbs So) North Providence RI (North Providence HS) 4.0 GPA
7 – Mike Gladieux (6'5” 199 lbs So) Central Falls RI (Central Falls HS) 3.8 GPA
8 – Ryan Sanden (6'8” 276 lbs Jr) Wood River Jct RI (Chariho HS) 3.2 GPA

RS – Terence Hamilton (6'5” 195 lbs Fr) Harrisville RI (Burrilville HS) 3.2 GPA
RS – Mohamed Jones (6'6” 239 lbs Fr) North Smithfield RI (North Smithfield HS) 3.8 GPA

In response to the open letter received from Brown Alumni, President Orton has announced that there is no intent on the part of the university to depart from the Ivy League or collegiate athletics at the Division I level. "However," he tells the Providence Journal, "there will be a continued focus on building our program back from the ground up with an emphasis on academics, fair play and ethical growth."

The NCAA has announced there will be no further sanctions beyond the program's own self-reported ones. "We see no point in nuking this program, as in our opinion there is little expectation that the program can compete in today's climate regardless of scholarship cuts or postseason bans," said an unnamed NCAA source, who reportedly later joked that giving Brown the "death penalty" would be like executing the loser of a bum fight.

[jksander]

The Schedule

November
13 – TX Rio Grande Valley
16 - @ South Dakota
19 – Evansville
23 - @ Nebraska-Omaha
26 - @ SE Louisiana
30 - @ Army

December
3 – South Alabama
7 - @ Hofstra
10 - @ New Orleans
14 - @ North Dakota St.
17 – North Carolina Central
21 - @ Grambling
24 - @ South Dakota St.

January
4 - @ Columbia
7 – Princeton
11 - @ Harvard
14 – Cornell
18 - @ Pennsylvania
21 - @ Dartmouth
25 – Yale
28 - Columbia

February
1 - @ Princeton
4 – Harvard
8 - @ Cornell
11 – Pennsylvania
15 – Dartmouth
18 - @ Yale

Recruit Early Committments
9/25: 6'3” SG Deon Curtis (Pawtucket RI – Talman HS) 3.8 GPA … #182 National

[PointGuard]

"like executing the loser of a bum fight"....LMAO.

[Wayne23]

PG, did you forget that no walk ons are created in year one of an association. The game goes right from May 1 to June 25 without doing that.

JK, you can cut below 10 players on April 9 (or maybe April 16, but around then), not before.

[PointGuard]

PG, did you forget that no walk ons are created in year one of an association. The game goes right from May 1 to June 25 without doing that.

JK, you can cut below 10 players on April 9 (or maybe April 16, but around then), not before.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense.

So if a first season were quickly simmed and then the major cuts were made in April, that not only would work but also would result in some significant drops in Team Prestige which would fit in with what JK is considering, right?

[Wayne23]

Yep, that would work.

[jksander]

A Program on the Rocks
- - - - -
After a season of disappointments, on and off the court,
Brown University looks to put the past in the past
even as the scandal of the decade casts continued pall

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown's Bears finished sixth in a decidedly neutered Ivy League season few will remember for anything other than Dartmouth's dominating 13-1 season in-conference … and for the scandal which still threatens to drown the struggling Bears' athletic program entirely. With recruiting restrictions put in place by AD Richard Orton, and continued calls for the complete dismantling of the program by angry alumni, there is continued questioning of whether Rex Danninger is capable of turning this program around.

Or if that job is worth doing at all.

Rumors of player disenchantment abounded throughout the dismal season, during which the Bears started out 2-1 only to then hit a 12-game skid before winning two conference games in a row early in January. Dylan Claxton, the team's one bright spot, averaged 14.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game as a Junior, even as reputable sources suggested he was growing frustrated with his new coach's inability to bring in quality players to improve the situation next season.

Meanwhile, there is still concern that existing team upperclassmen may have had knowledge of the cheating going on prior to Danninger's arrival, and those whispers grew louder throughout the season. There is legitimate question whether more player cuts and sanctions still may be waiting down the road.

Claxton has vowed he will stay for his Senior season, choosing to stick by a coach, and a program, most in college basketball are wishing would just give up and let the NCAA put this embarrassment in the past.

- - - - -

April 3, 2018
The season has come and gone, and I'm just getting started turning this cesspool of a program around. I have been working with the AD and the school President and have decided that four additional players who had ties to those involved in the cheating scandal are having their scholarships revoked effective immediately: Tobe Paulding (Sophomore), Charlie Engstrom (Sophomore), Ryan Sanders (Junior) and Mike Gladieux (Sophomore). But I am confident that we've culled the remaining troublemakers from the team, and can now begin the long, hard process of rebuilding the basketball program around my brand of strong defense, academics and ethics.

I managed to fill four scholarships this year through recruiting, the best of them being early commitment Deon Curtis at shooting guard. But we'll have a lot of walk-on talent playing for us this season and it's likely to be a long fight to regain respectability. But that's what it takes – though the board has refused to give me additional time to right the ship (I have two years remaining on a three-year contract) all I can do is my best.

If the revival of the Brown program is impossible, I won't fail for lack of trying.

I will begin posting in more detail starting with the next (2018-19) season. I may or may not coach out all the games, but I will certainly be posting monthly updates at the least. And I may coach out the games -- I haven't decided which route to go as of yet.

[jksander]

June 26, 2018
We worked hard during the transfer process to bring in four additional players who won't be eligible to play for us until the 2019-20 season:

6'4” Sophomore SG John Thompson (Duke, 3.5 GPA) 14.0 ppg 2.8 rpg 6.7 apg 1.2 spg 0.2 bpg
6'3” Sophomore PG Vegas Boston (Loyola Marymount, 3.3 GPA) – 7.5 ppg 2.8 rpg 1.9 apg 1.1 spg 0.3 bpg
6'8” Sophomore SF Dennis Werner (TX Rio Grande Valley, 2.8 GPA) – 10.8 ppg 3.0 rpg 2.1 apg 1.1 spg 0.3 bpg
6'7” Sophomore PF Brian Sanders (Grand Canyon, 4.0 GPA) – 5.5 ppg 3.8 rpg 0.6 apg 0.5 spg 0.6 bpg

We will also have two walk-on players on the team, which will allow us to field an 11-man team while we wait for our transfers to become eligible. With four seniors graduating, we'll have plenty of scholarships to fill still and I'll have a lot of pressure on me to do well early in the recruiting season.

[jksander]

Coach Information
Name: Rex Danninger (54)
Contract: $118,000 / year (2 years)
Experience: 7-20 (.259)
Offense: 48/100
Defense: 60/100
Recruiting: 17/100
Scouting: 36/100
Development: 54/100
Reputation: 20/100
Job Security: Secure

School Information
School: Brown Bears
Location: Providence, RI
Arena: Pizzatola Sports Center (2,800)
Facilities: C+
Academics: A (1,000 SAT Minimum)
Conference: Ivy League
Conf. Prestige: 23/100
Team Prestige: 14/100
All-Time Team Record: 1,000-1,484 (.0403)
Ivy League Championships: 2
NCAA Appearances: 2
NIT Appearances: 1
CBI Appearances: 1

The general consensus around campus is that sports are a non-entity. Last year we averaged a few hundred students per game at our home games and those were free student-section seats. Alumni who come to games and give a damn about athletics are a rare breed. And with the scandal still hanging over our heads, it's going to be a long time before we can build enough interest and motivation for our “fans” to really latch on.

I'm working on a schedule this year that will at least give us a good batch of winnable home games while putting us on the road at schools where we can be challenged and grow as a team, in that mentality. I'm in talks with Providence to develop a “working rivalry,” at least allowing us to schedule a cross-town rivalry game each year that I hope will develop some interest, at least locally.