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Monday, December 14, 2009

Andy Katz Reports Penn Coach is Fired


By Andy Katz
ESPN

Pennsylvania coach Glen Miller was removed as head coach Monday morning and replaced by assistant and former player Jerome Allen, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

Allen, an NBA veteran drafted by the Timberwolves in the second round of the 1995 draft, joined the staff of the Quakers before the season.

The Quakers are 0-7, losing Saturday at Monmouth. Penn is the only winless team in the Ivy League.

The news was first reported by the Philadelphia Daily News.

Miller, a former coach at Brown, took over for Fran Dunphy in 2006, leading the Quakers to the NCAA tournament's first round and a 13-1 Ivy League record. Penn was 22-9 overall that season. Since then, Penn went 13-18 (8-6 in the Ivy), 10-18 last season and 6-8 in the Ivy.

Penn went to nine NCAA tournaments during Dunphy's 17 seasons at Penn before his departure for Temple to replace the legendary John Chaney.

Allen led the Quakers in assists in three consecutive seasons from 1992-95. He led the Quakers to Ivy League titles in his last three seasons when Penn and Princeton were the dominant programs. Now Cornell is seeking its third-straight league title.

Penn, whose staff and players heard the news early Monday morning, according to sources, next plays at Davidson on Dec. 28.

Miller coached Brown for seven seasons before moving within the Ivy League to Penn where he never advanced to the NCAA tournament but did make an NIT appearance.

According to sources, Miller was never able to rekindle the folksy nature of Dunphy at Penn, where he was able to be a central figure within the Big Five.

Losing games and not being as outgoing as Dunphy was, on and off campus, didn't help Miller's cause.

Still, firing a coach in December isn't the norm in college basketball. But it had already happened once this season.

Fordham let Dereck Whittenburg go last week after six-plus seasons. In years past, St. John's fired Mike Jarvis, Minnesota let go Dan Monson and USC got rid of Henry Bibby all before Jan. 1.

Last season, Alabama cut loose Mark Gottfried during the SEC season, and in the previous year LSU did the same to John Brady.

Meanwhile, Dunphy has flourished at Temple, leading it to consecutive NCAA tournaments in the last two seasons. Temple beat Villanova Sunday at home to go to 8-2 on the season.

Cornell's Steve Donahue, a former Penn assistant, had been a natural choice to replace Dunphy.

But with the Big Red's recent success it would make sense that if Donahue left Cornell, it would be outside the Ivy to a higher-paying job.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

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