Sports Shorts: Columbia finds coach; Harvard takes 1st loss

Mangurian takes over Columbia football

Pete Mangurian was named as the new head coach of Columbia’s football program in a press conference on Friday afternoon. A coach with former Ivy League experience, Mangurian headed Cornell’s program from 1998-2000, taking a team that finished last in his first season to second place in 2000. He will try to perform a similar turnaround with the Lions, who finished 1-9 in 2011, tied with Princeton for last in the Ivy League with a 1-6 conference record.

Mangurian has spent 20 years in various coaching jobs in the NFL, serving on the staff for five different teams in three different positions, including a stint as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons in the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Most recently, he was the offensive line coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he was fired after the 2010 season. Manguarian, who played at Louisiana State University, has also coached at five colleges, including his alma mater.

He will take over for six-year head coach Norries Wilson, who went 17-43 at the helm of the Lions. Columbia took blowout wins over Princeton in 2009 and 2010, the first time in history that it beat the Tigers in consecutive seasons, but Princeton returned the favor with a 24-21 home win this fall.

Crimson suffers 1st loss

In a nationally televised game on ESPN2 last week, the No. 25 Harvard men’s basketball team took its first loss of the season, falling 67-53 to defending champion Connecticut. Prior to the defeat, Harvard had opened with eight consecutive victories, earning its first national ranking in program history. The Crimson became the first Ivy League team ranked in the Associated Press poll since Princeton in 1997-98 and the first in either national poll since Cornell briefly drew a top-25 ranking in the coaches’ poll in the 2009-10 season.

Harvard returns every player from last season’s Ivy League co-champions, including conference Player of the Year Keith Wright and second-team All-Ivy juniors Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry.

Currently 9-1 after routing Boston University on Saturday, Harvard is the prohibitive favorite to win the league title outright this season and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1946. The Crimson was 2.8 seconds away from a tournament berth last spring, but then-junior guard Doug Davis hit a jumper at the buzzer to give Princeton a 63-62 victory in the playoff game.

The Crimson won the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas last month, defeating then-No. 20 Florida State in the semifinals before beating Central Florida in the championship. Harvard then won a tricky game at Vermont before beating Seattle at home to extend its win streak to eight games.