Around the Water Cooler: Wherein the Ivy League Never Stops Ballin'

School has been out for over a month now, but the world of Ivy League athletics continues to go 'round—well, perhaps an exception can be made for Brown, where sports get even less respect than this Back Page correspondent's jump shot. Anyway, in our first exciting edition, we present some Ancient Eight ballers who refuse to hang up their Nikes, and a guy who can scamper around a track and dodge puddles faster than most other guys.

Harvard basketball fans who still awake from nightmares of Cornell nearly forty-piecing the Crimson last winter can rest assured that at least two members of the Big Red’s Big Three will be playing far, far away from Lavietes Pavilion next winter. After working out for a handful of NBA teams, seven-footer Jeff Foote signed with Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, a top club team in Europe. Meanwhile, point guard Louis Dale tweeted that he signed with the club BG Göttingen, which plays in Germany’s top division.

But sharpshooter Ryan Wittman (the one who didn’t seem to miss a three when the Big Red came to Cambridge in February) could be playing right across the river: he's currently trying to crack the Boston Celtics’ roster as a member of their summer league squad playing in Orlando. Can you think of anyone else better suited to be the face of the franchise in four years when Paul Pierce’s contract expires?

Over at Yale, Alex Zampier—who finished third in scoring within the Ancient Eight last season with 17.4 points per game—reportedly took part in a national tryout camp for the NBA Development League in mid-June, impressing scouts from the NBA’s minor league with his shooting stroke. That same month, Zampier played in front of international scouts and coaches at a tryout in New York City. Now that Zampier seems to be reaching international prominence, maybe his career highlight video on Youtube will break the 600 mark in total views.

Dartmouth may be seeing some dearth of action on the hardwood, but the Big Green has found its success on the baseball diamond. Dartmouth pitcher Kyle Hendricks, who received an All-Ivy League Honorable Mention this past season, is continuing to shut down batters even outside the Ancient Eight as a member of the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In his first 15 innings pitched for the Whitecaps, Hendricks struck out 15 and surrendered only two earned runs on four hits.

Rising Princeton junior Donn Cabral was one of two Americans selected to run for the United States in the steeplechase. Cabral, who finished second in the steeplechase at the 2010 NCAA  Championships, will represent the U.S. at the 2010 NACAC Under-23 Track and Field Championships this coming week in Florida. If all goes according to plan for Cabral, he will take home the gold medal and maybe even get to visit the new Harry Potter theme park—all in the same trip.