Ancient Nine: Men’s game No. 3

Welcome back to Ancient Nine! You probably know the deal by now: fill in each square with a player from the corresponding team who fits that category. For example, if the row was Yale and the column was Ivy Player of the Year, “Paul Atkinson” or “Miye Oni” would each be a correct answer.

You can play in your head or visit this Google sheet to fill in answers directly (click File -> Make a Copy to get an editable version). Here’s today’s grid, featuring two new teams and two new categories:

Read more

Not just nitpicking over NIT-picking

Dan Gavitt is NCAA senior vice president of basketball and NIT board chair. (MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference)

Editor’s note: Dan Gavitt is the son of the great Dave Gavitt, the driving force behind the creation of the Big East. The younger Gavitt is NIT board chair and NCAA senior vice president of basketball, and he has backed a new NIT policy which eliminates the automatic bid for mid-major conference champions who do not win their conference tournaments.

Dear Dan:

What would your father say?

Read more

Ancient Nine: Women’s game No. 1

Welcome back to a women’s edition of Ancient Nine! If you’ve seen Immaculate Grid or similar games, this works the same way: fill in each square with a player from the corresponding team who fits that category. For example, if the row was Columbia and the column was first-team All-Ivy, “Kaitlyn Davis” or “Abbey Hsu” would each be a correct answer.

You can play in your head or visit this Google sheet to fill in answers directly (click File -> Make a Copy to get an editable version). Here’s today’s grid:

Read more

Inside Ivy Hoops – Oct. 24, 2023

Welcome to the 2023-24 Ivy League basketball season preview edition of Inside Ivy Hoops. Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by IHO writer Rob Browne for a wide-ranging discussion that takes stock of the Ivy men’s and women’s basketball preseason media polls and what to expect from all 16 teams, while also reflecting on off-the-court developments, including NIL (name, image and likeness), labor unionization momentum and more:

Ancient Nine: An Ivy hoops grid game

As we await the tip-off of a new season, let’s have some fun with an Ivy hoops trivia game I call Ancient Nine.

If you’ve seen Immaculate Grid or similar games, this works the same way: fill in each square with a player from the corresponding team who fits that category. For example, if the row was Penn and the column was Ivy Player of the Year, “Jordan Dingle” or “AJ Brodeur” would each be a correct answer.

Here’s today’s grid:

You can play in your head or visit this Google sheet to fill in answers directly (click File -> Make a Copy to get an editable version). Pick your favorite stars, your most hated opponents or the most obscure players you can think of–every square today has at least six possible answers. 

When you’re done, see all the correct answers on the second tab (going back to 2010; if you want to go older, that’s great, but you’ll have to check them yourself). Then share your grid with us on social or in the comments below! We’ll have a few more men’s and women’s grids over the next couple weeks.

A close look at Dartmouth men’s basketball’s unionization effort

Nearly a decade ago, members of the Northwestern football team tried to unionize.

The National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency charged with protecting employees’ rights to organize and determining whether to have unions as their bargaining representatives, voted unanimously in Aug. 2015 to decline to assert jurisdiction in the case. The NLRB held that asserting jurisdiction over a single team wouldn’t promote stability in labor relations league-wide, as the NCAA and conference maintain significant control over individual teams.

The NLRB noted the decision applied only to the players in the case and didn’t preclude reconsideration of this issue in the future.

Fast forward to 2021, when the United States Supreme Court decided in a 9-0 ruling that antitrust laws prohibit the NCAA from limiting its Division I schools from offering “education-related compensation or benefits” to student-athletes.

Read more

Ivy hoops roundup – July 1, 2023

As we enter the July 4th holiday weekend, we at Ivy Hoops Online wanted to round up some postseason updates:

Read more

Picking up the pieces after Jordan Dingle leaves Penn men’s basketball behind

Jordan Dingle has entered the NCAA transfer portal, a seismic move that dramatically lowers expectations for Penn’s 2023-24 campaign and suggests the task of getting top talent to stick around could get taller for other Ivy League programs. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

April 28, 2023 will go down as one of the darkest days in recent Penn basketball history.

That was the day news broke that reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Jordan Dingle had opted to enter the transfer portal instead of returning for his senior season and making one last run at an Ivy title and NCAA Tournament appearance with the Red and Blue.

This writer frequently looks for some sort of silver lining or happy takeaway, even after the worst Penn losses. There is none this time.

If you’re pessimistically inclined, Dingle’s departure arguably closes the book on Penn’s 2023-24 season, six months before it even begins.

Bart Torvik’s preseason 2023-24 rankings had Penn ranked 80th initially and 98th earlier this week as talent began to flow through the transfer portal. Sans Dingle, Penn now sits 150th, fifth in the Ivy League and only 36 spots clear of seventh-place Dartmouth.

With Dingle, Penn could reasonably have been called co-favorites for the Ivy title alongside Yale and an outside contender for a NCAA Tournament at-large bid with aggressive scheduling.

Now? It will be a battle to even qualify for the Ivy League Tournament.

The effects of Dingle’s exit — just a small handful of which are listed below — will be felt through not just the program but the Ivy League for years to come.

Read more

Inside Ivy Hoops 4-11-23

Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony and IHO writer Rob Browne discuss memorable postseason runs for Princeton men’s and women’s basketball and Columbia and Harvard in the WNIT, the new “Big 5” (really City 6) Classic, the prospect and potential impact of athletic scholarships for Ivy hoopsters and much more: