Northeastern men’s basketball sophomore guard Louis Bond and graduate guard Rashad King both delivered their best Steph Curry imitations as Northeastern defeated Yale, 84-73, at the Cabot Center in Boston Friday night in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Further allegations against Columbia women’s basketball coach Megan Griffith surface
Fifteen former Columbia student-athletes have asked the university to take further action against head coach Megan Griffith, who was suspended for the first three games of this season for “interactions with the team that did not align with expectations,” The Athletic reported Thursday.
The Athletic also reported an allegation brought against the coach in 2019, which the university investigated and determined to be unfounded, and provided more detail about the September complaint to Columbia president Jennifer Mnookin that included statements from five other former players who were members of the team going back to Griffith’s first year leading the program in 2016.
“Following a thorough external review by the University, Columbia Women’s Basketball Head Coach Megan Griffith served a suspension for the first three games of the season. The review did not require notice to the NCAA of any rules violations and did not involve any allegations of violations of the University’s Anti-Discrimination policies, Title IX or related policies,” a university spokesperson said in a statement. “The University is committed to the well-being of its student-athletes and an inclusive and supportive environment for Women’s Basketball and all of our athletic programs.”
In addition to the suspension, a university official noted that Griffith is receiving additional coaching mentoring and oversight.
Griffith released a statement to The Athletic before its article was published: “I fully respect the process of the University review and take complete responsibility for everything that happens in the program, including the times my conduct fell short. As the Head Coach and a former student-athlete at Columbia University, there is nothing more important to me than the success and well-being of my players.”
Ivy Hoops Online sought comment from Mnookin and athletics director Peter Pilling but was told by a university official that there would be no follow-up statements.
Penn women’s basketball beats Longwood for 4-0 start
Unbeaten doesn’t mean unbeatable.
The Penn women’s basketball team struggled early in a Thursday night game against a hustling young Longwood squad with a harassing defense that pushed Penn into 19 turnovers. But the Quakers rode a 13-0 second-quarter run to pull ahead, sank 55% of their shots on the night and left Longwood in the dust, 72-53, for Penn’s fourth win of the young season.
Freshman forward Rachel Thatcher, the reigning Ivy League and Big 5 Rookie of the Week, had another impressive game. She wasn’t perfect: She missed one shot. But she made a half-dozen others, including all three of her threes, and recorded a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds to go with five assists.
“In the first half, I think I was a little flustered, just making a couple [of] bad passes, not making the best decisions. But I think we as a team bought into each other,” Thatcher told ESPN+ afterward. “I was able to calm down, and we had a really good second half.”
Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 81-76 loss at Navy
Penn’s nonconference campaign took a dark turn after the Red and Blue took a very difficult-to-accept loss at Navy, 81-76.
The Quakers (1-2) roared out to a 21-6 lead on the back of aggressive pressure defense and strong play from its best players, TJ Power and Sir Mohammed. It looked for an instant like Penn was going to put together a blowout road win that would give its predictive metrics a major boost.
But the Midshipmen (3-1) eventually righted the ship (no pun intended), slowed the visitors down and put together a 22-1 run midway through the first half which flipped the game over and put Penn in a negative game script the rest of the evening.
The Quakers rallied back despite the referees calling things extremely tightly in a choppy second half. They trailed by just one, 56-55, after forward Lucas Lueth converted a nifty reverse layup. Less than 30 seconds later, Lueth had an open corner three to take the lead, but the shot rimmed out.
Penn never got a go-ahead shot up in the air again.
Red flags abounded on Wednesday evening, starting with how …
Yale men’s basketball bounced at Baylor, 90-61
CBS Sports recently conducted a NIL and revenue-share valuation of all teams among the five power conferences.
Baylor came in at $12.1 to 15 million. The Ivy League opted out of revenue share.
That showed at Foster Pavilion in Waco Tuesday night as Baylor drubbed Yale, 90-61.
Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 78-65 win over Howard
Mike Tyson is attributed with the maxim that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
But for Penn men’s basketball, the opposite was true in its home opener against Howard Monday
The Quakers started out putridly, spotting the defending MEAC champion Bison a 15-1 lead in the game’s first seven minutes.
But after absorbing that early shot, Penn flipped a switch and played more disciplined offense. Shots started to fall for the Red and Blue’s best players and before you knew it, the Quakers had opened up a comfortable advantage in what wound up as a 78-65 win.
Penn (1-1) used an extended 15-4 run in the opening minutes of the second half to claim the lead for good over Howard (1-2). Star forward TJ Power drained three three-pointers during the flurry and finished the evening with a much more Power-like scoreline of 23 points on 19 shots.
What did Penn fans learn from a happy evening in the friendly confines of the Palestra?
Columbia women’s basketball makes an Opening Statement with wins over Rhode Island and Belmont
With road wins of 14 and 20 points over Rhode Island and Belmont, respectively, the Columbia women’s basketball team made a huge statement to mid- and high-majors during the inaugural Opening Statement tournament in Nashville.
Fadima Tall leads another dramatic comeback as Princeton women’s basketball rallies past Richmond, 65-57
What do you do for an encore after you open the season with a career-high 29 points and 22 rebounds?
If you’re Fadima Tall, you go out and essentially do it again.
After opening the season on Monday night with a historic 20-20 performance in Princeton women’s basketball’s 63-52 win over Belmont, Tall registered another double-double on Friday night with 27 points and ten rebounds to lead her Tigers to a 65-57 comeback victory over host Richmond in the first round of the Opening Statement Tournament at the Robins Center.
“That’s what Fadima is capable of on any night, to put up numbers like that,” Gosselin told ESPN+ postgame. “But she’s just selfless in her want to win and her want to do whatever is needed to get to the W.”
How Harvard women’s basketball crushed Boston College
Harvard women’s basketball took care of business on Thursday night, soundly defeating Boston College, 81-51, at Lavietes Pavilion.
The victory was the first of the year for the Crimson (1-1) and their fifth straight win over the Eagles (0-2).
After a competitive opening quarter and Boston College holding a 16-15 lead just over a minute into the second stanza, Harvard took control of the contest. Using runs of 8-0 and 9-0 while limiting their Chestnut Hill neighbors to one field goal over the next eight-plus minutes, the Crimson were able to take a 35-20 advantage into the locker room.
There was no letup entering the third quarter, as Harvard connected on four of five field goals and five of six free throws in the first three minutes to make it a 49-24 contest.
The Crimson stretched their lead to 31, 64-32, at the 8:17 mark of the final quarter, giving several starters a chance to rest ahead of a packed pre-Thanksgiving schedule that includes Michigan State and Syracuse.
Some thoughts on the victorious home opener for Carrie Moore’s squad.
Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s season-opening loss at No. 3 Illinois
Penn men’s basketball’s rematch with national title contender No. 3 Illinois went about as well as round one.
The Quakers (0-1) started off their Ivy defense with a 112-70 defenestration at the hands of the Fighting Illini (2-0).
For the game’s first 10 minutes, Penn looked like a team ready and willing to compete in a difficult true road environment. The Quakers briefly led in the opening minutes and were down just one point, 23-22, after freshman guard Ethan Lin drilled a three-pointer from the left corner.
Illinois — which might be the best offensive team in all of college basketball — responded with an immediate 22-3 killshot run over the course of five minutes which effectively ended the competitive portion of the contest. The visitors missed 10 straight shots from the field during the backbreaking run.
The Fighting Illini added runs of 10-0 and 18-2 in the second half to balloon the final score even further. The Quakers were extremely fortunate to see their KenPom ranking drop only five slots to 134th in Division I after the beatdown.
It was obvious the second this game was scheduled that winning was going to be an almost-impossible task for Penn. What lessons did fans learn from a rough opening night?