Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s home sweep of Columbia and Cornell

by

Penn has a clear path to an Ivy Madness berth after pulling off one of its best Palestra homestands in years.

The Quakers (13-10, 6-4 Ivy) have a tight grip on third place in the League standings after using a late surge to rally past Columbia on Friday, 76-67, and following that effort up with an 82-76 triumph over Cornell in a game that was played within a possession for much of the evening.

Penn, by virtue of its head-to-head sweep over Cornell (12-11, 5-5), is effectively two games ahead of the Big Red with four to play. If the Quakers just go .500 in their remaining contests, they’ll be two steps away from their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

It’s a position that few outside observers expected Penn to be in, given its opening KenPom ranking of 275 and consensus seventh-place pick in the Ivy preseason poll.

But now? The Quakers look like an ascending team in its first year under Fran McCaffery, who has taken a team which consists almost entirely of players he did not recruit and turned it into one of the most improved teams in the country.

How much so? We’ll get into that now, starting with how …

Read more

Brown men’s basketball catches fire to down Dartmouth

by
 Brown and Dartmouth men’s basketball tip off at Leede Arena on Feb. 14, 2026. (Ray Curren / Ivy Hoops Online)

HANOVER, N.H. – Throughout a more than a little frustrating season, the defense has not been the problem for Brown men’s basketball.

The Bears are solidly in the middle of the pack in Ivy League defensive efficiency.

But the Bears just can’t score. Or more appropriately, they can’t shoot, ranking among one of the worst teams nationally in effective field-goal shooting (as well as three-point shooting).

All of which made the second half at Leede Arena Saturday night stunning.

Read more

Columbia women’s basketball takes revenge on Penn

by

Columbia wasn’t going to let lightning strike twice.

Two weeks after the women’s basketball team lost to Penn in West Philly, it put on a showcase of smothering defense, consistently found the open shooter in the lane or on the perimeter, withstood a Penn comeback and won comfortably at home Saturday, 69-56, at Levien Gym.

Read more

No. 24 Princeton women’s basketball uses strong defensive second-half effort to speed past Cornell

by

Princeton women’s basketball looked every bit like a team that had to endure a four-hour bus trip from Manhattan to Ithaca after a high-profile loss on Friday night, being outplayed and outhustled by Cornell over the opening 20 minutes of Saturday’s contest.

Read more

Yale men’s basketball wins overtime thriller at Harvard

by

Few sporting events live up to their billing. Yale-Harvard did and more Saturday night, as the Bulldogs edged Harvard, 76-75, in overtime in a game at Lavietes Pavilion which offered more theatrics than most Broadway plays.

Read more

LISTEN: Columbia men’s basketball overcomes Princeton at Jadwin Gym

by

Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 75-65 win for Columbia men’s basketball (15-9, 4-6 Ivy) over Princeton (8-17, 4-6) at Jadwin Gym Saturday night:

LISTEN: Cornell men’s basketball pounds Princeton at Jadwin Gym

by

Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 89-65 romp for Cornell men’s basketball over Princeton Friday night at Jadwin Gym:

Penn women’s basketball clips Cornell in overtime

by

In the end, Penn women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin didn’t talk about Friday’s win at Cornell in terms of the Ivy League standings, though it was crucial.

And he didn’t mention revenge for the loss Cornell dealt Penn in West Philly last month.

He spoke like a fan.

“First of all, it was a great college basketball game,” he told ESPN+.

Read more

Yale men’s basketball outlasts Dartmouth at Leede Arena

by

HANOVER, N.H. – There was some concern for the Ivy League preseason favorite Yale men’s basketball team after it stumbled against Harvard at home on Jan. 31 and followed that up with a dreadful first half against Brown the following week before pulling it out.

But the Bulldog offense that had climbed as high as 15th nationally in efficiency back in nonconference play appears to be back. Dartmouth had no answers, particularly in the second half, as Yale rolled to an 83-70 win at Leede Arena Friday night.

“I think we were pretty clean offensively in both halves,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We were dominant and had good leads in both halves. Most games in the first half are going to be like a prizefight trying to figure each other out. That takes a little time, but I thought we played well.”

Read more

Harvard men’s basketball holds on for Aloha Night win over Brown

by

It’s usually the Saturday game in the Ivy League back-to-backs when teams have to win ugly, but the Harvard men had to do so on Friday.

In a game in which both offenses struggled, the Crimson survived a game-tying triple at the buzzer to escape with a 56-53 victory over Brown in front of a Hawaiian shirt-wearing Aloha Night crowd at Lavietes Pavilion.

Read more