With teams a few short weeks away from actual games, here is a collection of off-season stories to catch up on before the start of the 2018-2019 season.
March
NYC Buckets calls it a career – Over the last seven years, a collection of great writers (John Templon, Ryan Restivo, Ryan Peters, Vincent Simone, Ray Curren, and Ivy expert Kevin Whitaker) have given mid-major fans tremendous content on Northeast hoops, including the Ancient Eight. While the site will be missed, fans can read John’s Ivy preview at SB Nation’s Mid-Major Madness and the still active twitter account.
Former Dartmouth All-Ivy forward Evan Boudreaux, who decided to graduate early and become a two-year graduate transfer at Xavier, moves onto Purdue after Chris Mack leaves the Musketeers for Louisville
Dartmouth women hand out postseason awards
Yale’s James Jones and his staff coach the East squad in the College All-Star game during the Final Four in San Antonio – the West was coached by Jones’ younger brother Joe Jones of Boston University
April
Shayna Mehta, Erika Steeves and Taylor Will named co-captains of Brown women’s team
Madeline Raster and Sydney Skinner chosen as co-captains for Harvard women’s team
Corey Johnson and Weisner Perez named captains for Harvard men’s basketball
Blake Reynolds elected as captain for Yale men’s basketball
Gabby Nelson elected as captain for Yale women’s basketball
Graduating Columbia senior Kyle Castlin will join Xavier in 2018-2019, as a graduate transfer.
The Ivy League announces a 10-year media rights agreement with ESPN to show Ivy athletic events on a variety of ESPN platforms, including all Ivy League-controlled men’s and women’s basketball games – Ivy League Network customers will save money with a monthly rate of $4.99 and gain more content to view
Team Awards: Brown men, Brown women, Columbia men, Harvard men, Harvard women, Penn men, Penn women, Princeton men, Yale men, Yale women
WNBA News: Princeton’s Leslie Robinson drafted 34th overall by he New York Liberty, Columbia’s Camille Zimmerman signs with Minnesota Lynx as a free agent
May
Former Brown men’s player (’56-’58) and head coach (’69-’78) Gerry Alaimo passes away
Eddie Benton and Kanika Cummings named to Brown women’s coaching staff
Matt Morgan withdraws from NBA Draft and returns to Cornell for his senior year
Ivy League announces Ivy Tournament will move to Yale’s John J. Lee Amphitheater for 2019 – Despite criticism from many of the women’s coaches regarding scheduling, the games will be played at the same times as 2018
Recent Harvard graduate Chris Egi serves as Harvard Commencement Student Orator
Penn men’s basketball visit Italy for a three game tour
Jonathan Jones joins Princeton men’s basketball coaching staff
Longtime Princeton assistant coach Milena Flores leaves the program
Recent Yale graduate Noah Yates will play at Richmond as a graduate transfer
June
Prior to her move to Wake Forest, Yale women’s assistant coach Melissa D’Amico takes a group of 11 student-athletes, including 5 Ivy players, to Kenya to teach basketball to basketball to underprivileged pupils through her PlayBOLD Foundation
Recent Cornell graduate Jordan Abdur-Ra’oof reflects on the challenges of his Ivy career at IvyUntold, a website created with fellow Cornell teammates Troy Whiteside and Kyle Brown for Ivy League minorities to tell their stories and challenge preconceived notions
Alex Mumphard joins Cornell men’s basketball coaching staff
Dartmouth men’s basketball announce team awards for ’17-’18
Dartmouth’s Cy Lippold and Islays Quinones named team leaders for the ’18-’19 season
Cinnamon Lister and Jessica Imhof join the Princeton women’s basketball coaching staff
Recent Cornell graduate, Wil Bathurst, will play at UAB as a graduate transfer
Recent Brown graduate Jason Massey will play at Mercyhurst (PA) as a graduate transfer
July
Former Penn player (’91-’95) and head coach (’09-’15) Jerome Allen alleged to have taken bribes from Miami Beach businessman so his son could be accepted as a “recruited” player to Penn – According to the Miami Herald, the businessman, Philip Esformes, was charged with using proceeds from defrauding the taxpayer-funded Medicare program to pay about $75,000 to Allen, now an assistant with the Boston Celtics, in bank wire transfers, hotel rooms, private jet travel and limo transportation
Kelcie Rombach joins Dartmouth women’s coaching staff – Followed by the return of former Big Green player Lakin Roland
Penn assistant coach Ira Bowman joins the coaching staff at Auburn
Recent Princeton graduate Amir Bell signs in Italy
Daniellle Brown joins Yale women’s basketball coaching staff – Lashay Banks and Emma Golan were hired later in the summer, as the Bulldogs replaced all three of its assistant coaches
Recent Penn graduate Dan Dwyer, whose senior season was cut short by a rare bout of Meckel’s Diverticulum, will play at Hofstra as a graduate transfer – He will be coached by Joe Mihalich, Sr., the father of Penn coach Joe Mihalich, Jr.
Former 2015-2016 Yale captain Jack Montague, who was expelled by the University in the winter of 2016 for sexual misconduct and is presently suing the University on the grounds of gender discrimination, filed a document in federal court pointing out that Yale destroyed notes taken by panelists on the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct during his Title IX hearings. While still seeking reinstatement to Yale, Mr. Montague enrolled in Belmont University starting the spring semester of 2018, once Yale released him from a $3,000 tuition debt so he could obtain his transcript and apply to the school’s adult degree program.
For those interested, links are provided: 6/9/16 Complaint and Jury Demand ; 3/18/17 Ruling on the Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction ; 1/11/17 Defendants’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction ; 7/18/18 Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment ; 9/7/18 Plaintiff’s Sur-Reply In Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment
August
Brown women’s head coach Sarah Behn was charged with domestic assault following an incident with her husband that occurred at a home in Foxboro, Massachusetts – According to The Sun Chronicle, the coach was freed on her own recognizance with a court order to obey a restraining order her husband obtained against her. It also noted that she was due back in court on September 7th for a pretrial hearing. There has been no update on this story.
Columbia rising junior guard Mike Smith joins USA East Coast for a four-game eight-day in Italy – Although Hall of Fame head coach Larry Brown could not join the team in Europe, he did show up at Levien Gym to coach the team
Cornell’s Matt Morgan invited to Nike Basketball Academy
Justin Bradley and John Andrzejek join Dartmouth men’s basketball coaching staff
Recent Harvard graduate Chris Egi writes in The Players Tribune about his Harvard experience, and the current events surrounding his tenure at Harvard and the shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri
Harvard women’s basketball heads on foreign tour to Spain
Penn women’s basketball takes foreign tour of Spain and France
September
Antone Gray named to the Brown men’s basketball coaching staff
Columbia hires former Harvard assistant coach Kenny Blakeney to join the Lions coaching staff
Dartmouth’s Isalys Quinones plays for Puerto Rico in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup – the team went winless at the World Cup, but she and the rest of the national team won the Centrobasket Women’s Championship this summer
Nat Graham promoted to associate head coach for Penn men’s basketball – In addition, Joe Mihalich was promoted to assistant coach and Trey Montgomery joined the staff as a volunteer assistant
Princeton’s Brett MacConnell promoted to associate head coach
Recent Princeton graduate Tia Weledji signs with Caledonia Pride of the Women’s British Basketball League, while she will attend the University of Edinburgh to get her Master of Science Degree in Sport Policy, Management and International Development
Recent Princeton graduate Leslie Robinson signs with Krofdorf Knights of the Bundesliga League, after missing the cut for the New York Liberty in the spring
Recent Dartmouth graduate Cameron Smith signs with UCD Marian of the Irish Superleague, while he is studying for a masters in film at Trinity College in Dublin
ESPN announces that ESPN+, the new home of Ivy League sports, has reached one million paid subscribers since its April 2018 launch – With ESPN Insiders being moved to ESPN+, the Worldwide Leader did not note how many of these announced subscribers new to the new platform. When asked how many subscribers from the Ivy League Network have switched to ESPN+, a representative of ESPN told IHO that “we are not providing or breaking out any specific details about subscribers relating to specific programming, and as a company practice, we do not discuss financial details publicly.” The Ivy League’s Matt Panto, Associate Executive Director, Strategic Communications & External Relations, informed IHO that “We do not have any subscriber or viewership numbers that are specific to the Ivy League events thus far on ESPN+.”
October
Jeff Coby (Columbia ’14-’18) signs Exhibit 10 contract with New York Knicks – will be moved to the Knick’s G-League affiliate in Westchester
Former Penn player (’91-’95) and head coach (’09-’15) pleads guilty to taking $18,000 bribe to move a high school student onto the recruited athletes list in 2015 – the Boston Herald reports the Celtics’ assistant coach will be suspended from the team for a period believed to be in the range of approximately two weeks. According to the Miami Herald, Allen will cooperate with prosecutors in the case against healthcare executive Philip Esformes and will be sentenced on March 11.
Former Yale men’s player, Chad Luddington (’83-’87), stated Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (JV ’83-’85) was not truthful about his drinking history during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing – In addition, the New York Times reported that Kavanaugh and former Yale All-Ivy forward Chris Dudley (’83-’87) were involved in a September 1985 bar fight that led to them being questioned by police
Columbia associate head coach, Jean Bain, leaves the Lions to become the head coach at Brandeis
Yale women’s head coach Allison Guth receives contract extension until ’23-’24
Princeton’s Jadwin Gym gets a facelift – The north and south side bleachers will be replaced by chair-back seats, which will end closer to the courts than the bleachers. There will also be a four-sided video board and ring of ribbon board below the screens above center court. Future renovations will include similar changes to the bleachers on the east and west sides. The Tigers will hope for the same post-renovation magic that led the Harvard men and women to a combined 22-1 record at the renovated Lavietes Pavilion in 2017-2018.
Recent Columbia graduate Nate Hickman will play for the Long Island Nets of the G-League – joining 2017 Lions graduate Luke Petrasek, who will play in the NBA’s minor league for his second year with the Greensboro Swarm.
City of Basketball Love ends production – Over the last six seasons, the incredibly talented Josh Verlin had overseen invaluable content on high school and college hoops in the greater Philadelphia area. Ivy fans, especially those of the Red & Blue, will greatly miss his site’s comprehensive coverage.