This holiday season, Ivy Hoops Online contributors weigh in on what their holiday wishes are for the 2022 Ivy League basketball campaign. Coming off a season that wasn’t, hopes for a safe, full slate of games come first, but our contributors’ wish list is much longer than that. Happy holidays and warm wishes to all!
ROB BROWNE
– A safe season without any cancelled games, injuries, suspensions or off-court controversies
– Competitive seasons in the men’s and women’s divisions which cause frequent visits to Luke Benz’ Ivy League Tiebreaker App
– A successful roll-out of the new 10-week schedule
– Completed Ivy League tournaments with capacity crowds
– Ivy tournaments with first-time participants (including the Columbia women who were denied their 2020 debut) and a fitting tribute to retiring Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith
– Avoidance of a play-in game at the NCAA tournaments (especially the men)
– High student enthusiasm and attendance
– Crowds that follow the schools’ safety guidelines and respect the event staff who are trying to keep things going in difficult times
RAY CURREN
The schedule worked out perfectly for me, coming back to New Haven on Wednesday, Yale hosting Howard on Thursday in an intriguing non-conference game. Honestly, the intriguing part didn’t matter much, it was so much fun to get back to Lee Amphitheater last month for the game against UMass. The crowd was relatively small, things were far from normal, but there was a game. And a crowd. And everything else that comes with it in college basketball, and Ivy League basketball.
We were back.
A month later, it was announced that fans were banned from Yale athletic events due to the looming rise of the Omicron variant. That led to a quite hilarious few hours of me trying to unsuccessfully talk my way into the game before the contest was cancelled altogether soon after.
We’re not back, are we?
It’s still hard for me to argue the Ivy League was incorrect for wiping out its 2020-21 season. The pandemic was as its worst last winter, and although the NCAA did eventually complete the campaign, it did so far from smoothly. Things are different now. Almost all the student-athletes are vaccinated as are most attending the games. We know much, much more about COVID-19 and its effects on people.
Yet as we hit Christmas, there is an ominous feeling around the league. COVID cases in cities are skyrocketing again, and while Omicron may turn out to be milder than Delta in the long-term, there are still many unknowns. And unknowns are not good for administrators trying to figure out what to do with athletics in the short term. Schools have already announced a return to campus for students will be delayed in January, there will be at least a few Ivy League games without fans, and it’s hard to think that this will get better in the next couple of weeks before conference play starts in earnest.
I hope to see what appears to be a pretty wide open Ivy race with Harvard, Yale, and Penn showing serious deficiencies in nonconference play, and teams like Cornell and Brown looking ready to take aim at them to possibly dethrone them. But I have just one holiday wish at the moment: Can we see a full Ivy League season?
RICHARD KENT
I am hoping for world peace and a cleaner environment. Oops, wrong space. OK, how about a season for the Yale men which actually gets played. No more interruptions. No more cancellations. How about injury free so that Yale will once again have a true presence in the paint?
It would have been great if the Ivy had moved earlier on grad students, so that Paul Atkinson, now starring at Notre Dame, could have been at the five position. Yale probably would be 8-5 now instead of 6-7.
It would have helped if Wyatt Yess had found the time to focus on both grad school and basketball. That didn’t happen either. So how about a fully healthy EJ Jarvis for the Jan. 2 Columbia game and beyond?That would be a start and put the Elis in a position to battle Princeton and others for the coveted No. 1 seed in the Ivy tourney at Harvard in March. Happy New Year to all!
NATHAN SOLOMON
Well, just having Ivy League basketball this winter is a holiday gift in itself!
But, what I truly wish from this upcoming Ivy season are more games televised. Only a few conference games are broadcasted nationally by ESPN, and I’d like to see that number increase. Just a few years ago, we’d have a men’s showcase game every Friday on ESPNU, and sometimes, we’d even have doubleheaders! The Ivy League is usually a top-half Division I conference, and it deserves more media recognition. If ESPN could pick up a few more men’s and women’s games to its slate this winter, I’d be ecstatic!
ERICA DENHOFF
My wish is that teams stay COVID-19 free.
ETHAN JOBSON
My holiday wish is for the season to be played out in full and for the players to stay healthy. We are long overdue a full Ivy League basketball season and tournament and the ability to see an Ivy team in the Big Dance. More importantly, I want to see the players and their families be able to have a healthy year safe from any serious illness.
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