Princeton, last year’s undisputed regular season champions, were picked to take home the 2025 Ivy title in the preseason media poll released on Tuesday.
Led by junior forward Caden Pierce, the 2024 Player of the Year, and first team All-Ivy junior guard Xaivian Lee, Mitch Henderson’s Tigers picked up 15 of 16 first place votes and 127 of a maximum 128 points.
Yale, which won last year’s dramatic Ivy Madness final and upset Auburn in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, came in second with 108 points.
James Jones’ Bulldogs lost first team All-Ivy forward Danny Wolf to Michigan and honorable mention forward Matt Knowling to graduation but return Defensive Player of the Year and second team All-Ivy senior guard Bez Mbeng, as well as second team guard John Poulakidas.
Brown Bears, which came up short in the Ivy Tournament final, grabbed the other first-place vote and came in third with 92 points.
According to a league representative, the ballots went out after it was reported that second team All-Ivy forward Nana Owusu-Anane’s senior season was in jeopardy due a recent left shoulder injury and surgery.
Without Owusu-Anane and forward Kalu Anya, who left for St. Louis through the transfer portal, Mike Martin’s Bears will look to make its second straight Ivy Madness appearance on the shoulders of first team All-Ivy senior guard Kino Lilly, Jr.
Rounding out the upper half of the division is Cornell, which earned 67 votes.
While the Big Red lost All-Ivy forward Chris Manon to graduation, the bigger absence came from head coach Brian Earl’s move to William and Mary.
Jon Jacques, a former Cornell player and assistant coach, moved up to head coach and will rely on second team All-Ivy guard Nazir Williams to make the program’s fourth consecutive Ivy Tournament appearance.
The fifth through seventh spots were only separated by seven points with Columbia claiming 58 points, Harvard at 55 and Penn with 51.
Columbia looks to earn its first birth into Ivy Madness on the strength of honorable mention All-Ivy senior guard Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa.
Harvard, which lost Rookie of the Year Malik Mack to Georgetown and forward Chisom Okpara to Stanford, has a trio of guards, senior Louis Lesmond, senior Evan Nelson and junior Chandler Pigge, who hope to get the Crimson back to the top four for the first time since 2020.
The Quakers aim to return to the Ivy Tournament after a one-year absence. Senior forwards Nick Spinoso and Ethan Roberts, who arrives from a redshirt year at Drake and a Patriot League Rookie of the Year campaign at Army, will try to overcome the losses of Clark Slajchert to graduation and Tyler Perkins to cross-town rival Villanova.
Last in this year’s poll was Dartmouth, which collected 18 points.
Senior guard Ryan Cornish will lead the way, as the Big Green look for its first-ever conference tournament appearance.