The Ivy League hosted media day on Tuesday for the upcoming men’s basketball season.
Here’s one key impression from interviews with players and coaches from each of the eight Ancient Eight programs:
Despite tasting success last March, the Brown Bears aren’t taking anything for granted
You’d think that Brown head coach Mike Martin and his deep roster of returning players would feel buoyed by their hot finish to last season, which propelled the Bears to their first ever appearance in the Ivy League tournament, and a shocking triumph over the no. 1-seeded Princeton Tigers in the semi finals.
But even though Martin and company were picked to finish third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, they refuse to rest on their laurels. Instead, everything in Providence is in reset mode.
“As much as we can draw upon last year’s experience – and it was a difficult road for us, it took us much longer to reach our potential as a team than we thought it would – this season is entirely new,” Martin said. “Everything about it is new. We’ve got new staff members in place, we lost some key pieces from last year’s team, and we have four new freshmen that we’re really excited about. So as much as we draw upon our experience, it’s a first time for this group going through all of it together.”
Nor are the Bears allowing themselves to get caught up in any hoopla over hosting the Ivy League tournament in March for the first time.
“Man, there are so many good teams and so much talent in our League that we have so much work before we can even think about having that tournament here,” said Martin.
The coach’s sentiment was echoed by senior guard/forward Aaron Cooley: “We are a long ways from March and we got a lot of work to do.”
The Columbia Lions are feeling the fierce urgency of now
The buzz in Morningside Heights is that the men’s basketball team may be on the brink of a breakthrough.
Picked fifth in the Ivy League’s preseason poll, the Lions have a sneaky good amount of returning talent, headlined by senior Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa, who led Columbia in scoring last season with 14.4 ppg.
De La Rosa was a New York minute late for his interview segment on media day, but when he did arrive, the Honorable Mention All-Ivy guard expressed confidence in the growth of his team.
“I feel like we have created a chemistry by passing the ball and now we are more effective and we can enjoy the game more,” De La Rosa said.
Coach Jim Engles has an experienced and deep squad of five returning seniors and four returning juniors, including Avery Brown (9.9 ppg) and Blair Thompson (nine points ppg; 5.4 rpg).
Last year, Engles’ squad challenged for a top four finish in the league until the final weekend of the season. They now seem poised to reach the next level.
“We are definitely working towards getting into that final four and putting ourselves into position to compete for championships,” Engles said. “I do think it’s time now for us to take that next step.”
“We believe this is our year, absolutely,” senior forward Robbie Stankard said. “We have experienced guys now who can lead the freshmen and show them this is what it takes.”
Stankard ended his comments with a pledge:
“You’re going to see it come November. You’re going to see an intensity out of us that lands us in the top four for sure.”
At Cornell, the watchword is continuity
Jon Jacques takes over the reins as head coach this season at Cornell after Brian Earl stepped down in the spring to fill the head coaching vacancy at William and Mary.
Jacques’ club was picked to finish fourth in the league’s preseason poll. If that prediction comes true, the Big Red will find themselves participating in Ivy Madness for a fourth consecutive season.
As a former player at Cornell and as the associate head coach under Earl, Jaques seems like the perfect choice to continue the winning ways on East Hill. Earl famously installed an uptempo offense at Cornell, a transformation that vaulted the Big Red into the upper echelon of the Ivy League.
At Media Day, Jacque promised to keep Earl’s system intact.
“I think a lot of things will look familiar. We’ve obviously had some success doing it, and more importantly, we have a group of guys here who are confident and comfortable playing this way, and they enjoy it. It lets a lot of guys get involved and get experience and get confidence.”
The Dartmouth Big Green have a need for speed
For the second year in a row, Dartmouth was picked to finish last in the Ivy League preseason poll. The Big Green lived down to their billing last season, finishing in the cellar with a 2-12 conference record.
Head coach David McLaughlin knows he has to change things up in Hanover to make his program more competitive.
“We’re pretty clear to the guys that we need to find a way this year to play more disciplined, play unselfish, really, really work together to play tough basketball, the kind of basketball that is more disciplined, but fast at the same time,” McLaughlin said. “The guys have bought into that, and I think it’s going to be an exciting brand of basketball at both ends.”
Pressed further, McLaughlin made clear that getting out in transition and collecting easy baskets will be a point of emphasis this year.
“I think first off you need to be able to score easy baskets and our easy basket quotient wasn’t high enough last year,” McLaughlin said.
“And I think it’s really important that we have an identity . . . Playing that smart, disciplined, tough brand of basketball, [and] communicating on the court and we’re playing fast – what I mean by fast is unselfish enough to make us difficult to cover on one end and communicating so that we can get stops on the defensive end.”
At Harvard, the mission is to win while developing “scholars and ballers”
Crimson coach Tommy Amaker made it clear at media day that he sees his mission as building a team of young men who can not only win basketball games, but also develop as outstanding leaders and thinkers. It’s what he calls “scholars and ballers.”
Reflecting on the recent announcement that he will be awarded the JOY Luminary Leader Award in November, Amaker said: “I’m proud to be a part of this community. I’m proud to see if we can continue to take strides with what we’re doing on the court, obviously, but also what we always refer to as beyond the 94-50. Those are the things that make a great program, make a great institution, make a great family.”
Amaker continued: “We have a saying in this program and it’s to do well and to do good. And these guys have taken it to heart.”
Harvard was picked to finish sixth in the Ivy preseason poll, the second straight year that the league’s media prognosticators have foreseen a bottom-half conference finish for the Crimson.
Amaker expressed confidence that his team will be competitive for a league title, but for the Crimson to contend, they’ll have to get immediate production from a cadre of seven newcomers on the roster.
“We have young guys in this program, guys that are incoming guys and returning guys,” said Amaker. “These guys are excited about what’s in front of them and what the possibilities are, and we think we have a good nucleus with the chemistry of this team.”
At Penn, uncharted waters lead to the transfer portal
The Penn Quakers enter the 2024-25 season facing new and unusual realities.
After failing last season to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in program history, the Quakers were picked to finish seventh in the Ivy preseason poll for the coming campaign.
A perennial Ivy power for decades, it’s jarring for followers of Penn basketball to see the program placed near the bottom of the standings.
The losses of key players like Tyler Perkins to Villanova, Max Martz to retirement, and Clark Slajchert to graduation, have forced head coach Steve Donahue to look to an unlikely source for players: the transfer portal.
During the offseason, Donahue snagged not one, not two, but three new players from the transfer portal, an unprecedented number for an Ivy program.
“That’s what I love about Penn,” Donahue said about the atypical journey that allowed junior college transfer Dylan Williams to move from Triton College in River Grove, Ill. to the Ivy League. “[Dylan] really jumped off the page as a leader, smart, tough – he’s just wired to be that on the court.”
Donahue also signed transfers Ethan Roberts from Drake and Michael Zanoni from Mercer to go along with four freshman recruits.
It’s going to be fascinating to see if Penn can turn things around using the portal to augment traditional recruitment of high school players.
The conventional wisdom within the league is that Ivy programs can’t make ubiquitous use of the portal the way power conference programs do today. Donahue’s experiment may show the rest of the league a way forward.
“I feel really strongly that it’s going to be a team that challenges for a championship this year,” stated Donahue. “I feel good about us and what we’ve brought in and what these guys have been through and feel comfortable saying that we’re ready to challenge for a championship.”
The Princeton Tigers are still frowning over Brown
It’s been seven months since the No. 1 Princeton Tigers were shocked by Brown in the semifinal round of the Ivy League Tournament. The Tigers aren’t over it.
“The end of last season was definitely a hard one for us,” said Caden Pierce, a returning junior forward and the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year. “Having this kind of crushing defeat like we had last year, it gives me motivation and it helped me throughout the summer to push myself.”
At Media Day, a somewhat subdued head coach Mitch Henderson also reflected on the disappointing loss to Brown last March.
“It’s a very difficult loss. I think those things form you and change you a lot. And if they don’t, it makes the change and growth a little more difficult,” Henderson said. “Our objective is to win the league, which we think puts us in the best spot to return to the NCAAs.”
Princeton was picked to finish first this season in the Ivy preseason poll. With Pierce and First Team All-Ivy guard Xaivian Lee both returning to Old Nassau for their junior years, the Tigers are well-positioned for a season of redemption, which I’m pretty sure they would define as punching a ticket back to the NCAA Tournament.
For Yale, defense will continue to lead the way
The Yale Bulldogs begin the season as defending Ivy League Tournament champions, but head coach James Jones has a challenge in filling the void created by the departure of three key players: Danny Wolf, who transferred to Michigan, and August Mahoney and Matt Knowling, both of whom graduated in the spring.
Despite the loss of such an impactful trip of players, the Bulldogs were picked to finish second in the Ivy preseason poll.
Jones is confident a new generation of talented recruits will seize the opportunity to excel once they get the opportunity to perform.
“What we like to think is there’s always someone waiting in the wings,” stated Jones. “This year we’ll be who we are and we’ll figure out a way to win with what we have.”
“But for us, it all starts on the defensive end,” Jones added. “We were fortunate enough to be the best defensive team in the lleague by virtue of KenPom. That’s where we like to hang our hat – defending, rebounding and sharing the ball.”