Editor’s note: Here are Steve Silverman’s reactions to Ivy League All-Ivy awards for players and coaches for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season announced Tuesday. Ivy Hoops Online’s 2024-25 Men’s and Women’s All-Ivy Awards are soon to come.:
Player of the Year – Harmoni Turner, Harvard The coaches got it right by selecting Harmoni Turner for the League’s most prestigious award. Quite simply, Turner was the most consistent player and the most luminous star in the Ivy League this season.
Turner led the league in scoring by a wide margin with 21.9 points per game. She was a dogged defender who led the No. 1 defense in the nation. She met the so-called “eye test” by making sensational plays with her uncanny ability to dribble-penetrate through traffic and finish.
The play of Kitty Henderson this season was also outstanding. She was the best player on the best team in the League. Like Turner, Henderson displayed tremendous leadership and was the heart and soul of a historically successful Columbia squad.
Would it have been better to have co-champions this year?
Harvard coach Carrie Moore indicated her answer was an emphatic no in her weekly media availability last Wednesday. Moore shared a story from her time as a player at Western Michigan to illustrate her belief that the best player should be selected, not the best player on the best team:
“My senior year, I led the nation in scoring, and my stats were through the roof. My team was not so great. There was a player, Ali Mann, who played for Bowling Green. They won however many championships leading up to that. And they definitely won the championship my senior year. And they ended up [making it to] the Sweet 16 that year… Back at that time, they did an awards banquet for the MAC. And I remember when it was announced, the commissioner said, “Co-Player of the Year, Carrie Moore.” And everyone was in an uproar that “Co-” was even a thing. Because if you’re talking about who is the best player, I feel as if it was very obvious who was the best player in the league, but you have to take into account Ali and her impact on her team, and the fact that her team is very good, and they’ve won all of these championships. I had not. Our team had not done that, right? And so I think, again, we’re in the same position that if people are going to take that into account. I think it would be a shame if Harmoni is not named Player of the Year in our league this year. I really do … because I think all of the other things check out.”
Though the other coaches in the league may not have been aware of Moore’s story as a player, they seemed to have agreed with her thinking. They voted for the best player in the league, not the best player on the best team.
Defensive Player of the Year – Kitty Henderson, Columbia The choice of Kitty Henderson for this award is deserved and a way to single out Henderson for her outstanding performance throughout the season.
Ironically, you can make a case that Turner also deserved strong consideration for this award. After all, she was the ringleader for Harvard’s top-rated defense. But just as Turner was the better overall player and therefore deserved Player of the Year honors, Henderson was the most complete and impactful defensive player this season and therefore the clear choice for this honor.
Rookie of the Year – Katie Collins, Penn Penn’s Katie Collins won this award for good reason. Collins drew Rookie of the Week honors nine times during the season. She nearly averaged a double-double with 10.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and led the league in blocks. Like Collins’ teammate Mataya Gayle last year, this award was a no-brainer.
Coaching Staff of the Year – Columbia (led by Megan Griffith as head coach) First of all, I like that the league formally recognizes the entire coaching staff rather than solely the head coach. That is an enlightened move that other conferences should mimic.
This was Griffith’s third straight year to win this recognition for herself and her staff. She certainly deserved to win the award after leading the Lions to their first outright league championship in program history.
In my view, this award was up for grabs between Griffith and Princeton’s Carla Berube until Columbia marched into Jadwin Gym on January 20 and snapped Princeton’s 30-game home-court winning streak. Had Princeton won that game, it would have tied with Columbia for the regular season title, something that didn’t seem very likely when Berube’s best player, Madison St. Rose, went down with a season-ending injury in early November.
Berube and her staff led and molded a very young Princeton squad into an elite contender. The four sophomores who led the Tigers this season grew up before our eyes. They are going to be a force to be reckoned with over the next two seasons.
But this was Columbia’s year, not Princeton’s, and therefore the Lions’ coaching staff, led by Griffith, deserved to win this award.
First Team All-Ivy – Turner, Henderson, Ashley Chea, Princeton; Stina Almquist, Penn; Riley Weiss, Columbia There are certainly no bad choices in this group of outstanding players. My only beef, and it is a minor one, is that I would have switched Ashley Chea of Princeton with her teammate, Fadima Tall, who was named to the All-Ivy Second Team.
Chea certainly deserved to be recognized after emerging into a star player in her sophomore campaign. Chea is an elite shooter and Princeton’s second leading scorer with 12.4 points per game. But what sometimes gets overlooked is just how good of a passer she is. With 3.6 helpers per game, Chea was fifth in the Ivy League in assists. Her buzzer-beating jumper against Harvard on January 11 will be remembered as the highlight of the season for the Tigers (so far).
But for my money, Tall was the most important difference maker for Princeton this year. She finished third on the team in scoring with 10.4 points per game and was dominant on the boards, hauling down 6.3 rebounds per game, sixth-best in the Ivy League. She was also Berube’s most consistent performer this season on both sides of the ball. And like Henderson for Columbia, she emerged as her team’s leader on the floor and became the heart and soul of her team.
Second Team All Ivy – Grace Arnolie, Brown; Cecelia Collins, Columbia; Skye Belker, Princeton; Elena Rodriguez, Harvard; Fadima Tall, Princeton While the coaches did a great job of giving recognition to an outstanding group of players on the All-Ivy Second Team, I don’t know how Mackenzie Egger of Yale was left off of this list. In fact, you can make a pretty strong argument that Egger should have been named First Team All-Ivy. She led the league in rebounds and finished fourth in scoring. Any player who finishes in the top four in both rebounding and scoring almost by definition deserves to be either First-Team or Second-Team All-Ivy.
Honorable Mention – Egger, Parker Hill, Princeton; Victoria Page, Dartmouth; Mataya Gayle, Penn It’s impressive that the Ivy League has players of this high caliber “only” making the Honorable Mention List. I think you can make an argument that Cornell’s Emily Pape also belonged on this list. The junior forward was the 14th-leading scorer and 10th-leading rebounder in the League this year.
Great article, as always, Steve!
Your article shows there is certainly a lot of talent in the Ivies.
Like Jenna Clark last year, Mackenzie Egger, seems to have been penalized by being on a team near the bottom of the standings.