The 2025-26 Ivy men’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:
1. Yale (2024-25: 22-8, 13-1 Ivy)
Rob Browne: Yale is the deepest, most talented and most experienced team on the men’s side. The large number of talented players, led by senior forward Nick Townsend and 20-plus years of consistent offensive and defensive philosophy should lead coach James Jones back to the NCAA Tournament.
Ian Wenik: It’s pretty much impossible for me to pick against them. Yale has the best returning player in the league in Townsend and the most frontcourt depth. The ceiling on this team, in my opinion, is much higher than an Ivy League title. It’s the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Richard Kent: The Bulldogs will be tough to beat with senior swing standout Casey Simmons, junior center Samson Aletan and Townsend up front.
2. Harvard (2024-25: 12-15, 7-7 Ivy)
RB: If Harvard remains healthy, Robert Hinton, Chandler Pigge and Thomas Batties II should be able to lead the Crimson back to a top-four spot for the first time since 2020.
IW: Even though the Crimson haven’t made Ivy Madness since pre-COVID, I do think that they benefit from a high level of roster continuity. (Evan Nelson and Louis Lesmond are the only key contributors who are gone.) Keeping sophomore guard Robert Hinton in the building was big; I expect him to be an All-Ivy player.
RK: Hinton is a top-five player in the league.
3. Cornell (2024-25: 18-11, 9-5 Ivy)
RB: Cornell lost a number of key players to graduation and the portal, but it has high hopes for another trip to the Ivy League Tournament thanks to senior guard Cooper Noard, a deep roster and the high-octane offense that has proven successful since the league returned from the lost 2020-21 season.
IW: Losing AK Okereke hurt, but I still firmly believe in Cornell’s system. Pulling Noard back from the transfer portal was a pleasant surprise and hopefully bodes well for other Ivy programs in the future.
RK: It’s about the system.
4. Princeton (2024-25: 19-11, 8-6 Ivy)
RB: Last year didn’t end well for Princeton, losing in the first round of the Ivy tournament for the second straight season. It got worse in the offseason with the transfer of Xaivian Lee to Florida, the decision of Caden Pierce to sit out this season and the surprise firing of associate head coach Brett MacConnell. Mitch Henderson will need to reset the program to remain in the upper half of the division and play for the league’s automatic bid. Fortunately, he has junior Dalen Davis in the backcourt to lead the way for a roster without any seniors.
SS: Given the departures of Lee and Pierce, this team appears headed for a big fall. And yet there is talent on this team. I thought the big issue last season was a lack of physicality, especially on the boards and around the rim. It’s hard to see how that improves now that Pierce is gone. The X-factor player for me is junior forward Jacob Huggins. When he’s on his game, he picks up the energy level for the entire team. Another key player is forward Malik Abdullahi. He looked great as a freshman, but can he improve and become a consistent scorer? With Pierce and Lee gone, Davis now becomes the focus of the offense. If he has a big year, the Tigers should qualify for Ivy Madness.
IW: I get that Brown is ranked far higher in KenPom (Brown is No. 166 there, with Princeton at No. 211), but I’m not going to pick Princeton to fail until the Tigers give me reason to do so. I think a second-year leap from guard Jack Stanton could help soften the blow of Lee’s transfer to Florida.
5. Penn (2024-25: 8-19, 4-10 Ivy)
RB: Penn brings Fran McCaffery back to his alma mater rebuild a historic program that became a consistent seventh place team. Senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts, who arrived from Army and Drake, had an outstanding 2024-25, and should thrive under White Magic’s new tutelage. If junior forward TJ Power, a transfer from Duke and Virginia, can reach the potential of his top-20 national ranking coming out of high school, there’s a chance for Penn to get into the upper half of the conference for the first time since 2022-23.
IW: The Quakers have the widest range of possible outcomes of any team in the league. In the best-case scenario, Roberts goes off in McCaffery’s system, transfers Lucas Lueth and Power both make immediate impacts, and Penn makes it into Ivy Madness. The worst-case scenario is that the team’s defense remains among the worst in the country and the Quakers stay in the Ivy cellar. I’ll hedge my bets a little and choose an outcome in the middle.
SS: I think McCaffery will have an immediate, positive impact on the team. I won’t be surprised if he succeeds in elevating every player’s game. Ethan Roberts is a Player of the Year candidate, and I expect sophomore guard AJ Levine to become one of the better point guards in the league. To me, Penn is a sleeper contender this season mostly because of the boost I think will come from the coaching change.
6. Dartmouth (2024-25: 14-14, 8-6 Ivy)
RB: Dartmouth will look to make it two straight trips to Ivy Madness on the strength of senior forward Brandon Mitchell-Day and sophomore guard Connor Amundsen. Losing All-Ivy guard Ryan Cornish to graduation is a big loss, but an equal concern is the loss of assistant coach Rich Glesmann, who helped coach Dave McLaughlin reinvent the Big Green a year ago.
IW: I don’t think Dartmouth is a bad basketball team, per se, but I do think the Big Green will badly miss Ryan Cornish.
7. Brown (2024-25: 14-13, 6-8 Ivy)
8. Columbia (12-15, 1-13 Ivy)
RB: Kevin Hovde, fresh off a national championship with Florida, has been tasked with rebuilding the last-place Lions. It will take some time, but his national-level pedigree with Todd Golden’s Gators, as well as his successful stints with Chris Mooney at Richmond and Kyle Smith at San Francisco and Columbia, should give the Lions faithful hope.
IW: I think it’s fair to expect Columbia to make some incremental progress under Hovde, a branch off Smith’s coaching tree.
RK: Hovde will get the many returnees to play more like a team, especially on defense.