Mike Tony

Ancient Eight thoughts – Ivy Saturday women’s edition

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Eight thoughts on the women’s side:

1. Aghayere on a rebounding spree

There was a whopping 77 points scored in the first half in Penn’s battle with visiting Cornell, featuring the Big Red’s No. 2 Ivy scoring defense vs. the Red & Blue’s No. 1 Ivy scoring defense. No. 1 eventually got the best of No. 2 as the game eventually settled into more of a grind-it-out struggle. Princess Aghayere posted a career-high 23 points and 10 boards, the fourth double-double of her senior campaign. Aghayere grabbed seven of Penn’s offensive rebounds, fueling a 15-6 scoring edge for Penn in second-chance points. Aghayere is one of three Quakers to rank in the Ivy’s top nine in offensive rebounding (fifth behind league-leading Eleah Parker and ahead of Ashley Russell in ninth place). If Penn goes to another 2-3 zone variation against Princeton tomorrow night, Aghayere will have to come up big on the boards as she did in Penn’s win at Princeton last month, when she snared a team-high 12 boards, limiting a Tigers squad that crashed the boards against the zone well that day.

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Ancient Eight thoughts – Ivy Saturday men’s edition

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Eight thoughts on the men’s side:

1. Penn’s defense finds its stride

Penn held Cornell to 18 points in the second half and 0.78 points per possession for the night, an inspired defensive performance marking the latest glimpse of how high Penn’s ceiling can be when the defense is fully locked in. Matt Morgan’s usage rate was lower than usual, and Penn did a good job zeroing in on the second-all-time leading scorer in Ivy history. Morgan and company actually had a decent outing from beyond the arc (8-for-22, 36.4 percent), but it didn’t matter because everything else was effectively taken away. The Big Red typically thrive at the foul line, but Penn’s characteristically disciplined defense (the Quakers rank best in the Ivy League in defensive free throw rate) didn’t feed into that. Instead, Penn preserved its outside shot at an Ivy League Tournament berth, a feat only as realistic as its defense is strong down the stretch.

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Ancient Eight thoughts – Ivy Friday women’s edition

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Eight thoughts on the women’s side:

1. Dartmouth hanging in there 

Dartmouth did something it hadn’t done in a decade last night: defeat Yale at home. And the timing was pivotal as the Big Green notched its second win at the wire in the past four games courtesy of a Paula Lenart putback of a missed Isalys Quinones three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left, giving the Big Green a 56-54 victory to lift them to 4-5 in the Ivy standings – within a game of Yale with five outings to go. It was a gutsy win for the Big Green, whose savvy senior guard Cy Lippold suffered an injury versus Princeton last Saturday. Lenart and Quinones put Dartmouth over the top in a defensive battle, and Annie McKenna’s six steals helped stymie the Bulldogs. If Dartmouth can best Brown tonight and sweep Columbia and Cornell in the final weekend, it has a decent chance of tying Yale in the Ivy standings at 8-6, but the Bulldogs would still own the second tiebreaker: highest seed defeated (Yale has topped both Princeton and Harvard, while Dartmouth has beaten neither.) So the Big Green’s road slate at Penn and Princeton next weekend is a huge, if challenging, opportunity to neutralize or even claim the tiebreaker away from Yale.

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Ancient Eight thoughts – Ivy Friday men’s edition

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Eight thoughts on the men’s side:

1. Columbia was due

Columbia hadn’t won an Ivy road game since its very first under Jim Engles at Cornell on Jan. 14, 2017: 17 such games ago. The Lions were 3-8 in games decided by one possession this season, including a 72-70 loss to Penn at Levien Gym three weeks prior, and were 4-20 in games decided by six points or fewer dating back to the start of last season. So when Maka Ellis’s stunningly easy layup off an inbound pass went in with 0.4 seconds left in overtime to clinch the 79-77 win for the Lions at the Palestra, it was a long overdue coup de grâce for a program that had long been far more competitive under Engles than its win-loss column showed. Kudos to Gabe Stefanini for coming up just two rebounds shy of a triple-double (20 points, 10 assists, eight boards) and Ellis for pitching in five of his 14 points in the final 1:24 in overtime as a rookie on the road to erase Penn’s 77-72 lead at that point.

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Inside Ivy Hoops – Feb. 21, 2019

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In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Brown coach Mike Martin and IHO writer Rob Browne.

Mike and Rob analyze this season’s Ivy League Tournament ticket sales to date, consider whether to tinker with Ivy back-to-back weekends and ponder contenders for several All-Ivy award categories while looking back on the past weekend of Ivy action and ahead to this weekend’s games:

 

Brown coach Mike Martin analyzes his team’s defensive improvement this season and offensive struggles in Ivy play, weighs in on whether Ivy back-to-back weekends are worth tweaking and where to hold the Ivy League Tournament, and much more:

 

Recordings were very lightly edited for sound quality.

Inside Ivy Hoops – Feb. 14, 2019

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In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Cornell coach Brian Earl and IHO writer Richard Kent.

Mike and Richard reflect on last weekend’s Ivy matchups, including another home sweep of the Ps for Yale and career scoring highs for Bryce Aiken, Miye Oni and Matt Morgan on the same night on the men’s side and several pivotal thrillers on the women’s side, while also looking ahead to another full slate of league games this weekend:

Cornell coach Brian Earl analyzes his team’s road sweep last weekend and defensive improvements throughout the season, Matt Morgan’s impact, whether Ivy back-to-back weekends are worth changing, where the Ivy League Tournaments should be held:

Mike takes note of how much the Ivy men’s side has gotten stronger this season relative to the 2017-18 campaign:

Princeton senior guard Devin Cannady reinstated following arrest, suspension

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Princeton announced Friday that Tigers senior guard Devin Cannady has been reinstated to play, three weeks after he was reportedly arrested and then suspended by the university following an alleged confrontation with customers and police at a local Wawa.

Cannady was suspended for three games: last weekend’s back-to-back at Columbia and Cornell and a Jan. 27 matchup versus Division III Wesley.

Princeton University spokesperson Ben Chang confirmed Cannady’s reinstatement Friday, reporting that the university had completed its investigation and adjudication, and that Princeton Athletics had determined that Cannady had served “the appropriate suspension from competition” based on the result of the university’s disciplinary process.

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Inside Ivy Hoops – Feb. 7, 2019

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In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Yale coach Allison Guth and IHO writer George Clark.

Mike and George reflect on last weekend’s Ivy matchups, including a weekend to remember for the Princeton men and women, and also look ahead to a full slate of league games this weekend – including what appear to be several must-wins already:

 

Coach Guth walks Mike through the sequence leading up to Roxy Barahman’s buzzer-beating, game-winning three-pointer just past mid-court versus Harvard Friday, breaks down the reasoning behind adopting a pack-line defense this season, reflects on the development of Barahman and emergence of first-year standout Camilla Emsbo, discusses a scheduling committee’s ongoing review of Ivy back-to-back weekends and much more:

 

Sometimes you need a fiber prescriber, so Mike talks about Flannel Night:

Inside Ivy Hoops – Jan. 31, 2019

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In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Rev. Chaz Howard, Penn’s University Chaplain and noted Penn basketball fan, and IHO writer Rob Browne.

Mike and Rob reflect on last weekend’s Ivy matchups and look ahead to the season’s first full back-to-back weekend of league games this weekend:

 

Rev. Chaz Howard discusses what makes him a passionate fan of Penn basketball, the Palestra being called the “Cathedral/Mecca of College Basketball,” how sports and faith can intersect, the buzz on campus over Penn men’s and women’s basketball’s recent successes and much more:

 

Mike weighs in on the role that Ivy student newspapers play in reporting on Ivy hoops and other sports:

Inside Ivy Hoops – Jan. 24, 2019

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In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Harvard basketball ’18 alum Chris Egi and IHO writer Richard Kent.

Mike and Richard analyze last weekend’s Yale-Brown men’s and women’s matchups, make sense of the Penn men’s ebb and flow, preview this weekend’s tilts and more:

 

Chris Egi explains the No More Names 10,000 Voices campaign, reflects on how coach Tommy Amaker makes Harvard a socially conscious basketball program, weighs in on Bryce Aiken’s work ethic and much more:

 

Mike wraps up with why this past week in Ivy hoops was an example of appreciating what you have while you have it: