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Mike Tony Miye Oni’s time with the Utah Jazz is over.
In 2019, the Jazz became the first team to secure an Ivy League player through the NBA Draft since the Minnesota Timberwolves took Penn’s Jerome Allen 24 years earlier by getting Oni in a trade with the Golden State Warriors, who had taken the Yale standout with the No. 58 pick.
Sunday will mark the first Ivy League conference basketball since March 7, 2020, even if two of the eight games in the opening slate (the Princeton at Harvard and Columbia at Yale men’s matchups) have been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. Here’s what to watch for:
New year, same scheduling challenges.
It’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s usually annual exchange with Wes Cheng of The Juice Online, except this is our second one of the week after Brown’s battle at Syracuse Monday. The Big Red take on the Orange Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.
Brown’s hastily scheduled tilt at Syracuse went south quickly in the second half, as the Orange powered their way to a 93-62 win Monday.
The Orange (6-5, 1-0 ACC) went on a tear after the Bears (8-6, 0-0 Ivy) clawed their way from an early hole to get within 38-32 at halftime of the clash scheduled as a COVID-19 replacement date after games against Lehigh and Cornell were postponed due to the pandemic.
It’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s annual exchange with Wes Cheng of The Juice Online, except with Brown taking Cornell’s place – for now – after Syracuse added a home game against Brown to be held Monday after COVID-related cancellations of their games against Lehigh and Cornell. Big Red fans should take note that the latter has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.
This holiday season, Ivy Hoops Online contributors weigh in on what their holiday wishes are for the 2022 Ivy League basketball campaign. Coming off a season that wasn’t, hopes for a safe, full slate of games come first, but our contributors’ wish list is much longer than that. Happy holidays and warm wishes to all!
One of the most successful eras in Ivy sports history is coming to an end.
Harvard Athletics announced Friday that Crimson women’s coach Kathy Delaney-Smith will retire at the end of the 2021-22 season, her 40th at Harvard’s helm.
“I have spent 40 incredible years doing the job that I love,” Delaney-Smith told Harvard Athletics. “I have always believed that sports is the greatest classroom for life. It has been my great honor to build the basketball program at Harvard and to mentor, coach, and work alongside such incredible people. I am so very proud of our players and alumnae. Their impact on me has been immeasurable.”
The Ivy League men’s and women’s preseason media polls amounted to a shrug with Yale emerging on top and a vote of confidence for Princeton, respectively.
So did polls of Ivy Hoops Online’s contributors.
Our contributors unanimously pegged Princeton to finish atop the Ancient Eight on the women’s side, but we were less sure on who would win the Ivy League championship on the men’s side. Penn edged out Columbia by a single point to take second place in our projected women’s standings, while Yale slipped past Harvard by one point to take fourth place, a finish that would knock Harvard out .
Yale received five first-place votes, while Harvard nabbed two and Penn one. While none of our contributors picked Princeton to win the league, three projected the Tigers will place second in the conference standings. We predicted the same order of finish as the men’s and women’s polls. So there’s consensus even amid all the unknowns that the 2020-21 season that wasn’t left the Ivy hoops landscape.
For a preview of what that landscape looks like heading into the first Ivy hoops action in 20 months coming up this week, check out our roundups of the men’s and women’s media days.
Ivy Hoops Online Preseason Polls: