Home of the Roundball Poets
Ray Curren 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After two losses at home to start the Ivy League campaign, it was time for some soul-searching for the Cornell men’s basketball team, as the Big Red look to qualify for their fifth straight Ivy Madness, this time on their home floor.
HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men’s basketball team miraculously escaped an upset from in-state rival New Hampshire Wednesday night by scoring the game’s final nine points, with Kareem Thomas’ runner with 5.5 seconds left holding up for a 69-68 win.
The Big Green (3-3) looked disjointed for most of the evening, particularly on the offensive end, and there will likely need to be several areas of improvement if Dartmouth is to follow up on last season’s inaugural Ivy League Tournament bid.
But that’s not a surprise to them. With Ryan Cornish now graduated, others like senior Brandon Mitchell-Day and sophomore Connor Amundsen (who was also injured to start the campaign) have seen the brunt of opposing defenses’ attention, especially Amundsen, who at 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds is a clear target for teams like New Hampshire that have good size at the guard position.
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – After going 1-13 in Ivy League play last season, the Columbia men’s basketball team was picked dead last in the 2025-26 media poll, and it wasn’t particularly close.
The all-knowing computers disagreed a bit, taking into account Columbia’s solid nonconference campaign last season and the fact the Lions returned a decent amount of minutes in a year where many others did not.
The story of the 2025-26 Ivy League basketball season has barely begun, but it’s starting to look like the media projections are in big trouble.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – As you would expect, the Harvard men’s basketball pregame hype video played just before its starting lineup is announced includes clips from both its 2013 and 2014 NCAA Tournament victories.
But it also includes one from the 2015 Ivy League playoff, a grinding win over Yale at The Palestra after the Bulldogs lost on the last day of the regular season and the two rivals finished the season tied. Although they would get edged 67-65 by North Carolina to prevent its third straight season with a NCAA win the next week, it was the culmination of four straight NCAA Tournament berths and six straight 20-win campaigns.
HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men’s basketball team was the surprise of the Ivy League last season, defying preseason prognostications to finish third and qualify for its first Ivy League Tournament. That was some vindication for coach David McLaughlin in his ninth season in charge, as the Big Green’s winning conference record was the program’s first this century.
All praise is fleeting, of course, and a new campaign is upon us, one that got off to a bit of a rocky start with a 75-56 loss to Marist Sunday afternoon at Leede Arena.
WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Contrary to popular belief, Friday’s Columbia season opener at Division I neophyte New Haven was not Kevin Hovde’s first shot at being a head coach.
No, back when he was a young assistant on the Upper West Side from 2011 to 2016 under Kyle Smith, there was an opportunity to schedule a handful of junior varsity games with Columbia’s big roster and Hovde drew the short straw to roam the sidelines as the man in charge.
“We had a three game schedule, we played the Army and Navy JV, and I want to say a prep school,” Hovde said. “But I went 2-1, so I had a winning record, even though I did lose one.”
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Cornell men’s basketball team can’t really explain what happened in a 39-point loss at Dartmouth exactly one month ago today.
It did know that, presented with a second opportunity, it would not happen again.
Second-seeded Cornell not only gained revenge but booked its place in the Ivy League Tournament final for the first time with an 87-71 win Saturday afternoon at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
“It really started the night before when we lost to Harvard and didn’t play well,” Cornell senior Nazir Williams said. “There were some things that happened that weekend that weren’t good and it showed on the court. We needed to reset and get back to the basketball we knew we could play. We obviously knew we were much better than that, and our coaches helped us understand that, we had a good week of practice, and we were back.”
That loss at Dartmouth, in which the Big Red trailed 21-2 and then 44-18 at the half, was a catalyst for Cornell (18-10), which has played some of its best basketball since, especially on the offensive end. Saturday’s win was its fifth straight and the first one in three that it hasn’t scored 100 points.
HANOVER, N.H. – The Harvard women’s basketball team knew its Ivy League Tournament place was secure heading into Saturday’s regular season finale Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth.
But as much as they probably didn’t want to look too closely at it, the Crimson also knew their hopes of an NCAA Tournament at-large berth was in a very precarious spot, listed as one of the Last Four In or dreaded Last Four Out on most bracketologies in the last two weeks.
So, even though Dartmouth was banged up and coming in on an 11-game losing streak, Harvard left nothing to chance on Dartmouth’s Senior Day, using their pressure to dominate from the opening tip, eventually posting a 74-40 victory at Leede Arena.
“We just really wanted to finish the regular season on a high note,” Harvard coach Carrie Moore said. “We didn’t feel great about how we played last weekend, so we wanted to get back to how we know we can play, and I felt we did that, especially the upperclassmen who set the tone early.”
HANOVER, N.H. – Dartmouth inadvertently flashed a graphic momentarily before Saturday’s pivotal game against Brown that read, “Ivy Madness Clinched.”.
Fortunately for the Big Green, there has been little to jinx them in the 2024-25 Ivy League season, as they shook off a dreadful start and halftime deficit to win by another lopsided margin, 78-58, and clinch its first Ivy League Tournament berth in school history at Leede Arena.
HANOVER, N.H. – Troubles with the Wi-Fi are not new at Leede Arena. It is a notoriously dreadful place to get a signal, even when the crowd can be counted in dozens.
But the line to the restroom that wrapped far outside the door at halftime? That was definitely something that hasn’t been seen in a long, long time.