Dear Ivy League presidents:
I have tried to warn you for almost three years.
The warning signs were there. The arrogance was pervasive. The lack of understanding of the current landscape of college athletics on your part was mind-boggling.
Richard Kent
No. 13 Yale men’s basketball falls to No. 4 Texas A&M in NCAA Tournament
All good things must come to an end.
So it went for No. 13 Yale men’s basketball in its 80-71 loss to No. 4 Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 Thursday night in Denver.
Junior forward Pharrel Payne had a career-high 25 points and added 10 rebounds for the Aggies.
A 1:43 sequence at the end of the first half epitomized Yale’s night in its third NCAA Tournament berth in four years.
The Bulldogs were struggling offensively and had no points from the Ivy Player of the Year, senior guard Bez Mbeng, yet were down only 35-29.
Aggies junior forward Solomon Washington was whistled for a flagrant foul off of a rebound.
Mbeng missed both free throws. Yale (22-8) did not convert on the free possession and then turned the ball over.
“In terms of our team, I couldn’t be prouder of our effort today,” Yale coach James Jones said. “It wasn’t our best performance.”
Handicapping the Columbia and Penn men’s basketball coaching changes
The Penn and Columbia men’s basketball coaching jobs are both open. There has been much speculation and more rumors.
What we know is neither team is in the postseason, but some of the candidates are. Penn has hired Georgia-based Parker Executive Search, an executive search firm.
Columbia athletic director Peter Pilling is handling the Columbia search. Pilling made a great hire on the women’s side in Megan Griffith in 2016 and should know talent when he sees it. He was at Ivy Madness on Friday and Saturday and played all conversations close to the vest. Every candidate will want to know definitively if there will be some form of NIL available.
The candidates and the odds:
Ivy Madness day two – Reporter’s notebook
Lots of alumni, former players and others from the basketball world at the Pizzitola Sports Center for the second day of the Ivy League Tournament Saturday.
Seated in row one were Harvard’s Ivy Rookie of the Year Robert Hinton, his mother, and his father Robert, a former Princeton quarterback in the 1970s. The Hintons sat through both men’s games to cheer on Princeton and also Cornell, where the Harvard standout’s brother Adam is a strong contributor.
Hinton will definitely be back at Harvard next season in this age of NIL and player poaching.
Robert was the No. 97 recruit in the class of 2024 and verbally committed to Harvard in his sophomore year at Harvard-Westlake. His finalists were Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Former Yale players Steve Leondis, Chris Dudley, Azar Swain, Matt Minoff and Mike Williams were in attendance to cheer on the Bulldogs, as was former Yale president Peter Salovey.
Bill Kingston, former Princeton guard on the 1965 Final Four team and Bill Bradley’s roommate, was seated in the second row.
For the second consecutive year, the Legends of Ivy Basketball remained on hiatus, with hopes that the ceremony will resume in 2026 at Cornell.
Many writers, Ivy officials and former players offered varied explanations of the 2.9 seconds which were “added” to the clock at the end of the Princeton-Yale game. The supervisor of officials said that the clock did not appropriately stop after John Poulakidas hit his trey to seal the victory. Others differed.
The coaching changes at Columbia and Penn were also a subject of much media and Ivy administrators. There was a consensus that Penn alum and NYU coach Dave Klatsky will be in play at both schools. Also, there were rumblings that Colgate coach and former Penn player Matt Langel might have interest in the Penn vacancy. Some Princeton and Yale assistants were also discussed as possible Columbia hires. Columbia athletic director Peter Pilling was mum on topic but did add, perhaps in jest, that he had his phone turned off during the Ivy tourney.
Some media grumbled about the Ivy clearing out the gym in between all games and opined that with a potential paucity of attendees at Cornell next year, the league should rethink that policy – one not in place at the Big East or the ACC tourneys.
Yale men’s basketball bests Brown, 70-61
Brown men’s basketball had everything to gain at the Pizzitola Sports Center today. Yale had pride on the line.
Pride won out, as Yale defeated Brown, 70-61 on Senior Day.
Q&A with Yale men’s basketball senior forward Jack Molloy
Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale senior forward and Greenwich, Conn. native Jack Molloy:
Ivy Hoops Online: Growing-up in Greenwich, were you interested in Yale sports?
Jack Molloy: I didn’t start following Ivy sports until my freshman year in high school. I was really thinking about Wesleyan or Amherst. New Heights AAU took me and I went to Elite Camp at Yale and the coaches thought I could play here.
IHO: What was the camp like?
JM: So fun. Legitimate 12 hours of basketball. Constantly playing pickup. (Yale associate head) coach (Justin) Simon showed me around campus.
Harvard men’s basketball hands Yale its first Ivy League loss
It was Yale-Harvard, so ignore the records. The Crimson ended Yale’s 13-game winning streak, 74-69, before a crowd of 1,636 at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday, handing the visitors their first loss in Ivy League play.
“I thought they had a really good game plan,” coach James Jones said. “Hopefully we can take this as a learning tool going into our last game (at Brown) and the Ivy tournament.”
Q&A with Yale senior guard John Poulakidas
Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale senior guard John Poulakidas, a Naperville, Ill. native and the Ivy League’s scoring leader at 19.5 points per game:
Ivy Hoops Online: What was your recruiting process like during COVID?
John Poulakidas: It was definitely difficult. Butler offered me. Princeton was in the mix. Not having an AAU year hindered my recruitment.
Yale men’s basketball dumps Columbia to clinch Ivy League regular season title
Letdown? One could have happened.
After all, Yale clinched an Ivy title last night in a scintillating tilt.
But letdowns aren’t a thing with James Jones-coached teams. The Bulldogs destroyed Columbia, 90-64, at John J. Lee Amphitheater on Senior Night Saturday.
“I keep being surprised, but in awe of this group,” said Jones. “We scored 90 points and gave up 64. I just think we could be perfect.”
Q&A with Yale men’s basketball senior guard Bez Mbeng
Bez Mbeng is a 6-foot-4 senior guard from Potomac, Md. and the two-time reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. IHO recently caught up with him before a Yale practice:
Ivy Hoops Online: You have been known as a great defensive player and your offense has caught-up with your defensive play. How did that happen?
Bez Mbeng: Testament to the work my whole life. You want to keep getting better. Credit to my coaches. We live in the gym. Lots of dedication to our craft.