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No. 1 Princeton and No. 4 Cornell combined to give us one of the best games in Ivy League Tournament history Saturday.
But it was the Tigers who drew final blood against the Big Red, advancing to the tournament final, with Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan hitting the game-winning shot with 36 seconds left to push Princeton past a persistent Cornell squad in a 77-73 barnburner.
“As we battle in the WBCA (Women’s Basketball Coaches Association), they’re always talking about “create this environment.” Any time I talk equity with anyone, they always say there’s more pressure on a man because the gyms are full, and the bands are playing. The opposite is true. It’s much easier to play in a (packed) venue like this. It’s very, very hard for women all over the country and play in empty gyms without bands, fighting their schools for support to get the bands there and to get the cheerleaders there. There’s been huge growth at Harvard, but there’s such a long way to go. It’s really wonderful for the athletes to play in this kind of venue and it’s fun to watch as well.” – soon-to-be retiring Harvard women’s coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, talking about the boisterous atmosphere during her team’s 72-67 loss to No. 1 seed Princeton
Some random thoughts after two great days at the 2022 Ivy League Tournament:
“The expectations (for winning) are always there, they just felt even heavier this year (due to the pandemic). There should be several asterisks next to it (being at the Ivy League Tournament) and that’s true of all the teams.” – Princeton coach Mitch Henderson
Saturday’s regular season finale didn’t mean much for the Cornell men, but in a different way than they are used to. The Big Red had already clinched the No. 4 seed in next weekend’s Ivy League Tournament and could not improve their standing in any way.
But Cornell did gain more of one thing — momentum.
After a Princeton victory over Harvard on Friday, the fate of Cornell men’s basketball’s season was officially in its own hands with two games remaining. If the Big Red win, they’re in the Ivy League Tournament.
Two teams that knew they had to win to have a chance at Ivy Madness played some of their best basketball of the year Wednesday, but the Penn women played a bit better than Cornell and came away with the victory in Ithaca, 70-57.
That may sound like a comfortable win for the Quakers, but it was anything but.
Syracuse forward and former Cornell star Jimmy Boeheim has lit up the Atlantic Coast Conference in his first season in league action. He and his younger brother Buddy are the highest-scoring sibling duo in college basketball, averaging around 30 points per game for their father, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Jim Boeheim, in his 46nd year at the helm.
Jimmy graduated from Cornell with a finance degree in the spring of 2021 after three years of Ivy hoops. Buddy was a 2020-21 first-team All-ACC preseason selection after averaging 17.8 points per game last season. This season, Buddy and Jimmy are scoring 18.8 and 13.4 points per game, respectively, ranking them both in the top 25 in the ACC.
Jimmy says that the transition from playing in the Ivy League to the ACC isn’t the big jump that people make it out to be.
After a disappointing loss at Dartmouth Friday, the Cornell men had no time to ruminate. They had to travel to Harvard and try to maintain crucial Ivy League Tournament leverage versus the Crimson.
Cornell men made just 40% of its shots and turned the ball over 18 times at Dartmouth Friday night, falling 71-59, to the Big Green.