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Dartmouth men’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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On Wednesday morning, coach Dave McLaughlin released the schedule for Dartmouth men’s basketball. The Big Green’s 14 Division I nonconference games, heavy on regional opponents and light on highly ranked rivals, will be highlighted by trips to Tampa to take on the defending College Basketball Invitational champion and Lowell for the inaugural River Hawk Invitational.

The Green have only five non-Ivy games at Leede Arena, but they will get to see neighboring Vermont, which is the three-time defending America East regular season champion and ranked in the Top-100 heading into this season.  The team will hit the road for 10 games before league play, including the Nov. 8 opener at defending MAC champion Buffalo, which went 32-4 last year and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

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Cornell women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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Cornell head coach Dayna Smith announced her team’s 2019-20 schedule on Wednesday afternoon, unveiling a 13-game nonconference schedule that features seven home matches as well as games against teams from the Big 12 and Atlantic 10.

The Big Red’s early schedule is dominated with contests against tri-state neighbors, Albany, Binghamton, Colgate, Duquesne, Lafayette, Niagara, NJIT and St. Bonaventure, but the team will branch out with a visit from East Tennessee State and trips to TCU and West Virginia.

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Columbia women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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The Columbia women’s basketball nonconference schedule was released on July 30 and the league potion of the schedule was finalized on Monday morning.  Coach Megan Griffith’s Lions have a 13 game pre-Ivy schedule featuring seven home contests and four games against NCAA Tournament teams.

After starting the season on the road at Albany and opening up the home slate against St. Joseph’s, Columbia faces three straight NCAA teams in an eight day period.  First up is Fordham on November 10. The Atlantic 10 champion Rams were 25-9 last season, including a 68-49 victory over the Lions.

Five days later, the Light Blue travel to upstate New York to take on defending MAC champion Buffalo.  Two years ago, Felisha Legette-Jack’s Bulls, visited Levien Gymansium and escaped with a buzzer-beating 65-63 win.  Buffalo would eventually go on to the Sweet 16 that season.  The Lions close the streak at NEC champion Robert Morris on November 17.

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Cornell men’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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Featuring 18 contests against teams ranked in the top 150 and highlighted by trips to the Carrier Dome and the Bryce Jordan Center, the Cornell men’s basketball teams released its 2019-20 schedule on Thursday.  The Big Red will attempt to develop their young squad over a 13-game nonconference schedule to again exceed expectations and return to the Ivy League Tournament after a one-year absence.

Following early games with Binghamton and Bryant, Cornell welcomes NJIT to Newman Arena on November 13.  Last season, the Big Red defeated the Highlanders by six in Newark and look to make it two-in-a-row over the ASUN’s second best team.  Three days later, the Red head to the midwest to take on DePaul of the Big East.  This game would have had more intrigue had Bill Courtney remained on the Blue Demons’ staff, but the former Cornell head coach (2010-2016) left for Miami in June.

On November 20, Cornell heads up I-81 for its yearly trip to Syracuse.  This year’s game will be third meeting between junior Jimmy Boeheim and his Hall of Fame father Jim, as well as the 125th overall between the nearby schools.  Last year’s 63-55 loss was the 39th in a row, but the closest game against the Orange since 2005.

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Columbia men’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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Columbia men’s basketball head coach Jim Engles announced his team’s nonconference schedule on July 31, but it would be over a month before Columbia Athletics released the remaining 14 Ivy contests.  With the schedule now complete, the Lions will look to use its 16 nonconference games as a springboard to the program’s first ever spot in the Ivy Tournament.

The highlight of the first half of the Lions schedule is an early season four-game tournament which includes a match against the defending national champions and a battle for New York supremacy.

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Penn men’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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Although Penn Athletics released the men’s basketball home schedule on August 14, the complete slate was announced Wednesday, three weeks later.  While the schedule is light on home games, coach Steve Donahue has crafted a strong 13 game nonconference schedule that will see the Quakers facing three Top-35 teams and anywhere from four to six top-90 squads.

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Brown women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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Looking to bounce back after recent disappointments, Brown’s upcoming 2019-20 schedule was announced by sixth-year head coach Sarah Behn on Wednesday.  Like Dartmouth, the 13 game nonconference schedule is heavy on nearby opponents and light on teams that made the postseason.

Over the first half of the season, the Bears will take on local rival Bryant to start the season on November 5, and then take part in the fourth Ocean State Tip-Off in December.  Bruno will open up against Rhode Island on December 7 and then face Providence or have another matchup against the Bulldogs the next day.

Brown will also take on fellow New Englanders Maine, Central Connecticut State, UMass Amherst, New Hampshire, Merrimack, Holy Cross and Merrimack, and Fairfield.  Before league play starts in mid-January, the team will venture down to the Sunshine State to take on Florida International and South Florida before the start of the new year.

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Yale women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule

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Yale started out the last week of the summer by announcing a new set of admission policies for recruited athletes in the wake of the Operation Varsity Blues scandal on Wednesday.  Two days later, heading into Labor Day weekend, the athletic department followed with a posting of the women’s basketball schedule for the 2019-20 season.

Coach Allison Guth’s fifth season in charge of the Bulldogs features a strong 13-game non-conference schedule which will have her team facing nine teams that made the postseason in 2019. The Elis will challenge Mercer, North Carolina, Quinnipiac, and UCLA, which went to the NCAA Tournament, while taking on WNIT participants Fresno State, Loyola Marymount, Northeastern, Providence, and Sacred Heart.

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Katie Benzan leaves Harvard basketball

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The calendar has not even turned to September and we have our first major development of the 2019-20 season.  The Harvard Crimson broke the news that rising senior Katie Benzan, a three-time first team All-Ivy guard, has decided to step away from the program and end her Ancient Eight career.

“Katie has been a remarkable player in our program for three years,” head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said in a statement emailed to the paper. “After much discussion with the coaching staff, she has decided to step away her senior year.”

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Princeton alumnus David Blatt announces diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

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Princeton alumnus David Blatt has had a successful coaching career but announced his battle with multiple sclerosis earlier this week. (Princeton Athletics)

David Blatt, a 1981 graduate of Princeton and head coach of Greek club Olympiacos, took to the website of his present team on Monday to issue a statement regarding the news that he was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

“A few months ago I was diagnosed with PPMS, primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Τhis is a disease that has many forms and manifests itself in different ways to different people” posted Blatt in the opening of his statement. “It is an autoimmune system disease that can and does in many ways change your quality of life and ability to do even the most basic of functions in ways that have always seemed normal to you.”

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