Since Ivy Hoops Online is a site devoted to Ivy League basketball, it would not seem to be a place to write about Thursday’s tragic shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis. However, the location of the assault and the death of one of its employees, John McNamara, reaches close to home for many of the people that have written at IHO over the years.
General
Four to join Columbia men’s basketball in 2018-2019
Heading into the last weekend of conference play in each of the last two seasons, the Columbia men’s basketball team held the advantage for the final spot in the Ivy Tournament. Sweeps on the road by Brown and Yale in 2017, as well as losses to Dartmouth and Harvard this past March, kept the Lions away from the league’s postseason both years. Coach Jim Engles, heading into his third year as head coach in Morningside Heights, will look to change his team’s fortunes in 2018-2019 as Columbia seeks its first visit to Ivy Madness.
The Lions finished last season 8-19 with a 5-9 fifth place record in the Ivy League. In conference play, they were 5-2 at Levien Gymnasium, but winless away from home. The bright spots for Columbia were a 16 made three pointer performance against Cornell, a 83-76 win over eventual co-champion Harvard and a 25 point win over Princeton. The Lions averaged 76.4 points and 10 made threes a game overall, as well as 77.8 points and 9.4 made threes in the Ancient Eight. Their opponents, however, scored 77.2 points and 10 made threes overall, while conference foes put up 78.1 points and 10.9 made threes a game. Looking towards 2018-2019, Columbia will need to keep its offense intact, while improving its three point defense (38.4 percent in Division 1 games and 39.8 percent in Ivy League) if it wants to move into the league’s upper division.
Cornell’s Stone Gettings to sit out 2018-19 and become graduate transfer
On Monday evening, Jeff Goodman of ESPN tweeted that Cornell junior forward Stone Gettings would graduate in December and become a graduate transfer. Gettings, a second-team All-Ivy member in 2017-2018, will sit out the 2018-2019 season in order to save his final year of eligibility. The Malibu, California native told the Cornell Daily Sun, “I decided to graduate early in December, save myself a ton of money, and have another year to play somewhere else”.
Gettings arrived in Ithaca in the fall of 2015, as a member of Bill Courtney’s last recruiting class. In his first game for the Big Red, he scored 14 points and hit 4 of 6 three pointers against Georgia Tech. For the season, he played in 28 games, averaging 2.1 points, 1.8 rebounds and 9.5 minutes a contest. Following Courtney’s dismissal, arguably, no Cornell player benefited more from the hiring of Princeton’s Brian Earl than Gettings. As the team’s featured front court player, his sophomore numbers increased to 12.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 25.6 minutes per game in his 29 starts.
Princeton men’s basketball goes back to work
The Tigers’ annual January reading period and their forced three-week hiatus come to an end this weekend with visits from the Yale Bulldogs and the Brown Bears to Jadwin Gym. This is a good time to assess the season to this point and offer some predictions for the remainder of the Ivy campaign.
After a 2-6 start, the Tigers rebounded nicely, winning five of the final six out-of-conference games to conclude that portion of their schedule at 7-7. Princeton was bitten by the injury bug for the third time in as many years.
Penn women’s basketball tops Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, projected to pull off three-peat
A three-peat is on its way if the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll for this upcoming season is on the mark.
Released Wednesday, the poll projects Penn to win its third straight Ivy League championship, the third time in four seasons the Red and Blue were chosen to finish atop the league.
2017-18 Ivy Men’s Basketball Preseason Media Poll released, teleconference highlights
The Ivy men’s basketball preseason media poll was released Tuesday, confirming that the top of the league appears to be a three-way scrum between Harvard, Yale and Princeton at this point. Yale received the most first-place votes (eight) but Harvard garnered the most points overall, awarding the Crimson their first perch atop the media poll standings since the 2014-15 season, which was also the last time Tommy Amaker’s club was Ivy League champion. Princeton received three first-place votes, finishing just behind Yale overall.
Another Ivy League men’s basketball 2018 recruiting update
Harvard
Mason Forbes, a two-star recruit from Folsom (CA) High School, chose to attend Harvard on Tuesday night, becoming the Crimson’s fourth member for the class of 2018. The 6’8” 195 pound center/power forward averaged 15.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 3.6 blocks a game in the 2016-17 season. According to Verbal Commits, he chose Harvard over Mt. St. Mary’s, San Diego State, San Jose State, and Cal Poly.
Forbes comes from a basketball rich family. His grandfather, Sterling Forbes, Sr., played for Pepperdine, was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, and joined the Harlem Globetrotters. His father, Sterling “Smooth” Forbes, Jr., played for Southwest Texas State before playing with the Globetrotters. His younger sister, McKenzie Forbes, is a senior at Folsom High School and an ESPN Top 40 prospect who will be attending Cal-Berkeley in the fall of 2018. ‘
A spoof: The future of college basketball
It is March 12, 2022 and the NCAA Selection Show is set to air on CBS.
There is a great deal of speculation about who the top seeds will be, since 91 NCAA Division I schools are currently on suspended or on probation.
The schools in contention for the top seeds are Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Amherst, Williams and Trinity in Hartford, Conn.
Penn men’s basketball data analyst dies in an apparent suicide
Nicholas Moya, a Penn senior who served as a data analyst for the Penn men’s basketball team, died Thursday, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported Friday. noting in an additional report the following day an obituary that cited Moya’s “long battle with depression.”
Moya, who was 21 years old, is likely the fourteenth Penn student since February 2013 to die by suicide, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, which further noted that Moya’s family requested that mourners donate to the Kyle Ambrogi Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting education and awareness of depression and suicide prevention.
Donations to the Kyle Ambrogi Foundation can be made here.
Ivy news roundup – July 20, 2017
Alarie and Boehm join forces to help USA Women U-19 at World Cup
As noted in the May 21 IHO Ivy news roundup, Princeton’s Bella Alarie and Harvard’s Jeannie Boehm were selected to the USA Women’s U-19 team for the World Cup taking place in Italy from July 22 through 30. Last week, USA Basketball profiled the two as they got ready for the upcoming tournament. The rising sophomores are the first two Ivy Leaguers to be a part of the U-19 team in the 32-year history of the national squad.