General

Time for the Ivy League to increase TV visibility

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The 10th Ivy League playoff in history is set to tip off in a few hours, and it will not be broadcasted nationally. The Ivy League’s hands are tied. And the sad thing is, the league pushed itself to that point.

In the Ivy League, tradition is spelled a-r-c-h-a-i-c. It’s that traditional (read: old) thought process that led to Saturday’s Ivy League playoff between Harvard and Yale being broadcast only on the American Sports Network, which essentially means that it’ll air on various local affiliates across the nation, and ESPN3, an online channel for the World Wide Leader that will air almost any sport as long as the customer is willing to pay a fee.

For sports like cricket and ultimate frisbee – fringe sports that are trying to gain popularity in America – what ESPN3 has to provide is enough. For arena football or lacrosse, a local affiliate station is good enough. But for the Ivy League, a basketball conference that provides just as much excitement as any, it shouldn’t be.

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Playoffs?! Playoffs?!

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What do you reckon Jim Mora's reaction to Dartmouth's 2014-15 season was?
What do you reckon Jim Mora’s reaction to Dartmouth’s 2014-15 season was?

This is the Ivy League.

It is not the ACC, nor is it the Big East, or even the WCC. This is the Ivy League, and consequently, the level of play is, let’s say, different than it is in other more visible college basketball leagues. Because the Ivy League does not give athletic scholarships, and because of the long history of exclusion that is entrenched in the DNA of the Ivy League, watching a rivalry game between Princeton and Penn is drastically different between watching one between Duke and North Carolina — though the intensity and passion from a fan’s perspective may be comparable. This would be more or less fine — you know, if you’re comfortable with divisions of large swaths of people based on a system of elitism — but every year come March, one of the Ancient Eight schools gets thrown into a bigger pond with bigger fish.

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How to represent the Ancient Eight

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With the impending Harvard/Yale playoff on Saturday at the Palestra, we are bound to hear even more in the coming days about how the Ivy League is the one conference that stands alone in lacking a conference tournament. Proponents of the current system argue that it guarantees that the best team represents the league following the double-round robin, while proponents of a playoff argue that it will better position the league to get an elusive second team into the big dance (#2bidivy!) and allow teams to fight their way into the tournament despite not being one of the best.

The problems facing the implementation of a playoff are numerous, most notably the staunch opposition of many on the administrative side as well as fans who believe in the league’s tradition as the most virtuous of all virtues.

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Ivy League announces All-Ivy honors

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Even with a playoff game between Harvard and Yale remaining, the Ivy League has released its 2014-15 All-Ivy selections as chosen by the league’s eight head coaches.

Yale junior forward Justin Sears was named Player of the Year, Dartmouth freshman guard Miles Wright was interestingly named Rookie of the Year and Harvard senior forward Steve Moundou-Missi was selected Defensive Player of the Year. Snagging the first ever Coach of the Year honor was Yale head coach James Jones.

All five first-team All-Ivy players were chosen unanimously to receive that honor, while the number of second-team All-Ivies ballooned to seven due to ties in voting. That second tier is rightly jumbled based on the high level of talent in the league this season. Wesley Saunders easily could have been POY, Kyle Castlin or Antonio Woods easily could have been Ivy ROY and Paul Cormier easily could have been Ivy COY. IHO will have its All-Ivy selections out following Saturday afternoon’s Harvard-Yale playoff. For now, enjoy matching up my four 2014-15 preseason predictions to reality (I got the first two right!) and reacting to the league’s selections:

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THE REAL RACE

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It is fitting that this marvelous Ivy League race remains in doubt even as the regular season reaches its conclusion. Those of us who follow IHO understand that Saturday’s one-game playoff between Harvard and Yale for the Championship is surely significant.

But the annual battle royal between The Ancient Quaker and ToothlessTiger for IHO Pick ‘Em bragging rights has captured the imagination of Roundball Poets across the spectrum. It is fitting, indeed, that these two grizzled veterans of so many Ivy wars, each with at least one foot on the nursing home steps, are deadlocked at 37-18 heading in to today’s final regular season contest between … wait for it … Penn and Princeton!!!

The winner gets a coveted opportunity to shout from the top of Mike Tony’s desk in the IHO newsroom, “I am tied with Alan Gluck for fourth place!!!!!”

THIS IS WHY WE STILL CARE!

Editor’s note: Final IHO Pick ‘Em standings, which we know you’ve all been waiting for, will be released after Saturday’s Ivy championship playoff at the Palestra between Harvard and Yale.

Ivy Saturday Roundup

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Princeton 85, Columbia 83

An 11-0 run in the final 2:08 gave Princeton the series sweep over the Lions, now losers of four straight in spite of junior guard Maodo Lo shooting a stunning 11-for-15 from beyond the arc for 37 points. Princeton junior forward Hans Brase exploded for 23 points and made the game-winning layup with 15 seconds remaining. The Tigers will finish third in the conference.

Harvard 72, Brown 62

Harvard did what it needed to do to online casino one-game playoff” href=”https://ivyhoopsonline.com/2015/03/07/yale-loses-late-at-dartmouth-triggers-one-game-playoff/” target=”_blank”>(successfully) stay in the Ivy title hunt thanks to junior guard Siyani Chambers” 15-point performance and in spite of Brown junior forward Cedric Kuakumensah”s  23 points and seven boards.

Penn 79, Cornell 72

Just hours after news broke that Penn coach Jerome Allen will not be retained at season”s end, the Quakers destroyed Cornell in a game more lopsided than the final score indicated. Six Quakers scored in double figures to easily offset Cornell senior forward Shonn Miller”s 23 points and eight boards in his final game with the Big Red.

Ivy Friday Roundup

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Dartmouth 75, Brown 69

Wow. Just wow. Brown raced to a 14-0 lead and seemed to have the win secured with a 50-26 lead and 13:58 remaining. Not so. The Big Green finished the game on a 49-19 run, aided by three Brown technical fouls and a 17-point effort from last week’s Ivy Co-Player of the Week Malik Gill. Just a week after Brown overcame a 40-23 deficit to trump Cornell, a comeback got the best of the Bears this time around. Dartmouth, which went on a 26-2 run en route to a win at Harvard earlier this season, now awaits Yale, which had a little success of its own at Lavietes Pavilion and needs the win to clinch its first outright Ivy crown and NCAA tournament berth since 1962. Of course, a win over Yale launched the Big Green into the postseason (in this case, the CIT) for the first time since 1959, so Dartmouth has already won the drought game.

Penn 54, Columbia 46

As Penn coach Jerome Allen pointed out after the game, Columbia scored 46 in the first half against Penn a month ago en route to an 83-56 romp. Tonight, it took the Lions the entire game to reach that total. Junior guard Tony Hicks led the way for Penn, posting 19 points and eight boards, helping Penn snap a seven-game losing streak.

Princeton 66, Cornell 53

The Tigers’ 23 bench points and 15-point performance from senior guard Clay Wilson lifted Princeton past the Big Red, which shot just 37.5 percent in spite of senior forward Shonn Miller, who posted 25 points. And of course, sophomore forward Spencer Weisz notched 10 points, the 10th straight game Princeton has won when Weisz scores in double figures.

 

Ivy Saturday Roundup

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Princeton 80, Brown 62

The visiting Tigers jumped out to a 12-2 advantage and never looked back, leading by 26 at one point and outplaying the Bears in every facet of the game. Steven Cook’s 15 points and seven boards set the pace for Princeton, as did 12-point efforts from Henry Caruso and Amir Bell. The Tigers are now just a game under .500 at 13-14 and still claim a distant third place in the Ivy standings. Tavon Blackmon curiously logged just five minutes despite no fouls and no obvious injuries. Nothing makes sense for Brown fans anymore.

Dartmouth 56, Cornell 45

Robert Hatter exploded for 23 points for the Big Red but the Big Green won the battle of the Bigs behind 41 combined points from Alex Mitola, Gabas Maldunas and Malik Gill off the bench. Dartmouth shot 7-for-15 from beyond the arc and wondered what Harvard found so hard about completing the Empire State sweep.

Yale 55, Penn 50

Things got real interesting in New Haven. The Quakers led for the first 37:41 of the game but couldn’t hang on late, with Justin Sears overcoming seven turnovers to notch a crucial block and three-point play in the game’s final minute. The Bulldogs get to 10-2 in Ivy play and will travel to Harvard next Friday for the game of the year. Javier Duren posted 19 points but shot just 4-for-15 from the field and was outshone by Antonio Woods, who scored 14 and added six assists in a losing effort. True to form, Jack Montague nailed two clutch threes down the stretch and finished with 11 points of his own.

Harvard 80, Columbia 70

And it’s the game of the year largely because Harvard won too, also climbing to 10-2 to keep pace with Yale atop the conference standings. Wesley Saunders posted 21 points, including 11 free throws, to lead the way for the Crimson, and Steve Moundou-Missi added 17 on 8-for-11 shooting. Host Columbia shot north of 53 percent for the second time against Harvard this season, but it came up with a second loss because the Lions just couldn’t get anyone going outside of Maodo Lo, whose 33-point, five-steal performance just wasn’t quite enough, even as the Lions cut Harvard’s lead to 48-44 with 11:54 remaining. The Lions have depth issues, but they  do have Alex Rosenberg and Grant Mullins coming back – next season.

Cornell shuts down, upsets Harvard

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This was coming.

After Harvard edged Yale 52-50 in New Haven, needed a game-winning Siyani Chambers jumper to survive a second-half offensive drought against Columbia and struggled early against Princeton, it was clear the Crimson needed to shore up their offense.

But it makes sense that that wouldn’t happen against a Cornell defense whose calling cards are its physicality and length. Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers combined to shoot just 9-for-31 as the Crimson struggled to establish any offensive rhythm whatsoever in a 57-49 loss to the Big Red that dropped Harvard to a 9-2 Ivy mark and first-place tie with Yale atop the league standings.

Harvard shot a paltry 25 percent from the field as a team, out-Cornelling Cornell in the process.

Now Harvard heads to Levien Gym, where it needed overtime to pull out a controversial 88-84 victory last season and lost 78-63 the year before. Will the Crimson go winless on the Empire State trip? We’re about to find out.

Ivy Friday Roundup

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Cornell 57, Harvard 49

Well, then. The Big Red raced to a 22-21 halftime lead and out-Crimsoned the Crimson in the second half, pulling away with stout defense and efficient shooting. Shonn Miller fired on all cylinders to the tune of 24 points, 15 boards and three blocks. In a season in which Miller has consistently struggled beyond the arc, a pair of Miller treys midway through the second stanza signaled this wasn’t Harvard’s night. The Big Red’s win snaps their nine-game losing streak against Harvard as well as the Crimson’s 12-game win streak in Ivy road games, dropping Harvard to 4-7 at home this season. Most importantly, the loss drops the Crimson to 9-2 in Ivy play.

Yale 81, Princeton 60

The Justin Sears Show (feat. Javier Duren) overpowered Princeton’s ensemble performance down the stretch and the Bulldogs ended the game on a 42-13 run to tie Harvard atop the league standings at 9-2. Sears notched 12 rebounds and 28 points, giving him 53 in two wins over Princeton this season. Princeton was randomly led in scoring this evening by Steven Cook (12) and Clay Wilson (11), marking the first time that pair led the Tigers in scoring since Mitch Henderson’s squad trumped Stony Brook in December.

Brown 75, Penn 69

Brown completed its second consecutive season sweep of Penn thanks to a 21-point, 6-for-9 shooting (all beyond the arc) performance from J.R. Hobbie, who shredded Penn’s perimeter defense for a second time this season after having also scored 21 at Penn earlier this month, both season highs. Penn’s Tony Hicks returned from a two-game suspension for poor sportsmanship in a loss to Brown and in his failed attempt to exact revenge on the Bears notched 23 points, five rebounds and four steals. Penn has now lost six straight.

Dartmouth 84, Columbia 71

Dartmouth pulled off a season sweep of its own against the Lions, pulling away in the second half on the strength of Alex Mitola’s 18 points and five other players in double figures. The Big Green shot 60 percent from the floor while Columbia made only nine of 34 three-point attempts, knocking Columbia down to 5-6 and a tie with Cornell for fourth place in Ivy play.