General

Ranking all eight official Ivy team websites

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When is a website not just a website?

When it’s a NCAA college athletics department’s official website.

Think about it. If you’re a high school recruit checking out a college school athletics scene for the first time, that website better be easy to navigate. What is this team’s history? How do I fill out their recruiting questionnaire? Do they have summer basketball camps? Does their athletics staff know how to craft an aesthetically pleasing website? (If it’s Cornell, the answer to the latter question is no.)

And you know what? The same questions apply to Ivy hoops bloggers! Certainly, when I was a sportswriter at The Daily Pennsylvanian, I checked out the official Ivy team websites every day and got used to their quirks and designs. In fact, when Penn Athletics updated its site in 2013, it made me appreciate the work that goes into streamlining these webpages, updating the information that needs to be routinely updated for recruits, alumni, journalists and students alike.

The thing is, some Ivies have better websites than others. The Ancient Eight official men’s basketball webpages, ranked:

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What's your Ivy team's New Year's resolution?

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New YearIt’s New Year’s Eve, and that means New Year’s resolutions abound. If the Ivies could have one doable New Year’s resolution each, here’s what they would be, along with the likelihood of each team making good on that resolution (Ivy power rankings included).

8. Penn (3-7) – Get the freshmen substantially more minutes

Sam Jones is averaging 6.1 points in just 15.1 minutes per game so far this season and has proven himself to be the kind of sharpshooting threat Penn has been missing for a long time, shooting an eye-popping 45.9 percent from beyond the arc. Yet Jones logged just 10 minutes at La Salle last night. He must be in coach Jerome Allen’s doghouse, but he has to play more regardless.

Meanwhile, now that Mike Auger’s back from a foot injury, he has to play more too. He’s just seventh on the team in minutes per game despite being second in rebounds and third in points per contest. Freshman guard Antonio Woods is actually logging more minutes than anybody due to junior guard Tony Hicks’ chronic foul trouble, but he’s just one of many frosh that will have to pick up the slack if Penn is to make a run at the top half of the conference.

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Breaking down why Harvard is still the class of the Ivy League

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As a Harvard optimist, I was unfazed by the Crimson’s lackluster performance against Virginia on Dec. 21. I concede that Harvard is not on the Cavaliers’ level. This past Sunday, the Crimson needed a strong bounce-back performance versus a more suitable opponent, Arizona State, but once again, Harvard could not establish the upper hand in a 56-46 loss to a tough Sun Devils team. Three obvious takeaways from this game are:

  • Harvard’s defense continues to be top-notch.
  • Harvard’s offense continues to sputter.
  • Playing away from its home court at Lavietes Pavilion is tough for the Crimson.

So the real question is, can Harvard escape the Ivy League gauntlet with a stingy defense and an offense that’s weaker than last year’s? To examine this question, I decided to take a closer look at how Harvard and the other Ivy League teams have fared against “Ivy League-caliber” competition.

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Whimsy: An Ivy transfer window

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(thesportsquotient.com)
(thesportsquotient.com)

Much in the way that the frenzy around MLB’s winter meetings and the NBA’s star players hitting free agency captivate fans as much as or more than regular season games, so too do the machinations of the summer and winter transfer windows in soccer. As the winter transfer window opens on Thursday, I thought about an alternate reality where the NCAA also had a transfer window to deal with in between the fall and spring semesters. While English teams are roughly halfway through their round-robin season when the window opens, Ivy basketball teams have nearly completed their nonconference schedule and will have an opportunity to correct weaknesses, address injuries, or move the focus completely towards next year without worrying about getting relegated.

Along with IHO resident soccer expert Peter Andrews, I thought up moves each team could make in this hypothetical, never could, would or should happen situation. We will also be ignoring that in reality, Duke, Kansas or Kentucky would buy up all of the good players anyway.

BROWN: LOANS Kendall Jackson from Columbia and Andre Chatfield from Harvard No Bear averages more than 3.5 assists per game and no starter has an assist/turnover ratio better than 1.1. Thus, the Bears bring in two guards buried on their respective team’s depth charts in the hopes that one sticks as the ball handler of the future and a permanent transfer can be worked out after the season.

COLUMBIA: BUYS Gabas Maldunas from Dartmouth. Columbia remains weakest in the frontcourt, where Cory Osetkowski has put together an inconsistent campaign in scoring and on the glass. They”d pay a hefty transfer fee to pry Gabas Maldunas away from Dartmouth, a team going nowhere fast this year. Maldunas would instantly upgrade the post presence for Columbia. In addition to cash, the Lions would send monstrously tall center Conor Voss on a loan to Dartmouth, in the hopes that some regular playing time will reveal basketball skills.

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Behind a balanced attack, Columbia tops Colgate

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Columbia used a strong second half to recover from a halftime deficit and hold off Colgate, 69-64, this afternoon in Morningside Heights.

Four Lions scored in double digits — Maodo Lo (15), Cory Osetkowski (14), Steve Frankoski (13) and Kyle Castlin (12) — while Isaac Cohen contributed 10 assists. Cohen became the first Lion to post double-figure assists since Brian Barbour did it against Elon in 2012.

Check out our two-minute recap, with audio from Kyle Smith.

Colgate suffered an injury to their leading scorer on the season, Alaska native Damon Sherman-Newsome, midway through the first half, but that didn’t stop the visitors from putting a scare into Columbia. In particular, the Light Blue struggled to stop the shooting of senior center Ethan Jacobs, who posted a career-high 26 points. On the afternoon, the Raiders shot 52 percent from the field and 53 percent from long-range.

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IHO Awards of the Week – Dec. 15

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The week that was in Ivy roundball, rankings included:

8. Penn (3-5)

Three wins in a row vs. teams whose KenPom rankings add up to 970 (Navy: 322, Binghamton: 340, Marist: 308)

7. Dartmouth (3-5)

Nice 21-point win at UMass-Lowell, but Dartmouth really has become Gabas Maldunas, Alex Mitola, Connor Boehm and a bunch of guys. That trio accounted for 50 of the Big Green’s 67 points in a loss at Jacksonville St.

6. Princeton (3-8)

More losses than any other Ivy. Princeton lost by 14 to St. Peter’s, which Brown beat by 12 in the Bears’ season opener, so the Tigers fall below Brown here. Still, an outstanding first half at Cal showed that the Tigers are capable of much more. Untapped upside still looms large for Princeton.

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How Penn basketball can keep us from forgetting about it

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Penn's win over Marist Tuesday marked its first victory at the Palestra in six tries. (upenn.edu)
Penn’s win over Marist Tuesday marked its first victory at the Palestra in six tries. (upenn.edu)

Like many, I was a bit shocked that Jerome Allen has not placed on ESPN’s “10 Best-Dressed Coaches List.” Anyone who has seen the man up close knows his elegant sartorial choices are beyond reproach.

I was equally shocked when this very forum expended more than 51 minutes of last week’s On the Vine podcast discussing Ivy League basketball and spent exactly two seconds on the Quakers. In fact, after discussing six other teams, host Peter Andrews at one point says, “There’s only one other team that we haven’t talked about, Dartmouth.”

Shame on you gentlemen…

These two incidents, albeit small, point to one thing: the current irrelevance of Penn basketball.  Both mainstream and social media blather on and on about everything from the overall strength of the league to the beauty of the Yale offense, to the disappointment of the Brown defense, to the burgeoning diameter of Mitch Henderson’s bald spot.

But nothing about Penn.

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Turnovers, poor free-throw shooting must end for Dartmouth

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Alex Mitola and the Big Green have a chance to jumpstart its season against Maine Saturday.
Alex Mitola and the Big Green have a chance to jumpstart its season against Maine Saturday.

You could call Dartmouth’s 1-4 start a big disappointment, or you could call it the norm since the Big Green have struggled mightily under Paul Cormier, going a combined 31-83 over the last four seasons. If they don’t turn it around soon, they could be looking at yet another long, unbearable season.

On a more positive note, besides a 20-point blowout loss in the season opener against St. Bonaventure, most of their games have been close. Three of Dartmouth’s four losses have been by five points or less, including the most recent loss (by one point) to Longwood.

Poor free throw shooting has been the difference between a winning record and the abysmal 1-4 start for Dartmouth this season. In their two-point loss to New Hampshire, the Big Green shot just 11-for-18 from the charity stripe, or 61.1 percent. Against Longwood, a game decided by one point, Dartmouth shot a grim 57.9 percent from the line compared to Longwood’s 79.2 percent. This kind of foul shooting wouldn’t help a high school team win games, much less a division one basketball program. Turnovers have also been a major issue. In order for this Dartmouth team to have any success at all, it will need to do a much better job of protecting the basketball.

Although early in the season, Dartmouth has a lot of work to do if it hopes to be competitive in Ivy League play. While its defensive play has been solid, it must also improve on the offensive side of the ball. The Big Green currently rank second to last in the league in scoring, and most of their offense comes from junior point guard Alex Mitola. Dartmouth’s starting center, Gabas Maldunas, a second-team All-Ivy selection his sophomore year, has been inconsistent at best in his return from tearing his ACL last January. While understandable since it has only been 10 months since the injury, Dartmouth is going to need him to make an Adrian Peterson-like recovery and return to full strength as soon as possible. Unless Mitola gets some offensive help fast, it could be another long season for Cormier and the Big Green.

Columbia basketball needs better frontcourt play to defend ‘the bunker’

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Kyle Castlin's scoring and rebounding impact has been felt immediately, but the Lions still have major depth issues. (onebidwonders.com)
Kyle Castlin’s scoring and rebounding impact has been felt immediately, but the Lions still have major depth issues. (onebidwonders.com)

The saying is that your home gym is a fortress; for Columbia, Levien Gymnasium — literally and figuratively — is better called a bunker. The Lions lost just four games there last year: a defeat at the death to Manhattan in the home opener, a double-overtime loss to Harvard assisted by the officials, a 10-point loss to Princeton and the CIT quarterfinal against Yale. Total margin of defeat: 18 points.

It comes as a shock now when the Lions lose in their bunker, as they did last night. It was another close game, as Loyola (Md.) scored a buzzer-beater to finish off the Light Blue after the home side’s furious fightback. Final two minutes aside, the result exposed some fairly major issues with a still congealing squad.

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Mike Auger flashes as Penn basketball falls to Lafayette

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Penn started out the first half a step slow in its search for its first win of the season while hosting Lafayette, trailing 45-30 at halftime – a hole the Quakers wouldn’t be able to climb out of even after cutting the Leopards’ lead to 62-60 halfway through the second half.

“We didn’t trust the system,” coach Jerome Allen said. “We didn’t know the objective of what we were trying to run and all our actions weren’t credible threats. Give Lafayette some credit but there was a direct function of our focus and attention to detail.”

The Quakers allowed Lafayette let loose from beyond the arc as the Leopards canned six of 10 attempts from deep in the first half.

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