Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen.
Izzy Wesley ‘29, a rising sophomore on the Brown women’s basketball team, is the second twin we have featured in this series. An innate teammate and ultimate family person, she brings “gioia di vivere” to the Bears, and she is channeling it in all the ways that make a team better:
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Off the Bench: Sarah Lessig of Princeton women’s basketball
Next, we get to know Sarah Lessig ’29, a rising Princeton women’s basketball sophomore from Seattle. A probable anthropology major and also a member of the Tigers softball team, Lessig is a study in fluidity — flowing seamlessly across sports, music, film — and West Coast to East Coast:
Off the Bench: Mataya Gayle of Penn women’s basketball
Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and multi-dimensional humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents a new series, Off the Bench, that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or via your screen.
Next up is Mataya Gayle ’27, a rising senior on the Penn women’s basketball team, and a psychology major from Woodstock, Ga. While our previous installment highlighted the relationship of two brothers attending Princeton together, here we delve into the experience of a sibling with nine brothers and sisters at home! Through her eyes we see how her birth order and family system have prepared her for the key role she has played, and will play one more season, in the Palestra and beyond:
Burning questions for Penn men’s basketball: Palestra Ivy Madness edition
There is perhaps no juxtaposition which better sums up the current state of college basketball in 2026 than the fact that the NCAA’s transfer portal opened up as One Shining Moment was playing to officially close the books on the 2025-26 season.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,500 players have entered the portal. Of course, many of those names were known in the weeks leading up to the stroke of midnight on April 7.
The season has barely ended, but these next few weeks will be critical as Penn looks to protect its current stable of talent and reload with some new faces ahead of its Ivy League title defense. Below are just a few of the questions Quakers fans should be asking ahead of a pivotal offseason.
Penn men’s basketball draws a No. 14 seed, matchup with No. 3 Illinois in NCAA Tournament
TICKET PUNCHED. 🎟️@PennMBB is GOING DANCING once again! 🌿🏀
No. 14 Penn 🆚 No. 3 Illinois pic.twitter.com/WlJvnN8BHC
— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) March 15, 2026
Four hours after it secured its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2018 on Sunday, Penn men’s basketball learned it’s a No. 14 seed in the Big Dance and will play No. 3 Illinois in Greenville, S.C. in the tournament’s South region.
Penn and Illinois will tip off at 9:25 p.m. Thursday in Greenville, S.C., with Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson on the call on TNT.
In that previous NCAA Tournament appearance, Penn controversially drew a No. 16 seed and a matchup in Wichita, Kan. with No. 1 Kansas, to whom it lost, 76-60.
Quakeaways from No. 3 Penn men’s basketball’s Ivy League Tournament final win over No. 3 Yale
TJ Power just put up the best individual performance in Quakers history. His 44 points just led Penn to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years. pic.twitter.com/QfnBWFsIlo
— Ian Wenik (@IanWenik) March 15, 2026
ITHACA, N.Y. – Penn men’s basketball is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years after outlasting Yale in overtime, 88-84, in one of the greatest games in recent Ivy League history Sunday at Newman Arena.
The Quakers (18-11) needed a transcendent performance from forward TJ Power to pull off the Ivy League Tournament final upset with leading scorer Ethan Roberts back in Philadelphia, sidelined with a concussion.
Boy, did Power deliver. The junior had a 44-point detonation, which matched Hassan Duncombe for the program’s single-game scoring record since it joined the Ivy League in 1954. Power personally erased what was a four-point Penn deficit with 12 seconds to play by simply dribbling into three-pointers on consecutive possessions.
The last of those threes, a contested shot from the right wing, tied the game at 75 with a second to go in regulation. Yale guard Trevor Mullin (who had hit two clutch free throws to extend the lead to three before Power’s heroic shot) nearly sank a three-quarter-court heave as the buzzer sounded, but it clanged off the back iron.
In overtime, Power — whose free-throw shooting struggles this season have been well-documented — put the Quakers ahead for good with 3:02 left in the extra session following two makes from the charity stripe. He got a ton of help from senior guard Cam Thrower, who had a five-point scoring burst in a 40-second span to give the Red and Blue some critical breathing room.
In his first campaign running his alma mater, coach Fran McCaffery has pulled off one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in recent college basketball memory.
What should Penn fans hold onto from an afternoon of unbridled joy?
TJ Power lifts No. 3 Penn past No. 1 Yale in instant classic Ivy League Tournament final to earn NCAA berth
ITHACA, N.Y. – Now that’s a super Power.
In a game for the ages, junior TJ Power tallied 44 points to lead Penn men’s basketball past Yale in overtime, 88-84, to an improbable Ivy League Tournament championship at Newman Arena and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Power’s 44 points were a career high and tied an Ivy Madness record set a year ago when Harmoni Turner also tallied 44 points to lead Harvard women’s basketball to its first Ivy League Tournament title.
Power drilled seven of Penn’s 14 three-pointers in the monumental victory.
But the last one should never have happened.
Leading by three with five seconds left on the clock, Yale coach James Jones called timeout to set his defense as Penn prepared to inbound the ball under its own basket.
Everyone, including Penn coach Fran McCaffery, assumed the Bulldogs would foul rather than let Power shoot a three.
They were wrong.
Guarded by Yale swingman Casey Simmons, Power quickly dribbled the ball up the court and pulled up just beyond the arc on the right side and let the ball fly. It swished the net to tie the game at 75 with two seconds to go. After a last-second heave by Yale guard Trevor Mullin barely missed, the teams headed to overtime.
Are you kidding me? TJ Power’s last-second three ties the game in the Ivy Madness championship for @PennMBB and we’re going to OT. pic.twitter.com/YzHylvLNDn
— Steve Silverman (@gwynnitas) March 15, 2026
No. 1 Princeton women’s basketball holds off No. 3 Harvard, 63-53, to secure NCAA Tournament berth
So much for the adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season.
The No. 1-seeded Princeton women’s basketball team defeated No. 3 Harvard in the Ivy League Tournament final on Saturday night, 63-53, completing a three-game season sweep of the Crimson and earning the Ivy League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
On Friday night, the Tigers vanquished Brown, also for a third time in 2026, in the opening semifinal of the Ivy League Tournament.
Although the Tigers led for 94% of the Saturday night’s championship game and never trailed after the first quarter, the win over Harvard didn’t come easily.