Penn sophomore guard Antonio Woods declared academically ineligible

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When it rains, it pours. Just over two months after senior guard Tony Hicks announced he was leaving the Penn basketball program, Penn Athletics announced Saturday that sophomore guard Antonio Woods has been declared ineligible for the remainder of the 2015-16 season due to insufficient academic progress under University policy.

Woods will not be allowed to re-enroll in the University until the start of the 2017 spring semester.

Woods is averaging 10.7 points, 3.3 assists and 2.2 rebounds per game. Losing Woods is a huge setback for a young Penn squad still trying to find player combinations under first-year Quakers coach Steve Donahue, as Woods ranked fifth in the Ivy League in minutes played.

Previewing Dartmouth-Harvard & Princeton-Penn

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IHO breaks down the two games comprising Saturday afternoon’s Ivy conference play-opening slate:

Dartmouth at Harvard, 2:00 p.m.

Last season: The Big Green ended an 11-game losing streak with a surreal 26-2 second-half run en route to a 70-61 win, shocking the Crimson at Lavietes. Alex Mitola, who is no longer with the Big Green, led the way with 18 points, but Malik Gill sparked Dartmouth off the bench with nine points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals in just 25 minutes. Harvard’s Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers combined for 26 points on 7-for-20 shooting from the field, and the Crimson committed 18 turnovers.

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Ivy pre-conference play primer

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IHO sizes up the Ivy League’s power rankings, along with some other 2015-16 nonconference highlights, now that the start of league play is just three days away.

  1. Yale (8-5): Offensive rebounding is Yale’s M.O. The Elis rank fifth in the country in offensive rebound percentage, which allows them to brutalize lesser opponents suffocated by Yale’s stout defense. Yale should be considered the favorite to win the league at this point because it enjoys the reigning Ivy Player of the Year (Justin Sears), the league’s best defense, the league’s most experienced frontcourt and Makai Mason, one of the league’s best ball distributors and fearless shooters. When Yale loses at least a couple of games in league play, it’ll be because of lack of backcourt depth and/or Sears foul trouble.
  2. Princeton (9-4): Not your father’s Tigers. This Princeton squad attacks the rim with more than just backdoor cuts, winning with athleticism and superior shot selection. Princeton ranks second in the nation in offensive rebound percentage on defense, meaning the Tigers don’t give up comparatively many offensive rebounds. They also don’t beat themselves, committing only 18 turnovers combined in losses to No. 3 Maryland and No. 12 Miami. Junior forward Henry Caruso is making a serious case for Ivy Player of the Year averaging 17.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 59.1 percent shooting from the field.  Princeton has arguably never been more fun to watch.
  3. Harvard (6-8): Harvard put quite a scare into No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Oklahoma … so how did it lose to Vermont Sunday? The Catamounts double-teamed and trapped Zena Edosomwan into irrelevance, but more undersized Ivies won’t be able to match Vermont’s defensive physicality. They might not have to if Tommy McCarthy and Patrick Steeves remain sidelined. Tom Layman of the Boston Herald reported McCarthy (hyperextended right knee) and Steeves (leg) are both day-to-day, and their health is crucial. McCarthy extends defenses with his three-point shooting, and Steeves makes his mark by attacking off the dribble. Edosomwan benefits when defenses have to worry about perimeter players driving to the rim, and he won’t be benefiting much with those two out. In other business, Harvard’s defense is firing on all cylinders. Harvard ranks 30th in the country in defensive effective field goal percentage, 14th in defensive three-point field goal percentage and 43rd in defensive adjusted efficiency. Defense travels, especially in Ivy back-to-backs, and it’s why Harvard is in the conference title mix yet again, even in a “down year.”
  4. Columbia (10-6): The Lions led at Stony Brook Saturday, 42-25, 2:19 into the second half, before losing, 69-60, thanks to a 26-3 second-half spurt by the Seawolves. Of course, the Lions also collapsed after holding a 16-point lead visiting the Seawolves last season … but it’s not just a Stony Brook thing. Columbia’s second-half defense is atrocious. It gave up 26 points to Longwood in the final 10 minutes in a 70-69 loss to the Lancers (more on that later), 28 points in the final 10 minutes in an 80-78 loss to Saint Joseph’s and 23 points in the final 10 minutes in a 72-71 win over Manhattan. Why the Lions keep collapsing on defense late in games is unclear, but we know the defensive personnel simply isn’t there for coach Kyle Smith outside of Maodo Lo’s on-the-ball solidity and pocket-pilfering. He tried 7-foot-1 Conor Voss. He’s tried Alex Rosenberg with Luke Petrasek, Lukas Meisner with Luke Petrasek, and Jeff Coby with both Lukas and Luke. But Rosenberg is a liability at that end of the floor, and Petrasek is better on offense as well (more on that later too). Maybe Meisner will help, but Columbia’s offensive bona fides aren’t even worth mentioning if the defense doesn’t turn around.
  5. Dartmouth (4-8): I like Dartmouth. The Big Green defense is characteristically solid, hanging its hat on steals. Paul Cormier’s squad ranks first in the league in turnover margin, and Ivy Rookie of the Year candidate Evan Boudreaux is only going to get better as the season progresses, already averaging 14.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest. He also ranks 42nd in the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes, so watch how often Boudreaux gets to the line come Ivy play. The Big Green’s methodical approach should serve them well against bottom-tier Ivies.
  6. Penn (6-7): In his first year as a head coach in Philly, Steve Donahue has emphasized three-point shooting if no layups are available. It helps if you can actually shoot threes. So far, only sophomore forward Sam Jones can, and Penn ranks last among all Ivies in three-point shooting despite ranking fourth in the conference in treys attempted. Penn went cold during a seven-game stretch in which it went 1-6 before blowing out Binghamton, scoring under 60 points four times and beating Division III Ursinus, Donahue’s alma mater, by just seven. The Quakers’ defense has actually outshined their offense recently, a surprising development given Donahue’s offensive pedigree. But Penn just doesn’t have the firepower on that side of the ball yet. In time, Penn will can threes and have an offensive adjusted efficiency higher than 262nd. Maybe not this year, though.
  7. Cornell (7-7): The Big Red work largely in isolation on offense and are horrible at both getting and allowing offensive rebounds. So Cornell suffers a lot of one-and-done possessions on one end of the floor while surrendering second-chance points at the other. Cornell junior guard Robert Hatter is easily leading the Ivy League in scoring at 19.3 points per game, but he also ranks fifth in the nation in percentage of possessions used and ninth in percentage of shots taken. He is the offense, along with Ivy Rookie of the Year candidate Matt Morgan, who should figure in a conference upset or two come league play. Cornell remains a lower-tier team, though, because of its undersized, underperforming frontcourt, and its perennial defensive shortcomings.
  8. Brown (4-9): Since losing Justin Massey back to Florida Atlantic in mid-December, Brown has suffered bad losses to Marist and Maine, thanks in large part due to a low-efficiency offense that always seems to be in too much of a hurry. Brown’s defense is the worst in the conference, and the Bears rank second-to-last in rebounding margin. Outside of two-time Ivy Defensive Player of the Year Cedric Kuakumensah, this is a team that gets outmuscled a lot, and unfortunately, Tavon Blackmon can’t run the entire offense himself, even if he does lead the league in assists. Brown’s conference-opening home-and-home with Yale will tell all.

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Tigers roll out the heavy Tidewater artillery

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If General George McClellan used his offense in the Peninsula Campaign the way Mitch Henderson deployed his at Hampton and Norfolk State, the Civil War might have ended in a much quicker Union victory.

The Tigers rolled out the heavy artillery on Sunday at Hampton, scoring at will in an 89-59 romp. Four Tigers reached double figures, led, once again, by Henry Caruso with 14. All 15 players on the roster saw action, and 12 broke into the scoring column.

Tuesday’s Tidewater skirmish against the Spartans of Norfolk State did not start well for the invaders. The Spartans caught the Tigers back on their heels, racing out to a 9-0 lead. Once the Tiger infantry began to advance order was quickly restored. By the end of the first half the Tigers were comfortably in control, 40-31. Shooting at a better than 50 percent clip throughout the contest, the Tigers led by as many as 21 in the second half. The Spartans closed the gap to nine against the Tiger bench. The final score was Princeton 83, Norfolk State 74. The Tigers took no prisoners during this campaign.

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Former Penn guard Tony Hicks to transfer to Louisville basketball

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Tony Hicks was a two-time All-Ivy honorable mention and reached the 1,000-point plateau in February. (USA Today Images)
Tony Hicks was a two-time All-Ivy honorable mention and reached the 1,000-point plateau in February. (USA Today Images)

Former Penn guard Tony Hicks will play his final collegiate season for Louisville, per Card Chronicle. Hicks will graduate from Penn in May and then play for the Cardinals in 2016-17.

Hicks announced through Penn Athletics in October he would sit out the 2015-16 season:

“After speaking with Coach (Steve) Donahue about the best situation for Penn basketball and myself, I have decided the best decision for me will be to take a break from basketball,” Hicks said in the release. “I plan to graduate from Penn in May, and then take my next step as a basketball player next year.

“This is a personal decision, and I wrestled long and hard with it because I have thoroughly enjoyed playing for Penn the last three years and wearing the Red and the Blue. I want to wish the guys on the team and the coaches all the best for this season and future seasons, and I will definitely be backing them in The Palestra during these next several months.”

Hicks led the Quakers in scoring as a junior and sophomore, but he was also suspended in each of his three seasons (one game in 2012 after a failed drug test and two games last season after he lost his temper during and after a home loss to Brown).

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Harvard shines in Hawaii: How the Crimson did it and what it means

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Lately, Harvard has been a completely  different team than it was back in November. After a close loss at Kansas and a nice win at Boston University, the Crimson traveled to Hawaii to partake in the 2015 Diamond Head Classic. The Crimson drew BYU in the first round. The tournament was a huge test for Harvard: would the Crimson revert back to its November self? Or would Harvard build on its two previous good performances and play well?

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Princeton outlasted by No. 13 Miami, 76-64

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As the 2015 portion of the schedule winds down the pecking order in the Ivy League appears to be established along familiar lines. Ken Pomeroy ranks just one Ivy squad, Yale, in the Top 100 at No. 95. Harvard, on the strength of an excellent showing in Hawaii, has jumped to No. 109. The Tigers check in at No. 114, while Columbia remains in a holding pattern at No. 129, even while riding the crest of  a five-game winning streak. The only surprise has been the rapid maturing of the Crimson, whose relative inexperience was not an issue in wins against BYU and Auburn and a near miss against No. 2 Oklahoma. Many knowledgeable observers now predict a likely continuation of Harvard’s unprecedented domination of the Ivy League.

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Non-stop effort propels Columbia past Howard

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MANHATTAN — The week between Christmas and New Year”s is often a sleepy week, even in the bustling metropolis on the Hudson. But it was anything but quiet uptown on the Monday evening after Christmas, as a robust crowd saw the Columbia Lions win their fifth consecutive game, defeating the Howard Bison, 72-59.

Facing off against the nation”s leading scorer, Howard”s James Daniel, the Light Blue”s much-maligned defense put on one of their best performances of the season in controlling the Bison.

While Daniel finished with 36 points, the slick guard did so on an inefficient 9-29 shooting, and 2-10 from beyond the arc. The quick feet of Maodo Lo, along with alert help defense, prevented Daniel from getting any clean looks at the basket.

“I thought I emphasized it enough in practice: he”s the leading scorer in the country, he”s the leading scorer in the country,” coach Kyle Smith (Hamilton “92) said with a laugh after the game. “We wanted to be better defensively, and I think we were.”

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Princeton thrashes Bucknell, gives itself a merry Christmas

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The Tigers concluded the Jadwin portion of their out-of-conference schedule on a very positive note last night, dealing the Bucknell Bison a solid thrashing, 89-77. The final margin is somewhat misleading since the Tigers maintained a margin throughout the second half sufficient to allow coach Mitch Henderson to get playing time for every player on the roster.

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