Home of the Roundball Poets
HANOVER, N.H. – When we last left the Cornell men’s basketball team, it had given up 100 points or more in three straight Ivy League losses and didn’t seem to have many answers, seemingly on its way to being the third straight Ivy Madness hosts to not qualify for postseason play.
Fast forward six weeks, and the Big Red will not only be on the court in Ithaca next week, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see them win it.
With the clock ticking down and overtime likely, Cornell’s Jake Fiegen found a slight opening at the top of the arc and launched a last-second shot over the outstretched arm of senior forward Nick Townsend.
The senior guard’s triple hit nothing but the bottom of the net, leading the Big Red to a 72-69 upset of first-place Yale Friday night at Newman Arena.
Capping off the hard-fought victory, the boisterous Newman faithful stormed the court, showing their pride in a Cornell team that remains in the hunt for a spot in the Ivy League Tournament taking place on this same court in two weeks.
“We have such a great fanbase. Shoutout to the football team, shoutout to the everyone that was here,” senior guard Cooper Noard told ESPNU’s Derek Jones from courtside. “A super-special group they’ve got here tonight. I’m so proud of our fans, so proud of our team.”
Harvard men’s basketball is headed back to the Ivy League Tournament.
Powered by a stifling 40-minute defense and strong second-half offensive production, the Crimson throttled the Big Red, 73-54, at Newman Arena on Saturday afternoon to clinch a spot in the Ancient Eight’s upper division.
“It feels great to get to Ivy Madness. It’s been a while since this program has been there,” Tey Barbour said to ESPN+’s Eric Taylor after the sophomore guard’s career-best 30-point performance. “We had a heartbreaking loss (to Yale) last week, but I’m proud of our team to bounce back and have a great win.”
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 89-65 romp for Cornell men’s basketball over Princeton Friday night at Jadwin Gym:
With Manhattan experiencing Ithaca-like frigidity on Saturday afternoon, the visiting Cornell men’s basketball team felt right at home and used that wintry familiarity to dominate Columbia, 88-67, at Levien Gymnasium.
In an action-packed contest that turned into a battle between the brothers Hinton, it was Cornell and older brother Adam prevailing over Harvard and younger brother Robert, 86-79, at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday afternoon.
“If you can’t get up for playing your younger brother …” the senior guard from Hollywood Hills, Calif. told ESPN+ after the game. “We keep track for bragging rights for whose got more wins. I’m up 2-1 [in head-to-head matchups] right now. I’ve got one more win on my best friend [Harvard senior guard] Chandler [Pigge] as well.”
After going winless in their first three Ancient Eight contests, the Big Red (9-9, 2-3 Ivy) won their second straight road contest and move into a three-way tie for fifth place with Columbia and Penn. The Crimson (10-9, 3-2), however, ended a three-game winning streak and dropped to their own three-way tie for second with Dartmouth and Princeton.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After two losses at home to start the Ivy League campaign, it was time for some soul-searching for the Cornell men’s basketball team, as the Big Red look to qualify for their fifth straight Ivy Madness, this time on their home floor.
In a game of runs with 12 lead changes, the Columbia men’s basketball team flipped a nine-point deficit midway through the second half into a nine-point advantage entering crunch time against Cornell and cruised to a 104-99 victory in both teams’ Ivy League opener Monday.
The story of this Cornell men’s basketball season begins, as it has each of the past several seasons, at the three-point line. The Big Red lead the nation averaging 14.2 three-point field goals made as of Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Cornell kicked off the month of December with a three-game losing skid in which it conceded 90+ points each game. Only 15 Division I men’s basketball teams are currently allowing more points per outing than the Red. Entering Sunday’s matchup at Albany, the defense had been struggling especially in the second half.
Cornell got the season back on track with an 83-75 victory against the Great Danes, overcoming a mediocre start to do so.
Lots of alumni, former players and others from the basketball world at the Pizzitola Sports Center for the second day of the Ivy League Tournament Saturday.
Seated in row one were Harvard’s Ivy Rookie of the Year Robert Hinton, his mother, and his father Robert, a former Princeton quarterback in the 1970s. The Hintons sat through both men’s games to cheer on Princeton and also Cornell, where the Harvard standout’s brother Adam is a strong contributor.
Hinton will definitely be back at Harvard next season in this age of NIL and player poaching.
Robert was the No. 97 recruit in the class of 2024 and verbally committed to Harvard in his sophomore year at Harvard-Westlake. His finalists were Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Former Yale players Steve Leondis, Chris Dudley, Azar Swain, Matt Minoff and Mike Williams were in attendance to cheer on the Bulldogs, as was former Yale president Peter Salovey.
Bill Kingston, former Princeton guard on the 1965 Final Four team and Bill Bradley’s roommate, was seated in the second row.
For the second consecutive year, the Legends of Ivy Basketball remained on hiatus, with hopes that the ceremony will resume in 2026 at Cornell.
Many writers, Ivy officials and former players offered varied explanations of the 2.9 seconds which were “added” to the clock at the end of the Princeton-Yale game. The supervisor of officials said that the clock did not appropriately stop after John Poulakidas hit his trey to seal the victory. Others differed.
The coaching changes at Columbia and Penn were also a subject of much media and Ivy administrators. There was a consensus that Penn alum and NYU coach Dave Klatsky will be in play at both schools. Also, there were rumblings that Colgate coach and former Penn player Matt Langel might have interest in the Penn vacancy. Some Princeton and Yale assistants were also discussed as possible Columbia hires. Columbia athletic director Peter Pilling was mum on topic but did add, perhaps in jest, that he had his phone turned off during the Ivy tourney.
Some media grumbled about the Ivy clearing out the gym in between all games and opined that with a potential paucity of attendees at Cornell next year, the league should rethink that policy – one not in place at the Big East or the ACC tourneys.
