The 2025-26 Ivy men’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:
Alexander Lesburt
Brown men’s basketball looking to gel more after College Hill Classic
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The brown banner at the Pizzitola Sports Center sits ominously among a slew of white ones and reads “Men’s Basketball Ivy League Champions.”
Below that sits a lone number: 1986 — with plenty of space for a companion or two.
It almost read 2024, of course. We don’t have to rehash what happened last March in New York on this site, but Brown had earned its first NCAA Tournament in 38 years by upsetting Yale and Princeton. Until it hadn’t.
No. 4 Brown men’s basketball loses glass slipper in last-second Ivy League Tournament final loss to No. 2 Yale
NEW YORK – With 27 seconds to go and a 60-54 lead, Brown appeared destined to punch its first NCAA Tournament ticket since 1986.
But Yale finished the game on an 8-1 run, punctuated by a short jumper by senior forward Matt Knowling at the buzzer, to end Brown’s season and claim the Bulldogs’ third Ivy League Tournament championship since the tourney was installed for the 2016-17 season.
While the future is bright for a team that returns its entire starting lineup in 2024-25, it doesn’t remove the pain felt by the coaches, players and fans.
“Obviously, there is a lot in front of our people, but not this team, so that’s really hard,” the Brown alum and 12th-year head coach told the media immediately following the hard-fought battle “I felt like I let them down in the last minute of the game.”
LISTEN: No. 1 Princeton men’s basketball falls in 90-81 upset to No. 4 Brown in Ivy League Tournament semifinal
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BROWN BUILT FOR THIS‼️‼️‼️
WE ARE HEADED TO THE IVY MADNESS FINALS‼️‼️‼️#EverTrue pic.twitter.com/E6tgGDQt29
— Brown Men’s Basketball (@BrownU_MBB) March 16, 2024
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George Clark recaps a 90-81 upset win for No. 4 Brown (13-17, 9-6 Ivy) over No 1 Princeton (24-4, 12-3) in their Ivy League Tournament semifinal matchup that puts the Bears a win away from their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1986.
It’s a wide-open field in the Ivy Madness men’s semifinals
The men’s competition in the Ivy League Tournament kicks off on Saturday afternoon at Columbia University and for the first time since the advent of Ivy Madness there is no clear favorite. While the Princeton Tigers enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed and the regular season champion, each of the four teams competing on Saturday at Levien Gym legitimately has a chance to advance to the championship game on Sunday.
Let’s take a closer look at the two semifinal matchups in the men’s competition:
Ivy League Tournament: Men’s press conference highlights
NEW YORK – The second day of the Ivy League Tournament brought the four men’s teams to Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Columbia University.
Below are highlights of the press conferences and links to the videos:
Brown men’s basketball beats Columbia, 66-64, to create three-way tie for fourth place
Columbia men’s basketball battled back several times against Brown on Friday evening, eventually taking its first lead with 4:10 to go. But clutch defense and free throw shooting helped the Bears claim a hard fought 68-66 victory at Levien Gymnasium.
The win for Brown (8-17, 4-6 Ivy), coupled with Harvard’s loss to Princeton, leaves the Bears, Columbia (13-10, 4-6) and Harvard tied for fourth place and the final spot in the Ivy League Tournament with only four games remaining in the regular season.
Brown men’s basketball rally falls short in 69-65 defeat at Stony Brook
STONY BROOK, N.Y. — For the second straight game, Brown men’s basketball was plagued by inconsistency and found itself in a double-digit second-half hole. Unlike last week’s victory over Siena, however, Bruno couldn’t muster any last-second magic and fell to Stony Brook, 69-65, at Island Federal Credit Union Arena.
The Bears (4-10) started with a different rotation on Friday night, adding senior guard Kimo Ferrari and sophomore wing Alexander Lesburt Jr., in place of Felix Kloman and Aaron Cooley, respectively. In addition, Malachi Ndur, who averages over 12 minutes a game, only played four minutes in the second half.
According to coach Mike Martin, who spoke with Ivy Hoops Online following the game, the changes were due to internal team policy issues.