As we near the halfway mark of the 2022 Ivy League season, here are five thoughts about the state of the race for the men’s league title:
Five thoughts about the Ivy League men’s race
Azar Swain
Princeton men need to tighten up defense after falling short versus Yale
Preseason Ivy favorite Yale returned to one of its comfortable road venues, Jadwin Gym, to upset the Tigers, 80-74. The Tigers have shown a propensity to dig themselves into early holes. This time the hole was too deep, the Eli sharpshooters too deadly. Yale’s 17-point lead at the half, boosted by the Tigers’ surrendering an inexcusable 1-on-2 layup after holding for the last shot, proved to be insurmountable.
In the second half, the Tigers played much closer to their preferred game, making nine of 12 from deep to get back into contention, at one point closing within two. Even when Azar Swain and Jalen Gabbidon were rested in the middle of the second half, the Tigers failed to take advantage. Yale actually added to its lead.
Jaelin Llewellyn dismissed injury concerns to fuel the Tigers’ comeback effort, canning six of 12 shots from deep and scoring 23 points. Ethan Wright and Drew Friberg went a combined 3-for-14 from beyond the arc, with most of those misses coming in the first half.
The second half shows that Princeton can certainly play with Yale but must defend better. This game demonstrates why Yale was favored to win the Ivy crown this season. Since the Tigers will spend much of February on the road, they need to find three wins to ensure their berth in Ivy Madness.
Yale men bounce back by besting Columbia as Swain explodes
After a disappointing loss at Penn on Saturday set up by a subpar performance by Azar Swain, Yale got just what the doctor ordered Tuesday night: a visit to Payne Whitney Gym from Ivy bottom-dweller Columbia.
But Yale did not play down to the opposition.
Three takeaways from the Penn men’s win over Yale
Ninety-five years after Penn opened up the Palestra with a win over Yale, this edition of the Red & Blue sought another reset Saturday against the team pegged to win the Ivy title in the conference preseason media poll.
Princeton men building early momentum toward Ivy title as dominance over Penn persists
Mitch Henderson’s dominance over the Penn Quakers continues. Since 2012, Princeton, after yesterday’s satisfying 74-64 triumph at Jadwin, is 15-4 against its most bitter rival.
Yale men eke out win at Brown
Brown coach Mike Martin was 6-2 against Yale and coach James Jones during his storied playing career for the Bears, but the tables have been turned in head-to-head coaching.
Yale men show no rust, leave Cornell in dust in Bulldogs’ Ivy opener
It would be logical to expect that Yale would be down at the half to the high-flying Cornell offense if Azar Swain did not score.
Yale men put away Albany, 71-52
It was just a day at the office for Yale Tuesday night at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
The Bulldogs started strong, grabbed a 30-19 lead over Albany at intermission and never looked back en route to a 71-52 win.
Yale (6-5) led at one point by 56-31. Albany (1-7) did go on a 13-0 run to narrow the deficit a bit.
Even with the easy win, coach James Jones found ample room for improvement.
”I didn’t think we were very sharp,” the Albany alumnus said.
Yale men’s defense falters in home loss to Stony Brook
A 22-point first-half deficit was too much for Yale to overcome Sunday as the Bulldogs fell at home to Stony Brook, 85-81.
It snapped a 10-game home winning streak for Yale (4-4) which goes back to December 2019 and a home loss to Monmouth.
The Seawolves (2-3) shot 53.7% from the field against a usually tough and reliable Yale defense.
“We were really poor defensively,” Yale coach James Jones said.
Yale men fall to Southern Utah in overtime, 88-85
Yale opened the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off with a tough 88-85 loss in overtime to worthy Big Sky foe Southern Utah in Florida Tuesday afternoon.
The Bulldogs (3-3) led for much of the game, but the Thunderbirds (2-3) kept clawing back.
Southern Utah senior forward Maizen Fausett made three free throws with 13 seconds to go in regulation to tie the game and force overtime, and redshirt senior guard John Knight III made another three from the charity stripe with 0.8 ticks left in overtime to seal the victory.
Yale led 39-33 at the half. The Thunderbirds went on a 16-2 run early in the second half to tie the score at 51. Yale then went on an eight-point run of its own, but Southern Utah rallied to send the game into overtime.
All five Yale starters scored in double figures, led yet again by senior guard Azar Swain with 21. But Swain was only 1-for-9 from three-point range.
Yale was outrebounded, 42-36.
Yale will face Milwaukee in the consolation game Wednesday at 11 a.m. The Panthers feature freshman sensation Patrick Baldwin, Jr. (son of Milwaukee coach Pat Baldwin), who apparently suffered a slight ankle sprain Tuesday.