Home of the Roundball Poets
♂️♂️♂️
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.
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:
AARON COOLEY for the WINNNNNNNNN#EverTrue x @aaronxcooley pic.twitter.com/LiMs6M8ObT
— Brown Men’s Basketball (@BrownU_MBB) March 9, 2024
Brown men’s basketball led Yale once at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday.
That lead, 84-81, was the final score courtesy of a last-second shot for the ages by Bears junior guard/forward Aaron Cooley, cementing a remarkable comeback win for the Bears over the Bulldogs in both teams’ regular season finales as they prepare for the Ivy League Tournament.
Three times in the Ivy Tournament era, Mike Martin’s Brown teams have tied for fourth place only to lose out on a postseason bid due to being on the wrong side of the league’s tiebreakers. After a thrilling overtime victory over Harvard on Friday night and a blowout win against Dartmouth on Saturday, the Bears earned its first trip to Ivy Madness.
Brown (11-17, 7-6 Ivy) seemed out of the race for the tournament after starting off league play at 2-6 and hosting only two more games in the Pizzitola Sports Center. Three weeks later, Bruno, winners of five straight, is a serious threat to challenge Princeton, Yale and Cornell for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
After the weekend, Harvard (14-12, 5-8), which also lost to Yale on Saturday, missed out on its third straight conference tournament and can do no better than fifth place. Dartmouth (5-21, 1-12), which has never made it to Ivy Madness and was defeated by the Bulldogs on Friday, is locked into last place and plans on holding its historic unionization vote on Tuesday before welcoming the Crimson in the Tuesday season finale for both teams.
When the final horn sounded at a sold out Jadwin Gymnasium, Cornell had to think back to last weekend.
The Big Red fell to Princeton 79-77 on Saturday, making it a split with the Tigers on the season. But that’s not what sunk Cornell in the fight for a share of the regular-season title and the top seed in Ivy Madness. The fatal flaw came last weekend, losing to Brown at Newman Arena.
Still, the Big Red could have redeemed themselves in front of a white-hot Princeton squad.
The Harvard women’s basketball team used an efficient fourth quarter to overcome a tough challenge from Brown on Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion.
With the 80-73 victory, the Crimson (15-9, 8-3 Ivy) captured the third ticket to next month’s Ivy League Tournament at Levien Gym. It’ll be the third straight conference postseason appearance for Harvard and the sixth overall.
The Bears (14-10, 5-6), looking for their first Ivy Madness berth since the inaugural tournament in 2017, fell back into a tie with Penn. Both teams remain one game ahead of Yale with three games left in the regular season.
Coming off arguably its best win of the season over Yale, Cornell men’s basketball laid an egg.
Trailing nearly the entire game, the Big Red couldn’t mount a late comeback Saturday night, losing to Brown, 78-74, spoiling Senior Night and a perfect record at Newman Arena this season. But most importantly, it pulled Cornell out of the driver’s seat in the battle for the regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
Behind 15 with 4:49 left, the Big Red nearly mounted an improbable comeback. Senior forward Sean Hansen drilled a triple and senior guard Chris Manon finished in the paint. Junior forward Guy Ragland Jr. got a layup before backing his man down and eventually finishing and drawing a foul.
Ragland missed the free throw, but the Big Red came up with a stop. With 1:14 left, sophomore guard Cooper Noard squared up and nailed a corner triple to cut it down to 74-71.
That, however, was the closest Cornell got. Though the Bears missed multiple free throws down the stretch, the Big Red did the same as the door got left wide open.
Sophomore forward Kalu Anya led Brown with 23 points off 9-of-18 shooting. Junior forward Nana Owusu-Anane added 15 and senior guard Kimo Ferrari had 13.
For Cornell, Hansen led with 16 points and Ragland had 11. Manon and junior guard Nazir Williams each had 10 as Cornell shot just 44%, shooting well under 50% for the second consecutive night.
The loss draws Cornell even with Yale and Princeton at 9-2 in the Ivy. Both Cornell and Princeton went 1-1 against Yale this year, meaning the top seed in the conference will likely get decided next weekend when the Big Red visit the Tigers. Cornell handled Princeton earlier this year at Newman Arena.
But for a team that controlled its own destiny, losing to Brown is massive. It eliminates their cushion. And now, the Big Red will have heavy lifting at Jadwin Gymnasium to earn the No. 1 seed in a year when the top seed has never been so important.
First for Cornell, it’ll visit Penn on Friday night. Brown will host Cornell.
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.
PHILADELPHIA — Brown struck the coup de grace on any realistic hopes Penn had of a miracle run to Ivy Madness on Saturday night.
The death blow at the Palestra came in the form of a killer 13-2 run after the Quakers had tied the game at 47 with about eight minutes to go in the game. The Bears’ Kino Lilly Jr. capped it off with a dagger three-pointer to make it 60-49 with 3:14 to play. Penn showed a bit of late life, but it wasn’t enough in what wound up being a 71-64 loss to Brown (7-17, 3-6 Ivy).
It is hard to believe that Penn (9-15, 1-8) has collapsed like this after a nonconference campaign that included a signature win over Villanova and plenty of indicators that the team was heading in the right direction.
But this is the bed the Quakers have made for themselves.
What could Penn fans take away from a miserable evening?
KYLA JONES CALLED GAME!!! BEARS WIN!!!!
Bears rally and defeat Penn at home 61-59#EverTrue #NEXT pic.twitter.com/tnUT8wXgzX
— Brown Women’s Basketball (@BrownU_WBB) February 17, 2024
In case you had any doubts, it turns out the Brown women’s basketball team is for real. And Kyla Jones is one of the biggest reasons.