It’s Thanksgiving weekend, which means it’s time to take stock of what followers of each Ivy women’s team should be thankful for at this point of the season:
brown
Brown falls to 4-3 with 20-point home loss to Navy
Brandon Anderson returned to the lineup for Brown on Saturday afternoon, but his team-high 19 points weren’t enough as the Bears dropped a 76-56 decision to Navy at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The first half, a back-and-forth affair with seven lead changes, ended with the Midshipmen on top, 27-26. Both teams struggled from the field, with Navy shooting 29% and Brown (4-3) hitting 37%. The Midshipmen (4-3) found success at getting to the free throw line, getting 13 chances compared to Brown’s three but only converting on six of those opportunities.
What each Ivy men’s team’s fans should be thankful for this Thanksgiving season
It’s Thanksgiving, which means it’s time to take stock of what followers of each Ivy men’s team should be thankful for at this point of the season:
Brown men and women both off to impressive starts
Just two games into the season for both, the Brown men’s and women’s teams are off to great starts.
The Brown men followed up their season-opening 73-71 win at a Bryant squad which has since taken Rutgers to the wire and beaten Cornell with a 75-68 home win over Canisius powered by a career-high 32 points from a resurgent Brandon Anderson, who was relegated to the bench in December of his junior campaign last season.
Ivy League women’s basketball preseason power rankings
Ivy Hoops Online’s writing staff voted on where all eight Ivy women’s and men’s basketball teams would end up for the 2019-20 season. Our projected order of finish for the women:
Brown women’s basketball releases 2019-20 schedule
Looking to bounce back after recent disappointments, Brown’s upcoming 2019-20 schedule was announced by sixth-year head coach Sarah Behn on Wednesday. Like Dartmouth, the 13 game nonconference schedule is heavy on nearby opponents and light on teams that made the postseason.
Over the first half of the season, the Bears will take on local rival Bryant to start the season on November 5, and then take part in the fourth Ocean State Tip-Off in December. Bruno will open up against Rhode Island on December 7 and then face Providence or have another matchup against the Bulldogs the next day.
Brown will also take on fellow New Englanders Maine, Central Connecticut State, UMass Amherst, New Hampshire, Merrimack, Holy Cross and Merrimack, and Fairfield. Before league play starts in mid-January, the team will venture down to the Sunshine State to take on Florida International and South Florida before the start of the new year.
Brown coach Mike Martin isn’t going anywhere
Around 7:15 Thursday morning, Brown Athletics sent out a tweet that implied men’s head coach Mike Martin was receiving a contract extension:
4 years as a student-athlete at @BrownUniversity and 7 as @BrownBasketball head coach and, thankfully, many more to come for @mmartinbrown! #evertrue
A little over an hour later, Jon Rothstein tweeted out a more definitive message:
Brown’s Mike Martin has received a long term contract extension, per release.
However, when Ivy Hoops Online requested a copy of the release from Brown Athletics that afternoon, we were informed that the department could not “confirm or deny that there was an extension.”
Brown men’s basketball releases 2019-2020 schedule
On Thursday, Brown coach Mike Martin announced the Bears 2019-2020 schedule. The 13-game nonconference schedule is highlighted by a visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium to visit Duke on Dec. 28. The team will also visit St. John’s, while welcoming in-state rival Rhode Island to the Pizzitola Sports Center for the first time since a 88-85 overtime loss in 2016.
The conference schedule begins at defending champion Yale on Friday, January 17, followed by five straight games at home against Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth and Harvard. The Bears then hit the road for six of their last eight, including four in a row against Penn, Princeton, Columbia and Cornell. Bruno welcomes the Tigers on February 28, followed by a senior night contest against the Quakers. The regular season concludes with a match against regular season favorites Harvard and a visit to Leede Arena to take on Dartmouth on March 7.
Brown’s men’s basketball’s future is less clear than expected, but there’s still reason for optimism
Mar. 20, 2019: a sparse but committed crowd enters the Pizzitola Sports Center as Brown men’s basketball hosts a playoff game, its first in five years. Hosting the UAB Blazers, the event is part of the College Basketball Invitational, a minor national tournament. The event is meant to mark the end of a historic season for Brown. Though it ended in disappointment, the regular season yielded 19 wins, tied a program record, so the event should be fun and happy.
But the atmosphere is muted because the situation is more complicated than that.