The Ivy League hosted media day on Tuesday for the upcoming men’s basketball season.
Here’s one key impression from interviews with players and coaches from each of the eight Ancient Eight programs:
columbia
Three Ancient Eight stars selected in the 2024 WNBA Draft
While most of the nation’s attention was focused on Caitlin Clark being selected by the Indiana Fever at the top of the WNBA Draft, Ivy League fans celebrated the selection of Columbia’s Abbey Hsu and Kaitlyn Davis and Harvard’s McKenzie Forbes in the third round of Monday night’s event.
Hsu was a senior guard for two-time regular-season champion Columbia and the 2023-24 Ivy League Player of the Year, while Davis, who played with Hsu at Columbia for three seasons and was a two-time First-Team All-Ivy forward, spent her graduate transfer season as a starter for Southern California. Forbes, a 2021-22 Second Team All-Ivy guard/forward who started her career at California before transferring to Harvard for her final three undergraduate years, joined Davis in the starting lineup for the Trojans.
Columbia women’s basketball comeback falls just short, 72-68, in NCAA Tournament loss to Vanderbilt
Columbia women’s basketball twice cut a 10-point second-half deficit to two, but the Lions couldn’t make that final push to get ahead of Vanderbilt and lost the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game, 72-68, at the Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va. Wednesday evening.
Winning the First Four matchup between two No. 12 seeds, the Commodores move on to face No. 5 seed Baylor on Friday, while the historic Columbia season comes to a close.
“Business as usual”: No. 1 Princeton women’s basketball still class of Ivy League in 75-58 win over Columbia for fifth straight Ivy League Tournament title
Two down, one to go.
Princeton women’s basketball added an exclamation point to its already triumphant Ivy League season Saturday by soundly defeating the Columbia Lions, 75-58, for its fifth consecutive Ivy League Tournament championship.
No. 2 Columbia women’s basketball survives No. 3 Harvard, 63-61, to advance to Ivy League Tournament final
NEW YORK – In front of a partisan, sold-out crowd at Levien Gymnasium Friday, Ivy League Player of the Year Abbey Hsu used a 20-point, 14 rebound performance to lead her No. 2 Columbia Lions over No. 3 Harvard, 63-61, to set up a long-awaited final showdown with Princeton on Saturday night.
If Hsu, head coach Megan Griffith and the rest of the Lions can slay the Tigers, the program will earn its first-ever Ivy League Tournament title, as well as its inaugural berth in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s déjà vu all over again on women’s side as Ivy Madness kicks off in New York City
The Ivy League Tournament kicks off on Friday night at Levien Gym with an exciting slate of semifinal games in the women’s competition.
The bracket this year has a familiar look as the same four teams from last year’s tournament will face off against each other in this year’s edition of Ivy Madness.
The No. 1 Princeton Tigers, co-champions during the regular season, will take on the No. 4 Penn Quakers, while the No. 2 and co-champion Columbia Lions will seek to avenge a disappointing loss in last year’s semifinal against the No. 3 Harvard Crimson.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these semifinal matchups:
Cornell men’s basketball earns No. 3 seed in Ivy Madness, even matchup with No. 2 Yale
Heading into the final day of the regular season, the Cornell men still had an outside shot at a share of the Ivy League regular-season title. For starters, the Big Red needed to beat Columbia. That happened.
Cornell shot 55% from the field and six players scored in double digits as the Big Red won 98-76. Sophomore guard Cooper Noard had 17 points off five triples, junior guard Nazir Williams and senior forward Sean Hansen each had 14 and junior forward Guy Ragland Jr. scored 13.
Then, the Big Red needed Yale to lose to Brown — which also happened as Aaron Cooley sunk an improbable last-second shot in overtime. Lastly, Princeton needed to lose to Penn, but that didn’t happen as the Tigers dropped 105 on the Red and Blue.
Princeton women’s basketball beats Penn to secure sixth straight Ivy League title
Memories that last forever! @IvyLeague Regular Season Champions! #GetStops pic.twitter.com/3GYIAqRZXl
— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) March 9, 2024
The Princeton women’s basketball team celebrated Senior Day on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gymnasium by beating the Penn Quakers, 72-55, for a sixth straight Ivy League regular season title.
It was a triumphant day for Princeton’s spectacular troika of seniors: Kaitlyn Chen, Ellie Mitchell and Chet Nweke. Chen finished the game with 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 11 assists, a career high for the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year. Asked by the ESPN+ broadcast crew to reflect on having played her final game at Jadwin Gym, Chen said, “I honestly don’t think it’s hit me yet. It just sort of felt like another game. We had a job to do and we did it.”
A two-banner weekend could be in store for Princeton basketball
Every basketball season at Princeton begins with the same goal: Win an Ivy League championship. This weekend, both the men’s and women’s programs have an opportunity to accomplish their primary mission by winning at least a share of the regular season Ivy League title. All they have to do is close out the regular season with a win over their most enduring rival, the Penn Quakers.
With championships on the line for both Princeton teams, let’s take a look at the prospects for each program winning a new banner and earning the right to cut down the nets on Saturday:
Princeton women’s basketball dismisses Dartmouth, 68-42, to complete weekend Ivy sweep
It was virtually a foregone conclusion that the Princeton women’s basketball team would beat the last-place Dartmouth Big Green on the second leg of a back-to-back weekend on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gymnasium.
The only real questions coming into this contest were how many points Princeton would win by and whether the Tigers could use the game to regain its swagger.