PRINCETON, N.J. – It was hard to predict what you were going to get out of the Princeton men’s basketball team Saturday night at Jadwin Gym.
Dalen Davis
LISTEN: Harvard men’s basketball notches comeback win at Princeton
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reports on a 58-56 comeback win for Harvard men’s basketball (16-10, 9-3 Ivy) at Princeton (8-19, 4-8) Friday night that elevated the Crimson into a tie with Yale atop the Ivy League standings:
Brown men’s basketball takes down Princeton for second straight win
The Brown men’s basketball team used a 21-point effort by senior forward Landon Lewis and a career-high 20-point performance from junior guard Luke Paragon to beat Princeton, 80-71, at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Friday night.
With their Ivy Madness chances hanging by a thread, the Bears (9-15, 3-8 Ivy) picked up a second straight win and moved to within a game of the seventh-place Tigers (8-18, 4-7), which lost their fourth in a row.
Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s home sweep of Columbia and Cornell
Penn has a clear path to an Ivy Madness berth after pulling off one of its best Palestra homestands in years.
The Quakers (13-10, 6-4 Ivy) have a tight grip on third place in the League standings after using a late surge to rally past Columbia on Friday, 76-67, and following that effort up with an 82-76 triumph over Cornell in a game that was played within a possession for much of the evening.
Penn, by virtue of its head-to-head sweep over Cornell (12-11, 5-5), is effectively two games ahead of the Big Red with four to play. If the Quakers just go .500 in their remaining contests, they’ll be two steps away from their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.
It’s a position that few outside observers expected Penn to be in, given its opening KenPom ranking of 275 and consensus seventh-place pick in the Ivy preseason poll.
But now? The Quakers look like an ascending team in its first year under Fran McCaffery, who has taken a team which consists almost entirely of players he did not recruit and turned it into one of the most improved teams in the country.
How much so? We’ll get into that now, starting with how …
LISTEN: Columbia men’s basketball overcomes Princeton at Jadwin Gym
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 75-65 win for Columbia men’s basketball (15-9, 4-6 Ivy) over Princeton (8-17, 4-6) at Jadwin Gym Saturday night:
LISTEN: Cornell men’s basketball pounds Princeton at Jadwin Gym
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 89-65 romp for Cornell men’s basketball over Princeton Friday night at Jadwin Gym:
Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win over Princeton
PHILADELPHIA — The streak is dead.
After 14 consecutive losses to its most hated rivals, Penn finally — finally — took out hated Princeton at the Palestra on Saturday by the thinnest of margins, 61-60. The Quakers (11-10, 4-4 Ivy) now sit atop a four-team morass in third place in the Ivy League and hold their destiny in their own hands.
It should have surprised no one that Penn needed to extend to its absolute limit to finally take out the Tigers (8-15, 4-4). The Quakers led by as many as 12 points in the second half on the back of some intense defense, but an extended offensive outage let Princeton climb back into the game.
The afternoon came down to a one-on-one defensive stand by Quakers sophomore point guard AJ Levine against the Tigers’ best player, Dalen Davis. Levine poked the ball away from Davis at the top of the key as the game clock wound below 10 seconds, then forced Davis into a difficult contested midrange jumper which caught front iron and bounced harmlessly away.
Levine was mobbed by his teammates as he flexed to the crowd, a moment of catharsis after eight years of frustration of heartbreak.
What did Quakers fans learn from an exhilarating day?
LISTEN: Penn men’s basketball tops Princeton to snap 14-game series losing streak
Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 61-60 win for Penn men’s basketball (11-10, 4-4 Ivy) versus archrival Princeton (8-15, 4-4) Saturday at the Palestra that snapped the home program’s 14-game losing streak against the Tigers:
LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball clips Columbia for first road win
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 80-68 win Saturday night at Levien Gym for Princeton men’s basketball (8-14, 4-3 Ivy) over Columbia (14-7, 3-4):
Cornell men’s basketball races past Princeton 87-64 in Ithaca for third straight Ivy win
The Princeton Tigers men’s basketball team entered Friday night’s contest against the Cornell Big Red with two unusual streaks on the line. The Tigers hadn’t missed a free throw in two full games. They also hadn’t won a road game the entire season.
Only one streak ended, and it wasn’t the one Mitch Henderson’s club was hoping for as the Big Red streaked past Princeton, 87-64, at Newman Arena in Ithaca.