The Ivy League’s men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament representatives are set, with a record-high four of them thanks to #3bidivy achieved on the women’s side:
Danny Wolf
Q&A with Yale men’s basketball senior forward Jack Molloy
Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale senior forward and Greenwich, Conn. native Jack Molloy:
Ivy Hoops Online: Growing-up in Greenwich, were you interested in Yale sports?
Jack Molloy: I didn’t start following Ivy sports until my freshman year in high school. I was really thinking about Wesleyan or Amherst. New Heights AAU took me and I went to Elite Camp at Yale and the coaches thought I could play here.
IHO: What was the camp like?
JM: So fun. Legitimate 12 hours of basketball. Constantly playing pickup. (Yale associate head) coach (Justin) Simon showed me around campus.
Quakeaway from Penn men’s basketball’s 90-62 loss at Cornell
In a season marked by one low after another, Penn took what may have been its biggest body blow yet in a humiliating 90-62 defeat to Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.
Even that final score is generous to the Quakers (7-18, 3-9 Ivy). Penn went into the halftime locker room down 63-27 after allowing the Big Red (15-10, 7-5) to drain 15 three-pointers in the first half.
By night’s end, nine different Cornell players had made a three-point basket, tying an NCAA Division 1 record.
There’s only one meaningful takeaway from Friday night’s disaster:
Yale men’s basketball bulldozes Princeton, 84-57
It took 71 years to accomplish it, but Yale men’s basketball is 9-0 in Ivy League play for the first time in program history.
The Bulldogs made that history emphatically Saturday night with an 84-57 win over Princeton in snowy New Haven at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
“I mean it is another part of history,” Yale coach James Jones said. “There’s so many things these guys have done over a career.”
Yale (16-6, 9-0 Ivy) led by as many as 34 points, 73-39, on a wide-open Bez Mbeng corner trey.
Princeton (16-8, 5-4) started with more energy than its loss to Yale at Jadwin Gym two weeks ago or its defeat Friday evening at Brown. The Tigers went up 8-3 on a trey from senior guard Blake Peters, 90% of whose shots this season have been from long distance.
Yale went on an 8-0 run to take a 17-12 lead.
The Bulldogs led 32-20 at the half against a Tiger team averaging 75 points per game.
Princeton scored only eight points in the last 11 minutes of the half and shot 23% from the field.
“That was as good a defensive effort as we have all year,” Jones said.
Yale went on a 10-0 run in the second half to effectively end the game at 56-31.
The Bulldogs proved once again that they could be dominant even on an off night from the Ivy League’s leading scorer, senior John Poulakidas, who was held to 11 points on 4-for-15 shooting.
The home team was led in scoring by junior forward Nick Townsend, who tallied 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Senior guard Bez Mbeng added 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
Junior guard Xaivian Lee was the only bright light for the Tigers with 19 points.
Junior forward Caden Pierce, reigning Ivy Player of the Year, stayed in his funk with no field goals and two free throws.
Yale clinched a slot in Ivy Madness with the win.
The Bulldogs are playing at a higher level and more cohesively than a year ago, despite the losses of Danny Wolf (Michigan), Matt Knowling (USC) and August Mahoney (graduation).
Yale has won 13 out of the last 16 meetings against Princeton. The 27-point margin is the largest in Yale history over the Tigers.
Yale hosts Cornell while Princeton hosts Harvard at 7 p.m. Friday.
Q&A with Yale junior forward Nick Townsend
Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale junior forward Nick Townsend. The Chappaqua, N.Y. native is coming off a career-high 25-point performance in a win at Cornell on Saturday:
Ivy League opts out out of revenue-sharing provisions
A Tuesday email from Ivy League executive director Robin Harris addressed to league coaches and student-athletes reported the league would opt out of the revenue-sharing element of a pending $2.8 billion NCAA settlement forged last year aimed at paying athletes a share of the revenue colleges made from their performances.
In May 2024, the NCAA announced a $2.8 billion settlement to cover “back pay” to student-athletes from 2016 to 2024 resulting from lost name, image and likeness (NIL) money.
Yale men’s basketball regrouping after defense got shredded by Delaware
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The day after a lopsided 400th career victory over Fairfield, James Jones saw his Yale team give one of the worst defensive performances in his storied career, leading to a disappointing 100-94 loss to Delaware in front of a sparse crowd at the Hall Of Fame Tip-Off at Mohegan Sun Arena.
How are the Ivy non-grad transfers doing?
With the season two weeks old, here’s a first check on the 2023-24 Ivy stars who transferred prior to their graduation. This year, the student-athletes are all from the men’s side, but growing amounts of NIL money, more relaxed transfer rules and the lack of scholarships in the Ancient Eight should eventually (sadly) expand this list to the women’s division in the near future.
Over the opening few weeks, Kalu Anya, Malik Mack and Danny Wolf have continued their strong play from last year, while Chisom Okpara and Tyler Perkins are seeing reduced roles with their new teams.
We’ll take another look in a few weeks to see how everyone’s doing:
Yale men’s basketball clocks Quinnipiac, 88-62, in season opener
No Danny Wolf, no problem.
In its first game since the former Yale standout’s transfer to what should be a grateful Michigan program, Yale men’s basketball cruised to an 88-62 win over Quinnipiac Monday night in a battle of Whitney Avenue at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
And it wasn’t even that close.
Impressions from Ivy League men’s basketball Media Day
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: