Now’s the time of year that an Ivy League hoops slate would be revving up, and since there’s no Ivy hoops action to come this spring, here’s an IHO contributors’ roundtable pondering what might have happened in the 2020-21 Ivy season on the men’s and or women’s sides if there had been one instead of an exodus of much of the league’s top talent via the transfer portal. Behold the one-year Ivy hoops universes we created:
Ellen Margaret Andrews
Ivy hoops roundup – May 11, 2020
Yale women’s incoming class announced
Yale women’s basketball announced its three-member Class of 2024 Monday. The class consists of:
- Brenna McDonald, a 6-foot-2 forward from Natick, Mass. who was named to the Boston Globe Dream Team her senior year
- Haley Sabol, a 6-foot-2 forward from Pittsburgh who was a first-team all-state selection her junior and senior years for Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va.
- Elles van der Maas, a 6-foot-2 guard from Sydney who made the 2018 All-Australian team
Ivy hoops roundup – On the move
Our latest Ivy hoops roundup features the 2019-20 Academic All-Ivies and a whole lot of Ivy graduate transfers on the move:
Academic All-Ivies announced
The Ivy League released its winter edition of the 2019-20 Academic All-Ivy list Thursday. The basketball honorees were:
Fallout continues over decision to cancel the Ivy League Tournament
Things have not calmed down after Tuesday afternoon’s bombshell announcement from the Ivy League and its eight presidents that this weekend’s Ivy League Tournaments were canceled, making the league the first conference to cancel tournament play.
The conference likes to refer to its tournament as Ivy Madness. To paraphrase Harvard senior Seth Towns, the 2018 Player of the Year, it’s more like Ivy Mayhem.
Yale completes season sweep of Cornell, takes sole possession of third place
If revenge was the motive, then call it mission accomplished for Yale.
Cornell swept Yale last season to knock the Bulldogs out of Ivy League Tournament contention. Yale completed this season’s sweep of the Big Red last night at John J. Lee Amphitheater, 65-51.
The game was nip and tuck early on, but Yale (16-6, 6-3 Ivy) ended the half with a 32-27 lead behind the clutch shooting of Ellen Margaret Andrews. The Bulldogs were 4-for-6 from 3 in the first half. Andrews posted 18 points for the game to lead her squad.
Yale women use dominant second half to defeat Columbia for seventh straight win
Leading by only three at the half, Yale used a 50-point effort over the last 20 minutes to convincingly beat Columbia, 85-60, taking the first leg of its Empire State weekend.
A battle between two of the Ivy’s up-and-coming programs started with the visitors jumping out to a quick 10-0 start. The Lions (10-6, 1-2 Ivy) battled back to tie the game at 15 by the end of the first quarter, with 12 of those points being scored by Ivy rookies Abbey Hsu, Hannah Pratt (a sophomore who missed all last year), Kaitlyn Davis and Carly Rivera.
The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair with four lead changes and four ties, leaving the game knotted at 32 after Rivera nailed a jumper from the right baseline with just under a minute to go. Yale senior Roxy Barahman calmly sank a shot from the top of the key, beyond the men’s line, to put the Bulldogs up 35-32 to finish the half.
Yale women hang on late to beat Brown, 79-72
It didn’t have the feel of a seven-point game. It was all Blue, until it almost wasn’t.
The Yale women defeated Brown, 79-72, at home Friday to move to 11-3 on the season, marking the best start in program history.
Yale bests North Carolina, hands Tar Heels their first home loss under Courtney Banghart
Watch out, Princeton and Penn. Yale is lurking in the background in plain sight.
The Elis upset favored and high scoring UNC, 66-63, Saturday at fabled Carmichael Arena, before a crowd of 2,632. It was the lowest point output of the season for the Tar Heels, coached by former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart.
Yale rallies to win season opener over Providence and improve to 6-2 at the same time
It took 28 days, but the Yale women finally won its season opener, coming from behind to defeat previously unbeaten Providence, 82-79.
The Bulldogs (6-2) and Friars (5-1) first met on Nov. 5, with Providence taking a 42-33 lead after the first two quarters. A problem with the scoreboard kept the teams from continuing the contest, forcing them to reschedule the game to Tuesday.