2023-24 Ivy men’s media day recap and season preview

With the season a few weeks away, the Ivy League hosted its Men’s Basketball Media Day on Thursday. the second of two hoops-themed media availabilities. The event was hosted over Zoom for media members and is available on the conference’s YouTube channel.

The preseason media poll was released on Tuesday with Yale, last year’s regular season co-champions, securing the top spot. Princeton, which used its Ivy League Tournament title victory as a springboard to a Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament run, was picked second.

The Bulldogs received 14 of 16 first-place votes, while the Tigers earned the other two top votes.

Read more

Ivy men’s week 10 roundup: Ancient Eight’s top 10

A wild Saturday capped the regular season for the Ancient Eight.  When the dust settled, Yale and Princeton tied for the league title, while Penn settled for third place and Cornell captured the final spot for this weekend’s Ivy League Tournament at Jadwin Gymnasium.

In what was arguably the conference game of the year, it was the worst of times in the opening half and the best of times in the second stanza for the hometown Tigers. 

Read more

Princeton men’s basketball survives after another second-half collapse

Despite another stupefying second-half collapse, the Princeton men’s basketball team somehow hung on to defeat the Harvard Crimson at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday, 58-56.  With the win, the Tigers retained a share of first place in the conference standings and guaranteed themselves an opportunity to earn at least a share of the Ivy League title with a win on senior night at Jadwin Gym next Saturday against the Penn Quakers in the regular season finale for both teams.

The Tigers gutted out this hugely important road win despite a harrowing stretch of offensive futility that echoed Princeton’s epic second-half collapse against Yale last weekend.  

Senior guard Ryan Langborg led the Tigers with 18 points and six rebounds while Evan Nelson led Harvard in scoring with 19 points in a losing cause. Chris Ledlum, playing his final game at Lavietes, was held to 14 points (five below his average), but muscled his way to a game-high 11 rebounds for the Crimson, who were eliminated from Ivy Madness on Senior Night by Princeton for the second year in a row.

Read more

Ivy men’s week nine roundup: Ancient Eight’s top 10

In the league’s penultimate weekend, each of the three first place teams won, while Brown pulled a game ahead of Cornell for fourth place.

Penn and Dartmouth had their offenses clicking at the Palestra on Saturday afternoon. 

The Quakers shot 73% from two and 42% from three, while the Big Green made 62% from inside the arc and 45% from outside.  With most shots going in from the field, the Red & Blue pulled away for their eighth straight win on the strength of their free throw shooting (17-for-18 vs 8-for-14) and rebounding (28-21). 

The victory allowed Penn to remain in first place, while the defeat ended Dartmouth’s chance for their first Ivy Tournament berth.

Trying to rebound from a huge second half collapse against Yale last weekend, Princeton used a 10-2 run over the last five minutes of the opening half to take a 37-23 halftime lead at Harvard.  The Tigers upped their advantage to 18 at the 15-minute mark of the second half, but the Crimson used a 20-4 run to make it a two-point game with five minutes left in regulation.

Contrary to last week, the Orange & Black would not give up the lead.

The teams combined to make one of the next ten shots from the field, as Princeton held a three-point advantage with twenty seconds remaining.  An Evan Nelson layup cut the deficit to one, but Ryan Langborg sank two free throws to make it 56-53.  Tigers coach Mitch Henderson followed Jon Rothstein’s advice and fouled Nelson, who missed the first of a one-and-one.  Caden Pierce came down with the rebound and hit both free throws to put the game away.

The win sets up a showdown with long-time rival Penn to claim at least a piece of the regular season championship.

Despite being without Matt Knowling for the second straight game, Yale posted a convincing win over Cornell in the team’s final game at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.  The Bulldogs, who were up 34-28 at the half, stretched their lead to 21 by the 11-minute mark and the Big Red didn’t get any closer than 11 points the rest of the way.  

The win was Yale’s eighth in the last nine games and allowed them to keep pace with the Ps.  It was also the 200th regular season Ivy victory for coach James Jones.  Jones, who is wrapping up his 24th year in New Haven, is 200-121 in league play and 110 conference wins away from former Princeton coach Pete Carril.

For Cornell, Saturday’s defeat was the fifth in their last six games and puts them on the wrong side of the Ivy Tournament bubble with one game to go.

Brown had a 14-point lead in the first half, but Columbia used four three-pointers in the latter part of the half to cut the Bears lead to five at the break.  The game was tied at 59 with 8:30 to go, but a 9-0 run over the next two minutes gave Bruno enough of a cushion to dash the Lions’ hopes of getting their third league win.

The win breaks Brown’s two game losing streak and allows Bruno to control its own destiny for the program’s first-ever spot in Ivy Madness. 

Read more

Dartmouth men withstand Harvard comeback and get weekend sweep

Dartmouth senior forward Dame Adelekun posted 14 points and nine rebounds in the Big Green’s 60-59 win at Lavietes Pavilion Monday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Despite having its double-digit second half lead methodically erased by Harvard, Dartmouth prevented the Crimson from getting off a last-possession shot and came away with a 60-59 victory at Lavietes Pavilion on Monday afternoon.

In the opening weeks of Ivy play, the Big Green (7-12, 3-2 Ivy) are the conference’s most pleasant surprise.  Picked seventh in the preseason media poll, Dartmouth now has wins against the No. 1 (Penn), No. 2 (Yale) and No. 4 (Harvard) ranked teams.

Read more

Yale men fend off Harvard, 58-54, for first Ivy conference win

Yale senior forward EJ Jarvis helped lift his team past Harvard to notch the Bulldogs’ first Ivy conference win in three games Saturday night. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

“It’s Yale-Harvard. There is no other game like it.”

That quote from Yale men’s senior forward EJ Jarvis was spot on, and so was another:

“This was a must-win game.”

Read more

Princeton men top Harvard in final seconds to clinch share of Ivy League title

Ivy Player of the Year candidate Tosan Evbuomwan hit a game-winning left-handed layup with 4.8 seconds left to clinch a share of Princeton’s second Ivy League title in 10 seasons under coach Mitch Henderson Sunday. (photo by Erica Denhoff)

The Princeton Tigers clinched a share of the Ivy League championship with a heart-stopping 74-73 victory over the Harvard Crimson at Lavietes Pavilion Sunday afternoon. The title is the second in coach Mitch Henderson’s career following the undefeated Ivy season in 2017.

 

Read more

Another huge game for Jordan Dingle as Penn men complete season sweep of Harvard

Sophomore guard Jordan Dingle became the first Penn player in program history to record three 30-point scoring games against Ivy opponents in a season in Penn’s 82-74 victory over Harvard Saturday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

ESPN thinks Yale’s Azar Swain and Noah Kirkwood have the inside track to the Ivy League Player of the Year award. But don’t expect Vince Curran and the Penn faithful to agree.

Read more

Yale men notch second three-point victory over Harvard in five days

Sharpshooting Yale senior guard Azar Swain (5) hit just one three-pointer in two games against Harvard the past five days. But the Bulldogs’ defense propelled them past their archrivals for three-point victories in both contests.  (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Entering this month, Yale had gone nearly six years without beating Harvard in the regular season.

Now they’ve pulled it off twice in five days.

Read more

Penn men survive early knockdown to take round one at Harvard, 78-74

Penn sophomore guard Jordan Dingle rang up 31 points on 9-for-16 shooting in a win at Harvard Friday, becoming the first player in program history with back-to-back games scoring 30 points or more in Ivy play. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Down 12-2, starting power forward Michael Moshkovitz off the court with two quick fouls and a boisterous sellout Lavietes Pavilion crowd on top of them, things looked bleak for the Penn men as they made it to their bench for the first media timeout in Friday night’s nationally televised game at Harvard.

Fortunately, Steve Donahue settled his team and the Quakers bounced back for an important 78-74 road victory that has the Red & Blue at 5-2 (8-12 overall) halfway through the Ivy League schedule.

Tommy Amaker’s Crimson, meanwhile, left the court with their third loss in five league contests (10-7 overall).

Read more