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.

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Ivy hoops roundup – July 1, 2023

As we enter the July 4th holiday weekend, we at Ivy Hoops Online wanted to round up some postseason updates:

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Road to redemption: A look ahead to 2023-24 for Penn men’s basketball

Penn gets to benefit from Jordan Dingle’s dynamic scoring prowess again next season. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

March is defined by thin margins.

Penn’s season collapsed with the blow of a referee’s whistle with 90 seconds to go in its Ivy League tournament semifinal against Princeton. If Nick Spinoso’s charge on the Tigers’ Keeshawn Kellman in a one-point game had been ruled a no-call or a flop, would Penn have advanced?

Yale can ask itself a similar question. If August Mahoney — the third-best free throw shooter in the country — converted his one-and-one with 2:18 to go in a three-point game in the Ivy League Tournament final against Princeton, would the Bulldogs have completed their furious second-half rally?

Both those teams could only watch as Princeton went on to go on a magical run to the Sweet 16, the deepest an Ivy League champion has gone in the NCAA Tournament since 2010.

Plenty of Penn fans are probably still bitter, and could you blame them?

But a look at the Quakers’ returning roster indicates that fans’ high expectations for redemption in 2023-24 will be well-justified:

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Ivy League Tournament men’s semifinal preview: No. 4 Cornell vs. No. 1 Yale

Ivy League Tournament – at Jadwin Gymnasium (Princeton)

Saturday, March 11: Semifinals

No. 1 Yale (20-7, 10-4 Ivy) vs No. 4 Cornell (17-10, 7-7 Ivy) at 11:00 a.m. (available on ESPNU and ESPN+)

Game #1, 1/13/23: Cornell (home) over Yale, 94-82
Game #2, 2/25/23: Yale (home) over Cornell, 76-58

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2022-23 IHO Men’s All-Ivy Awards

The Ivy League announced its major men’s awards Tuesday, but we know this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Ivy Hoops Online’s 2022-23 All-Ivy Awards, as determined by IHO’s contributors:

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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. 

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Cornell men keep Ivy Madness hopes alive with victory over Columbia

ITHACA, N.Y. — Two things needed to happen for the Cornell men to make it to the Ivy League Tournament: beat Columbia and hope Brown loses to Yale.

Part one of that equation has been completed.

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Cornell men’s offense sputters in key loss at Yale

In a critical game in the fight for an Ivy Madness berth, the Cornell men’s offense never made the trip up to New Haven.

The Big Red scored fewer than 60 points for the second consecutive game, losing 76-58 to Yale for their fifth loss in the last six games

The loss takes Cornell out of the driver’s seat for the final spot in Ivy Madness.

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Cornell men pull away from Dartmouth in overtime for 95-83 win

In a must-win game, the Cornell men came through when it mattered most, outscoring Dartmouth 15-3 in overtime to win 95-83.

Sophomore guard Nazir Williams scored 27 points, 18 of which came in the first half. He connected on all three of his three-pointers and dished out six assists.

Junior forward Sean Hansen recorded an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double. He hit three of his six three-pointers, including a perimeter shot to give the Big Red a 79-76 lead with 1:18 remaining.

That was the last field goal Cornell scored in regulation. Dartmouth freshman Ryan Cornish split a pair of free throws to cut it to two before Hansen missed on the other end.

Dartmouth freshman forward Brandon Mitchell-Day split free throws, as did Williams for Cornell. Down two points, senior forward Dame Adelekun rolled off a screen and slammed down a thunderous dunk to tie the game.

After a pair of Cornell timeouts, the Big Red wanted to hold for the final shot. Senior guard Greg Dolan backed down in the post with the ball and lost it, giving the Big Green a final opportunity. Adelekun missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to send it to overtime, where the Big Red dominated.

Junior guard Isaiah Gray and Dolan each scored 17, and junior guard Chris Manon, who was inserted into the starting lineup five games ago, added 11.

Cornell and Dartmouth battled back and forth throughout the first half before Williams hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Cornell a 45-39 lead at the half. The Big Green battled back but never led by more than one in the second half.

Cornish and junior forward Dusan Neskovic each scored 19 points to pace Dartmouth. Junior guard Jaren Johnson added 11.

Cornell shot 48% from the field and 42% from deep, while Dartmouth shot 44% and 37%. The Big Red paced rebounding, 37-35.

Cornell hosts Harvard on Saturday while Dartmouth travels to Columbia.

Ivy men’s week six roundup: Ancient Eight’s Top Ten

The opening games of the second half of the Ivy slate ended with sweeps by Princeton, Yale, Penn and Brown.  The Ps did their traditional double wins from home, while the New Englanders were able to earn their victories on the road.

On Friday, the Tigers welcomed Cornell to Jadwin Gymnasium in a match between the league’s top two teams.  Prior to the start of the contest, Princeton honored its championship teams from 1996 to 1998, which included Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson and Big Red coach Brian Earl.   The Orange & Black overcame a 13-point second half deficit to claim sole possession of first place.  The win gave Henderson his 200th career victory. 

A day later, the Tigers gave Henderson win number 201 with a comfortable 22-point victory over Columbia, the last-place team in the Ancient Eight.

Yale showed it has completely rebounded from its opening losses to Columbia and Dartmouth by extending its winning streak to five. 

The Bulldogs were hot on the offensive side in the first half at Harvard, opening up a 17-point halftime lead.  The Crimson tightened the defense in the second half and cut the lead to five with 2:25 to go in regulation, but a 0-for-6 effort the rest of the way ultimately doomed Harvard.  With the victory, the Bulldogs completed their second straight season sweep of their Boston rivals.

At Leede Arena, Yale used a 13-0 run to close out the first half and take an 11-point lead into the locker room.  The visitors never let the Big Green get closer than 10 and cruised to a 19-point revenge win that gave them sole possession of second place.

Against Columbia on Friday night, Penn took an 18-point advantage at the 13:15 mark of the second half, but the Lions clawed their way back and made it a five-point contest with two minutes on the clock.  Similar to Harvard against Yale, Columbia closed the game 1-for-6 and the Quakers came away winning by nine.

Saturday’s matchup between Penn and Cornell was an offensive slugfest with 10 lead changes over the first 30 minutes of action.  The Quakers eventually opened up a nine-point lead with 7:19 to go and held on against the never-say-die Big Red.  The win, which split the season series, gave Penn its fourth in a row and its 46th all-time sweep of the Empire Ivies.

The Big Red, meanwhile, dropped from the top of the leaderboard to a tie for third after the lost weekend.

In Friday’s game in Hanover, Brown tied a season high with 13-made three-pointers on their way to a season sweep of Dartmouth.  Although limited to 24% shooting in the opening half, the Big Green got within seven points with 9:25 left in the contest.  The Bears used a 10-2 run over the next four minutes to put the game away.

After four ties and five lead changes in a close contest between Brown and Harvard, Bruno used a 16-zero run to open up a 15-point lead almost halfway through the second half.   For the second straight night, the Crimson battled back, eventually making it a two-point game with six seconds remaining.  Brown made one of two free throws and the home team couldn’t convert the game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

Bruno’s win was the 133rd victory of head coach Mike Martin’s career, tying him for the program lead with Stanley Ward.  It also avenged a 70-68 overtime loss to Harvard at the Pizzitola Center on January 6 and put the team in a three-way tie for third place with Cornell and Penn.

By late Saturday night, Dartmouth dropped to sole possession of sixth place, while Harvard, losers of three straight was alone in seventh.

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