Thanks to a weekend sweep of Penn, the Princeton men’s and women’s basketball programs both won Ivy League titles this weekend, meaning that two more banners will soon be added to the crowded rafters at Jadwin Gym. Here are four takeaways from Princeton’s historic basketball weekend:
Ivy tournament
2024 Ivy League Tournaments moved from Brown to Columbia
In a surprise Wednesday afternoon announcement, the Ivy League office stated that the 2024 Ivy League men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be held at Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium. Specific dates for the four-day event have not been posted.
The announcement signals a substantial change in the Ivy League’s rotation of tournament locations set in 2019. Brown was slated to host the tournaments next in 2024.
The Ivy League attributed the move to Levien Gym to gym renovations being finished sooner than expected when the original tourney rotation was announced in a statement Wednesday.
“The future of the rotation remains under continuous evaluation,” Ivy League spokesman Matt Panto told Ivy Hoops Online in an email Wednesday. “The league is excited to bring the tournaments to Princeton next month and New York City in 2024.”
Brown Athletics did not respond to a request for comment.
“New York City is home to passionate and dedicated alumni and fans from all eight Ivy League institutions,” Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said in Wednesday’s statement. “Coupled with the energy of March Madness and the enthusiasm that this event has built over just a short period of time, the league could not be more excited to host Ivy Madness in the Big Apple.”
2022-23 IHO Men’s Preseason Poll
Only five points separated the top three teams in the Ivy League Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll, and our final tabulation was even tighter. Just three points separated the team atop IHO contributors’ preseason poll.
Yale gets the slight nod here, with our contributors trusting James Jones to lead the Bulldogs to their fifth Ivy League title in an eight-season span in a bid to represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament for a third straight time. Penn, the Ivy League preseason poll’s top team above Princeton by a single point, also finished a single point above Princeton in our standings. Our contributors saw potential for success in a roster that returns most of the key players from last year’s squad that placed third in the Ivy standings. We’ve got Princeton pegged to finish third, aided in their quest to repeat as Ivy League champions by returning 2021-22 Ivy Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan but losing significant backcourt production from last year’s conference title team.
Harvard was the clear No. 4 finisher in our poll, a showing that would improve upon the disappointing sixth-place result that locked the Crimson out of the Ivy League Tournament on its home floor last season. We have Cornell ranked slightly ahead of Brown as the Big Red look to build on last season’s overachieving Ivy League Tournament berth and the Bears look to bounce back from an underachieving sixth-place finish (tied with Harvard) a season ago. Columbia and Dartmouth tied in our voting tally at the bottom of the standings as both programs look to secure their first Ivy League Tournament appearances.
2022-23 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll
It’s still Princeton’s conference until another Ivy proves that it isn’t. Our contributors are united in believing that the Tigers will stay on top in 2022-23, with Megan Griffith’s ascendant Columbia program again placing second.
But there wasn’t consensus on how the rest of the top half of the league will fill out.
Penn could break back into the Ivy League Tournament after missing it for the first time last season, but we expect the Red & Blue to draw stiff competition from Harvard and Yale in their first years under new coaches.
Will #2bidivy happen in the league for only the second time in conference history? It very well could, and the bottom half of the conference is likely to be substantially stronger this season as Brown and Dartmouth return more experienced rosters under coaches that now have a year of Ivy play under their belts.
2022-23 Ivy season lookahead with Brown men’s coach Mike Martin
Brown men’s coach Mike Martin joins Ivy Hoops Online contributor Steve Silverman and reflects on his being on track to become the all-time winningest coach in program history and his team’s disappointing results in close Ivy games last season (2-5 in games decided by four or fewer points). Martin also details his hopes for more late-game “unpredictability” on offense this season, considers the future of Ivy back-to-backs, explains why he favors expanding the Ivy League Tournament to include all eight schools and much more:
in case you missed it, check out Steve’s interview with Cornell men’s coach Brian Earl here and Cornell women’s coach Dayna Smith here.
Ivy Hoops Online’s holiday wishes for 2022 Ivy basketball season
This holiday season, Ivy Hoops Online contributors weigh in on what their holiday wishes are for the 2022 Ivy League basketball campaign. Coming off a season that wasn’t, hopes for a safe, full slate of games come first, but our contributors’ wish list is much longer than that. Happy holidays and warm wishes to all!
Ivy Madness presale begins Monday, with general sale to start Wednesday
Following the cancellation of the 2020 Ivy League Tournament at Harvard and the loss of the 2020-21 season, conference officials decided to return its double dose of final fours to Lavietes Pavilion on March 11-13, 2022. On Monday morning, the Ivy League sent out an announcement to past tournament ticketholders that there would be a 48-hour presale with the general public being able to purchase tickets starting 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The 2020 schedule, which extended the event from two days to three, will be in effect for this year’s version of Ivy Madness. As a result, the women’s semifinals will be played on Fri., Mar. 11 with the No. 1 vs. No. 4 matchup at 4:30 p.m. and the No. 2 vs No. 3 contest at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, the men’s semifinals will consist of the No. 1 vs. No. 4 game at 11 a.m. and the No. 2 vs. No. 3 battle will begin at 2 p.m. The women’s final will take place at 5 p.m. that same day. On Selection Sunday, the men’s final will begin at noon.
If there would have been a 2020-21 Ivy hoops season, what would have happened?
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:
Ivy League’s lead followed as NBA suspends season due to coronavirus outbreak
A little more than 24 hours after their controversial decision to cancel the league’s postseason tournament was chastised by players, media, Ancient Eight enthusiasts and general sports fans, the Ivy League appears to have been ahead of the curve, as the NBA abruptly canceled the remainder of the season on Wednesday night.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Ivy League canceled the upcoming men’s and women’s basketball tournaments three days before they were to begin.
Penn men cruise over Columbia to take No. 4 seed in Ivy Madness as AJ Brodeur makes history
Penn senior forward AJ Brodeur set three program records in his final game at the Palestra as the Quakers easily dispatched Columbia, 85-65, on a historic night at the Palestra to earn the No. 4 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
The Red & Blue (16-11, 8-6 Ivy) nabbed their fourth straight Ivy League Tournament berth, knocking Brown (also 8-6 in Ivy play) on the strength of a Brodeur triple-double: 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Penn split the season series with Brown but held the second tiebreaker, a better record against league top seed Yale.
Brodeur’s triple-double was the first in program history, a feat that followed two more records from the Northborough, Mass. native.
With the game well in hand in the second half, the focus became whether Brodeur would pass Ernie Beck ’53 to become the all-time leading scorer.