The 2025-26 Ivy men’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:
Jacob Huggins
Caden Pierce to sit out his senior year at Princeton, the latest jolt to Tigers men’s basketball
Caden Pierce announced on Tuesday that he will step away from basketball during his senior year at Princeton. The two-time All-Ivy League forward told ESPN that he plans to graduate next May from Princeton and enter the transfer portal to play his final year of NCAA eligibility as a graduate student.
Pierce’s withdrawal from the Princeton men’s basketball team is the latest and perhaps heaviest blow to hit Mitch Henderson’s squad since the 2024-25 season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Yale in the semifinals of the 2025 Ivy League Tournament.
The offseason started ominously for Princeton with the news breaking in late March that two key assistant coaches, Brett MacConnell and Lawrence Rowley, would not return to Mitch Henderson’s coaching staff for the 2025-26 season.
There was no obvious explanation for the coaching staff shakeup, other than Princeton’s leadership perhaps deciding that something needed to change after the Tigers underperformed expectations during the 2024-25 season.
A wave of player defections then descended on Old Nassau.
LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball claws past Columbia, 73-68
Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 73-68 win for Princeton (18-9, 7-5 Ivy) at Columbia (12-13, 1-11) Friday:
LISTEN: Sizing up Princeton men’s basketball stands as Ivy League play nears
Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reflects on Princeton men’s basketball’s 10-4 start to the 2024-25 season with Ivy League play slated to start on Jan. 11 at Harvard:
Just how vulnerable is Princeton men’s basketball?
PRINCETON, N.J. – By now, you’ve probably seen Dalen Davis’ game-winning three-pointer to beat Akron 76-75 on Monday afternoon, completing a remarkable comeback, not for the first time this season for Princeton.
The win over the Zips (7-5) may have been the most impressive comeback, down 11 with seven minutes left, but the Tigers also overcame deficits against Iona, Northeastern, Merrimack, Monmouth and Rutgers.
Impressive fortitude, yes. But is it a sign of a veteran team that will continue to do this for the next few months, or an ominous omen that the preseason Ivy League favorites might be extremely vulnerable this season?
LISTEN: Sizing up Princeton men’s basketball after a 6-3 start
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark takes stock of where Princeton men’s basketball stands after a 6-3 start replete with white-knuckle finishes and newly emerging linchpins:
Princeton men’s basketball learning lessons while stacking wins
BOSTON – Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.
Angry, however, is the head that had their crown taken from them in an unexpected March upset.
Tiger Takeaways from Princeton’s comeback win over Iona
The Princeton men’s basketball team staged a comeback for the ages in the Tigers’ thrilling, 81-80 triumph over the Iona Gaels at Jadwin Gym on Monday night.
Here are three thoughts about how the Tigers managed to claw their way back from a 16-point deficit to win their opening game of the season:
Princeton men’s basketball nips Iona in season-opening comeback win
Our George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 81-80 season-opening comeback win for Princeton men’s basketball (1-0) over Iona (0-1) at Jadwin Gym Monday night:
Four reflections on Princeton men’s basketball’s 3-0 start
Upset? https://t.co/LROKsY4X4E
— Tosan Evbuomwan (@Tosan_Evb) November 7, 2023
After defeating the Duquesne Dukes of the Atlantic 10 Conference, 70-67, Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, Princeton men’s basketball is off to a 3-0 start, its best beginning since the 2015-16 campaign, when the Tigers won their first four games.
Here are four reflections on the season so far for the two-time defending Ivy League champions: