Jim Engles

Brown men’s basketball beats Columbia, 66-64, to create three-way tie for fourth place

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Columbia men’s basketball battled back several times against Brown on Friday evening, eventually taking its first lead with 4:10 to go. But clutch defense and free throw shooting helped the Bears claim a hard fought 68-66 victory at Levien Gymnasium.

The win for Brown (8-17, 4-6 Ivy), coupled with Harvard’s loss to Princeton, leaves the Bears, Columbia (13-10, 4-6) and Harvard tied for fourth place and the final spot in the Ivy League Tournament with only four games remaining in the regular season.

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Columbia men’s basketball cruises to 83-69 win at Brown

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A career-best 17 points from Columbia men’s basketball senior forward Josh Odunowo led the Lions to a huge 83-69 road win over Brown at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.

Columbia (12-8, 3-4 Ivy) was in control for most of the game, using 11-2, 9-0 and 12-0 runs in a 17-minute period overlapping the two halves to open up an insurmountable 18-point lead and remain in fourth place in its quest for the program’s first-ever appearance in the Ivy League Tournament.

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Columbia/Harvard Friday night matchups: Crimson men and Lions women prevail

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On the first night of the Ivy League’s opening back-to-back weekend, the Columbia women hosted Harvard, while the Crimson men welcomed the Lions.

When the dust cleared on Friday evening, both home teams held serve in competitive contests.

With the wins, the Lions women (14-5, 5-1 Ivy) claimed sole possession of second place and the Crimson men (11-7. 2-3) sat in a fourth-place tie with Brown.

The Harvard (11-8, 4-2) women dropped to a third-place tie with Brown, while the Lions (10-8, 1-4) men fell into a sixth-place tie with Dartmouth and Penn.

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“Some of our best basketball of the year”: How Yale men’s basketball pulled away from Columbia

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Yale men’s basketball has been a first-half team all season.

But don’t tell that to Columbia coach Jim Engles, as the Bulldogs went on a 29-6 second-half run Monday night to turn a narrow 41-39 first-half lead into an 89-70 victory at John J. Lee Amphitheater.

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

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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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Eight reasons to savor Princeton men’s NCAA Tournament run with Elite 8 a win away

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Princeton Athletics’ pinned tweet on Twitter borrows the Sacramento Kings’ rallying call referring to a purple beam of light that comes from the Golden 1 Center after a team win. Princeton men’s basketball’s two wins at the Golden 1 Center lifted the program to its first Sweet 16 appearance of the modern NCAA Tournament era. (Princeton Athletics)

With the Elite 8 just a win away for No. 15 Princeton as it prepares for No. 6 Creighton in Louisville Friday, here are eight reasons for not only Tiger folk but the entire Ancient Eight to savor the Tigers’ historic Sweet 16 run:

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Columbia men hit upon keys to success in Ivy-opening upset of Yale

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Princeton women’s basketball lost its first Ivy game in 43 contests dating back 1,423 days Saturday afternoon.

And it wasn’t even the biggest Ivy hoops upset of the day.

That accomplishment belonged to Columbia men’s basketball, which shrugged off its last-place projection in the Ivy preseason media poll to topple league rankings leader Yale at Levien Gym, 62-60.

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Ivy men’s hoops observations as league play approaches

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With conference play in the 2022-23 Ivy League men’s basketball season fast approaching, let’s take a look back at the nonconference results for each team and examine each program – listed by season winning percentage:

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2022-23 IHO Men’s Preseason Poll

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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.

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Ivy League men’s basketball Media Day roundup

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Two days after the Media Day for Ivy women’s hoops, the men had their turn at the virtual podium.  A day prior, the results of the preseason poll were released.  While five different teams earned top votes, the overall totals showed no changes from the last day of competition in 2020.

Yale, two-time defending Ivy champion, was again picked to come in first with 115 points and seven first-place votes.  Harvard, the 2019 co-champion, was close behind, tallying 110 points and four first-place votes.  Princeton, the 2017 title winner, closed out the top tier with 108 points and two first-place votes.

Penn, the 2018 co-champion, secured the last slot in the upper division with 93 points and two first-place selections.  Brown, which last held the title in 1986, again found itself behind the Quakers for fifth place with 79 points and a pair of title votes.

Dartmouth, which last entered the winner’s circle in 1959, was tabbed in the six slot with 43 points, four points more than Cornell, which last held the top spot in the Sweet Sixteen season of 2010.  Columbia, the 1968 champion, was projected to finish last with 25 points.

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