Kathy Delaney-Smith

No. 10 Harvard women’s basketball loses 64-50 slugfest to No. 7 Michigan State in NCAA Tournament

by
The Harvard women’s basketball team celebrates after winning the women’s Ivy League Tournament championship game over Columbia at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I. on March 15. Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

In a NCAA Tournament Round of 64 matchup pitting No. 10 Harvard, one of the nation’s stingiest defenses, against No. 7 Michigan State, one of the country’s most prolific offenses, it was the higher seed coming away with a 64-50 victory Saturday. But the Spartans did it by effectively shutting down the Crimson for 40 minutes.

While Robyn Fralick’s squad, which won its first tournament game since 2019, moves on to a second-round game at Reynolds Coliseum Monday against host No. 2 North Carolina State, Carrie Moore’s team will use the experiences of this week, as well as the memories of its first Ivy League Tournament title, to make another run next season after ending an 18-year NCAA Tournament drought Saturday.

Read more

Cornell women’s basketball moving on from Dayna Smith

by
Dayna Smith is pictured during a video interview she gave to Ivy Hoops Online in 2022.

Two days after Cornell women’s basketball ended its season in a blowout loss to Columbia, Cornell athletic director Nicki Moore announced that Dayna Smith would no longer be the program’s head coach.

“Dayna Smith has led the Big Red women’s basketball program for more than two decades with integrity and drive, dedicating herself to developing successful student-athletes on and off the court,” Moore said in a statement released by Cornell Athletics on Monday morning. “She is a well-respected coach, a well-liked colleague and a true ambassador for the game of basketball. I thank her for her service to Cornell athletics, and wish her the very best. Coach Smith will always be an important part of this program’s history.”

Smith, the dean of Ivy women’s basketball coaches following the 2022 retirement of Harvard’s Kathy Delaney-Smith, finishes her 22-year career on East Hill with 32 All-Ivy players, an overall record of 224-345 record and an Ancient Eight championship in 2007-08.

Read more

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

by

With the season a few weeks away, the Ivy League hosted Women’s Basketball Media Day on Monday, the first of two media availabilities this week. The event was hosted over Zoom for media members and is available on the conference’s YouTube channel.

The preseason media poll was released last Thursday with Princeton earning all 16 first-place votes. Last year’s Ivy Tournament winner and regular season co-champions are the sixth unanimous pick in league history and the first since Penn in 2016-2017.

Read more

Ivy League Tournament women’s semifinal preview: No. 4 Penn vs. No. 1 Princeton

by

No. 1 Princeton (21-5, 12-2 Ivy) vs No. 4 Penn (17-10, 9-5 Ivy), Jadwin Gym, 4:30 p.m. (available on ESPN+)

Game #1, 1/16/23: Princeton (home) over Penn, 55-40
Game #2, 3/3/23: Princeton over Penn (home), 71-52

Read more

2022-23 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll

by

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.

Read more

Princeton women ranked No. 24 in AP preseason poll, poised to be class of Ivy League again

by
Carla Berube’s Princeton Tigers extended an impressive run of greatness in the 2021-22 season which began over a decade ago under Courtney Banghart.
The Tigers spent most of last season nationally ranked en route to an overall record of 25-5, ending with a near-upset of Indiana in the NCAA Tournament round of 32. The Tigers defeated Kentucky, the SEC Tournament champion, in the first round.
Now the Tigers are ranked again, placing 24th in the Associated Press’ Top 25 released Monday. Princeton was also projected to finish atop the Ivy League in the conference preseason poll released Monday.

Read more

Ivy hoops roundup – Recruits and assistants coming, transfers going

by

Our latest Ivy hoops roundup features critical hires amid new starts for Harvard and Yale women’s basketball, an especially promising recruiting class for the Princeton women, some big men’s graduate transfer losses and more:

Princeton women introduce No. 19 class of recruits 

Princeton women’s basketball announced what ESPN.com deemed the No. 19 recruiting class in the nation:

Read more

Yale women’s basketball names former Princeton assistant Dalila Eshe its new head coach

by
Dalila Eshe is the new head coach for Yale women’s basketball after three years as an assistant coach at Princeton. (Yale Athletics)

The Dalila Eshe era has begun in New Haven.

Yale Athletics named Eshe head coach of Yale women’s basketball Monday, 17 days after Loyola Chicago announced that Allison Guth was leaving Yale to take over there.

Eshe comes from Princeton, where she was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for three seasons under Carla Berube.

Eshe will be introduced at a press conference Wednesday at 11:30 a.m., inside John J. Lee Amphitheater, Yale Athletics announced.

Guth had won 99 games in six seasons, during which the Bulldogs set the single-season program win record twice during her tenure at Yale.

Now it’s up to Eshe, a former WNBA Draft pick, to build on that success.

Read more

Carrie Moore returns to the Ivy League as Harvard’s new women’s basketball coach

by
Carrie Moore comes to Harvard after two stints at Princeton as assistant coach (2016-19) and director of basketball operations (2008-10) that yielded three Ivy League championships. (Harvard Athletics)

Carrie Moore, a long-time Princeton assistant for Courtney Banghart, was named the fourth coach in the history of Harvard women’s basketball on Tuesday afternoon.  The Western Michigan and Detroit Country Day alum takes over for legendary coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who presided over the Crimson team for the last 40 years.

“I am so incredibly humbled and excited to be the next head women’s basketball coach at Harvard University,” Moore told Harvard Athletics. “A very special thank you to Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith for building such a tremendous foundation here and for your long history of fighting for women. Congratulations on your retirement. I am absolutely thrilled to lead these incredible young women and move this program forward.”

Read more

Yale men’s James Jones reportedly inking extension through ’30-’31

by
James Jones appears to be sticking around Yale for a while longer. (photo by Erica Denhoff)

Another Ivy League Tournament title and NCAA appearance, another ride on the coaching carousel and another contact extension for the dean of Ivy coaches.

Hours after Adam Nelson at HoopDirt.com stated that Yale’s James Jones was “picking up steam” for the open position at the University of San Diego, Jon Rothstein tweeted that Jones was finalizing a deal that would keep him at Yale through the completion of the 2030-31 season.

When reached for comment about the extension, a member of Yale Athletics informed Ivy Hoops Online that the school doesn’t comment on personnel matters, and nothing could be added “at the moment.”

Read more