Home of the Roundball Poets
The Princeton women’s basketball team shrugged off a sluggish start and stormed past the DePaul Blue Demons, 79-58, in a Saturday matinee matchup at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
The win was the first of the season for Princeton (1-1) and its first triumph over DePaul (1-1) in program history. The Blue Demons won the previous three contests against the Tigers in 2011, 2012 and 2018.
The Princeton women’s basketball team has opened the 2024-25 season with a thud.
The Tigers lost on the road to the Duquesne Dukes, 76-66, at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh Monday.
Last season, the Tigers also opened their season against the Dukes but secured a hard-fought victory at home, 65-57. The Dukes got their revenge tonight, outscoring a tired Tigers squad 20-4 in the fourth quarter.
As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.
Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.
Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes. Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.
Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot.
Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.
Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes.
While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.
Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day:
IOWA CITY, Iowa – As the curtain rises on first-round games from Iowa City in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, all eyes will focus on Caitlin Clark and her No. 1 Iowa Hawkeyes. Clark has ignited an explosion of interest in women’s college basketball with her electrifying shooting and record-breaking scoring.
But there are three other teams competing in the Iowa City pod this weekend, including the No. 9 Princeton women’s basketball team (25-4, 15-1 Ivy), which begins play in No. 8 West Virginia Mountaineers (24-7, 13-7 Big 12).
Let’s take an in-depth look at how these two teams from vastly different places in the women’s college basketball landscape match up against each other:
The final day of the 2024 Ivy League Tournament was an incredibly chaotic one, which started hours before the noon tipoff of the thrilling men’s championship and ended with a near-midnight zoom celebratory conference call with Columbia women’s basketball coach Megan Griffith.
For the second day in a row, the tournament provided its fair share of emotional highs and lows. There may still be people who haven’t taken to the thought of Ivy Madness, after eight years and six events, but it is an amazing weekend to celebrate the talented players and coaches and showcase this shouldn’t-be-under-the-radar conference to the nation.
I’m still in a bit of a stupor from the last few days, but I’ll try my best to recount scenes from a lengthy final day:
Following Princeton’s victory over Columbia in Saturday night’s Ivy League championship, the thought of two conference teams making into the field of 68 seemed improbable. However, Sunday night’s selection show provided a pleasant surprise for everyone connected to the Ancient Eight, with the announcement of an automatic qualifier spot for the Tigers and an at-large bid for the Lions.
This year’s decision marks the second time the Ivies have sent two teams to the Big Dance, with Princeton claiming the second bid and Penn taking the automatic spot in 2016.
Two down, one to go.
Princeton women’s basketball added an exclamation point to its already triumphant Ivy League season Saturday by soundly defeating the Columbia Lions, 75-58, for its fifth consecutive Ivy League Tournament championship.
NEW YORK – Even though the Columbia women were the No. 2 seed for the 2024 Ivy League Tournament, the Lions felt everything was going their way as team continued its quest for its first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately for the team and Light Blue fans, No. 1 Princeton used a strong inside game to cruise to a 75-58 victory and secure its five straight conference postseason title.
Columbia coach Megan Griffith’s crew graduated seven players, including three starters, from last year’s Ivy League regular season champion, and still captured its second straight league title.
While last year’s squad buckled just enough from the end-of-season pressure, including an overtime win to close out the season against lower division Cornell and an overtime loss to Harvard in the Ivy tournament semifinal, to lose out on a chance to get to March Madness, this team seemed to embrace the challenges.
First, Columbia beat Princeton at Levien by two on Feb. 24. Second, the Lions ran Cornell out of Newman Arena by 36 on the last day of the season. Third, they took down Harvard in a two-point win, which was not as close as the score would indicate, in the Ivy semifinal.
After the Tigers were taken to the wire by No. 4 Penn in Friday’s first semifinal, Columbia, buoyed by its passionate fanbase and home surroundings, appeared to be the slight favorite in the battle for Ancient Eight supremacy.
NEW YORK – The No. 1 Princeton women’s basketball team withstood a furious rally by the No. 4 Penn Quakers on Friday evening to advance to the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament in a 59-54 victory.
The Tigers entered the contest with an 11-game winning streak against their rivals from Philadelphia. The 12th win was anything but easy. The Tigers were led by sophomore Madison St. Rose, who tallied 19 points, all but three of them coming in the second half.
NEW YORK – The opening day of the Ivy League Tournament brought the four women’s teams to Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Columbia University.
Below are highlights of the press conferences and links to the videos. (Check out the game previews from Steve Silverman)