Monique LeBlanc

• League officials arrived on Tuesday and the four teams in the women’s tournament arrived on Wednesday. Everyone from these groups swore that it was a spring-like 70 degrees on Wednesday. When I arrived early Thursday afternoon, however, it was an overcast and wintry 30 degrees with a few flurries of snow. I kept telling myself that at least it’s not Hanover, where the day’s low was 24, three degrees colder than Ithaca’s low.
• For those heading up for the four men’s press conference on Friday morning and the two women’s semifinals in the afternoon and evening, bring your winter coats. The low is expected to be 26, the high 40 and an inch of snow is predicted.
• This part of campus is the epicenter of Ivy athletics with the Brown/Princeton semifinal at 4:30 p.m., the Harvard/Columbia semifinal at 7:30 p.m. and the first of a best-of-three quarterfinal hockey playoff series between the Big Red and the Crimson, their biggest rivals.
• Lots of construction is happening on this part of campus, including an area adjacent to the Newman Arena.  If you see this sign and you’re in the media, you’re on the right path.

  

• Joining me in person for the press conferences from No. 1 seed Princeton, No. 4 seed Brown, No. 2 seed Columbia and No. 3 seed Harvard were Jenn Hatfield of The IX Sports and Ryan Gineo of ESPN Radio Ithaca.  For the first time, the Ivy League added a Zoom feature for the press conferences, which allowed Ivy Hoops Online’s Steve Silverman, Brown Athletics’ Scott Cordischi and Harvard Magazine’s David Tannenwald to ask their questions. It’s great that the league added that feature.
• In addition to the press conferences, ESPN’s Maren Walseth and Johnny Gadamowitz hosted the marathon Live From Ivy Madness broadcast. I urge everyone to find a few hours before Friday’s semifinals to check out the fantastic job done by Maren and Johnny.
• The media center is well set up with lots of space, but it felt just a few degrees warmer than outside. It should get warmer with the larger crowds expected on Friday morning for the men’s press conferences.
• On the other hand, Newman Arena is a warm and spacious environment to watch a basketball game with great seats on both sides of the action:

  

• Typically, the location and quality of the hotel accommodations are directly correlated to a team’s seed. I’m at the site of the women’s and men’s No. 3 seeds, and it is quite nice. On the other hand, the few times I heard someone mention the name of the hotel where the No. 4 seed Brown women are staying, they had a slight clench to their facial muscles and nod of their head. Hopefully, that’s a positive side here in the southern tier of New York.  (The No. 4 seed Cornell men are staying in their own residence halls or off-campus apartments.)
• The biggest news coming out of today’s shootarounds and press conferences was the absence of Princeton junior Skye Belker. There has been no information provided for the Second Team All-Ivy guard not attending either event. Something to keep an eye on for Friday’s first semifinal.Some quotes from the first four press conferences.

Princeton

• We’ve talked about how to start better. Certainly, that’s too many games to try to keep clawing from behind, and you can’t do that in March. The teams are way too good. So, yeah, I mean, just we’ve tried different things. We’ve tried different ways to get them going during warmups to what we’re watching before the game; to get them revved up … But I think I have a feeling they’ll be ready to go tomorrow and hopefully have a great start to the to the game. But again, it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish. – coach Carla Berube (Coaching Staff of the Year)

I think mainly Saturday was super exciting for us, especially the freshmen and the sophomores getting their first regular season championship. That was huge. And it being Senior Day and us getting like the outright number one seed, like all of it was just amazing. I still do think that we have something to prove just because we have unfinished business from last year and last tournament, even though we went to March Madness, we didn’t go in the way that we wanted to. So, I think this year, we know what we need to do. We’re super-motivated, like I said before, and we know that it starts, it started today in practice, but it really starts tomorrow at the beginning of that game. – junior guard Olivia Hutcherson (Honorable Mention All-Ivy)

Brown

• I think you mentioned a couple of important things to track [getting out to a quick start in both halves against Princeton and avoiding double-digit runs from their opponent]. Basketball is certainly a game of runs and at the same time you want to control. You’re fine with your own run being really large, but you want to control how much of a run your opponent’s going on and I think that some things that can help with that. Things like timely timeouts, maybe changing up some coverages. We have great leadership, and I think they’re good at quick huddle adjustments out on the floor, identifying an issue and talking through a solution right then and there in the moment. So we certainly understand that it’s going to be a battle a game of runs and we certainly want to come out swinging. – coach Monique LeBlanc
• We definitely just want to emphasize playing team basketball. We want to own our matchups as individuals, but also know that we have each other’s backs and that we’re always going to be ready to rotate when needed. All five of us put our effort towards stopping the ball, so playing together is a big emphasis and I think communication is also something we really focused on this week. They have a dynamic offense but if we communicate through all their actions, we’re going to be able to be one step ahead and hopefully stop what they’re trying to do. – senior guard Grace Arnolie (First Team All-Ivy)
• I think it’s more than I expected and it’s such a blessing to be here and we’ve fought so hard these past few years. And it just really speaks volumes about our team and how dedicated we are and never backing down from our goals. So it’s surreal being here and I’m super-proud. – senior forward Alyssa Moreland (Second Team All-Ivy)

Columbia

• The [Harvard] game will get chaotic, and playing in chaos is something that we have to just be ready for and that’s we’ve talked about all week. This has been a really hard week, we haven’t come in and [said], “Oh, let’s just rest our bodies and get ready for this game on Friday. You know, we’re simulating adversity every single day and how do you handle that, how do you combat that, how do you stay, as [Columbia senior guard] Perri [Page] just talked about, together and on the same page. I think they’re understanding what we do in those moments versus just being reactive, and I think the more that you can have a predictable or planned response for something, the better you are and more ready to execute it, and that’s just how our team has seen the most success. Honestly, I would just say that they’ve done a great job buying into this new game plan. When we’re up by 10 or even down by 10, realizing that the game’s going to take swings, but you can stop runs, you can stop the bleeding, and this is how we’re going to do that. – coach Megan Griffith
• I think it’s good just to learn how to be a good leader but also be a good follower as well … We (Page and senior forward Susie Rafiu) wanted to be able to empower both [junior guard] Fliss [Henderson] and [junior guard] Riley [Weiss] as leaders and then also [junior guard] Marija [Avlijas], our point guard, too. So, the five of us collectively we talk a lot about what the team needs but what we need from us individually, as well and how we can call them up to that standard each day. – Senior Guard Perri Page (First Team All-Ivy, Defensive Player of the Year)

Harvard

• I posed that question [falling behind early to Columbia] to our team today in practice. What are we waiting for? Why do we have to put ourselves with our backs against the wall, to be able to fight and fly around and find flow and do what we do and play the way we know we can play? I just really challenged them to have that sense of urgency to start the game. And I think this type of environment, this win-or-go-home experience, puts you in that type of situation from the start of the game. So I hope that these guys can really lead in that way and be as composed and be as together, as we’ve been in both second halves against them [Columbia] to start the game. If you don’t think they’re coming out trying to throw the first punch, then I don’t know what else to do to really prepare you for that … But I think our goal is to also throw that first punch, and it’s going to be a game of runs and, who’s going to respond to those runs in the best possible way? Who’s going to stay composed? It’s going to be chaotic in terms of the way both teams play. So it’s just gathering, learning from the experience that we’ve had the first two times and putting it to action for 40, not for 20. – coach Carrie Moore
  
• Coach Moore made it a big point of emphasis that depth is our superpower. I think that one through 16, we are probably stronger than we’ve ever been … We’re really lucky to have the depth that we do. And for there to be a new star every single game, you never really know what you’re going to get, which I think is really rare and really hard to guard. So using that to our advantage, I think all season, but especially now in March, I think has been a huge proponent of our success and will continue to be. – junior forward Abigail Wright (Second Team All-Ivy)