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A valiant comeback by the Princeton men’s basketball team came up short at Levien Gym on Saturday afternoon as the No. 1 Tigers fell to the No. 4 Brown Bears, 90-81, in their Ivy League Tournament semifinal matchup Saturday. Here are three takeaways from the shocking end to Princeton’s magical Ivy League season:
It’s Thanksgiving, and our cups runneth over with sumptuous Ivy hoops results.
Last Monday, the Penn men’s team gobbled up a nationally ranked Villanova team at the Palestra. A day earlier, the Princeton women’s team visited Middle Tennessee State, the defending Conference USA champions, and pulled the rug on the Blue Raiders’ 49-game home court winning streak. Five days later, the Tigers came within a whisker of upsetting No. 3 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.
Last Saturday, the Columbia men, picked to finish last in the Ivy League, toppled Temple, 78-73, in an upset that virtually no one even seemed to notice.
But wait, there’s more. The Brown women’s team, picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League this season, lowered the boom on Providence and Georgetown in back-to-back games. The Bears may not win the Ivy crown, but apparently they are contenders in the Big East.
The Princeton Tigers men’s basketball team opened the 2023-24 season with a statement win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 68-61, in front of more than 6,000 fans at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton in what was dubbed the “Jersey Jam.” Here are four observations about the Tigers’ triumph over their in-state rival:
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.
As we enter the July 4th holiday weekend, we at Ivy Hoops Online wanted to round up some postseason updates:
March is defined by thin margins.
Penn’s season collapsed with the blow of a referee’s whistle with 90 seconds to go in its Ivy League tournament semifinal against Princeton. If Nick Spinoso’s charge on the Tigers’ Keeshawn Kellman in a one-point game had been ruled a no-call or a flop, would Penn have advanced?
Yale can ask itself a similar question. If August Mahoney — the third-best free throw shooter in the country — converted his one-and-one with 2:18 to go in a three-point game in the Ivy League Tournament final against Princeton, would the Bulldogs have completed their furious second-half rally?
Both those teams could only watch as Princeton went on to go on a magical run to the Sweet 16, the deepest an Ivy League champion has gone in the NCAA Tournament since 2010.
Plenty of Penn fans are probably still bitter, and could you blame them?
But a look at the Quakers’ returning roster indicates that fans’ high expectations for redemption in 2023-24 will be well-justified:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There is much to digest as Princeton Nation reacts to a tough 86-75 loss by the men’s basketball team to Creighton in the Sweet 16 on Friday night. Here are five reactions from a courtside perspective at the KFC Yum! Center:
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:
No. 15 Princeton men’s basketball made history with authority Saturday, emphatically dispatching No. 7 Missouri in a 78-63 win at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento to advance to the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance in the modern NCAA Tournament era. Our George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps the action of a lifetime:
MOVING ON TO THE SWEET 16! 💦#MakeShots 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/nfOUEUj2yG
— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) March 19, 2023
No No. 15 seed has ever dominated a NCAA Tournament game to that degree. It’s hard to envision any No. 15 seed doing so anytime soon.
— IvyHoopsOnline (@IvyHoopsOnline) March 19, 2023
#15 PRINCETON TAKES DOWN #2 ARIZONA.
THIS IS MARCH.
(via @CBSSports)pic.twitter.com/bx8OQJyLpa
— Overtime (@overtime) March 16, 2023
A paltry 4-for-25 from three-point range.
Just three points from the foul line.
A major size disadvantage against the No. 10 KenPom team in the country 2,800 miles from home.
None of it stopped No. 15 Princeton from stunning No. 2 Arizona at the Golden1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. Thursday to advance to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 in a winning effort for the ages.