It’s round 8:50 p.m. Saturday evening on ESPN2. A packed crowd at a historic school basketball venue watches as freshman guard Dalen Davis drains a 3-pointer from the left wing to place the house workforce forward of their bitter rivals 35-30 with below a minute to play within the first half.
No, this isn’t the ACC, SEC, or Massive East.
That is the Ivy League.
And it deserves your consideration.
Davis’ triple was a important juncture in Princeton’s late first-half burst to leap forward of Yale at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Tigers by no means relinquished the lead that it took simply moments earlier en path to a 74-63 victory, drawing even within the season sequence with the Bulldogs.
Yale entered that matchup undefeated in convention play, and Ivy Participant of the Yr frontrunner Danny Wolf was an enormous motive why. Standing 7-feet with guard abilities, the sophomore from Chicago propelled Yale to dwelling victories over Princeton and the opposite high workforce within the league, Cornell, with 20-point double-doubles. In the meantime, up in Ithaca, Cornell’s blistering quick tempo allowed it to breeze previous a then 15-1 Princeton workforce again in January in a sport that was by no means actually a contest.
So, that’s the place we stand proper now. Yale and Cornell are tied for first at 8-1, with an impending matchup Friday evening on the south shore of Cayuga Lake. Proper behind them at 7-2, Princeton, which doesn’t have the possibility to actual revenge on Cornell till March 2, and as an alternative should journey north to face Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend.
Each convention has high groups, all of them ship (a minimum of) one to the event, what makes the Ivy League particular?
For the primary time within the KenPom period, the Ivy League’s high three all rank inside the high 110. The league ranks twelfth amongst all leagues per KenPom, tied for the very best rating ever for the Historical Eight. Whereas the league isn’t all in regards to the high three, there are storylines from high to backside together with freshman famous person Malik Mack main Harvard, Columbia’s emergence, and Dartmouth’s unionization makes an attempt, the three on the high have stood out.
Within the switch portal period of faculty basketball, dropping undergraduate stars has develop into inevitable for mid majors. Nonetheless, the Ivy League isn’t a traditional mid-major league.
It’s cliche, however selecting to attend an Ivy League faculty isn’t a four-year resolution, it’s a 40-year resolution. Whereas some gamers would possibly be capable of search NIL offers at greater basketball faculties, there’s no league with larger purchase in from its gamers and coaches than the Ivy.
Yale made the NCAA Event in 2022 led by upperclassmen like Azar Swain and Jalen Gabbidon, however ready within the wings had been replacements. Bez Mbeng and Matt Knowling carved out key roles on that workforce by the tip of the season, whereas August Mahoney and John Poulakidas had been in a position to play significant minutes for a very good workforce.
With these 4 together with EJ Jarvis because the beginning lineup final season, the Bulldogs had been even higher. Head coach James Jones led them to sixty fifth in KenPom, however Yale missed out on the NCAA Event. This yr, the core 4 returned as soon as once more, however with Jarvis’ commencement, Wolf stepped into his position. Whereas he wasn’t prepared for large minutes final yr, the season of studying behind the scenes allowed Wolf to blossom into the famous person that he’s.
Solely three Division I coaches have been of their present jobs longer than Jones, who has gained over 63% of his Ivy League video games with the Bulldogs. In 24 seasons on the helm, the Lengthy Island native has completed outdoors the highest 4 simply as soon as, and that was in his first season.
Consistency is the key in New Haven, it’s been the identical outdated dance yr after yr. Yale is all the time balanced, centered, and disciplined. Mbeng controls the move of the sport on each ends, Knowling’s mid vary is cash, and Poulakidas and Mahoney will burn you if given an inch of house.
Yale entered the season with sky-high expectations, and regardless of losses to Rhode Island, Weber State, and Fairfield, the Bulldogs are proper the place they wish to be in late February. Controlling its personal future for an outright Ivy League title.
You could possibly argue that the explanation why Yale didn’t dance final yr is as a result of it needed to play a real street sport within the Ivy League Championship.
The beneficiary of that? Princeton
Whereas the Tigers misplaced three starters from final yr’s workforce, continuity continues to be deeply entrenched inside their success.
Like Yale, Princeton’s shocking finest participant has been a sophomore who didn’t play a ton as a freshman. Xaivian Lee doesn’t appear like a basketball star, along with his tremendous slender complexion, however he performs like one.
His bag is remarkably deep, his shotmaking is electrical, and he’s not afraid of something. Lee doesn’t shrink back from contact, be it within the type of drawing fouls (#2 within the Ivy League) or crashing the glass (#5 within the Ivy League in DR%).
It’s not usually {that a} mid-major program loses an NBA participant however improves its KenPom rating by 25 spots, however that’s precisely what Mitch Henderson’s squad did. Tosan Evbuomwan was the guts and soul of the Tigers final yr, however much more spectacular than Evbuomwan’s stardom is how shortly Henderson was in a position to regulate to life with out him.
Princeton mentioned goodbye to post-up units and crowding the inside to battle for rebounds. As a substitute, it’s a ramification offense centered on excessive quantities of dribble penetration and spot-up taking pictures. Whereas these had been already key facets of Princeton’s offense final yr, it’s the defining trait this season.
And it has labored. The Tigers have the twenty eighth ranked offense within the nation per KenPom, 69 spots increased than final yr. That offense has led Princeton to eight street wins (tied for the seventh most within the nation), together with spectacular outcomes at Hofstra, Duquesne, Monmouth, and Delaware.
“We don’t dictate our schedule. We are saying sure to all people that desires to play us that’s good,” Mitch Henderson mentioned after the Tigers’ loss at St. Joe’s on December tenth.
It was a hard-fought sport between two extraordinarily gifted groups, however the Hawks got here out on high in entrance of a boisterous dwelling crowd.
Regardless of the same stature in program measurement and the dearth of a paycheck for the Tigers, Princeton isn’t anticipating St. Joe’s to play at Jadwin subsequent yr. But, this yr’s sport was nonetheless performed.
Princeton is just too good for high-major faculties to wish to purchase, however too dangerous for high-majors to play home-and-homes with. Thus, to ensure that the Tigers to subject a aggressive schedule, it should schedule high-level mid-major applications, which is strictly what it did.
Nonetheless, it gained’t be sufficient. Even at 19-3, the chances that Princeton makes the NCAA Event with out successful Ivy Insanity are just about nonexistent. The Tigers didn’t have a single quadrant one alternative as a result of no person needed to provide them one.
Princeton and Yale are as near identified commodities on a nationwide stage as Ivy League groups could be, however they’re not the one ones. You might not know its gamers by identify, however Cornell’s continuity has solely strengthened its distinctive identification and pushed it to a 19-4 begin.
The Massive Crimson have by no means gained a sport in Ivy Insanity, however Brian Earl and his seemingly infinite provide of gamers off the bench are prepared to vary that.
Cornell performs at warp velocity. Solely 4 groups have shorter offensive possessions, and solely ten groups take a bigger share of their photographs from past the arc.
“We’re attempting to attain 100,” Earl mentioned on Ivy League media day. “We attempt to make groups play of their uncomfortable zones.”
33.9% isn’t a superb three-point taking pictures clip, however each single participant on the ground should be guarded alongside the perimeter. Whether or not its six-foot-two guard Cooper Noard, or six-foot-nine massive Sean Hansen, you need to concentrate. It pulls your protection away from the basket, and if you least count on it, the nation’s #1 two-point share offense can take benefit.
Noard, Hansen, Isaiah Grey, Nazir Williams, and high scorer Chris Manon are usually the primary 5, however they’re removed from the one 5.
Earlier than you understand it. Growth. Full line change, these 5 are out, and Keller Boothby, AK Okereke, Man Ragland, Jacob Beccles, and Jake Fiegen are in.
The truth is, these two lineups are Cornell’s most two widespread alignments during the last 5 video games. That doesn’t imply these are the one two although, as Earl mixes and matches to search out no matter works on a given evening.
You understand precisely what you’re going to get with Cornell, you simply by no means know who’s going to provide it to you.
In 2019-2020, Cornell completed 4-10 within the Ivy League with the 314th quickest tempo within the nation. The 2020-2021 Ivy League season was canceled attributable to COVID-19, however Earl and employees had been onerous at work, fully revamping the system.
Then, in 2021-22, the Massive Crimson completed 7-7 and made Ivy Insanity whereas taking part in an excellent deep bench and the sixteenth quickest tempo within the nation. Six of the aforementioned ten gamers had been on that 2022 workforce. Manon, Ragland, Williams, Hansen, Grey, and Boothby all performed essential roles in that group.
Okereke and Noard joined this system final season, however sat behind upperclassmen like Greg Dolan and Marcus Filien, ready their turns. That group went 7-7 once more, however completed with a high 50 offense within the nation, and a KenPom rating 55 spots increased than the yr earlier than.
This yr, the duopoly has been damaged, the glass ceiling is shattered.
Sitting at 8-1 in convention play and 84th within the NET rankings, the Massive Crimson have already clinched their first successful season in Ivy League play since Steve Donahue’s 2010 Candy 16 workforce.
However they aren’t happy with simply that.
“Final yr, we had been blissful to have made the event, however we had been dissatisfied with a few of our performances on the finish of the season,” Earl mentioned at media day.
This yr, they’ll have an opportunity at revenge.
In a league the place each single sport issues simply that rather more, given the construction of the schedule and the event, it’s outstanding that not as soon as have any of those three groups been picked off by any individual outdoors of it.
Positive, the center of the league could be a tad worse than traditional, as Brown and Penn have been disappointing, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a testomony to the energy of the highest 3.
Over two mid-March afternoons in uptown Manhattan, it will all be settled. I can say with close to certainty that one in all these groups will minimize down the nets at Columbia’s Levein Gymnasium, after which a number of hours later, study their NCAA Event destiny.
In spite of everything, there’s no higher place for the best drama from the best sport on the planet to play out than proper on Broadway, within the biggest metropolis on the earth.
