It went by way too fast, but here we are a few days away form the start of the NEC tournament. In the meantime, John and I diligently poured through the statistics and went through our recollections to determine the best NEC players of the 2016-17 season. Continue reading “NEC Awards and All-Conference Teams for the 2016-17 Season”
Columbia’s 70-67 win over Penn was huge on a number of levels: It was a tight, back-and-forth game in a fun atmosphere; it had an enormous impact on the Ivy League Tournament race; and it exemplified the post-14 Game Tournament era. John covered most of the action last night, but here are five leftover thoughts: Continue reading “Five More Thoughts On Columbia-Penn”
The America East has a reputation for being soft at the bottom, and those are not alternative facts or fake news, the bottom three teams that will compete in next week’s conference tournament are 331, 313, and 334 in KenPom, respectively.
The facts also say, however, it was worse last season when the final four seeds in the America East Tournament were 325, 323, 336, and 334. No. 334 and dead last at 3-13 was UMBC, which wasn’t a shock to anyone following the league, the last time they had been above 310 was 2007-08 (a glorious season which saw them 13-3 and in the NCAA Tournament).
This year didn’t portend to be a whole lot better under first-year coach Ryan Odom (who came from Division II Lenoir-Rhyne), but here we were on Saturday afternoon with the Retrievers playing in an actual big game, at 9-6 in America East (and 18-10 overall), proving – at least temporarily – that it was possible to climb out of the depths of the league and make things much more interesting at the top.
Continue reading “New Hampshire 94, UMBC 90 (2OT): Programs On The Rise”
Columbia has a new lease on life. A five-game losing streak put the Lions in a must-win situation on Saturday night against Penn if they wanted to have any chance of reaching the inaugural Ivy League tournament, but they did win and they do have hope. Continue reading “Columbia 70, Penn 67: The Lions Survive For Another Weekend”
St. John’s avenged its worst loss of league play with an 86-80 victory over Georgetown Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. Continue reading “St. John’s Holds Off Georgetown As Ponds Nears Rookie Record”
Yale seemed to finally have it figured out Friday night, climbing out of an early deficit to grab a three-point halftime lead that probably could have been bigger if not for some poor shot selection and turnovers toward the end. Most importantly, it held host Harvard to 0.84 points per possession, showing some of the defense that led them to the Ivy League title last season.
Alas, the second half was still to come, and streaking Harvard sent them back into the skid they came from, shooting 18-27 from the field (74.1 eFG%) and scoring 1.28 ppp en route to a fairly easy 77-64 win in front of a sellout crowd at Lavietes Pavilion.
Continue reading “Harvard 77, Yale 64: Bulldogs Still Searching For Answers”
Iona kept its hopes alive for the #2 seed in the upcoming MAAC tournament with a 72-51 thrashing of crosstown rival Manhattan Friday night at the Hynes Athletic Center in New Rochelle. Continue reading “Iona 72, Manhattan 51 – Gaels Prove Much The Best”
Monmouth defeated Siena 77-73 before a sellout home crowd for the Hawks’ 25th win of the season on Friday night. Justin Robinson scored 20 points, including six in the final minutes, to clinch the game for Monmouth. Two other seniors, Je’lon Hornbeak and Collin Stewart added 13 points apiece. Here’s the video recap.
When Mitch Henderson played at Princeton, it was normal for the Ivy League champion to go undefeated. In his rookie season of 1995, Penn went 14-0, capping a streak of three straight seasons without a loss. Henderson soon got his own taste of perfection, helping the Tigers to unbeaten campaigns in his junior and senior years. Continue reading “Princeton 64, Columbia 45: Tigers One Step Closer To Perfect Season”
There was no college basketball 2,300 years ago (as far as you know), but there were talented coaches, eh, commanders like Pyrrhus of Epicus, who figured taking down this new upstart power in Italy called Rome would be difficult, but certainly not impossible.
In the end, he did push the Romans back with victory in a couple of battles, but they were bloody, costly fights that left his army somewhat demoralized both physically and mentally. Pyrrhus then cemented his legacy with one of the most repeated quotes of all-time: “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”
Continue reading “Wagner 69, Bryant 66: Pyrrhic Victory For Seahawks?”
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