Cornell hosts first Ivy Madness
Since its inception in 2017, the Ivy League men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have mostly run on a rotation as to which school gets to host three days of thrilling action on the court. It just so happens that this year was Cornell’s turn to be the home of all the Madness, and boy was it a wild weekend inside Newman Arena.
After the women’s shootarounds on Thursday and the men’s shootarounds on Friday morning, Ivy Madness got down to business on Friday evening with a doubleheader of women’s basketball semifinals. Up first was #1 Princeton against #4 Brown, and things started off pretty tame. The Tigers pounced out to a 21-3 lead and did not look back, easing past the Bears 65-51.
The second semifinal between #2 Columbia and #3 Harvard brought much more of a spectacle to East Hill. It was a tight, back-and-forth contest all throughout the night, one that went an extra five minutes. But it was the defending champion Crimson who prevailed 67-65 in overtime. The drama lasted right until the very end. Columbia’s Riley Weiss appeared to have been fouled as time expired and was ready to shoot two free throws to send the game to double overtime. But after a lengthy review, the officials ruled that the foul happened after the buzzer sounded. Harvard just about hung on to make it back to the final.
The championship game on Saturday night pitted the defending champion Crimson against a Tigers team that lost to Harvard in last year’s semifinal, ending its five-season title streak. At first it seemed like Princeton was going to coast by the Crimson, going up by as many as 12 points late in the second quarter. But Harvard fought back and tied the game at 51-51 with about four minutes to go. That’s when the Tigers pulled away, ending the contest on a 12-2 run to come out on top 63-53 to win its sixth Ivy Madness title out of the eight editions of the tourney.
The Tigers are the ninth seed in the Sacramento 2 Region. They’ll play Oklahoma State on Saturday and will most likely play UCLA (the second overall seed) in the second round if they win. The Crimson and Lions will also be in postseason play in the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament, both on the same side of the bracket. Harvard will host Navy and Columbia will host St. John’s on March 19 for first round action.
Fadima Tall was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after a game-high 20 points in the championship. The other All-Tournament selections were Princeton’s Ashley Chea, Harvard’s Karlee White, Columbia’s Riley Weiss, and Brown’s Grace Arnolie.
Earlier in the day on Saturday were the men’s semifinals. #4 Cornell had the home-court advantage against #1 Yale in a rematch of last year’s championship that the Bulldogs won at Brown University. But for the fourth straight season, Yale knocks out Cornell from the tourney, this time in the semifinals by a 88-76 scoreline. The Bulldogs led wire-to-wire, though the Big Red kept up with them and were only down four points with 6:21 to go. But Yale pulled away to dishearten a packed Newman Arena and end the Big Red’s season at 15-13.
The second semifinal between #2 Harvard and #3 Penn was another instant classic. Neither team led by double digits the entire game and also needed overtime to decide the winner. The game remained tied with just seconds remaining in the extra period. But that’s when AJ Levine played hero for the Quakers. His lay-in with five seconds to go won it for Penn 62-60.
As if Ivy Madness couldn’t get even more mad, Sunday’s championship also went to overtime. That’s because TJ Power played out of his mind for the Quakers. His three-pointer sent the game to OT and had some more clutch buckets during that stretch to help Penn win it 88-84 for their first Ivy League crown since 2018. Power had what can only be described as a legendary performance, pouring in an Ivy Madness-record 44 points. It was also a special win for first-year head coach Fran McCaffery. The veteran has brought all five teams that he’s been a head coach for to the NCAA Tournament—Lehigh, UNC Greensboro, Siena, Iowa, and Penn—but the Philadelphia native now brings his alma mater to the Big Dance. Penn is the 14-seed in the South region and will face #3 Illinois on March 19. The season is not over yet for Yale, as they earned the three-seed in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) and will host UNC Wilmington on March 17.
Power was unsurprisingly named the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player. The All-Tournament Team also includes Penn’s Cameron Thrower, Yale’s Trevor Mullin, Cornell’s Jake Fiegen, and Harvard’s Ben Eisendrath.
A special thank you to the Ivy League and Cornell University for putting on an amazing event. With so many eyes from across the nation on Ithaca this weekend, it was a real treat to cover all of the incredible action. All the hard work that was done to put everything together does not go unnoticed.
Cornell men’s hockey Lake Placid bound
With everything going inside Newman Arena, there was more postseason play right next door inside Lynah Rink. Not only did Cornell get to host the best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series, it was against Harvard out of all teams. You know what that meant: Fish. And lots of it. Actual fish. Swedish fish. Goldfish (the cracker, not the actual goldfish). All three days, the Lynah faithful kept up its iconic tradition. But how did the games unfold once the puck dropped?
Friday’s opener went the way of the Crimson. The visitors struck first before the Big Red equalized in the second period. But a pair of goals from Ben MacDonald secured a 3-1 victory for the Crimson. The first thing head coach Casey Jones said after the game was that it looked like they hadn’t played in two weeks. That was true, as they had the first-round bye in the ECAC tournament.
But Friday night turned out to be a wake-up call. With their backs against the wall on Saturday night, the Big Red put together a complete performance, blanking the Crimson 4-0. Jake Kraft scored twice to pace the Cornell attack, while Alexis Cournoyer made 16 saves to record his first career shutout for the Big Red.
That set up the decider on Sunday. While the Crimson had the first say, the Big Red immediately equalized and scored twice more in the second frame to take a 3-1 lead heading into the third period. Harvard got one back and peppered the Big Red goal in search of an equalizer. But Cournoyer proved vital once again, proving why he was the conference’s Goaltender of the Year as only a freshman. A pair of empty-net goals sealed a 5-2 win and sealed their spot in the ECAC semifinals.
The Big Red will battle Princeton, led by former associate head coach Ben Syer, on March 20. The winner will play either Dartmouth or Clarkson for the Whitelaw Cup on March 21.
Who wants to coach Syracuse hoops?
In perhaps the least surprising news of the week, the Adrian Autry era in Syracuse men’s basketball came to a close. Autry was fired on Wednesday, one day after the Orange’s season abruptly ended in the ACC Tournament with a 86-69 defeat to SMU in the first round. It was a forgettable three years under Autry, recording a 49-48 record and making a grand total of zero appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Combining that with the final two years of the Jim Boeheim reign, this five-year stretch is the longest the Orange has gone without taking part in the Big Dance since the early 1970s.
There have been plenty of names linked with this new opening. The most obvious replacement on paper is Gerry McNamara. The former March Madness darling for the Orange has done a stand-up job at Siena, guiding the Saints to the NCAA Tournament this year as MAAC champions. But there’s one big reason why I don’t think this will happen: a new athletic director. With John Wildhack retiring this summer, the Orange have already identified his replacement: Toledo’s Bryan Blair. Because of this, he’s not as likely to pick someone from the Boeheim coaching tree to take over. If they want to take things in a new direction, the likes of St. Louis’ Josh Schertz and South Florida’s Bryan Hodgson are alluring options.
But this also begs the question: How attractive is the Syracuse job nowadays?
Yes, there is a vast and rich history in this program. But this recent lull is not solely due to Autry. After all, the final years of the Boeheim era haven’t been very prosperous ever since the magical Final Four run in 2016. Add in their move to the ACC and the consequential shifting of resources to the football program, Syracuse’s identity of being a true “basketball school” is in real jeopardy. That can be rectified with more investment (yes, that includes the convoluted NIL fracas) and a home-run coaching hire. Only time will tell if Blair can deliver on both those fronts.
Other things that caught my eye
- While the spring season has already begun throughout Section IV with practices beginning last Monday, the winter season is still going on for some athletes. There were two national indoor track and field championships from March 12-15: New Balance Indoor Nationals In Boston and Nike Indoor Nationals in New York City. Fresh off state and federation titles, Newfield’s Maddie White took part in both events in the one-mile racewalk. The junior finished in second place at New Balance Nationals and third place at Nike Nationals. Ithaca was well-represented at Nike Nationals, where Hayden Cornell shined the brightest. The senior won the Emerging Elite Division title in the weight throw with a school-record launch of 68 feet and 9.75 inches. Speaking of school records, Zoli Nadasdy broke one that has existed since 1971 at IHS. The senior placed 11th in the two-mile run with a time 9:22.43, six seconds faster than the 55-year-old mark. Another record-breaking performance was with the 4×4 mixed relay team (seniors Sebastian Barteshevich and Eliza DeRito and juniors Will Boscia and Skyler Lovenheim) with a time of 3:52.55. Junior Tsadia Bercuvitz earned Second Team All-American honors after placing 16th in the one-mile run with a time of 4:51.42. Sophomore Avery Whittaker placed 44th in the Emerging Elite Division one-mile run with a time of 5:23.19.
- The final state championships for the local athletes took place on the lanes in Syracuse. Three individuals took part in the girls bowling Division II individual tournament. Candor’s Calli Marsh just missed out on a medal for a top-10 finish, placing 11th with a 1,122 series. Newark Valley’s Rachel Hartman finished in 19th place with a 1,043 series. Groton’s Madelyn Pitts also competed at states.
- The men’s March Madness bracket is out, and there are a couple things that stand. The first is that there was a shockingly low level of complaining about who got snubbed. Not many were up in arms about any of the “First Four Out” teams—Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State—not making it in. That is, except for Bruce Pearl, I’m assuming. SMU ended up being the last team to get in, and they’ll get to play the regular season darling Miami (Ohio) in Dayton for the First Four. The committee tried to appease both sides by rewarding the Redhawks for an undefeated regular season but simultaneously punishing them for losing their first conference tournament game. Though it’s not much of a punishment to essentially have home-court advantage for their duel with the Mustangs. The second thing that stands out is just how loaded the East Region is. The top overall seed Duke is joined by four teams with national-championship winning coaches: Dan Hurley’s UConn, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State, Bill Self’s Kansas, and Rick Pitino’s St. John’s. If these next few weeks weren’t already box office material enough, that region in particular would set records if made into films. Eat your heart out, “One Battle After Another.”
