This was a wonderfully successful weekend for our women’s basketball team led by the remarkable Coach G. First, on Friday, the G-Women outplayed a talented Princeton Team that is ranked in the top 25 in the U.S.A. for good reason. Having a national audience watching Columbia win on ESPN added to the fun. Then, yesterday, the fired-up G-Women came out of the locker room looking for revenge against another talented team, Penn, and they did just that, taking a big early lead that was too much for Penn to overcome. It shows how far the Ivy League has progressed that a solid team like Penn with a very good coach and players seems unlikely to make this year’s Ivy League Championship Tournament. Penn’s Katie Collins and Mataya Gayle are outstanding basketball players, but Columbia did the necessary yesterday to get the “W.” Not just that, but an improved Brown squad upset Harvard to jump ahead of Penn for the 4th spot in the Tournament. Stated simply, Ivy League Women’s Basketball is improving significantly.
I agree. Top to bottom the league it much improved. Not too long ago, it was a one team league (Princeton). Then it went to 2 teams (Columbia), and then 3 (Harvard). Now it goes 6 deep and even Yale and Dartmouth are much improved. Its notable that Penn and Cornell won’t make the ILT tournament. Both beat Columbia this year and Cornell was up on Princeton by 8 points a halftime yesterday.
As a case in point to the strength of the IL as a mid major conference, Columbia played both Wagner and Manhattan in the preseason. The games were really scrimmages, and I don’t think those teams would win any games in the ivy league. Maybe they could compete with Dartmouth. Yet both those teams have roughly .500 records in their respective conferences.
It’s also notable how impressive Princeton was in preseason play against major conference teams, yet (despite thier 8-2 record) they’ve struggled in ivy league play.
The IL is a mid-major power.
Agree. Maybe Cornell is not as good as you are implying. I think they are clearly a step behind Penn and Brown.
I hope we don’t have to regret that Cornell game too much. Without that loss, we would have one of the most solid resumes out of the bubble teams. With that loss I think it is unlikely that we make the cut. Anyways, this is the year to get the first Ivy Tournament Championship and let Princeton fight against the comitee
It’s hard to move your NET ranking this late in the season, with so many games already on the resumé - a 14 point win over a ranked team only improved Lions’ NET from 60 to 58, probably not good enough for an at-large bid unless winning a game in the tournament last year carries weight with the committee.
Agree… the two home losses vs St Joe’s and Cornell will be difficult to overcome to land an at-large bid. It’s Ivy Madness title or bust for this team.
In the first 16 games this season, Riley was a mediocre 31 for 116 (26.7%) from beyond the arc. But in her past 7 games, she has been red hot… 35 for 68 (51.5%).
She’s now 23rd in the nation in 3-pt FG made per game (2.87)… 66 in 23 games.
She’s also averaging 26.2 in her past 6 games. Lion legend, Abbey Hsu, never had a 6-game stretch like that.