I know there is one game to go, but staring thinking
about how this unusual season would be evaluated.
Let the second-guessing begin:
First Team-
Townsend (Yale)
Hinton (Harvard)
Noard (Cornell)
Mitchell-Day (Dartmouth)
Second Team-
Lewis (Brown)
Nolan (Columbia)
Hicke (Princeton)
Celiscar (Yale)
Pigge (Harvard)
Honorable Mention-
Roberts (Penn)
Fiegen (Cornell)
Simmons (Yale)
POY- Townsend (Yale)
ROY- Jenkins (Brown)
DPOY- Simmons (Yale)
COY- Amaker (Harvard)
ROY- Jenkins (Brown)
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Sorry- I had Power(Penn) as first team, but it dropped when I posted.
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I think you mean Brown’s Langham for ROY. Although Langham was really good, I think Columbia’s Connor Igoe is the clear ROY. He stepped in for Bedri and played a key role on a team that outperformed expectations, while Brown underperformed. He was also statistically better. Similar scorers but Igoe was a lot better in rebounds and assists. Myles Franklin was also statistically better than Langham, again on a team that outperformed. Igoe was a bit better than Franklin in league play.
I’d also switch Roberts and Hicke.
Here are my picks.
First Team:
Townsend (Yale)
Hinton (Harvard)
Noland (Columbia)
Power (Penn)
Celiscar (Yale)
Second Team:
Noard (Cornell)
Lewis (Brown)
Roberts (Penn)
Pigge (Harvard)
Simmons (Yale)
Honorable Mention:
Fiegen (Cornell)
Batties II (Harvard)
Hicke (Princeton)
POY: Townsend (Yale)
ROY: Igoe (Columbia)
DPOY: Simmons (Yale)
Notes:
-Agree with Columbia9’s comments about Igoe’s impressive first-year campaign, and that postseason awards should take into account overall team performance.
-Townsend is top 10 in basically every statistical category except blocks: scoring, rebounding, FG/3FG/FT%, assists, steals. Plus I think being a senior and leader on the court (captain, directing other players, etc.) gives him an edge.
-Celiscar would be the leading offensive threat on most other Ivy teams and his efficiency stats are outstanding. Yale’s season next year may hinge on whether he stays…
-Hard to not include any players from Dartmouth but I thought Mitchell-Day didn’t make much progress from last year’s performance, and I don’t think they have any player better than the 13 above.
-If “Coach of the Year” includes off-season work (effective use of transfer portal, NIL/collective developments, helping Zanoni get another year at Penn if that’s the case), McCaffrey would be my COY pick. But I think a first-year IL coach won’t get the nod.
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If you don’t count off-season coaching work, Amaker gets my vote for COY.
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Roberts was all set to leave and Levine had also entered the portal but the McCaffrey hire changed all of that, and those were 2 of the 3 most impactful players on the Quakers. So also add retaining players, since that turned out to be a key weakness of Donahue as time wore on.
Agreed that Roberts should be bumped up from HM–Penn does not make the ILT without Roberts and Power. It’s a shame that the concussion against Villanova really impacted his play at times during the Ivy season, otherwise he was a potential POY candidate. But he made quite the recovery just to get to that point, a true warrior.
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Tough to completely exclude AJ Levine, who has put up a serious all-around resume. 11.2 ppg in league play, 3.8 assist per game (3rd in league), 2.3 steals per game and number 1 in steal percentage at 4.1% (percent of opponent possessions resulting in a steal by that player when he is on the court) and 4.2 rebounds per game (pretty good for a short guy). Also, has the 6th top defensive rating in the league. I think he needs to be at least in honorable mention (and exclusion of Roberts from 2nd team is hard to justify).
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I’m not sure where the love for Simmons is coming from for DPOY other than having length and being on a good team. He averages 0.6 blocks and 0.7 steals per game while also averaging only 3.9 RPG.
Holy cow, P38. You’ve been converted by season’s end! My job is done.
He played much better in conference than when I was killing him early on. Let’s not get too hyped about suggesting he should be HM. If he could develop a shot, he would be 1st or 2nd team
Just as important is staying out of foul trouble. That has hampered him as much as anything during his Penn career.
Obviously, reasonable minds can differ, but leaving Mitchell-Day out completely
seems very strange to me. He led the League in rebounding by a pretty wide margin,
was a dependable scorer and good defender.
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For reference, these are the Torvik individual stats for overall and freshman (MIN>20%) for the whole season and only Ivy:
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Top 20. Full season (MIN > 40%)
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Top 20. Ivy season (MIN > 40%)
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Freshman. Full season (MIN > 20%)
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Freshman. Ivy season (MIN > 20%)
Based on this, I would say:
- Townsend and Fiegen are 100% 1st team and main candidates for POY.
- The remaining 1st team contenders should be Celiscar, Noard, Noland, Hicke, Hinton and Barbour.
- Players worth at least an Honorable mention also include Batties, Simmons, Roberts, Power, Lewis, Mullin, and maybe Thompson.
- FOY is between Igoe and Clark, and I think Igoe gets it because of a significantly better overall year, and more Ivy Rookie of the week awards (4 vs 2).
Based on that, McCaffrey should be a unanimous COY since no Penn players at all are in the Top 11.
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And I would say, based on what I’ve seen in-game, the most impactful player on defense is AJ Levine
Top 20 per Evan Miya (400+ possessions; full season - not available for conference-only):
Obviously each statistician applies different formulas, but I like how Miya separates offensive performance (1st shaded column) vs defensive performance (2nd shaded column). Top-ranked players don’t equal best players – for example, I would take #18 Robert Hinton over his brother #15 Adam in a heartbeat, and I don’t think all five of Yale’s starters are first- or second-teamers – but they add perspective.
Re: Levine - agree that he built a great resume. But I would not take him above the 13 on my list. If you would, I’d be curious who gets cut out. Of course reasonable people can hold different opinions (and that’s the fun in this discussion)!
Re: Simmons - he is the best and most versatile Yale defender, can guard #1-4, often has the assignment of the other team’s best scorer, and his rebounding #s are lower on a team that starts 3 true forwards (Celiscar, Townsend, Aletan). Pigge is another highly versatile and skilled defender who has facilitated Harvard’s success as a defense-first “small ball” team. Levine’s steal % is impressive but as an all-around defensive asset I wouldn’t put him above those two.
I don’t see how Lewis is not First Team. Take a look at his League game stats.
Last place. It’s not all about the stats. I hear your argument–I think that’s based on a different definition of what gets you on the first team.
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