ELynah Forum

This really belongs in a new thread, but it feels too soon for that:

https://x.com/IanWenik/status/2044054398037377508?s=20

2026-27 "way-too-early" Ivy projections from BartTorvik. These will shift a ton as other mid-majors fill their rosters.

1. Penn (90th nationally)
2. Harvard (97th)
3. Princeton (105th)
4. Yale (120th)
5. Columbia (124th)
6. Cornell (133rd)
7. Brown (144th)
8. Dartmouth (251st)

Really figured the gap between Cornell and 4th place would be bigger.

Quote from: ugarte on January 30, 2026, 06:41:06 PMCornell forced so many turnovers and missed shots after the 4:00 media timeout was due that Cornell forced Princeton to take a timeout with 2:36 left in the half. Cornell got the lead up to 17 with an 11-0 run.
 
43-26 good guys.

It was bizarre watching Mitch cling to his "use it or lose it" timeout while Cornell was on a 16-0 run. 

Quote from: semsox on January 19, 2026, 09:42:40 PM

Quote from: dbilmes on January 19, 2026, 05:46:37 PMNoard scored his 1000th career point on a buzzer-beating shot from near halfcourt.

Took our 4 and 1 (first game!) year olds down to Brown today on the holiday. Really good effort overall by the team. Amusingly, Brown had a trivia at one of the media timeouts on how many 1000 point players they've had in their program history. 33 was the answer, so some nice context on what an accomplishment this is for Noard. Nice effort after the Yale showing on Saturday

You now must attend every game the rest of the season! 

Probably the best played game of the season.  Brown is a terrible offensive team, but credit to the guys for bouncing back.

Another big one at Harvard this weekend.  The Crimson lean on their starters (who are good) more than just about any other team in the country. 

7-7 may be good enough to make the ILT this year.

Quote from: rss77 on January 13, 2026, 12:02:05 PMNote that former Big Red Coach Bill Courtney just passed away.  Having met him a few times he was a very pleasant guy but he struggled recruiting the type of players to fit his "Dribble Drive" offenses at Cornell.

Bill was, by all accounts, a genuinely good person.  That's a real shame and way too soon.

Quote from: rss77 on January 10, 2026, 04:56:29 PMThe team can score but cannot defend to save their lives.  2 Ivy losses at home-cannot see this team making Ivy tornament.

I know I'm just piling on at this point, but the Big Red have scored 90 and lost five times this year.  That's astounding. 

Quote from: billhoward on December 27, 2025, 04:48:55 PMBackground check makes sense. The wording of the announcement was awkard. Might have been better to say "made official once paperwork [or formalities or administrative details] are finished."

It could be details were about to leak out, so Cornell got a story out quickly.

A while back (like 50 years ago), working summers for the Rochester paper, I broke a story on Cornell hiring a new basketball coach. Cornell was about a week away from going official. Fast forward 3 years and The Sun broke a story on his firing for violating some mickey mouse NCAA rules, the players actively disliking him, and an alcohol problem. Cornell runs a much tighter ship now.

Ahh, Tony Coma, those were the days....

Quote from: chimpfood on January 02, 2026, 02:51:36 PMWe have Alfred State tripled up at halftime. They are 2-10 as a DIII school. Yikes

Final 133 - 65.  A new all-time scoring record for the Big Red -- by 10 points.

Cornell has played Alfred State twice.  This was the close game.  I guess it was a workout, got some game time for the deep bench, and no one got hurt.  Otherwise, on Monday it counts.

Beccles is definitely a PG, but next down the list is ... Rafiq?  According to KenPom, Baldwin gets the second most minutes at PG (not his best position) then Fishburne and Noard. 

Nix is probably best suited for PF, but how many minutes can you give DJ? -- same with Sepp (who is way undersized at center).  Everyone else is really is a SG, though Fiegen is skilled enough to play a smallish SF.  This is only survivable playing the style we do, but it's limiting and exploitable. 

Cannot see the guys staying with MSU.

Thought I would share a look at the rest of the league.  For dramatic purposes, teams are ordered along the pre-season poll.

1)  Yale.  The Bulldogs were the preseason favorite and have looked the part.  Yale is 11-1; their only loss is to a good, but not great, URI squad.  They don't have a WOW win (Akron's good, but they are still Akron).  Maybe they get a win at Alabama on Monday. They have the league's best coach and the favorite for Ivy POY in Nick Townsend (the only returning member of last year's all-Ivy 1st team).  Nick averaged 23 and 7 against the good guys last year.  What's unusual is that they are doing this with offense and not defense; Yale is top five in three point percentage and free throw percentage, while the computers say their defense is below average.  The Elis are close to a lock for the ILT.

2) Harvard.  The Crimson have underwhelmed.  Amaker's strength as a coach has always been recruiting.  In the darkest timeline, the Crimson would have the last two ROY's and the odds on favorite for this year.  In this timeline, Mack took his talents to G-town and 4 Star Elzie Harrington stayed on the west coast at San Diego St.  What's left is effectively a six man team (they are bottom 20 in bench minutes) and the Crimson are just 6-7, with five of those wins against really bad teams.  Sure, that squad has the reigning ROY in Hinton, and some good players in Pigge, Barbour and Batties, but they look flat. Still, that talented core will be a tough out on most nights.

3) Cornell.  Still 3rd with the computers and will host the ILT.  See the rest of this forum for details.

4) Princeton.  If the Crimson have underwhelmed, the Tigers have seriously disappointed.  Xaivian Lee took the money (rumored to be $5 Million+) and ran to Florida.  Caden Pierce is taking the year off to graduate and chase his bag o' money next year. **Not a criticism, I'd avoid Princeton grads for free, let alone for a lot of cash.**  Dalen Davis has been hurt.  Princeton is 3-11 and has lost 8 straight.  They have really struggled on offense as this is the worst shooting Princeton team I can remember.  Otherwise, they look like your standard issue Princeton team; they play slow and hold teams to one shot.  I've watched enough Ivy hoops that I'm not counting out the Tigers until they are formally eliminated -- no team plays the role of a cliched horror movie villain better -- but this looks like a lost season for the Tigers.  Now watch them rise from their grave again.

5) Dartmouth.  The Big Green finished a surprising 3rd last year, but team leader Ryan Cornish is gone (graduated and starting at USC). Brandon Mitchell-Day returns after being second team All-Ivy, along with two other senior starters, but whatever magic they had last year looks gone. The Big Green are 5-6 and coming off a terrible 22 point loss to Sacred Heart. Yeah, I didn't see Dartmouth making a run last year, but a repeat performance would stun me.  Sure, Cornell may lose in Hanover, that's a Big Red tradition in all sports, but I don't see a repeat ILT appearance for a team that is sixth on both offense and defense according to the computers.

6. Brown.  Keno Lilly and Aaron Cooley are gone, both of whom did the crazy thing of playing four years at the same school and graduating.  Landon Lewis was hurt to start the season and has not yet gotten his game into gear.  As a result, the Bears showcase the worst offense in the league and bottom 50 nationally.  Mike Martin is a good coach, and his teams normally play great D, but that's too much to ask of any team.  They are currently 5-7 and those wins are against teams that would finish last in the Ivies.  Brown will, as always, win their share of rock fights and be a tough out every night.  They also have one of the better freshman in starting freshman Isaiah Langham.

7. Penn.  The Quakers are winning for new coach Fran McCaffery, but I'm still trying to figure what to make of them.  They are 6-5 and playing exactly like a team that is on the fringe of the top 200. They are top 20 in three point shooting and bottom 40 in two point shooting.  Most annoying is that they have a freshman center in Dalton Scantlebury who has looked pretty good.

8. Columbia.  The league's surprise with a 9-3 record under new coach Kevin Hovde.  Some of you may be thinking: "wait didn't they do that last year?"  And you would be right.  The Lions started 11-1, before finishing 1-13 in the league and firing Jim Engles.  Like last year, the schedule this year has been bad.  Shoot, last year they won at 'nova by 10, which is far more impressive win that this year's best, which is beating Hofstra at home by 2. (Not to say the Hofstra win wasn't a good one).  But honestly, Cornell would be no worse than 8-4 against the Lions' schedule.  Maybe things will be different with the new coach, or maybe we are seeing the same crappy schedule mirage.  We will start to know January 5th when Columbia comes to Ithaca.  Last year, Cornell opened up an early 17 point lead at Columbia and, despite some garbage time issues, cruised to a win. Then the wheels came off in NYC.

tl/dr -- Yale will make the ILT, 2-8 will be a logjam, and if Cornell can make the top 4, someone will have beat then in Newman to make the NCAA.  And the Ivy's have one top 100 win so far -- Yale over Akron.

Quote from: chimpfood on December 18, 2025, 01:07:46 AMI truly think that John Smith is the best coach at this school, even over Buczek and Derraugh. The way he has turned this program around from the punching bag of the Ivy League to a consistent national presence is so impressive. I have no idea what his contract situation looks like but I really hope Moore and the athletic department can keep him here for a long time, it seems like he really is special, in terms of both X's and O's coaching as well as recruiting.

Strong words!  I think most of us have forgotten how terrible our women's hockey team was before Doug.  But fully agree that John Smith is outstanding at his job.

Quote from: ugarte on December 14, 2025, 10:58:35 AMAt 150, Tyler Traves won 6-1 (SV) to take 7th place. Traves was the 6 seed. He isn't on the Big Board, but outperformed Michael Turi (36) in the same bracket. Turi is a fellow Cornell recruit graduating this Spring and lost in R12.

Could be an interesting battle in the room for the next few seasons.

That too.  The issue is, from looking at the numbers, we aren't generating enough turnovers off the double-teams.  The last couple of Brian Earl teams were really good at forcing turnovers, though Manon and Gray were a big reason why.

Yeah, that was a bad loss against a mediocre opponent.  All in all, a very disappointing trip.

The rest of the non-conference schedule is: a d3 gimme, a very winnable game at Albany who still has not beaten a D1 opponent and the paycheck game at Michigan State.

This team's D is brutal.  Rim protection is an issue, but we are also getting beaten off the dribble way too often. 

I know most of us have moved on, but this year's mens' final 4 is:  15 Seed NC State, 16 Furman, Washington and St. Louis.  And, of course, Vermont won last year.

If we can maintain our current level of success, which is easy for me to say, a deep run in soccer is possible.

Bottom line on this one was the Patriots had too much height and got to the rim far too easily.  George Mason could win the A-10, so this was always a longshot.

Sepp has taken a beating in this forum, but IMHO there are two starters who have been worse so far this year.  At least this team has depth and can bring Fiegen and Baldwin (especially Fiegen) off the bench for quality minutes.