Hooping It Up

The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments will be held in Jadwin Gym this year.

Tickets for the two tournaments go on sale Monday, and you can get more information about the event HERE. The women's semifinals will be held on Friday, March 10, followed on the 11th by the men's semis and women's final and then the men's final Sunday the 12th at noon.

Of course, there hasn't been a single Ivy League regular season basketball game played yet, so talking about the tournament is a bit early. There is certainly anticipation on both the women's and men's side for what the league season will hold, but you'll have to wait until New Year's Eve for the first Ivy League regular season games to be played. 

Even at that point, the tournament will be more than two months away. Still, there's a lot of good stuff on the Ivy Madness website, including how to get tickets, which you should probably do sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, the Princeton women and men are continuing to move forward with their seasons and their pre-league prep.

The women defeated Rutgers last night 77-56 with an incredibly amazing second half that saw the Tigers outscore the Scarlet Knights 55-24. Yes, that is correct. 

It was a 32-22 Rutgers lead at the half, and it actually grew to a 15-point lead at 39-24 three minutes into the second half. From that point, it was a 53-17 Tiger run. Again, the math is correct.

It was a startling turnaround on the home court of a Big Ten team. Going from down 15 to winning by 21 and doing it in less than 17 minutes is not easy to do. 

Because it's the holiday season, TB will show you this tweet from the women's basketball team, as opposed to one of the highlights: 

Princeton 61, Rutgers 54 | 4:36 4th

Another look at Rutgers as the Tigers now have four players in double figures (Julia 17, Kaitlyn 15, Grace 13, Madison 10). #GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/yF2w2kzNOh

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) December 16, 2022

Princeton had those four players in double figures, as Julia Cunningham, who grew up 10 miles from the building that to TigerBlog will always be the RAC, short for Rutgers Athletic Center, as opposed to its official name of Jersey Mike's Arena, eventually finished with 24. Cunningham went over the 900-point mark for her career and now is 96 away from the 1,000-point mark.

Speaking of New Jersey, Princeton's other New Jersey native, freshman Madison St. Rose, had her second double figure game with 10. St. Rose grew up in Old Bridge, 16 miles from the RAC.

Princeton also got big nights from Kaitlyn Chen, who had 17 points and seven assists, and Grace Stone, who went for 16 points and seven rebounds. Speaking of rebounds, Ellie Mitchell was in double figures again, this time with 11.

You can see the Princeton men tonight at 7 in Jadwin Gym (or on ESPN+, SNY and NBC Sports Philadelphia) against Delaware. 

The Blue Hens bring a three-game winning streak and 6-4 overall record into the game. They're led by Jameer Nelson Jr., the son of the former St. Joe's and NBA star, who is averaging just short of 20 points pe game. Nelson earned CAA Player of the Week honors last week after scoring a career-high 30 in a 75-64 win over Siena.

Speaking of the CAA, this will be Princeton's fifth game this year against CAA teams, as the Tigers have defeated Towson, Monmouth and Drexel after losing to Hofstra. Delaware has played two Ivy teams to date, having lost to Penn and Cornell. The Blue Hens also have a loss to Air Force, coached by Princeton alum Joe Scott, whose son Jack is a freshman for Princeton.

You can drive from Delaware's campus to Princeton's campus in little more than an hour. For some reason, neither team has made that drive for a long time, as tonight's game is the first between the two since 1990. That's a long time ago.

TB was at that game, by the way. Princeton won 58-41, led by 13 from Jerry Doyle, 12 from Kit Mueller and 11 from Sean Jackson.

That's the last time they played. That changes tonight at 7.