Closing In On Madness

The preparations were well underway yesterday, as Jadwin Gym was converted, unofficially, into the Ivy Arena, at least for the next few days.

Friday
Women's semifinal - No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Penn, 4:30
Women's semifinal - No. 2 Columbia vs. No. 3 Harvard, 7

Saturday
Men's semifinal - No. 1 Yale vs. No. 4 Cornell, 11 a.m.
Men's semifinal - No. 2 Princeton vs. No. 3 Penn, approximately 1:30 (30 minutes after the end of the first game)
Women's final - Princeton/Penn winner vs. Columbia/Harvard winner, 5

Sunday
Men's final - Yale/Cornell winner vs. Princeton/Penn winner, noon

For tournament ticket information, click HERE.

As this week rolls along, the number of teams who still remain in contention for NCAA basketball tournament spots dwindles. 

In the one-bid conferences, the hope is to catch lightning in a bottle, playing your way into the field and then becoming this year's "Cinderella." TigerBlog thought of this when he saw that St. Peter's opened the MAAC tournament last night. 

St. Peter's, you recall, made it all the way to the Elite Eight last year, defeating Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue before falling to North Carolina one game shy of the Final Four. It will bother Purdue forever that it didn't win that game. 

By the time the team played UNC, the St. Peter's players were nationally known. Nobody had heard of any of them before the tournament began.

Somewhere out there is this year's St. Peter's. Playing this week is someone (or a few someones) who will became national legends with an upset or two (or maybe even three or more) beginning in a week.

The amazing thing is the fine line between making that kind of March history and not getting into the field at all. 

Who are they? There's no way to know. Look at St. Peter's last year. The Peacocks lost twice in the regular season to the No. 1 seed in the conference, Iona. Neither game was that close. Iona then lost to Rider, the ninth-seed, in the first game. What if Iona had won out to get to the final? Maybe St. Peter's would have never had its chance.

The same is true of the most famous first-round moment in Princeton history (and a top 10 moment in NCAA first round history), Gabe Lewullis' game-winning layup to beat UCLA in Pete Carril's final win. Princeton won the playoff game against Penn in overtime after the teams tied during the regular season at 12-2. 

Looking a little closer, Penn swept Princeton in the regular season that year. The Tigers only were able to tie Penn because the Quakers lost two regular season games, by two to Dartmouth (who finished third that year) and by one to Yale (who finished tied for last that year). If Penn had won either of those games? Well, you can figure it out.

TB mentioned the men's All-Ivy selections yesterday. The women's teams have since been released, and Princeton's Kaitlyn Chen was the league Player of the Year. As TB mentioned yesterday, she definitely would have his vote.

With the honor, Chen cements her status as one of the all-time greats in Princeton women's basketball history. This is the eighth time since 2011 that Princeton has had the league Player of the Year after never having had it before. It's also the fifth straight season a Tiger has won the award, as Chen follows three wins from Bella Alarie and last year's win by Abby Meyers. The other Princeton winners? Niveen Rasheed twice, Addie Micir, Blake Dietrick. 

Madison St. Rose was the Rookie of the Year (Princeton's fourth, along with Meagan Cowher, Rasheed and Alarie), and Ellie Mitchell was the co-Defensive Player of the Year. Julia Cunningham and Grace Stone were second-team selections.

One interesting note from women's All-Ivy is that all five first-team selections (obviously including Chen) were unanimous. Has that ever happened before in any sport? 

As for this year's Ivy tournament, the games don't start until tomorrow, but you can still watch the women's teams today. Like the NCAA tournament, there are open shootarounds the day before the games.

For the women, that means today. The schedule is Princeton at 3:30, Penn at 4:30, Columbia at 5:30 and Harvard at 6:30. For the men tomorrow, the schedule is Yale at 10:30, Cornell at 11:30, Princeton at 12:30 and Penn at 1:30.

The open sessions will be televised on ESPN+. Princeton's own Derek Jones will be the host.