February is nearing its finish, which implies that March Insanity is simply across the nook. And for school basketball followers, meaning it’s time to actually begin diving into bracketology. Who’s a lock to be within the NCAA Match? Who is certainly out of the 68-team subject? Who’s on the bubble? And which mid-major leagues may be multi-bid leagues?
Let’s deal with that latter query and switch our consideration towards the northeastern hall of the nation, the place the Ivy League as soon as once more appears like the most effective mid-major league in girls’s basketball.
This robust season for the Ivy comes off the heels of final yr, when the league obtained a number of groups into the NCAA Match for simply the second time ever. The primary was in 2016, when Penn gained the Ivy however Courtney Banghart’s Princeton earned an at-large bid. One in every of Banghart’s assistants on that Princeton squad was Megan Griffith, who coached an Abbey Hsu-powered Columbia crew to an at-large bid final season, marking the primary time ever the Lions made the NCAA Match.
It’s potential we might see a multi-bid Ivy League for the third time this postseason.
Three groups from the convention – Harvard (32), Columbia (42), and Princeton (50) – all rank within the high 50 of the NCAA’s NET rankings. In his newest projections launched Friday morning, ESPN’s Charlie Creme has the Ivy getting two groups within the subject, Columbia as the automated qualifier and Harvard getting an at-large bid, with Princeton simply on the opposite facet of the bubble as one of many first 4 groups out. At HerHoopStats, Megan Gauer initiatives the identical: Columbia because the league winner, Harvard as an at-large and Princeton simply on the surface. At The Athletic, Mark Schindler additionally initiatives the Crimson and Lions within the subject of 68.
The Ivy are certainly one of 5 conferences who’ve at the very least three groups ranked within the high 50 in NET in girls’s faculty basketball. The others are all Energy 4 leagues: the Massive Ten, the Massive 12, SEC and ACC.
Harvard, Columbia and Princeton all discover themselves on this scenario, the place they’re bucking the established order for mid-majors, for 2 causes; First, all three scheduled powerful video games – and gained just a few of them – through the non-conference slate. And second, the highest of the Ivy League is de facto good, with these three squads main the way in which.
The Crimson —led by Harmoni Turner and coached by one other Banghart padawan, Carrie Moore — are a mixed 6-3 in video games in opposition to Quad 1, 2 and three opponents. Their most spectacular victory was their second sport of the season, a highway extra time win at Indiana. Most just lately, the Crimson beat Columbia on the highway by six factors.
Columbia, which remains to be coached by Griffith and paced on the court docket by Kitty Henderson and Riley Weiss, owns wins over Princeton and Harvard along with a victory over a fellow mid-major energy in Florida Gulf Coast. The Lions are 4-5 in video games in opposition to groups within the high three quads.
Princeton, coached by Carla Berube who took the reins from Banghart in 2019, have gained three straight Ivy League tournaments and is eyeing what can be its twelfth NCAA Match look in 15 seasons. Regardless of shedding one star guard, Kaitlyn Chen, to UConn, and one other in Madison St. Rose to an damage, the Tigers haven’t missed a beat. Berube’s crew owns wins over Villanova, Seton Corridor, Rutgers, Rhode Island and Harvard, in addition to NCAA Match common Center Tennessee State.
All of this brings us to Saturday, the place Columbia and Princeton will meet for the second time this season at 5:30 p.m. ET in New Jersey in a sport on ESPN+. In case you’re invested in bracketology, otherwise you care in regards to the Ivy League, or if you happen to merely need to watch some nice faculty basketball, this sport is a must-watch.
Subsequent Friday, Princeton travels to Harvard in one other consequential contest.
The NCAA Match is meant to be about placing the most effective 68 groups within the nation in a bracket and seeing who comes out on high. Utilizing virtually any metric you need, it’s simple to argue that these three Ivy League groups belong in that group and belong within the Massive Dance. As an alternative of rooting for Energy 4 packages with mushy schedules or near-.500 information in convention play to make the sphere, we needs to be rooting for groups like Princeton, Harvard and Columbia. We needs to be rooting for groups like Fairfield and South Florida to make the sphere even when they don’t win their convention match. And we needs to be rooting for a league just like the A-10 to get a number of bids too. We needs to be rooting for the most effective basketball groups to make the NCAA Match, no matter convention affiliation.
