February is nearing its finish, which signifies that March Insanity is simply across the nook. And for faculty 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 could 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 seems like the very best mid-major league in girls’s basketball.
This robust season for the Ivy comes off the heels of final 12 months, when the league bought a number of groups into the NCAA Match for simply the second time ever. The primary was in 2016, when Penn received the Ivy however Courtney Banghart’s Princeton earned an at-large bid. Considered one of Banghart’s assistants on that Princeton squad was Megan Griffith, who coached an Abbey Hsu-powered Columbia group 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 tasks the identical: Columbia because the league winner, Harvard as an at-large and Princeton simply on the surface. At The Athletic, Mark Schindler additionally tasks the Crimson and Lions within the subject of 68.
The Ivy are considered 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 state of affairs, the place they’re bucking the established order for mid-majors, for 2 causes; First, all three scheduled robust video games – and received a couple of of them – throughout the non-conference slate. And second, the highest of the Ivy League is absolutely 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 towards Quad 1, 2 and three opponents. Their most spectacular victory was their second sport of the season, a highway time beyond regulation 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 towards groups within the high three quads.
Princeton, coached by Carla Berube who took the reins from Banghart in 2019, have received 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 group 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+. Should you’re invested in bracketology, otherwise you care concerning the Ivy League, or should you merely wish 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 very best 68 groups within the nation in a bracket and seeing who comes out on high. Utilizing nearly any metric you need, it’s straightforward 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 delicate schedules or near-.500 data in convention play to make the sector, 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 sector even when they don’t win their convention event. 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 very best basketball groups to make the NCAA Match, no matter convention affiliation.