Penn Remains in a Great Fight for a Postseason Ivy League Berth
It is less than two weeks to March 16 and selection Sunday for the NCAA tournament. Some conference tournaments will begin this week while the majority will start the following week.
One of the best setups in college basketball is with the Ivy League. While the norm in college basketball is to have every team qualify for the conference tournament, the Ivy League stands out by having just four of its eight teams qualify for the tournament.
Two years ago, Penn won a thrilling conference tournament over Harvard at the Palestra and advanced to the NCAA tournament, where the Quakers lost to top seeded Kansas in Wichita in the opening round.
The Palestra is the best venue for the Ivy League tournament, but after the 2017-2018 season, the Ivy League decided to rotate the tournament, allowing all the league’s schools a chance to host.
This year’s tournament will be held at Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion, which seats just 1,636.
The atmosphere should be great, but there won’t be as many fans who can attend.
So far Yale, Harvard and Princeton have earned three of the four spots. Penn and Brown are both tied for fourth at 6-6 in the Ivy League, while Dartmouth is 5-7.
Penn stayed alive with Saturday’s 73-68 win at Brown as 6-8 senior AJ Brodeur had 20 points and 6-6 freshman Max Martz added 13. Brodeur averages 17 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists, while senior point guard Devon Goodman averages 13.7 points and 3 assists.
Penn will host Cornell (3-9) on Friday and Columbia (1-11) on Saturday.
Brown visits Harvard (9-3) and Dartmouth (5-7), while Dartmouth hosts Yale (10-2) and Brown (6-6).
Penn and Brown have split this season. Penn has also split with Dartmouth, which is 0-1 against Brown.
The only way it could be a three-way tie is if Penn splits this weekend, Brown splits but suffers its loss to Dartmouth and Dartmouth sweeps.
The best way for Penn to earn a berth is to sweep this weekend and have Brown lose to Harvard and beat Dartmouth.
Here are the tiebreakers, courtesy of the Ivy League website.
In the case of a two-way tie between teams in the final standings, the following process will be used until all ties are broken and the seeding process is completed (ties will be broken in rank order beginning with the highest seed):
Head-to-head competition – The higher seed will go to the team that has won the most League contests played against the other teams involved in the tie.
If a tie still exists, the tie will be broken by comparing each team’s record against the highest seed outside of the tie and continuing through the full league standings (if there is a group of tied teams, use each team’s record against the group rather than the individual teams) if necessary.
If a tie still exists, an average of the most recent ratings indices identified in advance by the coaches (e.g., Men: Sagarin, Ken Pom, BPI and NCAA Net/Women: Sagarin, RPIratings.com and NCAA RPI) will be utilized to determine the higher seed.
If a tie still persists, a draw will be conducted by the Executive Director
In the case of a multiple team tie (more than two teams tied for the same spot), the following process will be used: Note: Once a highest seed (amongst the tied teams) is determined, the tie between the remaining seeds shall be determined on a basis on head-to-head competition.
Records between the tied teams – The higher seed will go to the team that has won the most League contests against the other teams tied at that spot.
If a tie still exists, the tie will be broken by comparing each team’s record against the highest seed outside of the tie and continuing through the full league standings (if there is a group of tied teams, use each team’s record against the group rather than the individual teams) if necessary.
If a tie still exists, an average of the most recent ratings indices identified in advance by the coaches (e.g., Men: Sagarin, Ken Pom, BPI and NCAA Net/Women: Sagarin, RPIratings.com and NCAA RPI) will be utilized to determine the higher seed.
If a tie still persists, a draw will be conducted by the Executive Director.
Penn, actually would be in better position had not the Quakers suffered a devastating 76-73 loss at Yale on Friday. In that game Penn led by 10 with just 1:40 left before the Bulldogs went on a 13-0 run.
Penn had beaten Yale in the first meeting.
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So the Quakers have made it difficult on themselves, but they made up a lot of ground to earn a berth last year and led by Brodeur, an Ivy League Player of the Year candidate, they shouldn’t be counted out.
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Author: Marc Narducci; Photo by Marc Narducci
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