The Guru Report: Penn and Princeton Ready to Face Each Other in Ivy Semifinal; Delaware and Lehigh Ousted

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PRINCETON, N.J. – There was a time when no matter how good a team in the Ivy League was, because of the overall perception of women’s squads in the Ancient Eight compared to the schools appearing in the weekly Associated Press polls, as the NCAA tournament approached one certainty was whoever the automatic qualifier was to be, that representative was doomed to a 15^th or 16^th seed.

 

Of course, that situation brought about the famous 16th-seed Harvard shocker upset of No. 1 Stanford, thought the reality was on the night the two teams took the floor Stanford was no longer a true No. 1, having lost two key starters in the week prior to the Cardinal ‘s NCAA opener at home.

 

And the Crimson, with future WNBA draft pick Allison Feaster, was much more worthy of a competitive seed in the lower part of the bracket, so not a true No. 16.

 

Times eventually changed as the league began drawing better numbers on the NCAA tournament committee’s measurement scales, helped when now-North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart arrived here at Jadwin Gym and built the Tigers into a force that eventually became the first Ivy women’s program to get ranked and the first to earn an at-large bid when Princeton loss to Penn in the league race.

 

And eventually the league started a postseason tourney, the last to do so, though unlike the others where everyone participates, only the top four in the final standings in both Ivy men’s and women’s competition get to become part of “Ivy Madness,” on the weekend leading to the Selection Sunday announcement of the NCAA field.

 

Now, it’s no longer idiocy of thinking the Ivies more than a one-bid league, given the first-place tie between Princeton and Columbia, and the third-place deadlock close behind with Penn and Harvard within three of the leaders, the first occurrence since 2003-04.

 

For the two underdogs, with semifinals play about to begin here Friday afternoon with 1-seed Princeton and 4-seed Penn tipping off at 4:30 p.m. followed by 2-seed Columbia and 3-seed Harvard at 7, it was tricky because of the implications out there to address the cause of the league knowing that wins by them will likely ruin all the acclaim that had been made.

 

But Penn’s Mike McLaughlin handled it well when questioned.

 

“I’ve been bragging about our league for eight, nine years, 10 years and always believed that there’s times we should have two,” he said during the Quakers’ session at the preview press conferences.

 

“You look at the strength in the league, you look at the RPI, you look at the NET, you see the wins that we have as a league out of league, and just come to a game. Just come see the level of competition.

 

“This is a really good league,” he said. “When you’re a top-eight league, top nine league in the country, this league deserves to have two. I’ll take two, three, four, whatever they’ll allow us.”

 

The Quakers have become formidable under McLaughlin after being hired from Division II Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia and breaking up the monopoly Banghart had on the races and the Tigers’ success continued under former UConn star Carla Berube.

 

But Penn’s postseason suffered when the pandemic arrived, the Ivies, the first to cancel the annual tournament in 2020 and then the league presidents shutting down winter competition in 2020-21.

 

“This group has worked incredibly had to achieve our goals, and one of our goals was to get to the tournament,” McLaughlin said during opening remarks. “We have bigger aspirations and one of our goals was to get here so we have that chance.

 

“This is the group that got caught in the second year of the pandemic,” he said of the five seniors, including all-league pick Kayla Padilla. “They played their freshman year and then they didn’t get to go to the tournament and didn’t get to play until they’re juniors.

 

“Kayla, in particular, gets freshman of the year and all-Ivy and then doesn’t get to play a long time and has been special on the court and off the court.”

 

Penn just played Princeton a week ago and now must deal with the Tigers again, though should the Quakers pull an upset in their third meeting, they’d still have to get past Columbia or Harvard, whom they split with both, being the automatic bid is the only route for them or Harvard to get to the big dance.

 

Besides Padilla, Penn has inside presence with second team pick Jordan Obi and Floor Tendors feom xxx

 

The Tigers, whose Kaitlyn Chen was named player of the year in a vote by the Ivy coaches and Madison St. Rose, freshman of the year, and Ellie Mitchell, co-defensive player, have not missed a beat after Banghart headed for the Research Triangle and the Tar Heels.

 

A year ago, in the second round, Berube guided them close to an upset that would have made them the first to advance to the Sweet 16.

 

Back in early January, the Tigers lost their first two league games at Harvard and then here 58-55 in overtime to Columbia, snapping a 27-game win streak in the series with the Lions.

 

That was the last setback, however, on what is now a 13-game win streak.

 

Though, Columbia, which is thought would be the stronger candidate for an at-large off its wins, Princeton got caught in what would have been more quality wins had not Seton Hall faded down the stretch, Rhode Island and Fordham suffered early upsets in the A-10 tourney, Delaware and Rutgers gone through down years.

 

They did suffer two quality losses at UConn on Berube’s homecoming date and to now 10^th-ranked Villanova here the first week of the season.

 

Columbia grew to new heights after King of Prussia native Megan Griffith left Banghart’s staff to return to guide her alma mater on the upper West Side of New York City to its first first-place finish.

 

“The second year was harder than the first and the third year was harder than the second, and then these two arrived,” said Griffith, voted Ivy coach of the year.

 

“And then these two arrived, nodding on the podium at all-Ivy picks Kaitlyn Davis and Abbey Hsu.”

 

A year ago, Columbia made it to its first championship contest, falling to Princeton.

 

After Kathy Delaney Smith retired following a long run with the Crimson, Carrie Moore was hired off the staff of Michigan and she also served under Banghart here.

 

Harvard made noise at the outset of the league slate when the Crimson upset the Tigers.

 

Harmoni Taylor made the all-Ivy first team, while Lola Mullaney made the second squad.

 

Seasons End for Delaware and Lehigh

 

In the Colonial Athletic Association, being played at Towson’s SECU Arena in suburban Baltimore, in second round play, Delaware had trouble making shots in the fourth quarter and fell to new member Hampton, 78-67, while in the Patriot League semifinals, third-seeded Lehigh fell at Holy Cross 71-54 in Worcester, Mass.

 

The winning Crusaders (23-8) will play top-seeded Boston U., an 84-68 winner over visiting Army in overtime, Sunday in the Terriers’ gym for the league crown and automatic bid.

 

Caitlin Weimar had 21 points for BU (24-7).

 

The Mountain Hawks finished 17-14 in former Princeton star Addie Micir’s first season as head coach. 

 

In the Delaware game, the defending champion Blue Hens 

 

Lehigh’s Lily Fandre, a freshman, tied a personal best with 16 points, while Frannie Hottinger scored 12 with seven rebounds.

 

Delaware’s Sarah Jenkins was also a first-year head coach and finished 16-14 playing Hampton (12-17), which won the game with a 13-1 run at the finish.

 

Jewel Smalls had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Hens, while Klarke Sconiers scored 14, Michelle Ojo scored 13, and Makayla Pippin had 11.

 

Hampton’s Madison Buford scored 22, Nylah Young had 18, and Laren VanArsdale scored 16.

 

In Friday’s quarterfinals, all on FloHoops, after new member Monmouth eliminated Charleston 69-54, the Hawks (15-15) face second-seeded Drexel (21-8) at 5 p.m.

 

The Dragons’ Keishana Washington, the CAA player of the year, has a chance to break her second-place tie with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark behind Villanova’s Maddy Seigrist since Clark is now idle until the NCAA tournament after the Hawkeyes won the Big Ten tournament on Sunday.

 

Hampton meets top-seeded Towson (19-10) at 1 p.m. and Stony Brook (18-12), a 54-51 winner over Elon, meets third-seed Northeastern (18-11) at 7:30 p.m.

 

Hofstra (12-19), a 66-59 winner over North Carolina A&T, meets William & Mary (17-12) at 2:30 p.m.

 

More Automatic Bids Claimed

 

With top-seed South Florida, the reigning American Athletic Conference champion deposed early in the tournament, East Carolina edged Houston 46-44 for the league title at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

 

Synia Johnson had 13 points for the winning Pirates (23-9), who won their first league crown when Micah Dennis made two foul shots with 44 seconds left for a three-point lead.

 

Kamryn Jones scored for the Cougars pulling within a point with 18 seconds left.

 

Houston had a chance to go ahead off a steal, but Bria Patterson missed a layup with five seconds left.

 

Dennis went 1-2 from the line with two seconds left to secure the win.

 

In the Southland, SE Louisiana beat Lamar 66-57 as sophomore Taylor Bell came off the bench to score 17 of her career-high 22 points in the second half leading the Lions (22-9) to their first NCAA tournament.

 

On Friday Albany (22-10) is at top-seed Vermont (24-6) at 5 p.m. on ESPNU to determine the America East title.

 

And that’s the report.