City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The inaugural Ivy League postseason basketball tournament was met with fanfare and skepticism, apprehension and excitement when it was announced nearly a year ago.

There were worries about having the tournament at the Palestra, which just so happened to be the home court of a Penn program that -- recent years aside -- tends to be in the running for the league’s championship to begin with. There was frustration at the league foregoing decades of history, its status as the only Division I conference without a postseason tournament, sending its regular-season champion on to the NCAA Tournament as far back as anybody still around can remember.

Ultimately, the first day of the tournament verified several of those fears -- and fulfilled just as many fantasies.

The league’s regular-season champion, Princeton, was pitted against its archrival Penn, in a building that the Ivy League brass wanted to deem a “neutral” court, which is fairly tough to do with a few dozen Penn banners hanging from the ceiling of a gym the Quakers practice in on a daily basis.

There was certainly more Red & Blue than there was Orange in the Cathedral of College Basketball, but there was plenty of Princetonian booing mixed in whenever the building’s usual occupants scored.

And ultimately, the biggest worry heading into the tournament -- that No. 1 Princeton would fall to a sub-.500 Penn team, costing a Tigers squad that finished the regular season unbeaten its previously-earned bid in March Madness -- was avoided, as Princeton survived Penn, 72-64, in overtime.

“Everybody wants me to say that I don’t like it here, and that’s not true,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said of playing in the Palestra. “I hope I would be saying the same thing if I lost.”

It looked like the Tigers might do just that for the 40 minutes of regulation, until sophomore Myles Stephens rescued his team with a big second half, coming up with a put-back with 6.3 seconds left in the second half to send it to overtime.

Until Stephens scored the opening bucket of the extra session, Princeton hadn’t led for a single second.

“Jesus,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said when one reporter referenced that fact in the post-game press conference. “Is that true?”

It was.

Penn (13-15, 6-8) led the entire way aside from a brief 2-2 tie, jumping out to an eight-point lead in the first half and as many as 10 early in the second half thanks to the terrific play of freshman Ryan Betley, who connected on his first five shot attempts and finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

His classmate, forward A.J. Brodeur, added 10 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double of his own.

Princeton composed itself, however, surviving an uncharacteristically rough shooting night from the outside (5-for-18, 27.8 percent) by going inside, feeding Stephens (21 points), who had 14 points in the second half and overtime.

The Tigers (22-6, 14-0) also limited themselves to one turnover after intermission (9 total) while getting Penn to cough it up 13 times. And they locked down on defense when it mattered most, keeping the Quakers without a point in their first six possessions of overtime, during which they increased the lead to as many as nine on a pair of Devin Cannady foul shots with 51 seconds left.

“They were much more aggressive than we were, both offensively and defensively,” Princeton senior Spencer Weisz said. “They were too comfortable [offensively], eventually in the second half we adjusted and went after them a bit more.”

Princeton will face Yale (18-10, 9-5), which downed Harvard in the second semifinal, at noon on Sunday for the league championship.

The final score was a clear indication of the progress Penn made over the season, especially over its last eight weeks. In two prior meetings with the Tigers, the Quakers had a hard time stay competitive, falling behind by 17 at half at home of a 61-52 loss and then putting up a total of 49 points on the road to lose by 15.

After an 0-6 start in league play, that Penn had even found the moxie to rally and make the four-team league tournament was a testament to significant improvement.

And with three freshmen in the starting lineup, including the ultra-impressive Brodeur and talented guards in Betley and point guard Devon Goodman, the future is looking brighter at 33rd and Walnut than it has in quite some time.

“I thought it was a good experience, getting to play in the first Ivy League tournament game, we’ve been through a lot this year, 0-6 and coming back,” Betley said. “The three of us…I think we learned a lot this year and I think we’re going to be really fired up and ready to work this offseason and get back to this spot and try to win the league.”

But that doesn’t make it easier to stomach that what could have been Penn’s greatest victory in quite a while instead will have to serve as at best a stepping stone back to relevance.

“When I think about trying to feel good about this, that’s what I feel good about, I feel good about where we’re headed,” Donahue said.

After the way the weekend’s gone, so might the rest of the Ivy League.