Ivy League
Due to the academic standards of the schools in the conference, the Ivy League has the fewest incoming transfers of any conference in college basketball.
After a 6-17 start to the season, Brown ended the season winning seven straight games before falling in the Ivy League tournament final by one point to Yale. But rebounding leader Nana Owsu-Anane, who at 6-foot-8 averaged 14.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game, suffered an injury in early October that might be season-ending.
Brown’s injury troubles open the door for Columbia, which returns five of its top seven scorers from a team that was 18th in the nation in 3-point shooting (37.4%). The team has gone .500 or worse in conference play in 29 of the past 31 seasons, but things are looking up for the program.
Yale has been 7-7 or better in conference play in every year since the 1999-2000 season and looks to build off a victory over Auburn in the NCAA Tournament. But the Bulldogs have to replace last season’s top two rebounders from a core that was 17th in the country in defensive rebound rate.
Princeton has won 23 or more games in each of the past three seasons after having done so in just seven of its first 120 seasons of basketball. The program returns its top two scorers from a season ago: Xavian Lee and Caden Pierce.
Cornell was the only team that was faster than 143rd in the conference in possessions per game, but coach Dan Earl left to take the William & Mary job. Former Cornell player Jon Jacques was hired as the new head coach after spending the past decade in an assistant role with the program. He’ll likely keep things the same.
Additionally, Cornell was 93rd in turnovers forced per possession last season, making this the lone team in the conference to rank better than 177th in this category.
Pennsylvania looks to improve on defense after ranking 325th in points allowed on a per possession basis last season.
