HoopsHD continues its series leading up to Selection Sunday and March Madness, as we simulate what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t). Up next is the Ivy League. Yale won the regular season title in the Ivy, but the tournament was being played at second-place Harvard’s home court, leading many to believe that the Crimson were in fact the favorite to claim the automatic bid. Before the two teams would even meet, however, semifinals against Penn and Princeton were looming. It is time to find out just what would have happened!
IVY LEAGUE SEMIFINALS
Yale won the Ivy League regular season championship, and promptly had to go play the conference tournament on Harvard’s home court. Before a potential title game matchup with the Crimson, however, the Bulldogs first needed to get past the Penn Quakers. That proved to be no problem at all, as Yale jumped out to an early lead and cruised home for a 98-62 win. Azar Swain led the way with 26 points while Jordan Bruner had 14 points and 18 rebounds.
The second semifinal was a lot closer, as Princeton kept pace with Harvard throughout most of the game. In fact, with 5 minutes left to play, the score was knotted at 70. However, Harvard was able to use its home court advantage to put together one final run and came out on top by a final score of 82-76. The win set up a huge championship game against Yale, a team that Harvard had already beaten twice during the season.
IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
They say that the third time is a charm, and for the Yale Bulldogs on Selection Sunday, it most certainly was. Despite being swept in the regular season by the Harvard Crimson, Yale took care of business fairly easily in this game, building a 7-point halftime lead and then rolling in the second half to win Ivy Madness by a final score of 79-58. Five Bulldogs scored in double figures for the game, led by 17 points from Paul Atkinson. With the win, Yale had qualified for back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in school history.
