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Princeton University Athletics
Myles Stephens and the Tigers are forecasted to be in the mix for the Ivy League title once again.
Close Race Forecasted as Ivy Announces Preseason Media Poll
October 17, 2017 | Men's Basketball
Harvard, Yale and Princeton will be neck-and-neck when the Ivy League season heads for the final stretch in March, if the predictions of the league's media voters are on target.
The trio split the 17 first-place votes and were within seven poll points of each other as the Ivy League announced its preseason media poll Tuesday.
Harvard received the second-most first-place votes, with six, but eked past Yale with 121 poll points to 118 for the runner-up Bulldogs, who received eight first-place votes. Three media voters foresee Princeton successfully defending its 2017 Ivy League title, and the Tigers were a close third with 114 poll points.
After Princeton, there was a 28-point gap in the race for fourth, a key position with the four-team Ivy League Tournament set to resume in March, and Penn, whose Palestra will host the league tournament, occupied that fourth spot in the media poll. The Quakers had 31 points between them and fifth-place Columbia with Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown rounding out the poll.
The top four teams are the same ones, in a different order, that filled the field for the inaugural Ivy League Tournament last March. Princeton, the top seed, went on to win the tournament after holding off fourth-seeded Penn in the semifinal and beating third-seeded Yale, which had knocked off second-seeded Harvard, in the final.
Princeton lost three starters to graduation after a 2017 season that saw the Tigers go 23-7 and take ACC Tournament runner-up Notre Dame to the final possession in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, including first-team All-Ivy League honorees Steven Cook and Spencer Weisz, the 2017 Ivy League Player of the Year, along with center Pete Miller. The Tigers return 2017 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-Ivy League honoree and Ivy League Tournament MVP Myles Stephens (12.5 ppg) and honorable mention All-Ivy League Devin Cannady (13.4 ppg), as well as Amir Bell, who averaged 8.7 points per game in Ivy League play, all off the bench.
The Tigers will begin the 2017-18 season Nov. 12 at Butler on CBS Sports Network before the team's home opener Nov. 15 against BYU on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
The trio split the 17 first-place votes and were within seven poll points of each other as the Ivy League announced its preseason media poll Tuesday.
Harvard received the second-most first-place votes, with six, but eked past Yale with 121 poll points to 118 for the runner-up Bulldogs, who received eight first-place votes. Three media voters foresee Princeton successfully defending its 2017 Ivy League title, and the Tigers were a close third with 114 poll points.
After Princeton, there was a 28-point gap in the race for fourth, a key position with the four-team Ivy League Tournament set to resume in March, and Penn, whose Palestra will host the league tournament, occupied that fourth spot in the media poll. The Quakers had 31 points between them and fifth-place Columbia with Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown rounding out the poll.
The top four teams are the same ones, in a different order, that filled the field for the inaugural Ivy League Tournament last March. Princeton, the top seed, went on to win the tournament after holding off fourth-seeded Penn in the semifinal and beating third-seeded Yale, which had knocked off second-seeded Harvard, in the final.
Princeton lost three starters to graduation after a 2017 season that saw the Tigers go 23-7 and take ACC Tournament runner-up Notre Dame to the final possession in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, including first-team All-Ivy League honorees Steven Cook and Spencer Weisz, the 2017 Ivy League Player of the Year, along with center Pete Miller. The Tigers return 2017 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-Ivy League honoree and Ivy League Tournament MVP Myles Stephens (12.5 ppg) and honorable mention All-Ivy League Devin Cannady (13.4 ppg), as well as Amir Bell, who averaged 8.7 points per game in Ivy League play, all off the bench.
The Tigers will begin the 2017-18 season Nov. 12 at Butler on CBS Sports Network before the team's home opener Nov. 15 against BYU on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
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