The first Ivy League tournament was an unequivocal success

This weekend, the Palestra held meaningful Ivy League college basketball for the first time in a while and it couldn’t have gone better.

It was a controversial decision as the Ivy League decided to move to a tournament format for the first time in its 63-year history. Gone are the days that the regular season champion would also be the league’s bid for the NCAA tournament. For a league seeping in history, this is a big decision to make but with the Princeton Tigers earning a 12 seed in the NCAA tournament and the Penn Women also winning, it was the right decision to make.

There would have been bedlam around the league if the Penn Quakers succeed in knocking off the tigers but the Ivy League got the best case scenario with good games all around and strong fan support. Five schools were represented during the weekend and each brought a crowd in order to neutralize the Penn home court advantage. While the games weren’t sellouts, around 11,000 fans came through the doors of the Palestra this weekend to enjoy college basketball.

Thanks to the wonderful staff at the Ivy League combined with the Penn athletics staff everything went smoothly over the weekend that showcased Ivy League basketball in the light that it deserved. The history was celebrated with Ivy legends being honored at half-time of each game while the current product of the league did its part on the court.

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The Palestra is the perfect arena to hold this tournament with how much history the Ivy League and the building are seeped in. While it was a disappointment to see the Penn Quakers lose to Princeton in the semifinal game, the Quakers losing was a net win for the Ivy League. If they pulled the upset, it would dredge up the arguments that the tournament shouldn’t be played in a lower seed’s home arena.

The Quakers falling in the semifinal may be just what the league needed in order to keep the tournament in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future. While madness is usually welcome in March, the best case scenario was for Princeton and Penn to get the league’s automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. If the top teams faltered then the arguments that the top seeds aren’t given enough of an advantage would have held more weight. Eventually an upset will happen in this tournament but it would’ve been a tough pill to swallow in the first installment of it.

The coaches and the players relished every moment of the tournament because, in March, everyone wants to play meaningful basketball. For Princeton, this makes their perfect league record a little more special as they were forced to stare into the gauntlet for a final back to back with tough Penn and Yale teams to complete it. For the Quakers, it was a perfect tune up for their defense and efficiency as they look to get out of the first round of the NCAA tournament this time around.

Even for the team’s that lost, it was a great experience since most of the teams are reliant on freshman talent. For the Penn Quakers and the Harvard Crimson especially, this is great postseason experience will set them up for success next season. This is something that wouldn’t have happened in prior years and is another advantage of having a tournament.

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The Ivy League tournament has its flaws but at this point, it is here to stay and should be embraced. Maybe we’ll get a little more madness next time around but that will only make it more lovable. Isn’t madness the point of march anyway?

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