Ivy League Tournament Preview & Betting Guide: Princeton's Offense Should Have Tigers Dancing
Ivy League Tournament Preview & Betting Guide
It’s the only conference tournament yet to tip-off as the Ivy League will get their competition underway on Saturday. Just four of the league’s eight teams make the field and the Princeton Tigers lead the pack of NCAA Tournament hopefuls. To prepare you for the action, we discuss the favorite, a contender, and the best bet that we think could go dancing on the league’s behalf.
Ivy League Tournament Dates & Sites
Dates: March 12th & 13th
Location: Lavietes Pavillion – Cambridge, MA
Championship Game Details: Saturday, March 13th, 12:00 p.m. – ESPN2
Ivy League Tournament Winner Odds
Favorite: Princeton -125
Princeton is likely the only team who can make a run in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers have a top-30 offense on KenPom and can shoot the absolute lights out of the gym. They rank fifth in the nation in effective field goal percentage and there isn’t a team in the Ivy League that can remotely keep up with this offense. The trio of Ivy League Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan, All-Ivy First-Teamer Jaelin Llewellyn, and Second-Teamer Ethan Wright are all shooting 45 percent or better from the floor and are all capable of leading the team in scoring on a given night. The Tigers are a nightmare to defend and should roll through this tournament.
Contender: Yale +260
The only roadblock for the Tigers amongst the Ivy postseason will be Yale, who has a defense that could stifle Princeton, something they showed in their win when these teams squared off back in January. The key for the Bulldogs is getting out of the gate early similarly to that previous matchup where they jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the first ten minutes. If they can’t, good luck catching up to one of the nation’s top shooting offenses. If First-Team selection Azar Swain can have a big-time outing, Yale may have a fighting chance against Princeton if the two meet in the championship game.
Best Bet: Princeton -125
This price honestly feels like a bargain based on how much better the Tigers are. The Princeton offense is too much to stray away from, even if you are laying some juice. Although Yale has stopped them before, there is no defense in this conference that ranks within the top 100 nationally and with just one game under 70 points on the season, nobody has been able to do much to stop their uber-efficient offense. Add in that the Ivy League is just a four-team conference tournament and the Tigers still hold value even at -125.
All NCAA predictions and picks are courtesy of SportsGrid.
