The 2011–12 Ivy League men's basketball season marked the continuation of the annual tradition of competitive

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

among

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

members that began when the league was formed during the 1956–57 season, continuing from the predecessor Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League, which was formed in 1902. Harvard was the preseason favorite for the first time and spent most of the season receiving vote in the 2011–12 national rankings. The season marked the first time that four Ivy League teams (

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, Penn,

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

) participated in the postseason. The season marked the second time that the Ivy League had three 20-win teams (Harvard, Penn and Princeton).

Zack Rosen Zack Rosen (born March 14, 1989) is an American basketball player. Rosen, a point guard, played collegiately at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, All-American and Ivy League Men's Basketball Pla ...

earned

Ivy League Men's Basketball Player of the Year The Ivy League Men's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the Ivy League's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1974–75 season. There have been six players honored on two occasions: Craig Robi ...

and earned

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

All-American honorable mention recognition. Reggie Willhite was Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and Shonn Miller was the Conference Rookie of the Year. In addition to Rosen, Ian Hummer was a unanimous first team All-Ivy League selection. The conference had two

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

honorees (Matthew Sullivan and Chris Wroblewski) and a Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalist (Rosen).

Preseason

Entering the

2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 7, 2011 with the (2K Sports Classic) and ended with the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on April 2, 2012 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Mitch Henderson Mitchell Gordon Henderson (born August 14, 1975) is an American college basketball coach, currently serving as head coach for the Princeton Tigers men's basketball team. Before taking the Princeton job in 2011, he served as an assistant for the ...

began his tenure at

Greg Mangano Greg Mangano (born October 28, 1989) is an American basketball player for KTP Basket of Korisliiga. He played college basketball for the Yale Bulldogs. He is known for versatility as a frontcourt player and his polished face up game offensively. ...

was one of 22

USA Basketball USA Basketball (USAB) is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in the United States. The organization represents the United States in FIBA and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the United States Olympi ...

invitees to the USA Basketball Men's

World University Games The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

Team training camp to select the team for the

2011 Summer Universiade The 2011 Summer Universiade ( zh, c=2011年夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Èr líng yī yī Nián xiàjì shìjiè dàxuéshēng yùndònghuì), the XXVI Summer Universiade ( zh, c=第二十六届夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Dì Èrshíl ...

held at

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. He competed in

basketball at the 2011 Summer Universiade Basketball at the 2011 Summer Universiade was scheduled to be held from August 13 to August 22 in Shenzhen, China. In total, 40 teams will compete in the 2011 Summer Universiade (24 men's teams and 16 women's teams). Medal summary Medal table E ...

, becoming the first Men's Ivy League Basketball World University Games participant since

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination f ...

. Jeremiah Kreisberg was named to the Israeli team for the

FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship The FIBA U20 European Championship, previously known as the European Championship for Men '22 and Under', is a men's youth basketball competition that was inaugurated with the 1992 edition. Through the 2004 edition, it was held biennially, but ...

Division B held in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. He played in 6 of the team's 8 games, leading the team in scoring and finishing second in rebounds. Preseason publications predicted Harvard would finish in first place. For the first time in school history, the Ivy League media panel selected Harvard as its first place choice. Princeton and Yale finished tied for second.

Season

By returning all of their key players from the 2010–11 Ivy League co-champion 2010–11 Crimson and competing successfully, Harvard received votes in the

2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings Two human polls make up the 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings, the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, in addition to various publications' preseason polls. Legend AP poll The Associated Press (AP) preseason poll was released on Oct ...

polls every week until the final week of the season and was ranked for many weeks. Harvard represented the Ivy League by sweeping its three contests and emerging victorious in the 2011

Battle 4 Atlantis The Battle 4 Atlantis is an early-season college basketball tournament. It takes place at Atlantis Paradise Island on Paradise Island in The Bahamas, on the week of the US holiday of Thanksgiving. For sponsorship purposes, the tournament is o ...

. Among the highlights of the season were victories by both Harvard and Princeton over eventual 2012 ACC men's basketball tournament champion

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

. Zack Rosen finished the season as the

. Following the annual 14-game

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

home & home schedule, Harvard emerged as champion and earned the conference's automatic bid to the

2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament involving 68 schools playing to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. The 74th edition of the tournament began on Marc ...

. Harvard entered the tournament as a number 12 seed, making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1946. Princeton and Penn were invited to the

2012 College Basketball Invitational The 2012 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) was a single-elimination tournament of 16 NCAA Division I teams that did not participate in the 2012 NCAA Tournament or the 2012 National Invitation Tournament. The opening games began on Tuesday, ...

. Yale was invited to the 2012 CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The season marked the first time that four Ivy League teams (

, Penn,

and

) participated in the postseason. The season marked the second time that the Ivy League had three 20-win teams (Harvard, Penn and Princeton).

Honors and accolades

Five players (Eitan Chemerinski - Jr., Cornell; Austin Morgan - Jr., Yale; Matthew Sullivan - Jr., Brown; Reggie Willhite - Sr., Yale; Chris Wroblewski - Sr. Cornell) were named Academic All-District, meaning that they were among the 40 finalists to be named to the 15-man Academic All-America Team. Sullivan and Wroblewski were both named third team Academic All-Americans. It was Wrobleski's second consecutive Academic All-American recognition. Keith Wright was a preseason candidate for the

John R. Wooden Award The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award, and recognizing the ...

and the Lou Henson Award. Penn's

, Columbia's Brian Barbour, Cornell's Wroblewski and Harvard's Brandyn Curry were among 65 preseason Cousy Award preseason watchlist candidates. Rosen made the list of 20 finalists. Rosen and Wrobleski were among 30 preseason

Lowe's Senior CLASS Award The Senior CLASS Award is awarded to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in 10 NCAA Division I sports. An acronym for "Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School," the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete ...

candidates. Rosen was among the ten finalists.

In season

Each week the Ivy League selects a player of the week and a rookie of the week.

All-Ivy

The following players earned Ivy League postseason recognition: ;Player of the Year *^

, Penn (Sr., G, Colonia, N.J.) ;Rookie of the Year * Shonn Miller, Cornell (Fr., F, Euclid, Ohio) ;Defensive Player of the Year *Reggie Willhite, Yale (Sr., G/F, Elk Grove, Calif.) ;First Team All-Ivy *Brian Barbour, Columbia (Jr., G, Alamo, Calif.) * Chris Wroblewski, Cornell (Sr., G, Highland Park, Ill.) *

Kyle Casey Kyle David Casey (born November 27, 1990) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Abejas de León of the Mexican LNBP. He played college basketball for Harvard. High school career Casey attended Brimmer and May sch ...

, Harvard (Jr., F, Medway, Mass.) *^

, Penn (Sr., G, Colonia, N.J.) *^ Ian Hummer, Princeton (Jr., F, Vienna, Va.) *

, Yale (Sr., C, Orange, Conn.) ;Second Team All-Ivy *Sean McGonagill, Brown (So., G, Brookfield, Ill.) *

Brandyn Curry Brandyn Curry (born October 2, 1991) is an American professional basketball player, who lastly played for U-BT Cluj-Napoca. Curry played five seasons collegiately for Harvard. College career Curry played collegiately at Harvard. As a sophomore, ...

, Harvard (Jr., G, Huntersville, N.C.) * Keith Wright, Harvard (Sr., F, Suffolk, Va.) *Douglas Davis, Princeton (Sr., G, Philadelphia) *Reggie Willhite, Yale (Sr., G/F, Elk Grove, Calif.) ;Honorable Mention All-Ivy *Johnathan Gray, Cornell (Jr., G, Tampa, Fla.) *Rob Belcore, Penn (Sr., G, Lake Forest, Ill.) *^Unanimous Selection

USBWA

On March 6, the

U.S. Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awar ...

released its 2011–12 Men's All-District Teams, based upon voting from its national membership. There were nine regions from coast to coast, and a player and coach of the year were selected in each. The following lists all the Big Ten representatives selected within their respective regions. District I (

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

)
Coach of the Year *

Tommy Amaker Harold Tommy Amaker Jr. (; born June 6, 1965) is an American college basketball coach and the head coach of the Harvard University men's basketball team. He has also coached for the University of Michigan and Seton Hall University. He played po ...

, Harvard All-District Team *Kyle Casey, Harvard *

, Yale * Keith Wright, Harvard District II (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia) All-District Team *

, Penn

NABC

The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their Division I All‐District teams on March 14, recognizing the nation's best men's collegiate basketball student-athletes. Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, 240 student-athletes, from 24 districts were chosen. The selection on this list were then eligible for the State Farm Coaches’ Division I All-America teams. The following list represented the District 13 players chosen to the list. First Team *

Pennsylvania *

Yale * Keith Wright Harvard Second Team * Ian Hummer Princeton *Kyle Casey Harvard *Brian Barbour Columbia

Other

Rosen was named an honorable mention

All-American. Wright was also selected to participate in the NABC 2012 Reese's Division I All-Star Game at the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament final four.

Rankings

On December 5, 2011, Harvard made its first ever appearance in either the AP (25) or Coaches Poll (24). It leaves

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

as the only remaining

school to have never been ranked in the AP Poll and leaves only seven schools that have played Division I basketball since the AP Poll began that have never been ranked in it. Harvard is the first Ivy League team ranked in the Coaches Poll since the 2009–10 Cornell Big Red and the first Ivy League team ranked in the AP Poll since the 1997–98 Princeton Tigers, who finished 8th in the poll. By January 2, the team achieved rankings of 22 in the AP Poll and 21 in the Coaches Poll. The team was also ranked 21st in the Coaches Poll On February 6. Below are Harvard's rankings for the season:

Preseason

Season

Honors and accolades

In season

All-Ivy

USBWA

NABC

Other

Rankings

Postseason

NCAA tournament

National Invitation tournament

College Basketball Invitational

CollegeInsider.com tournament

Notes

External links