Women's Basketball Preseason Poll

The Ivy League Preseason Women's Basketball Media/SID poll was officially released today. I've covered Penn for the past two years, so this year I was given the honor of having Penn's media vote (over women's basketball guru Mel Greenberg).

Apparently, I did a pretty good job -- or I was engaging in groupthink -- because my rankings matched the final results. Below are the results of the 16 votes (one media and one SID vote per school), with first-place votes in parentheses.

Pts.

1. Dartmouth (11) 123

2. Harvard (5) 115

3. Princeton 86

4. Columbia 83

5-t. Cornell 57

5-t. Yale 57

7. Penn 36

8. Brown 19

I thought it would be a useful exercise for discussion purposes to release my votes, and the reasoning behind them. So follow along after the jump for my breakdown.

1) Dartmouth

The Big Green won the Ivy League last year with a 13-1 conference record and have historically been a strong program, with a League-best 17 championships. Since Dartmouth didn't graduate many players of significance, I thought this vote was one of the two biggest no-brainers (along with Brown in last place), so I was surprised to see Harvard take five first place votes.

Reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Brittney Smith, who averaged 14.1 points last year will return for her junior year. Smith ended in the League's top five in points, rebounds, and blocks in each of her first two seasons, and if anything her production should continue to rise. She is paired in the frontcourt with her sister, senior Margaret Smtih, who is very solid, though not as spectacular as her younger sibling. Together, the two help make up the best overall frontcourt in the League, especially defensively. Last year, Penn managed to score only 39 and 36 points in two matchups against Dartmouth. The Big Green were not heavily reliant on their guards, but they do return two of their top backcourt players, junior Megan McFee and senior Betsy Williams.

2) Harvard

Harvard has been Dartmouth's biggest rival of late, as the two shared the Ivy crown in 2007-2008. The Crimson had the highest scoring offense in the Ivies and finished 11-3 last year, but they lost point guard Emily Tay, who was probably the best guard in the League and who stole at least one game from the Quakers during her tenure, and forward Katie Rollins. But Harvard still returns two of the Ancient Eight's top ten scorers - junior forward Emma Markley and sophomore guard Brogan Berry. Markley led the league in three-point percentage, and Berry is the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Add in coach Heather Palmer's extensive history as a successful coach and recruiter, and there's no reason to expect Harvard to miss a beat.

3) Princeton

Princeton players didn't exactly light up the League leader boards in individual statistics last year, but the Tigers quietly finished 9-5 in conference play, put up a team defensive effort that rivaled Dartmouth's, and sported the second best scoring margin in the Ivies. Plus, Princeton's top three players were underclassmen last year. Sophomore center Devona Allgood and sophomore guard/forward Lauren Edwards made the All-Rookie team last year, and junior guard Addie Micir should be a top-five scoring threat this season. If those three take major steps forward, Princeton could vault into title contention.

4) Columbia

Since the inception of Title IX, Columbia has consistently been a league doormat. In fact, the Lions are the only team to never win an Ivy title, but last year they received a huge boost with the transfer of forward Judie Lomax from Oregon State and finished a respectable 6-8. Lomax, now a junior, led all of Division I with an astounding 14.3 rebounds per game, and was only the second player in Ivy history to pull down over 400 boards in a season. She also led the league with a 53.6 field goal percentage and was third in scoring with 14.2 points per game. Personally, I think she is the most dominating individual player in the league, but without the supporting cast around her, she didn't have the team performance to bolster her credentials over Brittney Smith for Player of the Year honors. Columbia's guards were absolutely dreadful on the offensive side of the ball last year, although senior Sara Yee was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. If the backcourt can pick up its game at least a bit -- or if Lomax's arrival helped bolster coach Paul Nixon's incoming recruiting class -- Columbia could be a fast riser.

5) Cornell, 6) Yale

The closest call for me was between Cornell and Yale, which is reflected in their tied overall votes. The Big Red graduated their top inside force, center Shanna Scarseletta, while Yale has the League's top returning scorer, senior guard Melissa Colborne, but there were two tiebreakers for me. First of all, Cornell tied with Columbia and Penn at 6-8 last year, while Yale was only 4-10 in the league, including a loss to lowly Brown. Secondly, while Colborne may now be the best scorer in the Ivies, she is only one player, and in my opinion Cornell's backcourt duo of seniors Lauren Benson and Penn rival Allie Fedorowicz combine to make a better backcourt.

7) Penn

I'm sure this ranking won't make Penn's players, coaches, or alumni very happy, but there is too much uncertainty in a team that was a mediocre 6-8 in Ivy play last year to garner a spot any higher. The loss of Carrie Biemer, one of the most prolific scorers in Penn history and the Ivy League's scoring leader last season, is particularly devastating. To put things in perspective, Biemer scored over 32.2 percent of the team's points last year. The offense should be helped by the return of Kim Adams, but that is offset by the loss of Erin Power, which makes the actual difference difficult to ascertain. More importantly, I don't see anyone on Penn's frontcourt capable of handling the Smiths and Lomaxes of the League. The Quakers are running only five deep on the post, and junior Caroline Nicholson is the tallest at 6-foot-2. Add in what may be an adjustment period, or maybe even a whole year, to insert new coach Mike McLaughlin's system, and this year could be a recipe for disaster.

On the other hand, I may be underestimating just how toxic the atmosphere was in the final couple of years under ex-coach Pat Knapp. The women's basketball team has had more than its share of roster shuffling (I should point out that it has come to light that Donovan, who will return this year, never quit the team but was cut by Knapp), and although I've never gotten anything on the record, I get the sense that not many players were enamored with their former coach. If anyone has any insight they'd like to share on that count, feel free to leave something in the comments section. Maybe McLaughlin will be able to get more out of his players in terms of dedication and preparation, in which case I could see Penn sneaking into fourth or fifth, but I just don't think the talent level stacks up with some of the better teams right now.

8 ) Brown

I felt that this was the only no-brainer, other than Dartmouth. Brown finished 1-13 in the League for the second consecutive year and won only two games all of last season, against Maine and Yale. Worse yet, the Bears were last in both scoring offense and scoring defense and didn't have any individual performances to be excited about. Brown did not have a top-20 scorer in the Ivies, and despite a 32.3 team shooting percentage, no Bears were in the League's top 17 rebounders. Brown was absolutely dreadful last year, and they may not be any better this year. I am shocked that they were not unanimously picked for last place again.

If anyone is interested in discussing Penn's season, or anything else related to Ivy League women's basketball, please leave comments!