The Ivy League released its 2007-08 postseason honors on Wednesday, and champion Cornell was the big winner with the Player of the Year and two First Team selections, as well as two Second Team honorees.
2007-08 All-Ivy Men’s Basketball
First Team
Damon Huffman, Brown (Sr., G, Petoskey, Mich.)
*Mark McAndrew, Brown (Sr., G, Barrington, R.I.)
John Baumann, Columbia (Sr., F, Westport, Conn.)
*Louis Dale, Cornell (So., G, Birmingham, Ala.)
*Ryan Wittman, Cornell (So., F, Eden Prairie, Minn.)
* unanimous selection
Second Team
Chris Skrelja, Brown (Jr., F, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.)
Jeff Foote, Cornell (Jr., C, Lockwood, N.Y.)
Adam Gore, Cornell (Jr., G, Monrovia, Ind.)
Alex Barnett, Dartmouth (Jr., G/F, St. Louis, Mo.)
Jeremy Lin, Harvard (So., G, Palo Alto, Calif.)
Brian Grandieri, Penn (Sr., G, Media, Pa.)
Noah Savage, Princeton (Sr., F, Princeton, N.J.)
Ross Morin, Yale (Jr., F, Cincinnati, Ohio)
Travis Pinick, Yale (Jr., G/F, Orange, Calif.)
Honorable Mention
Tyler Bernardini, Penn (Fr., F, Carlsbad, Calif.)
Player of the Year
Louis Dale, Cornell
Rookie of the Year
Tyler Bernardini, Penn
Slant: It’s hard to quibble with any of the selections, though the bloated nine-man Second Team stands out — indicating a lot of ties in the voting by the coaching staffs. The biggest surprise might be the fact Baumann wasn’t a unanimous First Teamer. Columbia and Penn might feel they are slightly underrepresented with one player from each team receiving All-Ivy recognition, but no glaring omissions spring to mind.
With only five seniors among the 15 players honored, there’s hope for a stronger league-wide performance next season. Yale was a team that started four seniors for much of the season and is perceived as being hard-hit by graduation this spring, yet the Bulldogs’ two All-Ivy selections both will return next season.
Wittman seemed to be the Player of the Year favorite after the first round of Ivy play, but Dale closed out the regular season in extremely impressive fashion to claim the league’s top individual honor. Wittman slightly outscored Dale, but Dale had more rebounds at the point guard position and over three times as many assists.
As expected, Bernardini claimed the Rookie of the Year award, beating out Brown’s Peter Sullivan. Sullivan put up very efficient shooting numbers and certainly was deserving of consideration for the award. However, he was the fourth option in the Bears’ offensive attack, while shutting down Bernardini usually was a top priority for opposing coaching staffs, so Bernardini’s selection makes sense.