Win and In: Brown Takes Aim at First Ivy League Tournament Berth

The Brown men’s basketball team will host Yale this Saturday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the final game of the regular season as the Bears look to qualify for Ivy Madness for the first time in program history.

Both teams will have something to play for Saturday night as a win would clinch Brown the No. 4 seed and its first-ever Ivy Madness appearance, but a win for Yale would earn the Bulldogs the top seed in the tournament and a share of the regular season Ivy Title.

The game will serve as the team’s Senior Night, with seniors Perry Cowan and Paxson Wojcik being honored pregame. Saturday night is also a White Out, with all fans encouraged to wear white.

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

Need to Know
Brown qualifies for Ivy Madness in two different scenarios. If the Bears take down the Bulldogs, they qualify and no other league result matters. If Cornell loses to Columbia earlier in the day, the Bears will clinch a berth before they even tip off.
The Bears have narrowly missed qualification for Ivy Madness in two of the last three years where a season was played (the Ivy League did not play at all during the 2020-21 school year). In 2019, Brown finished 7-7 and tied for fourth, but Penn held the edge in tiebreakers. Then in 2020, the Bears finished a game better at 8-6, but again lost out on tiebreakers to the Quakers.
Both head coaches recently hit career milestones. Mike Martin ’04 became the winningest head coach in program history when he passed Stan Ward’s 54-year-old record of 133 victories. Martin currently sits at 135. Yale’s head coach James Jones recently won his 200th career Ivy League game which ranks him second all-time among Ivy coaches.
Scouting the Bears (14-12, 7-6 Ivy)
Paxson Wojcik and Kino Lilly Jr. both went for 20+ points in the same game for the second time this season last time out against Columbia. Wojcik had 20 to go with eight rebounds and six assists, while Lilly had 23 with three assists and three steals. The other time was when the Bears took down Harvard on the road.
Brown is 7-4 at the Pizzitola this season, including a 4-0 stretch over their last four home contests. The Bears have picked up those four wins by a spread of nearly nine points per game.
Scouting the Bulldogs (19-7, 9-4 Ivy)
After starting the Ivy season at 1-3, the Bulldogs have won eight of their last nine, putting themselves in position to finish atop the Ivy standings for the second time in the last three seasons. Regardless of Saturday’s result, Yale will look to three-peat as Ivy Madness champions.
In last weekend’s win over Cornell, EJ Jarvis posted a double-double with a career-high 34 points to go with 10 rebounds.
Last Time
Brown fell to Yale by three points, 81-78, on the road back in January. It was the first of six straight wins for the Bulldogs.
Kino Lilly Jr. led all scorers in that one with 25 points. Paxson Wojcik had 13 and nine rebounds.