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All-Ivy Men's Basketball -- 2008-09
Created: 3/11/2009 1:59:22 PM
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 PRINCETON, N.J. — Back in October, Dartmouth was picked to finish
next to last in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll. Entering the final full Ivy
weekend last week, the Big Green had already more than doubled their Ivy win total
from a season ago and remained in contention for a share of the League crown.
There was one main reason for Dartmouth's Ivy success: Alex Barnett.
Barnett, the 2008-09 Ivy League Player of the Year, becomes the first Big Green player since Larry Lawrence in 1980-81 to earn the League's highest individual honor, and only the second-ever in Dartmouth basketball history. The senior swingman, who was also a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection for the first time, averaged 19.4 points and is the first Big Green player to lead the Ivies in scoring since Shaun Gee in 1997-98. His League-best 20.3 point scoring average in Ivy contests is the highest since Columbia's Buck Jenkins put up 22.8 per in 1992-93.
The three-time Ivy League Player of the Week carried Dartmouth to a fourth-place finish, leading the Big Green in virtually every statistical category — points, rebounds (5.6), assists (1.92), blocks (33), steals (36), three-point field goals (54) and minutes (956). He finished his career with 1,374 points, eighth on the Dartmouth all-time list.
Joining Barnett on the first team is the Cornell junior duo of Ryan Wittman
and Louis Dale. The pair earns their second straight
first team honor together after guiding the Big Red to its second consecutive
Ivy League title, as Cornell becomes the first team in League history -- not named
Penn or Princeton -- to win back-to-back outright championships. Dale and Wittman
will have the opportunity to make even more history together next year when they
set out to become just the third pair of teammates ever to earn first team All-Ivy
status three times.
Wittman, a unanimous selection, finished the regular season second in overall scoring average (18.5) and has now led Cornell in scoring in each of his first three years in Ithaca. With All-Ivy teammate Dale injured to open the season, the former Ivy League Rookie of the Year came up huge for the Big Red in big games, putting up stellar performances of 25 points versus St. John's, 28 points at Indiana and a career-high 33 points at Syracuse -- a game that saw him make nine three-pointers in a close loss. His 93 three-pointers tie the Cornell school-record he set as a freshman, and his 264 career long balls are just 17 shy of Brian Earl's all-time Ivy League mark. Still just a junior, Wittman currently sits in third place on the Big Red's career scoring list with 1,414 points, 15 shy of moving into second.
Dale sat out the first eight games of the year with a hamstring injury and Cornell missed him, going 4-4 without its starting point guard in the lineup. But the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year came back strong, starting all 22 games he played in, helping the Big Red to a 17-5 record, while being the catalyst behind Cornell's crucial midseason nine-game winning streak. Dale did it all, as he became just the second player in Big Red history to record 1,000 points, 300 rebounds and 300 assists, joining Ka'Ron Barnes. He finished the regular season with a team-best 3.6 assists per game and a 13.5 point scoring average, good enough for second on the squad.
 After earning a second team nod last year, Harvard junior guard Jeremy
Lin was voted to the first team by the Ivy coaches. Lin, who finished
third in overall scoring (17.5) and second in Ivy scoring (17.1), led the Crimson
in points, rebounds (5.5), assists (4.3), steals (2.4) and minutes played (975).
He was thrown into the national spotlight earlier in the season with his 27-point,
eight-assist, six-steal performance over then-No. 17 Boston College, as he powered
Harvard to its first-ever win over a ranked opponent in 98 years of Crimson basketball.
It is Lin's first first team nod, after becoming the first Harvard player to reach
the 1,000-point plateau in his junior season since 1996.
Brown junior forward Matt Mullery rounds out the first team honorees.
Mullery put together a strong junior campaign for the Bears, finishing fourth
in the Ivies in both overall scoring (16.1) and rebounding (6.5), while shooting
a League-best 60.6 percent from the field. His 7.9 rebounds per game in Ivy contests
was tops in the conference. In the final Ivy weekend, Mullery turned in one of
the greatest individual performances in Brown basketball history, with a monster
21-point, 20-rebound game in a tight two-point win over Harvard.
A second pair of Cornell players earned individual honors, as Chris Wroblewski
and Jeff Foote were voted Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Defensive
Player of the Year, respectively.
Wroblewski joins teammates Adam Gore and Ryan Wittman as the third Big Red freshman to garner Rookie of the Year honors in the last four years. The six-foot point guard stepped right in nicely for the Ivy champs, filling in for injured Louis Dale to open to season and providing key minutes throughout the year. Wroblewski appeared in all 30 games, with seven starts, posting averages of 6.7 points, 2.6 rebounds 25.3 minutes per contest. His numbers were even better in Ivy League play at 7.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists while connecting on 54 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.
Foote, a seven-foot center, becomes the inaugural Defensive Player of the Year. The second team All-Ivy selection led the Ivies in blocked shots with 2.1 per game. His daunting presence inside helped Cornell tighten up its team defense, which improved from allowing 68.5 points per game last year to 64.3 this season. In addition to his shot-blocking prowess, Foote posted averages of 11.8 points and a League-best 7.1 rebounds.
Yale, who finished the season tied with Princeton for second-place, led the way
with two second team honorees, while two Tiger players earned honorable mention
nods.
2008-09 Men's Basketball All-Ivy
First Team
Matt Mullery, Brown (Jr., F, Millstone, N.J.)
Louis Dale, Cornell (Jr., G, Birmingham, Ala.)
*Ryan Wittman, Cornell (So., F, Eden Prairie, Minn.)
*Alex Barnett, Dartmouth (Sr., G/F, St. Louis, Mo.)
Jeremy Lin, Harvard (Jr., G, Palo Alto, Calif.)
Second Team
Jason Miller, Columbia (Sr., F, Hamilton, Ohio)
Jeff Foote, Cornell (Sr., C, Lockwood, N.Y.)
Drew Housman, Harvard (Sr., G, Calabasas, Calif.)
Ross Morin, Yale (Sr., F, Cincinnati, Ohio)
Travis Pinick, Yale (Sr., G/F, Orange, Calif.)
Honorable Mention
Peter Sullivan, Brown (So., F, Willmette, Ill.)
Tyler Bernardini, Penn (So., G/F, Carlsbad, Calif.)
Pawel Buczak, Princeton(Jr., C, Moorestown, N.J.)
Douglas Davis, Princeton (Fr., G, Philadelphia, Pa.)
Alex Zampier, Yale (Jr., G, East Greenbush, N.Y.)
Player of the Year
Alex Barnett, Dartmouth
Rookie of the Year
Chris Wroblewski, Cornell (Fr., G, Highland Park, Ill.)
Defensive Player of the Year
Jeff Foote, Cornell
* Unanimous Selection
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Related Schools: No Associated School
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Related Sports: Basketball
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*This Article has been archived.*
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