Around the Ivies

[IE]

--Andrew R. Mooney, HARVARD CRIMSON STAFF



HARVARD at BROWN

The Crimson opens its weekend with a light jaunt to Providence to take on the Bears and freshman forward Cedric Kuakumensah, coming off an Ivy Rookie of the Week performance. Kuakumensah was particularly impressive in defeat against Cornell on Saturday, overwhelming the Big Red with a string of seemingly unrelated consonants and vowels on his way to 13 points, 19 rebounds, and four blocks. He may cause one or two problems for Harvard down low, but the Crimson front line is playing with confidence. It won?t take double overtime to put away Brown.

Pick: Harvard

DARTMOUTH at YALE

The Bulldogs will gear up for their rivalry showdown the next night with a home date against the Big Green. Expect Yale to enter the weekend with confidence, fresh off a 19-point dismantling of Columbia in which the Bulldogs shot 62 percent from the field. Expect Dartmouth to play substandard basketball.

Pick: Yale

PRINCETON at COLUMBIA

Embarking on another of its season-ending road journeys?the Tigers will have played seven of their last nine away from Jadwin Gymnasium by the end of the year?Princeton makes the quick northeastern jump to New York to take on last-place Columbia. The Lions? only real chance lies with Steve Frankoski and his startling 48.7 percent three-point shooting; if he gets as hot as he did against the Crimson (5-for-7 from beyond the arc), things could get interesting.

Pick: Princeton

PENN at CORNELL

In the previous meeting between these two teams on Feb. 2, the Big Red snuck away with a two-point victory at the Palestra, with sophomore guard Galal Cancer?s jumper with 10 seconds left providing the winning tally. Even better for Cornell, the win convinced highly regarded recruits Johnny AIDS and Mike Malaria to sign on for the class of 2017. Ithaca is a dark place.

Pick: Cornell

PENN at COLUMBIA

Thinking about this game for more than five minutes elicited a series of deafening yawns from me. It isn?t good enough to be interesting but not bad enough to be funny. It?s like Thor. I have nothing more to add.

DARTMOUTH at BROWN

In what is undoubtedly some sinister conspiracy, Brown and Dartmouth find themselves at the bottom of the conference standings for yet another year. If the Ivy League is going to continue this whole ?no postseason tournament? thing for the foreseeable future, we need to find a way to make things interesting for teams like these, who will now play out the remainder of their schedules with all the enthusiasm of a sleep-deprived tree sloth. As in the English Premier League, let?s introduce relegation to the Ancient Eight: the last-place team in the conference is demoted to Division III to be replaced by some other suitably snooty institution?s basketball program. I?m looking at you, Swarthmore.

Pick: Brown

PRINCETON at CORNELL

If you?ve had the misfortune of talking to a Cornell fan this week, you might have heard that the Big Red still have a shot at the Ivy title??look, bro, I?m just saying, we?re only two games back,? or some variation thereof. The Ivy Basketball Twitter account compiles projections of the Ivy teams? chances of winning the league title by simulating the rest of their seasons, given their respective places in the league standings, offensive and defensive Pomeroy ratings, and an estimation of variance. In its model, Cornell currently has a two percent chance of earning a share of the conference championship. Once the Big Red falls to the Tigers, those odds should drop to near zero, and you can tell Andy Bernard to kindly pipe down.

Pick: Princeton

HARVARD at YALE

Harvard has suffered its share of heartbreak at Payne Whitney Gymnasium in recent seasons?a potentially game-winning layup that rimmed out at the buzzer in 2011, followed by the kick in the groin that was the one-game playoff against Princeton?but the Crimson may have permanently marked its territory on the home of the Bulldogs with last year?s 65-35 flogging. Still, this game is about all Yale has left to play for: a chance to earn some redemption for the defeat in Cambridge and knock Harvard off its current perch.

Pick: Harvard

 

[IE]

Second chances for Quakers in New York
Penn looks to atone for previous mistakes entering stretch run

It?s hard to measure experience.

But this upcoming weekend will serve as a measuring stick for Penn.

As the Quakers travel to New York this weekend to take on Cornell (13-12, 5-3 Ivy) and Columbia (10-12, 2-6), Penn begins its second go-round through the Ivy League.

The Red and Blue (6-18, 3-4) enters the latter half of the Ancient Eight schedule with the opportunity to atone for previous mistakes.

?I expect them to play the best they possibly can,? coach Jerome Allen said. ?A complete game.?

That completeness was elusive for the Quakers their last time out against Cornell. A late turnover and a five-second violation after sophomore guard Cam Crocker failed to inbound the ball doomed the Quakers in the game?s final moments resulting in a 71-69 loss.

Penn?s defense has been a weak link at times and freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry sees his team?s ability to challenge the Big Red offense as a key to victory.

?We allowed them to score a lot of easy baskets last time out,? Nelson-Henry said. ?We need to take the defensive end more personally.?

Just as the Quakers lacked aggression against Cornell, they came out flat last weekend on what was the first Ivy road trip for many.

?The travel time in between games, the travel time up there, the travel time back. Balancing all of that was hard,? Nelson-Henry said. ?It?s no easy task.?

At least Penn can take solace in the fact that its most difficult road trip of the season may already be in its rearview mirror. The trip to Harvard, who took the Ancient Eight by the horns after a sweep of Penn and Princeton last weekend, is history.

The Quakers now know what kind of energy they need to bring in enemy territory, which will be plenty against a surging Cornell squad that has won four of its last five Ivy contests, three of them being on the road.

Despite getting handled by Harvard and finding themselves in a 30-18 halftime hole at Dartmouth the following night, the Quakers still salvaged another Ivy weekend split.

?We got beaten by Harvard pretty badly,? Nelson-Henry said. ?But we were able to stay positive throughout against Dartmouth. Each game is separate.?

This weekend sets up similarly for Penn, who will take on the Big Red before traveling to face Columbia, which got swept by Brown and Yale last weekend.

While it could be easy to overlook Columbia with the way the Lions have played of late, the Quakers? poor first half at Dartmouth taught them a lesson.

After all, Columbia and Cornell rank first and second respectively in turnover margin in the Ivy League, while Penn ranks dead last. And the Lions still boast the conference?s second-ranked defense.

?You can?t dismiss anybody in the Ivy League,? Nelson-Henry said. ?You look at Dartmouth, who?s seventh in the league, and we went into the half down 12 to them.?

Penn expects close games against Columbia as well as Cornell, especially since it took junior guard Miles Cartwright coming up big in the clutch for the Quakers to solidify a 62-58 victory over the Lions earlier this month.

The Quakers have experienced all of the bumps in the road that can throw an Ivy League weekend off-kilter.

Now they?ll take that knowledge and try to turn it into wins.

 

[elmer fudd]

thanks:0008