Around the Ivies: Harvard Aims to Sweep Up Ivy League This Weekend
?Staff writer Troy Boccelli / thecrimson
Brown accounted for two of Harvard?s six Ivy League wins last year and went 3-11 in conference play last season. The Bears already have two conference wins this year and blew out a Holy Cross team that handed the Crimson a home loss earlier in the season.
To see how far Brown has come in a year, one only has to look at the decreased load that senior guard Tavon Blackmon has had to shoulder since four freshmen arrived in Providence this fall.
Blackmon was a do-everything guard for Martin last season, averaging 13.3 points and 5.5 assists in 34.4 minutes per game last year. The Gonzaga College High School graduate averaged 18 points when facing Harvard in two games last season.
Blackmon is still a key piece for the 2016-2017 Bears but other players have stepped up. Spieth is averaging 16.2 points per game and seven players are averaging more than 7.5 points per game.
Five underclassmen log at least 14 minutes a game for Martin. The Bears enter Friday?s contest with an 11-11 record and has allowed exactly the same number of points as they have scored. The last time Brown was above .500 before this season was when the team was 9-8 on Jan. 12, 2015.
Friday?s contest largely feels like a trap game for the Crimson for several reasons. First, the Bears are easy to overlook from a historical point of view. The last time that Brown beat Harvard, the Crimson?s leading scorer, freshman guard Bryce Aiken, was in fifth grade.
To add to the distractions, the game is on the road exactly 24 hours before one of the Crimson?s most important games of the season. Saturday?s contest comes against Yale, the team?s biggest rival, and the only Ancient Eight foe that beat Harvard twice last season.
The Crimson has not won both games of a road Ivy League weekend since Harvard beat the Bears and Bulldogs over two years ago.
Sophomore guard Corey Johnson often alludes to how important it is for the young Crimson team to play a full 40 minutes. Harvard has yet to do so in an Ivy League contest in 2017. The Crimson has found itself trailing at halftime in each of its last five games and has faced double-digit deficits in its last four. Harvard has to make sure that it is not trying to beat Yale before the team bus pulls into New Haven since Brown is 9-4 in games it is leading at halftime.
Finally, early February is prime upset season. Four of the nation?s top ten teams have lost since the calendar flipped. Princeton and Yale are the only Ivy League teams who bring perfect February records into the month?s second weekend.
While this year?s Crimson team will largely be remembered for how it fares against the Bulldogs, Tigers, and in the Ivy League Tournament, it needs to beat the Bears for those moments to matter.
Losing to Princeton in heartbreaking fashion last Saturday could be exactly the wake-up call that Harvard needs to avoid a slow start this weekend. We will learn a lot about the Crimson this weekend. We will learn whether it takes last Saturday?s loss as motivation to bulldoze the Bears or as an excuse for a slow start. We will learn how this young roster prepares for a weekend in which Saturday is a rivalry game and potential Ivy League Tournament matchup while the night before is projected as a mere formality. Ultimately, we will learn how fast Harvard?s little brother is growing up.
HARVARD AT BROWN
Perhaps I was a bit too harsh on Brown the last time around?sure it was blown out by nearly fifty the last time it reached the NCAA Tournament, but the past is in the past. We like to focus on the present here at The Crimson.
A recent article from The Brown Daily Herald?perhaps Providence?s most esteemed news source?suggests the university is at odds with itself, arguing that the growth of its graduate schools ?Puts Brown?s Identity Into Question.? Tough stuff right there. I think this is also applicable to the school?s basketball team. The Bears are a team whose identity is largely ?Our Small Forward is Jordan Spieth?s brother.?
When the program can move past this, maybe it can get past Harvard, too.
Pick: Harvard
COLUMBIA AT PENN
During the American Revolution, Pennsylvania?s Quakers found themselves at odds. As their pledge to nonviolence conflicted with the ongoing fighting all around, they instead found peaceful ways to support the ongoing revolution.
Wikipedia?America?s most esteemed news source?notes that the Quakers ?participated in the revolutionary movement through nonviolent actions such as embargoes and other economic protests.?
The Quakers of 2017 have a lot in common with their ancestors. They?re a bunch of really passive guys watching a season of Ivy League basketball fly by before their eyes. Sitting at 0-5 in conference, maybe Penn should consider changing its mascot.
Pick: Columbia
CORNELL AT PRINCETON
In a surprising turn of events, Cornell gave Yale a run for its money last weekend. In a game that saw a ridiculous 18 lead changes and two teams from some of the worst places in America face off, it was ultimately the Bulldogs that came out on top. Similarly, Harvard found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Princeton, so the Tigers come into this one without a conference loss.
Personally I?d love to call an upset here. I think orange and black make for a hideous combination of colors, but you have to hand it to the Tigers. They lost a First Team All-Ivy pick in senior Henry Caruso but have kept rolling.
Despite a nearly embarrassing loss to Dartmouth last Friday, they?re still the conference favorites.
Pick: Princeton
DARTMOUTH AT YALE
It finally happened. No, Penn didn?t finally snag a conference win, but because of that, Dartmouth did. That?s just kind of what happens when you put two winless teams against one another.
Perhaps more importantly, though, Dartmouth is now a year removed from its historic hard alcohol ban. The Dartmouth?a news source whose only claim to fame is that it?s really old?suggests, ?80 percent indicated that they do not think the hard alcohol ban has been successful in lowering high-risk drinking on campus.?
What a shame. I know most seasons of Dartmouth basketball are pretty unbearable, but trying to get through them with just a beer has probably been even worse.
Cheers to a dry Hanover and maybe next year.
Pick: Yale
COLUMBIA AT PRINCETON
I know people can go on for hours about how anyone in the Ivy League can win on a given night. It?s true, but frankly the picks this week seem oddly easy. There are a bunch of teams with a lot of conference wins taking on a bunch teams with not a lot of conference wins.
Hope you followed that.
This game, however, isn?t particularly easy to call. Sure, Princeton is undefeated, but the Tigers have also shown that they?re beatable, particularly this past weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth.To find the answer to this dilemma I?ve looked to nature. Specifically, I just Googled ?In a fight would a lion or a tiger win??
While answers abound, I found a relatively credible source that suggests, ?The contest of the lion against the tiger was a classic pairing, and the betting usually favored the tiger. At the end of the 19th century, the Gaekwad of Baroda arranged a fight between a lion and tiger before an audience of thousands. The Gaekwad favored the lion, and as a result had to pay 37,000 rupees as the lion was mauled by the tiger.?
I?d prefer not to put any rupees on this one, but if I had to I guess, the tiger mauls the lion.
Pick: Princeton
DARTMOUTH AT BROWN
Having a degree of separation from Jordan Spieth has to be good for something.
Well either that or the Big Green comes into this one hot off their first conference victory of the season.
Just kidding. Let?s go with the Spieth thing.
Pick: Brown
HARVARD AT YALE
During the 133rd playing of The Game something particularly unexpected happened. No, I?m not talking about the strange mating ritual Yalies do at the end of the third quarter. I?m talking about the fact that Yale won. I don?t know the details, but I do know that it had been a while.
I?d like to think history doesn?t repeat itself.
Pick: Harvard
?Staff writer Troy Boccelli / thecrimson
Brown accounted for two of Harvard?s six Ivy League wins last year and went 3-11 in conference play last season. The Bears already have two conference wins this year and blew out a Holy Cross team that handed the Crimson a home loss earlier in the season.
To see how far Brown has come in a year, one only has to look at the decreased load that senior guard Tavon Blackmon has had to shoulder since four freshmen arrived in Providence this fall.
Blackmon was a do-everything guard for Martin last season, averaging 13.3 points and 5.5 assists in 34.4 minutes per game last year. The Gonzaga College High School graduate averaged 18 points when facing Harvard in two games last season.
Blackmon is still a key piece for the 2016-2017 Bears but other players have stepped up. Spieth is averaging 16.2 points per game and seven players are averaging more than 7.5 points per game.
Five underclassmen log at least 14 minutes a game for Martin. The Bears enter Friday?s contest with an 11-11 record and has allowed exactly the same number of points as they have scored. The last time Brown was above .500 before this season was when the team was 9-8 on Jan. 12, 2015.
Friday?s contest largely feels like a trap game for the Crimson for several reasons. First, the Bears are easy to overlook from a historical point of view. The last time that Brown beat Harvard, the Crimson?s leading scorer, freshman guard Bryce Aiken, was in fifth grade.
To add to the distractions, the game is on the road exactly 24 hours before one of the Crimson?s most important games of the season. Saturday?s contest comes against Yale, the team?s biggest rival, and the only Ancient Eight foe that beat Harvard twice last season.
The Crimson has not won both games of a road Ivy League weekend since Harvard beat the Bears and Bulldogs over two years ago.
Sophomore guard Corey Johnson often alludes to how important it is for the young Crimson team to play a full 40 minutes. Harvard has yet to do so in an Ivy League contest in 2017. The Crimson has found itself trailing at halftime in each of its last five games and has faced double-digit deficits in its last four. Harvard has to make sure that it is not trying to beat Yale before the team bus pulls into New Haven since Brown is 9-4 in games it is leading at halftime.
Finally, early February is prime upset season. Four of the nation?s top ten teams have lost since the calendar flipped. Princeton and Yale are the only Ivy League teams who bring perfect February records into the month?s second weekend.
While this year?s Crimson team will largely be remembered for how it fares against the Bulldogs, Tigers, and in the Ivy League Tournament, it needs to beat the Bears for those moments to matter.
Losing to Princeton in heartbreaking fashion last Saturday could be exactly the wake-up call that Harvard needs to avoid a slow start this weekend. We will learn a lot about the Crimson this weekend. We will learn whether it takes last Saturday?s loss as motivation to bulldoze the Bears or as an excuse for a slow start. We will learn how this young roster prepares for a weekend in which Saturday is a rivalry game and potential Ivy League Tournament matchup while the night before is projected as a mere formality. Ultimately, we will learn how fast Harvard?s little brother is growing up.
HARVARD AT BROWN
Perhaps I was a bit too harsh on Brown the last time around?sure it was blown out by nearly fifty the last time it reached the NCAA Tournament, but the past is in the past. We like to focus on the present here at The Crimson.
A recent article from The Brown Daily Herald?perhaps Providence?s most esteemed news source?suggests the university is at odds with itself, arguing that the growth of its graduate schools ?Puts Brown?s Identity Into Question.? Tough stuff right there. I think this is also applicable to the school?s basketball team. The Bears are a team whose identity is largely ?Our Small Forward is Jordan Spieth?s brother.?
When the program can move past this, maybe it can get past Harvard, too.
Pick: Harvard
COLUMBIA AT PENN
During the American Revolution, Pennsylvania?s Quakers found themselves at odds. As their pledge to nonviolence conflicted with the ongoing fighting all around, they instead found peaceful ways to support the ongoing revolution.
Wikipedia?America?s most esteemed news source?notes that the Quakers ?participated in the revolutionary movement through nonviolent actions such as embargoes and other economic protests.?
The Quakers of 2017 have a lot in common with their ancestors. They?re a bunch of really passive guys watching a season of Ivy League basketball fly by before their eyes. Sitting at 0-5 in conference, maybe Penn should consider changing its mascot.
Pick: Columbia
CORNELL AT PRINCETON
In a surprising turn of events, Cornell gave Yale a run for its money last weekend. In a game that saw a ridiculous 18 lead changes and two teams from some of the worst places in America face off, it was ultimately the Bulldogs that came out on top. Similarly, Harvard found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Princeton, so the Tigers come into this one without a conference loss.
Personally I?d love to call an upset here. I think orange and black make for a hideous combination of colors, but you have to hand it to the Tigers. They lost a First Team All-Ivy pick in senior Henry Caruso but have kept rolling.
Despite a nearly embarrassing loss to Dartmouth last Friday, they?re still the conference favorites.
Pick: Princeton
DARTMOUTH AT YALE
It finally happened. No, Penn didn?t finally snag a conference win, but because of that, Dartmouth did. That?s just kind of what happens when you put two winless teams against one another.
Perhaps more importantly, though, Dartmouth is now a year removed from its historic hard alcohol ban. The Dartmouth?a news source whose only claim to fame is that it?s really old?suggests, ?80 percent indicated that they do not think the hard alcohol ban has been successful in lowering high-risk drinking on campus.?
What a shame. I know most seasons of Dartmouth basketball are pretty unbearable, but trying to get through them with just a beer has probably been even worse.
Cheers to a dry Hanover and maybe next year.
Pick: Yale
COLUMBIA AT PRINCETON
I know people can go on for hours about how anyone in the Ivy League can win on a given night. It?s true, but frankly the picks this week seem oddly easy. There are a bunch of teams with a lot of conference wins taking on a bunch teams with not a lot of conference wins.
Hope you followed that.
This game, however, isn?t particularly easy to call. Sure, Princeton is undefeated, but the Tigers have also shown that they?re beatable, particularly this past weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth.To find the answer to this dilemma I?ve looked to nature. Specifically, I just Googled ?In a fight would a lion or a tiger win??
While answers abound, I found a relatively credible source that suggests, ?The contest of the lion against the tiger was a classic pairing, and the betting usually favored the tiger. At the end of the 19th century, the Gaekwad of Baroda arranged a fight between a lion and tiger before an audience of thousands. The Gaekwad favored the lion, and as a result had to pay 37,000 rupees as the lion was mauled by the tiger.?
I?d prefer not to put any rupees on this one, but if I had to I guess, the tiger mauls the lion.
Pick: Princeton
DARTMOUTH AT BROWN
Having a degree of separation from Jordan Spieth has to be good for something.
Well either that or the Big Green comes into this one hot off their first conference victory of the season.
Just kidding. Let?s go with the Spieth thing.
Pick: Brown
HARVARD AT YALE
During the 133rd playing of The Game something particularly unexpected happened. No, I?m not talking about the strange mating ritual Yalies do at the end of the third quarter. I?m talking about the fact that Yale won. I don?t know the details, but I do know that it had been a while.
I?d like to think history doesn?t repeat itself.
Pick: Harvard
