Ivy League Notebook

Ivy League Notebook

by Jay Pearlman

Through Two Friday/Saturday Weekends, Ivy League More Interesting than Ever

Coaches say the lower the level, the tougher the road. And even NBA teams have trouble the second straight night away from home in a different city, all the more so after winning the first. Throw in some late-arriving wintry weather, and through two full weekends plus, the Ivy League is an absolute mess.

First the good stuff. Yale (5-1, 9-10) has the league’s best athlete, Casey Hughes (10.3 points, 51 percent from the field, 6.6 boards, 1.6 assists, 2 steals per game), who is much improved as a basketball player. On Saturday, they had their biggest win since beating Rutgers in Piscataway in the NIT (arguably bigger), as James Jones’ crew bested Penn at home 77-68, completing a rare sweep of Princeton and Penn. But for stumbling at home against travel partner Brown, they’d be 6-0 and alone atop the standings. And aside from that hiccup the second consecutive night away against Yale (after a win on Friday against Brown), Penn (3-1, 12-8) is cruising along, with a home date against Yale circled on the calendar on Friday, March 2.

Now the not-so-good. With Lenny Collins graduated and sophomore Adam Gore out for the season, Cornell (4-2, 11-9) has gotten great play from two freshmen, Randy Wittman’s son Ryan (15.3 points, 2.7 rebounds), and diminutive Louis Dale (12.8 points, 50 percent from the field, 48 percent on threes, 4 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1 steal), in the process dominating the Rookie of the Week column. But after a split of Princeton/Penn weekend at home (you can tell easily enough which game was the loss), rousing back-to-back wins against travel partner Columbia, and a workmanlike 74-61 win at Dartmouth on Friday night, just as Penn did that very night at Yale, Cornell stumbled badly at Harvard on Saturday. With snow and ice en route from Hanover the night before, and freshmen being freshmen, Cornell stumbled against the Brian Cusworth-less Crimson in Boston, suffering a heartbreaking last second loss 65-64. In that loss – the biggest loss by any team in the conference so far – Cornell provided the opportunity for Drew Housman to find Evan Harris for the winner with 0.8 to play when its star freshmen missed three crucial free-throws: 95% shooter Wittman missed both in a two-shot opportunity, and 92% shooter Dale missed one of two. But for that loss, the 4-2 Big Red would be 5-1 and alone atop the standings.

There is more not-so-good. Blessed with the second best talent in the conference (behind Penn), after splitting Penn/Princeton weekend at home, Columbia (3-3, 12-8) managed to lose both ends of its home and home series with Cornell, in two nearly identical grinding games (49-45 and 56-51). They did get back to .500 by taking out their frustrations on Harvard and Dartmouth away this past weekend (90-70 and 61-55). Coach Joe Jones had better be ready for elder brother James as Yale visits Friday in what surely is Columbia’s biggest game of the year so far.

Now the bad: for the first time ever, Princeton (0-4, 9-9) has lost its first four to start the conference, suffering its most embarrassing defeat Saturday night at Brown 63-48. The second night in a row away shouldn’t have caused the loss, in which Brown scored 20 of the last 24 points (after all, Princeton lost the night before), and neither should the reduced minutes of swingman Kyle Koncz, who just returned from injury. Additionally, the article in this space a week ago comparing Coach Joe Scott to Bill Belichick shouldn’t. But with this practice week likely the toughest ever on Princeton players, seven of ten remaining league games at home, and undermanned Harvard and Dartmouth arriving this weekend, it’s still too early to call this a lost season. It won’t be early any more if they don’t sweep these next two. (Yogi must have been talking about this conference when he said, “It gets late here early”).

Less bad (or less unexpected), the Pattman-Barnett combination wasn’t able to beat either Cornell or Columbia at home this weekend, and like Harvard, Dartmouth (2-4, 7-12) travels to Penn and angry Princeton this weekend. As for the Crimson (3-3, 10-10), with no expectations post-Cusworth they surprised to the good on Saturday in beating Cornell, and if they can somehow repeat at winless Princeton Friday night, they’ll be assured of being at least .500 eight games into the league season. As for Brown (2-4, 7-14), though the win over Princeton must have been sweet indeed for head coach Craig Robinson (two-time Ivy Player of the Year for the Tigers), a most difficult weekend at Cornell and Columbia looms ahead.

Still, all in all, particularly on Saturday nights for traveling teams who won on Friday, nothing is secure in this old league, and no conference tournament at the end leaves little margin for error going forward. It should remain most interesting.