Brown Makes Ivy Race More Interesting

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Ivy League race got more interesting on Saturday night.

With Brown’s convincing 75-65 win over Princeton, the showdown between Princeton and Harvard on March 5 just got a little bigger. If things hold to form – and the Bears’ win over the Tigers is just the latest example that one should not assume as much – that game will be between two one-loss teams in the league and very likely determine the champion.

Harvard has a half-game lead due to having played more games, but the Crimson and Tigers are even in the all-important loss column. Many have pointed to the March 5 game as having NCAA Tournament implications, and that may well stand up. But assuming as much isn’t a good idea, something both coaches would surely agree on as they try to go one game at a time.

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A Much-Needed Weekend Sweep for Penn

Penn needed to get back in the win column in a big way. To do that, they turned to a surging star who started to look like the player he could be a couple of years ago, then their leader came up big late in their win at Brown. For good measure, they took the positive energy to New Haven and came away with a road sweep as they pulled off a last-second win at Yale a night later.

Penn entered the weekend with a four-game losing streak, with three of those losses coming in overtime. The Quakers had also not won on the road in nearly two months, dating back to a December 22 road win at Delaware. Two losses came by one and three points, and one of the overtime losses was by 11, meaning they were in it but didn’t play well in the extra session.

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UMass Gets Another Win Against Rhode Island

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – UMass needed to get back on track. After a 64-54 win over Rhode Island at the Mullins Center nearly three weeks ago, the Minutemen dropped four in a row, starting with two on the road and ending with two at home. That meant it was time for some soul-searching, which took place via team meetings. It also didn’t hurt that the next game was another matchup with the Rams, and in a game that was a classic tale of two halves, they came away with a 66-60 win thanks to a strong second half.

With the four-game losing streak, there was a sense that the team wasn’t playing as freely or confidently as they could be. So the team held multiple meetings, with the coaches leading one and the players leading a meeting of their own. The players all spoke at the latter, and the message was simple.

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DePaul Finally Gets a Big East Win For Their Efforts

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Early in Thursday night’s game, a Providence fan yelled to the DePaul bench a comment about winning a Big East game. The Blue Demons haven’t done that often, especially on the road, but on Thursday night they did just that with a 79-76 win over the struggling Friars, their first Big East road win since 2008.

The win breaks a couple of big streaks that the Blue Demons were on the wrong side of. They had lost 25 straight Big East games before Thursday night, and had lost 29 in a row on the road. They had not won a game at all in 2011.

Not only have the Blue Demons had a tough time winning, but they haven’t been close often. Only six of their losses have been decided by single digits, and on six occasions they have lost by 20 or more points.

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Surprising Duquesne Bounces Back at UMass

AMHERST, Mass. – The Atlantic 10 entered the season with a lot of question marks about who would be contending for the top spot. Looking at the standings on Wednesday, most were probably not all that surprised to see Xavier, Temple and Richmond as the top three teams, although each had question marks entering the season. The surprise is the team right behind them, the one that was last to get their first conference loss. That would be Duquesne, who had a convincing 81-63 win at UMass on Wednesday night.

The Dukes aren’t getting a great deal of pub, but they can’t be ignored for what they’re doing on the basketball court right now. They’re 9-2 in the Atlantic 10 and playing like a true dark horse come conference tournament time as they are coming of age. They are also perhaps the best team in a middle of the pack that isn’t as good this season as it has been the last couple of years, and that might be enough to get a bye into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament in a few weeks.

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Close Wins Help Delaware Move Forward

BOSTON – The 2010-11 season has seen Delaware take some good steps forward. Despite injuries and a couple of key players not being the mainstays one thought they might be, the Blue Hens will enter the final week of CAA play with a 7-9 mark and an outside chance to finish tied for fifth in the conference.

An area that has been key for the Blue Hens has been pulling out close games. Delaware won another one on Tuesday night, a game that was tied with just over three minutes left before they went on a 10-2 run en route to a 72-66 win. They scored on every possession in the final three minutes. The Blue Hens are 7-1 in games decided by five points or less, and have been in several games like Tuesday’s that had slightly bigger margins but were close very late. As they continue to pull these games out, they get a confidence boost, and it mainly comes from treating the last few minutes like any other.

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Breakout Game is Like Old Times For Connecticut Sophomore

STORRS, Conn. – Sunday night was like old times for Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, in more ways than one. It was also long-awaited and much-needed at the same time for the sophomore forward.

Coombs-McDaniel broke out in a big way, scoring a career-high 25 points in the Huskies 75-57 win over Providence. Kemba Walker got him going in the first half, finding him with a couple of nice passes inside for easy baskets, and it continued from there. He established his career high in points early in the second half, and had the kind of game in the box score that he had plenty of in high school.

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Hartford Dogged by Offensive Struggles

BOSTON – Offense has been hard to come by all year for Hartford, and Saturday was no different in a crucial part of the game. The Hawks actually looked pretty good at that end save for shots not going, but they went ice cold more than halfway through the second half in a 61-50 loss at Boston University.

The offensive end is where the Hawks have struggled the most. They entered Saturday night shooting less than 38 percent from the field on the season, having shot 45 percent or better just three times all season. Turnovers haven’t been a major issue, although they average a little over 13 a game. They weren’t an issue on Saturday as they turned it over just ten times, but at a crucial juncture, the shots simply didn’t fall.

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Maryland Can’t Get Over the Hump at Boston College

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – If Maryland is sweating it out on Selection Sunday, they will surely look back on games like Saturday’s 76-72 loss at Boston College as one reason why. It’s not the only game like this, as head coach Gary Williams was quick to note, but it was the latest one in which they were not far from pulling out a win.

“We’ve been involved in a lot of these this year where we’ve been close, and we haven’t been able to get over the top,” said the Terrapin mentor after the game.

After Boston College started fast, it was all Maryland for a few minutes early on. The Terrapins scored nine unanswered points, making the Eagles pay for several mistakes at their end of the floor, and took the lead. In the second half, they built a five-point lead and had smaller leads later. But once Boston College scored 10 unanswered points as part of a 16-2 run, they never lost the lead and the Terrapins couldn’t quite play catch-up.

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Yale Must Bounce Back From Missed Opportunity

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Yale was so close to making the Ivy League race a little more interesting on Friday night. They entered the evening quietly a game behind Harvard in the standings, and at times looked like they would be able to get into a tie for second by the end of the night. But the Crimson made enough plays down the stretch after gaining the lead late, and Yale suffered a tough 78-75 loss that certainly qualifies as a missed opportunity.

After sweeping both games last weekend to move to 4-2 in the Ivy League, with this game beckoning, Yale served notice that they planned on contending in a league thought by many to be coming down to Harvard and Princeton for the title. The Bulldogs have gotten their act together in 2011, going 6-2 since the calendar flipped over after finishing 2010 with three straight losses. That made Friday’s game against 5-1 Harvard a big one, and certainly bigger than many might have imagined.

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