Harvard asserts itself in the opening weekend of Ivy League play

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The first full weekend of Ivy League play is in the books, and one thing that wasn’t too surprising happened: the league favorites asserted themselves as just that. Harvard looked like a team on a mission, and coming away with two convincing road wins is what was desired.

“I think it’s a team on a mission this year,” said junior Kyle Casey, who led Harvard with 20 points and eight rebounds in Saturday’s 68-59 win at Brown. “Last year, we got down early, and being a veteran team, we learned from those experiences and tried to nip them in the bud.”

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Dartmouth is on the cusp of being relevant again

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It’s been a while since Dartmouth was really relevant in the Ivy League. While a recent Player of the Year was a member of the Big Green, Alex Barnett did so on a team that tied for fourth place and had an overall 9-19 record, which doesn’t happen often in an eight-team league. Although Dartmouth is off to an 0-3 start in Ivy League play, there is reason to believe that they will be relevant again before long.

Dartmouth gave Harvard a battle for much of the game last month when they visited Cambridge for the league opener. For years while they have struggled, they have been known for giving even the best teams a run for their money in Hanover. Thus far, they are 0-3 in the early going after dropping a 66-59 decision at Brown on Friday night, and it’s a game they could have had. The bottom line isn’t going to show it, but the future is looking bright for this team.

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Several teams get much-needed resume wins on Saturday

Saturday saw a few teams get a victory they needed to jump-start their NCAA Tournament resume. A few others suffered bad losses in games they needed, or missed opportunities, but we’re going to stick with the positive and focus on the teams that got big wins. It’s too early to declare a number of these teams locks after what they did on Saturday, but they are in a better place than they were to start the day.

Let’s start with Florida State, which annihilated North Carolina 90-57 in Tallahassee. The Seminoles had a so-so non-conference run, as they came into Saturday lacking a win against the top 50 in three tries. Beating the Tar Heels is a remedy for that, although they need to make it relevant come March by playing well the rest of ACC play.

Next, we go to Northwestern, a team for whom heartbreak has become a regular occurrence. The Wildcats have had chances to play their way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in recent years, but haven’t been able to pull out the games they needed to. It looked like this year might be another case of that, too, although they did win the Charleston Classic over Seton Hall, a win that is looking better all the time. They won at mediocre Georgia Tech and lost to Baylor, which is hardly a bad loss. But then they lost at Creighton, got hammered at Ohio State and lost tough ones to Illinois and Michigan by a combined three points. And on Saturday, they knocked off Michigan State in Evanston for their best win of the season. Add that to the Seton Hall win and the Wildcats, who don’t have a bad loss and an RPI of 33 at the start of the week, are in a good place for the moment.

Then there is Oklahoma, a team thought to be rebuilding. But the Sooners knocked off Kansas State 82-73 for their second win against a top 50 team. The Sooners are now 1-3 in Big 12 play, so they have a good deal of work to do. But if they get to .500 in conference and win a game or two in the conference tournament, they may have done enough work by then to be in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament team.  It helps that they don’t have a bad loss.

Lastly, San Diego State knocked off UNLV in a thriller, 69-67. The Aztecs were actually in a reasonably good place before Saturday, but perhaps now they can be called an NCAA Tournament lock if they win the games they should the rest of the way. The Mountain West figured to be rebuilding this season, but that hasn’t been the case thus far as both of these teams look like they will be in the field of 68.

We go coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Pittsburgh lost at Marquette, 62-57, and is now 0-5 in the Big East for the second time in program history and first in 12 years. They have never started 0-6, but they play at Syracuse on Monday.

Connecticut freshman Ryan Boatright was suspended by the NCAA and did not play in the Huskies’ 67-53 win at Notre Dame. The NCAA is investigating more eligibility matters with the freshman guard.

Iowa handily took out Michigan 75-59, and continues to be something of a Jekyll and Hyde team.

Jarnell Stokes gave Tennessee a boost in his debut, but Kentucky prevailed in Knoxville 65-62. The thinking is that although it was a loss, Saturday’s game bodes well for the Volunteers.

The Ivy League has started the season a little differently this time around, and Penn has started off 2-0 with wins at Columbia and Cornell. Normally teams play their travel partners over two weeks, save for Penn and Princeton, before the Friday-Saturday weekends start.

No America East team will go undefeated in conference play this season, as Stony Brook had its six-game winning streak end at Boston University, who has won three in a row after losing six straight.

Harvard continues to live dangerously in Ivy League opener

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard improved to 13-2 on Saturday by winning the first Ivy League game of the season. While the bottom line is all positive, the Crimson also lived dangerously for a while, more so than the 16-point final margin of victory might lead one to believe. Saturday’s game is not an isolated event, and with the full remaining slate of Ivy League games not far away, that is a concern for this team.

The Crimson didn’t start slowly, but Dartmouth was able to hang around and then took a seven-point lead early in the second half as they won the first four minutes coming out of the locker room. With the Big Green still up by six, Harvard went on a 16-2 run to take over the game, and offensively-challenged Dartmouth never seriously challenged them the rest of the game.

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Harvard has gone from hunter to hunted

Coming off their first loss of the season, Harvard responded the way a ranked team would be expected to the last time out. They headed across town and had a complete effort in blowing out Boston University 76-52, with a balanced attack and a showing of why they should win the Ivy League this year. With that, they look more and more like a team that has made a transition.

The Crimson first did the job defensively, limiting the Terriers to just below 31 percent shooting. Brandyn Curry was the first key to that, as he so often is, as the junior point guard never let BU point guard D.J. Irving get going. He didn’t let Irving get driving opportunities, and also read the offense well to steal and deflect passes while off the ball.

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Defense helps Princeton turn around after tough start

BOSTON – The start to this season wasn’t exactly how Princeton probably drew it up. The Tigers were 1-5 in the first six games, with three losses being by six points or less, and they had some question marks offensively. While the offense is always a subject of conversation, an improvement at the defensive end has helped changed the team’s success, as Sunday’s 71-62 win at Northeastern was their fifth in six games.

In the Tigers’ five losses early on, they allowed the opponent to shoot 45.6 percent from the field. In addition, two opponents made more than half of their shots from long range. While the Tigers struggled offensively in those games, topping 38 percent just twice, the impact of their defense could not be understated.

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Injuries, eligibility issues hurt Brown out of the gates

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The 2011-12 season hasn’t exactly gone the way Brown drew it up thus far. The Bears come up on their last game before a break for final exams with a 4-7 mark, but more than that, not playing well. They were annihilated at cross-town rival Providence on Monday, then lost to New Hampshire on Wednesday.

Brown has been hit hard in the personnel department since school began. Rafael Maia, who figured to change the frontcourt lineup by giving the Bears a better big man, was declared ineligible for the season by the NCAA. Joe Sharkey, who figured to give them some backcourt depth, injured his hip and will redshirt, with surgery coming near the end of this month. Tucker Halpern, who was ready to blossom further now that he would be able to play his natural small forward position more, caught a bad case of mono and is going to redshirt as well, as he’s not improving much. And Dockery Walker, another who figured to contribute up front, is on the shelf.

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In a time of tribulation, college hoops shows the good in sports

The Jimmy V Classic couldn’t have come at a more necessary time this year.

College sports have had a rough run in recent months. Throughout the summer, fans had to try to figure out which conference their favorite team would be playing in when all the moving and shaking subsides. The motivation for conference realignment is all about the dollar bills, often at the expense of any sport not named football — and with little consideration for rivalries that make sports thrilling to watch and play.

But conference realignment was utterly benign compared to the chaos that erupted in State College, Pa., when one of the NCAA’s premier football programs crumbled under the weight of allegation after allegation of sexual misconduct by Jerry Sandusky, a former coordinator. Exacerbating the situation, coach Joe Paterno and Penn State officials appear to have covered up the activities, and it cost one of college football’s legends his job.

Then scandal crept into college hoops, at another sacred program. Coach Jim Boeheim has built Syracuse into a top program, and he relied on his top assistant, Bernie Fine, to help get the Orange there. But allegations of sexual abuse have surrounded Fine, and university officials fired him. Syracuse has received plenty of criticism for possibly failing to do enough to report the rumors of the abuse to police nearly 10 years ago, and Boeheim passionately defended his friend and assistant when ESPN first reported the allegations. He has had to backtrack from those statements, and some experts are calling for his ouster.

Yuck.

With such greed and alleged corruption percolating in college sports, it’d be easy to become disillusioned.

But resist the urge. Or to put it another way: “Don’t ever give up.”

Former NC State coach Jim Valvano made that phrase the motto of the foundation named for him after he died of cancer in 1993. Since his death, ESPN has partnered with the Jimmy V Foundation to raise funds for cancer research. The money goes directly to research, and it goes to a broad range of medical experts toiling to find a cure, not just for popular causes such as breast or prostate cancer but also rarer cancers that have a far worse death rate.

The annual Jimmy V Classic serves as a forum for ESPN to reach a national audience to urge donations, in addition to showcasing a few of the country’s best teams. If that’s not a great role for sports in U.S. society, I don’t know what is.

We go coast to coast with other news from the college basketball nation

Utah doesn’t have a Division I win yet on the season, and the Utes could struggle some more to pick that up after indefinitely suspending Josh Watkins, according to the Associated Press. Watkins has been Utah’s best player by far, averaging 17.7 ppg and 4.9 apg.

Things aren’t much better for one of the Utes’ biggest rivals, the Utah State Aggies. Diamond Leung, of ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog, writes that Brady Jardine could be out all season after injuring his foot Nov. 19 in the team’s win against Southern Utah. Jardine is one of the team’s top rebounders, averaging 7.7 rpg.

West Virginia v. the Big East continues to froth in the legal system, with the Big East’s lawyers moving for a dismissal of West Virginia’s lawsuit attempting to get the Mountaineers out of the conference and into the Big 12 ahead of the Big East’s mandatory 27-month waiting period, according to the Associated Press’ Vicki Smith.

We don’t place a ton of stock in the polls in general, but Harvard’s arrival this week is newsworthy. As CBS Sports.com reports, it’s the first time that the Crimson have ever appeared in the top 25, and they are the first Ivy League team to reach the polls since Princeton in 1998.

Games to watch Tuesday

• Missouri vs. Villanova, 7 pm EST (Jimmy V Classic)
• George Mason at Virginia, 7 pm EST
• Kent State at James Madison, 7 pm EST
• Robert Morris at Duquesne, 7 pm EST
• Iowa at Northern Iowa, 8 pm EST
• Washington vs. Marquette, 9 pm EST (Jimmy V Classic)
• Long Beach State at Kansas, 9 pm EST
• Memphis at Miami, 9 pm EST

Princeton gets first win, shows room for improvement

PRINCETON, N.J. – In getting the first win of the season and the first career win for head coach Mitch Henderson, Princeton certainly did some things well on Saturday. But there was also plenty to take away for future work from their 61-53 win over Buffalo that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.

The Tigers started with a bang and were never seriously challenged in the first half, owing largely to their defense and Buffalo’s offense. The Bulls never got untracked at that end of the floor, and the first half numbers for them were ugly: 20 percent shooting and 12 turnovers. At one point, Princeton led 36-11 late in the first half.

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Mid-April Rundown of the Latest NBA Decisions and Coaching Changes

1. Stetson is hoping that Casey Alexander can duplicate the run of success he helped establish at Belmont as the Hatters’ new coach, according to a press release from Belmont that announces the associate coach’s departure. In 20 years with the Bruins’ program, Alexander helped the team transition from NAIA to the NCAA and worked to position the Bruins as a mid-major powerhouse in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

2. As the deadline for early entrants to the NBA Draft passes, here’s a rundown of some of the recent announcements:

• Colorado’s Alec Burks: In draft, with agent.
• Kentucky’s Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight and DeAndre Liggins: All in draft, none with agent.
• Michigan’s Darius Morris: In draft, without agent.
• Northwestern’s John Shurna: In draft, without agent.
• Vanderbilt’s Festus Ezeli, John Jenkins and Jeffrey Taylor: All returning to school.

3. Among the coaching ranks, here’s some more recent movement:

• Penn State assistant coach Lewis Preston is leaving to coach Kennesaw State.
• Former Princeton player Mitch Henderson returns to his alma mater as head coach.
• Syracuse assistant Rob Murphy will move to Eastern Michigan as head coach.

4. And from the rumor mill, Miami’s coaching search continues, with George Mason’s Jim Larranaga as a new target.

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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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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Cornell Perseveres, Gets to Head Home At Last

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Say this much for first year Cornell head coach Bill Courtney: he hasn’t lost his team at all, despite the season going in such a way that a lot of coaches might. It hasn’t been the kind of storybook season recent years were for the Big Red, who got their first Ivy League win of the season on Saturday night when they pulled out a 91-79 decision at Brown.

No one realistically expected the Big Red to win a fourth straight Ivy League title this season. Too many key players from last season are gone and the coaching staff is new. Close losses have dogged the Big Red all season, as they have been close too many times to mention while falling short. Courtney has seen the team lose confidence late in games at times, the cumulative result of the close losses. Cornell entered Saturday night’s game with a 3-10 mark in games decided by single digits as part of their 4-15 overall record.

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McGonagill Leads Brown With Performance For the Ages

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Jesse Agel knew a long time ago he had a tough point guard. Early in the season he could see it in the way he competed with a lot of pressure put on him, and at a position where Brown struggled last year because they didn’t have anyone who was a natural at the position. But even he didn’t think what Sean McGonagill did from on Friday night was going to happen after what happened a couple of days earlier.

During practice on Wednesday, McGonagill and classmates Josh Biber and Dockery Walker went after a loose ball. They all dove at once, and the outcome wasn’t pretty with McGonagill getting the worst of it by far. He made contact with Biber first, then his face went into Walker’s knee, and it was ugly from there. There was plenty of blood, and as one player put it, a lot of the team “was almost throwing up” looking at the aftermath.

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Harvard’s Big News: The Re-Emergence of Kyle Casey

The big news coming out of the first full Ivy League weekend for Harvard isn’t that they advanced to 4-0 in league play. That’s certainly good, as Harvard heads on the road next weekend for a crucial trip with a perfect mark. But the big news for the Crimson is that Kyle Casey looks like himself after having his ups and downs in non-league play coming off a broken foot suffered before practice began.

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Harvard Has Something Good Going

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – There is surely much being said about Boston College in the aftermath of Harvard’s third straight win over the Eagles. But let’s give credit to the winning team and acknowledge that they have something very good going right now. This is not a bad loss for the Eagles, much as it is a game they should win since it was at home.

With Ivy League play coming up, the Crimson are 10-3 with wins over Colorado and Boston College. Colorado looks like they will be around the bottom of the Big 12, but the Crimson dominated them. Boston College could finish in the top four in the ACC. The Crimson have done this with Kyle Casey, who received a number of preseason accolades, not playing well after a broken foot kept him out of preseason practice and early games. … Continue Reading

Win Over Wofford May Significantly Boost Cornell

RICHMOND, Va. – If Cornell’s season turns around and they contend in the Ivy League, as many projected before the season, Thursday night might prove to be something of a turning point. That’s not the case because their 86-80 win over Wofford broke an eight-game losing streak, or because they were white hot shooting the ball for a lot of the game. Of course, those certainly don’t hurt the cause.

The Big Red entered Thursday at 2-9, with six losses by five points or less. While each loss presents a teaching tool, at some point a team doesn’t need any more teaching tools like that. … Continue Reading

Not Surprising: Harvard Takes Care of Colorado

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – From several standpoints, Harvard’s 82-66 win over Colorado is hardly an upset, although casual fans will look at conference affiliation and think it is. An Ivy League team knocking off a Big 12 team? Must be an upset.

But that’s just not the case here. The better team won, and they expected to win.

The home game is the first noteworthy item. Home teams usually win, especially when it’s a good team as Harvard is. The Crimson went 11-2 at home last season, including 6-0 in non-league games, and have established at least one thing about playing in Lavietes Pavilion. … Continue Reading

Harvard Unexpectedly Routs Holy Cross

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Sometimes, “dominant” isn’t quite the word to describe how one team played in a game. Wednesday might have been one of those nights with the way Harvard man-handled Holy Cross 72-49 in their home opener in a game that wasn’t even that close.

The Crimson primarily won this game on defense, as Holy Cross’ 49 points might imply. More numbers show it as well, such as the Crusaders shooting below 40 percent from the field and committing 15 turnovers with just eight assists. However, that wasn’t all, and the primary numbers obscure how they did it. First and foremost, the Crimson’s transition defense was excellent all night long, rarely letting Holy Cross get a fast break chance. … Continue Reading