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PRINCETON, N.J. — It's only the second weekend of full Ivy League play, but four of the League's top teams square off in what could prove to be a pivotal early-season weekend.
Cornell and Columbia hit the road for the historically daunting Penn-Princeton road trip. Since the Ivy League went to its current travel partner format in 1956-57, Penn and Princeton have hosted 158 Ivy weekends and have never combined to go winless with an 0-4 record. In fact, last season was the first time the Quakers and Tigers failed to go .500 in an Ivy home weekend, after Yale and Brown came in and won three of four — with the lone Pe-Pr win coming by Penn against Yale.
Defending champions Cornell (14-6, 4-0 Ivy) enters the weekend as one of the hottest teams in America. The Big Red have won 19 consecutive Ivy League contests and nine straight overall, with the last seven coming by double-digit margins. Last weekend's 32- and 28-point victories over Brown and Yale, respectively, totaled the largest margins of victory in an Ivy weekend in Cornell basketball history.
The Big Red have won seven of eight against Princeton, and will look for its first three-game win streak against Penn for the first time since 1988-90.
Penn (5-11, 1-1) hopes to rebound from a tough road loss to Dartmouth, as it heads back to the friendly confines of the Palestra to host its first Ivy weekend of the season. The Quakers have been swept at home in an Ivy weekend only once — that happened in 1968 to Cornell and Columbia.
The Cornell-Penn matchup on Saturday night will be the featured SIRIUS Ivy League Basketball Game of the Week, airing on SIRIUS 127 at 7 pm.
Princeton (7-8, 2-0) — the only other Ivy team with a perfect League record — is also riding high and is in the midst of its first five-game winning streak since 2004 after sweeping Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend on the road. The Tigers look to end a four-game losing streak versus Cornell.
Columbia (7-11, 2-2) is also coming off an impressive Ivy sweep after beating Yale and Brown a week ago. The Lions play at Penn tonight, before heading back north to Princeton, where they have not won since 1993.
Brown (6-12, 0-4) and Yale (7-11, 2-2) hit the road for the second straight weekend when they head north to Dartmouth (4-14, 2-2) and Harvard (9-9, 1-3), respectively.
The Bears and Bulldogs were both swept last weekend at Cornell and Columbia, while Harvard hopes to end its three-game skid after winning the Ivy opener at Dartmouth.
For Ivy League men's basketball standings and scores, please click here.
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