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PRINCETON, N.J. — The first full Ivy travel partner weekend kicks off tonight as Dartmouth and Harvard travel to Cornell and Columbia, while Penn and Princeton open their Ivy campaigns on the road at Yale and Brown, respectively.
Saturday night's Cornell-Harvard matchup in Ithaca has garnered national attention, reaching the pages of Bloomberg, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal this week. Both teams, each fresh off program-best non-conference seasons, enter weekend play undefeated in Ivy play and with top-60 RPI rankings, according to the NCAA's most recent report on Monday.
The Big Red (16-3, 2-0 Ivy) has won four consecutive games since its heartbreaking five-point loss at then-No. 1 Kansas on Jan. 6, posting an average win margin of 24.5 points in those contests. Cornell has compiled and even more impressive streak in home Ivy League games, running off 16 straight at Newman Arena, with its last loss coming all the way back on Mar. 2, 2007 to none other than the Harvard Crimson.
Harvard (13-3, 2-0) heads on the grueling New York road trip winners of six in a row, its best stretch of victories in 13 years. Leading scorer Jeremy Lin also leads the Crimson in steals and assists, but is surrounded by a strong cast of underclassmen. Sophomore big man Keith Wright leads the team in rebounding at 5.3 per game, while seven-man freshman class has accounted for 40 percent of Harvard's scoring so far this season. In last week's tough road win at Dartmouth, freshman forward and reigning Ivy Rookie of the Week Kyle Casey recorded the team's first double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Columbia (6-10, 0-2) and Dartmouth (4-12, 0-2) each look to pick up their first Ivy win this weekend. The Lions have been plagued by injuries once again this season, but after the return of starting senior point guard and second leading scorer Patrick Foley last Saturday, Columbia will hope to get back on track. Sophomore guard Noruwa Agho, the nation's leader in three-point shooting percentage, has carried much of the scoring load for the Lions so far this season, averaging 16.8 points per game.
The Big Green played Harvard very tough last weekend in Hanover before eventually falling, 62-58. Dartmouth boasts the second-best scoring defense in the Ivies, but will need to improve on its League-worst scoring offense if it wants to secure its first road win of the season.
Brown (7-12, 1-1) and Yale (7-12, 1-1) enter the weekend with identical overall and conference records after splitting their home-and-home series. Both teams won on the other's home court, with Yale coming up big in Providence last Friday night. Senior big man Greg Magnano registered a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while reigning Ivy League Player of the Week Alex Zampier scored a game-high 22 points in the win. He has been superb for the Elis, averaging a League-best 18.6 points per game.
The Bears opened the Ivy season with a 75-66 win in New Haven two weeks ago in a game that saw freshman forward Andrew McCarthy come up big with 14 points and eight rebounds. Like Harvard, Brown has a senior All-Ivy leader in Matt Mullery, but relies on key contributions from a deep freshman class. Three different Bear rookies -- McCarthy, Matt Sullivan and Tucker Halpern -- have won Rookie of the Week honors, with McCarthy earning the accolade twice.
Penn (1-13, 0-0) and Princeton (9-5, 0-0) will once again be the last two teams to start Ivy play, as each wrapped up its non-conference seasons last week. The Quakers, who hobble into Ivy play with a myriad of injuries, have struggled thus far this season for that reason and head to Yale tonight after falling to Big 5 rival St. Joseph's on Monday night at the Palestra. Interim head coach Jerome Allen has Penn improving with each game and sophomore point guard Zack Rosen is playing as well as any player in the League, scoring 28 points in three of the Quakers' last four games.
The Tigers have won two straight and seven of eight after a 53-point rout of Goucher College in their annual post-exam, pre-Ivy tuneup at Jadwin. Princeton's 9-5 non-conference record is its best since they entered 2006-07 Ivy play with the same record. The Tigers are once again imposing their will on opponents, holding foes to an NCAA-best 55.1 points per game. Sophomore Douglas Davis leads the team in scoring with a 14.0 point per game clip, while junior Dan Mavraides is second with a 12.2 average.
For Ivy League men's basketball standings and scores, please click here.
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