Brave New World: Killer P’s Demise, Big Red’s Rise

Since Columbia won its only Ivy League basketball championship in 1968, Penn and Princeton (commonly referred to as the “Killer P’s”) have won 37 of the last 39 Ivy League championships. The two have had a grip on the title since Cornell won its only title in 1988.

To quote Bob Dylan, “the times they are a-changin’.” When people think of Ivy League basketball, they quickly associate Penn and Princeton, but now, this conception is quickly being altered.

Princeton has been in a funk over the past two seasons, going 2-12 in the league last year, and winning only 10 games total. This season, the Tigers went 3-12 in nonconference play and started off the 2-2. And it may not be getting any better soon. Next year, Princeton will lose two three-year starters in Noah Savage and Kyle Koncz.
While Savage and Koncz will be missed, the Tigers will still return three starters in Lincoln Gunn, Zach Finley, and Marcus Schroeder. However, the overall talent level at Princeton has diminished since the days of now-coach Sydney Johnson. Furthermore, the expanded use of the “Princeton offense” may have hurt the Tigers.

The Princeton offense has been run by disciples of the inventor, Pete Carril, throughout college basketball. Since a number of former Princeton players are now coaching, most notably John Thompson III of Georgetown, teams understand the disciplined motion offense. The lack in variation by this Princeton team has hurt them, since teams have so much game film on them. Further, with regard to talent, the current athletes are well below the Ivy League norm—thus it is difficult for them to utilize the offense as efficiently as in the past.

While Princeton has been languishing for two seasons, Penn was expected to have a down year after losing three of its starters from last year’s Ivy championship team, including two-time Player of the Year Ibrahim Jaaber and Mark Zoller. However, their fall may be short lived, as the Quakers have recruited some very solid classes in the past two seasons.

Through the 10 weeks of the season, Penn freshmen have garnered the Ivy League Rookie of the Week eight times between three different players: Jack Eggleston, Tyler Bernardini and Harrison Gaines. These three players, coupled with sophomore Darren Smith who is out for the season, make the next few seasons promising for Penn. Thus, their problems will only be short-lived.

However, the changes in the near future may be more because of the stock-piling of talent up in Ithaca. Out of Cornell’s top 10 players, in terms of minutes, only one (Jason Hartford) is a senior. In the Ivy League thus far, the Big Red are 6-0 and have outscored their opponents by 14 points per contest. The closest game Cornell encountered was a six-point win in the league opener against Columbia.

And why shouldn’t one expect the same next year? Cornell is returning its five leading scorers: sophomores Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale, and Alex Tyler and juniors Jeff Foote and Adam Gore. These five combine for 53.6 points per game this season. With Ivy Player of the Year candidates in Wittman and Dale in Ithaca for the next two seasons, it will be hard for any other Ivy League team to take the league.

Are they the next Ivy dynasty? Can they get a stranglehold on the Ivy crown in the next three seasons, like Penn and Princeton had? It sure appears that way. However, speculation is speculation. And you can never quite tell about the future.