This Weekend, Women’s Basketball Has Its First Chance To Shine

This weekend, the best in Ivy League women’s basketball will be on display at Levien Gym—and that’s not just the visiting teams.

With the graduation of superstar guard Megan Griffith this past spring, this season seemed like it would be a rebuilding one for the Columbia women’s basketball team. With a lineup full of underclassmen and no established scorer or leader, the Lions were a question mark coming into the 2007-2008 season and were not expected to do very much outside of gaining experience for the future.

If that was the public opinion, no one told the team.

However, success takes time—in their nonconference schedule, the Lions went 3-11. Those 14 games allowed freshmen like Lauren Dwyer to accustom themselves to collegiate-level basketball. She excelled, earning Ivy Rookie of the Week three times in the first six weeks of the season.

Since Ivy play has started, the Light Blue has accumulated a 4-2 record, only one game behind Cornell, Harvard, and Dartmouth. Having already split the season series with the Big Red by way of a 17-point rout in the second league game of the year, the Lions will take on the Crimson and the Big Green this weekend, the two traditional Ancient Eight powerhouses.

Both Harvard and Dartmouth are in similar positions now as they were last year at this time, but have gotten there by different paths. Dartmouth, the Lions’ Friday night adversary, is currently 5-1 and tied for first place in the league, but was not expected to be a title contender this season after 2006-2007 Ivy League Player of the Year Ashley Taylor left the team. Last season, with Taylor behind them, the Big Green entered the weekend of Feb. 16-17 with a record of 5-2 and a legitimate shot at challenging Harvard for the league title until faltering late in the season.

Without Taylor this year, the Big Green has been led by an unlikely source, freshman forward Brittney Smith. Smith is second on the team in points with 10.2 per game and leads the Ivy League in rebounds per game with 8.1. Having already split the season series with the league favorite, Harvard, Dartmouth has a chance to scoop up an unlikely Ivy League championship if it can defeat teams like Cornell and Columbia and take care of business against the bottom half of the league.

On Saturday night, the Lions will get a shot at the preseason favorite to win the league, Harvard. As a young team last year, Harvard was not unlike the Lions of this season. They were a young team with good talent, but they struggled in their nonconference matchups, going 3-11 outside of Ivy play. At this point last season, however, the Crimson was 6-1 in the Ivy League, and would eventually win the championship with a 13-1 league record. Led by guard Emily Tay, who challenged Taylor for Ivy Player of the Year, the Crimson went to the NCAA tournament as the Ancient Eight’s representative.

Harvard lost one contributor from its championship team last year and established itself as the frontrunner in the league in the preseason media poll, garnering 15 of 16 first place votes. I don’t know who decided to vote for Princeton instead of Harvard, but with the strong starting five and deep bench that the Crimson has, you can guess where my vote went.

As the favorite, Harvard has the added dimension of having to live up to its hype and deal with the target that it carries with it into every game. Thus far, that has not been a problem, but this weekend, the Crimson will take its show on the road to Cornell and Columbia.

Between Ithaca and New York City, four teams are going to have something to prove on Friday and Saturday night. Harvard has to prove why it is supposed to be the best. Cornell and Dartmouth are going to have to assert that they can muscle up against the best the league has to offer. Columbia has arguably the most to prove, as this will be the weekend where the Lions show whether or not they’re for real—are they better than the bottom half of the league, or good enough to play with the top dogs?

Personally, I’m intrigued to see how this weekend ends up, mostly because I don’t know how to call it. Anything can happen, something which usually can’t be said when the women’s basketball team plays against Harvard and Dartmouth.
With all the emphasis on the senior-heavy men’s basketball team and this being the season we’ve all been waiting for, we may be missing a major event. It may be the men’s team’s “Last Chance to Shine,” as our basketball supplement was called, but this weekend, pay attention, because it could be the women’s first chance to shine.