Ivy League Midseason Report

It’s when the middle of February hits that I’m glad they play basketball inside. But the middle of February also means that we are halfway through the Ivy League basketball season, also known as the 14-game tournament. Having each had six games to prove their worth, here’s how the Ancient Eight stack up, in order of the standings, with eight more games to play as they chase the conference’s single NCAA Tournament berth.

Right now it seems like that means chasing Cornell.

Cornell:
They’re still 6-0 and have four games against weak Dartmouth and Harvard left on their schedule. No Ivy team has played them closer than six points, and they have the best backcourt in the league in the lightning-quick Louis Dale and Adam Gore. At this point, the Big Red seem a lock for the title. Now they’re chasing the first perfect season since Fran Dunphy’s Penn Quakers went 14-0 in the 2002-2003 season. And who’s to say they won’t do it? The New York Giants don’t play in this league.

Brown:
The Bears currently stand at 4-2 and have given a good showing for such a young team—there are only three seniors in the squad. After winning three in a row against Columbia, Dartmouth, and Harvard, they will travel to Penn and Princeton this weekend with a chance to keep the pressure on Cornell. How the rest of their season pans out will depend on how well second-year head coach Craig Robinson, who has lately drawn as much attention for being Barack Obama’s brother-in-law as he has for coaching basketball, can hold the group together.

Penn:
The Quakers are still adjusting to losing the core of their three-time Ivy champion team in Ibrahim Jaaber, Steve Danley and Mark Zoller. Penn is 3-2, but still has to play Brown twice and in the penultimate game of the season will play host to Columbia, to whom they lost decisively 74-58 last Friday. A top-four finish might be a stretch for the team that has won four of the last five Ivy titles.

Columbia:
At 3-3, it’s been a season of wondering which Light Blue team is going to show up. After such a promising display in the first game—a six-point loss at the hands of Cornell—the Lions have struggled to find consistency, particularly on offense. They might not catch Brown by the end of the year, but they’ll certainly be in the mix for third place, duking it out with Yale. A road trip to ailing Harvard and Dartmouth could be just the thing to boost their confidence and their record.

Yale:
The Bulldogs played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country with UCLA, Kansas, Boston College, and Stanford, but have not been able to translate that experience into anything more than a 3-3 record so far.

Princeton:
After a disastrous 2006-2007 season which cost head coach Joe Scott his job, the Tigers are showing few signs of improvement at 2-3. First-year head coach Sydney Johnson still has an undersized Princeton team playing slowed down basketball. The Tigers seem to be fodder for the bottom four, and, if nothing else, might be the most boring team in the league to watch.

Dartmouth:
The Big Green, as opposed to Yale, started the season with one of the weakest non-conference schedules in the nation and it has not served them well. Tied with Harvard for last place at 1-5, they seem like they’re hanging around this season only to round a comfortable road trip for the teams making the Hanover-Cambridge trip. And this weekend, that will be Cornell and Columbia.

Harvard:
Languishing at 1-5, Harvard has not been treated kindly by its schedule. The Crimson played five of its first six conference games on the road and lost them all. Having also lost their seven-footer Brian Cusworth to graduation, they’ve also struggled to establish any real offensive presence and are unlikely to see a major turnaround this year.

Prediction: It almost seems too easy to pick Cornell all the way now. But I will anyway.