High Hopes for On-Court Drama

Two weeks of action remain in Ivy basketball, but for most who follow the league, there is little doubt as to who’s going to clinch the title. Cornell has an undefeated season on the line when it hosts Dartmouth this Friday and could potentially end the drama with a sweep this weekend.

It’s natural to go with the Big Red as the obvious choice to win the Ivy bid to the Big Dance, but I’m feeling like being a contrarian this week. Undefeated teams have not fared well down the stretch in most Ivy sports that I’ve been following recently—with Harvard football being the exception, and Yale football being exhibit A. Cornell will have to face every team’s best effort because the best team always carries a bull’s eye. Let’s take a closer look at what’s left on the docket for the Big Red.

The Ivy front-runner has two games left at home and two on the road. With five of their wins happening away from Ithaca, location hasn’t really posed a problem. But their two immediate home games this coming weekend aren’t exactly a stroll through the park.

Friday sets up a rematch with the Big Green, a team that really pushed Cornell late into the second half the first time they met two weeks ago. After taking a slim one-point lead into halftime, the Big Red was able to break away with about 10 minutes to go, spurred by a Jeff Foote layup. It was one of those “a win is a win” games that I’m sure Cornell would like to forget. Led by DeVon Mosley and Jonathan Ball, Dartmouth busted out of the gates with energy and proved to be a scrappy opponent. Coming off of a big win against Princeton on Saturday, the Big Green will probably be fired up again for this game as I’m sure they don’t want to end the season at the bottom of the cellar.

Next on the schedule is a match up against the Crimson, who are coming off of two impressive late season wins—one against Princeton in overtime and another in a high-scoring duel against Penn. If you think Dartmouth has some avenging to do, then I’m not sure what word would suit Harvard’s attitude about this game. They were up 71-66 with 42 seconds left the last time they played Cornell... and blew it. Sophomore Alex Tyler scored six clutch points from there on out to save the Big Red’s perfect season. It was anything but an easy win. Take out those six points and the Big Red was out-scored 42-32 in the second half, so Harvard clearly had an edge as the game progressed. As good teams often do, Cornell found a way to win and move on. Of course, Harvard, much like Dartmouth, has not found success on the road, so you should not expect a repeat performance. However, the Ivy League is always seems to bring out the unpredictable and no team is bad enough to be considered a pushover.

At the end of the day, I have to concede that Cornell could actually afford to lose both games and still win the conference by Sunday night. With Brown three games back and 0-2 against Cornell, a Bears loss could end up being the decider. Interestingly enough, the both schools play the same four teams (Princeton, Penn, Harvard, Dartmouth) and are both undefeated against that group. The Bears pulled out two nail-biters against '

Penn and Princeton two weeks ago, so their upcoming games are certainly no gimmes. The only scenario that could result in Brown clinching is if they win out and Cornell loses out—not likely, but I am holding out hope that this thing gets interesting, at least for one more weekend.