Watch Out For The Next Ivy Champion

The past two weekends have been nothing short of pure sporting bliss.

While my fellow columnists Josh Robinson and Jonathan Kamran found sanctuary in the calm of spring training in Florida over spring break, I found my own Mecca these past two weeks in a room 100 feet off the set of CBS’ NCAA Men’s Bsketball Tournament coverage. Working in CBS’ research department has allowed me to meet new people, but more importantly, it has offered me the chance to analyze every single game of the greatest sporting tournament the United States has to offer.

Being able to watch all 65 teams compete in the tournament highlights what it takes to win against teams from power conferences like the Pac-10, ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and Big East. Davidson’s Stephen Curry exemplified how one player can take over a game and single-handedly lift his team to three—nearly four—wins against nationally-renowned programs. Our entire office nearly stopped working during the Davidson-Wisconsin game as we watched Curry put up his third consecutive 30-point performance.

Basketball is a sport that necessitates a “go-to” player, the person who you can trust with the ball in their hands at every stage of a game. That being the case, it is no wonder that Cornell went 14-0 this past season in the Ivy League in addition to putting up a competitive performance against one of the nation’s most storied programs.
Earlier in the year Cornell gave Duke a real test at Cameron Indoor Stadium, losing by only 12 points and keeping the game competitive until late in the second half. The fact that Cornell kept it close against Duke was due in large part to All-American honorable-mention Louis Dale, and two former Ivy League Rookies of the Year, Adam Gore and Ryan Wittman. All three players are confident shooters who have good passing skills and an instinct to track down loose balls—qualities that are found in only the best students of the game. However, Stanford, a much taller club, embarrassed the same Big Red team in the tournament’s first round. It came as no shock to any of us in the office.

Cornell’s offense is reliant on its guards and does not emphasize the use of a strong post game. The Big Red’s 14-seed spot was probably the right decision by the committee, but the pairing was with two of the nation’s premier players in Brook and Robin Lopez—who just happen to both be seven-footers.

Fellow columnist Jon Tayler wrote last week that in the majority of cases, the Ivy League representative will get demolished in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and should simply relish being in the national spotlight for a few hours. This sentiment is shared by many, but not myself.

I thoroughly believe that had Cornell been put up against Wisconsin, another three seed, the outcome could have been much different. In addition to basketball being a game that requires a “go-to” player, it is entirely a game of matchups. The Badgers’ flex offense is used to slow down games in a similar fashion to the Princeton-style offense that was utilized in the upset of my beloved UCLA Bruins in 1996—a game I still remember vividly and continue to revile the Tigers for. Should Cornell have been given the opportunity to fire at will from beyond the three-point line without the threat of being dominated down low by the Lopez twins on the opposite end of the court, I could have envisioned the Ivy League getting it’s first tourney win in 12 seasons.

Major conferences are beginning to show their bite in a college basketball world that has more parity than I can remember. Don’t rule out an Ivy team making a mini-run in the NCAA Tournament next year because if you do, you could be in for a rude awakening.

Jonathan August is a Columbia College junior majoring in economics.