Dartmouth hosts Columbia and Cornell visits Harvard, Brown is at Penn, and Yale is at Princeton.
The Columbia Spectator profiles Harvard’s Kyle Casey.
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The Boston Herald profiles Harvard coach Tommy Amaker. The article discusses his vision for change at the school’s basketball program.
Amaker said he would be comfortable staying at Harvard “forever.”
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The Ithaca Journal previews the Cornell @ Harvard game. Cornell is expecting a tight contest.
“We’re going to have to set the tone early, come out with a lot of energy,” Cornell sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski said. “We have to be the team that is yelling, talking, communicating on the floor. We have to create our energy and momentum. That’s what we have to do.”
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The Ithaca Journal scouts Harvard and concludes:
Harvard’s rotation is significantly different than what Amaker threw at Cornell on Jan. 30. Casey is averaging 35.7 minutes, and 20 points during Harvard’s three-game win streak, and Curry and Kenyi are now starting instead of Webster and McNally.
Cornell must get a lead early to quiet what will assuredly be a loud crowd, then hold off Harvard’s inevitable runs. In Ithaca, Cornell was terrific at forcing Lin to give up the ball in half court sets, while being alert to where Lin was on the court during transition opportunities — and doing whatever was necessary to slow him down. The good news for Cornell is that it has proven it can win in hostile environments, last Saturday’s three-point victory at Princeton being the most recent evidence.
The most obvious issue is, how does Harvard handle Jeff Foote? If Wright, Van Nest and Magnarelli are unavailable, that’s potentially a huge problem for the Crimson.
Cornell owns a one-game lead over Harvard with six to play. Both teams still play Princeton one more time. A loss won’t kill Cornell’s chances at a league title, but a win would go a long way to making this a two-horse race.
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The Daily Princetonian previews Princeton’s weekend games against Yale and Brown.
“If we’re thinking about past successes, we’re thinking the wrong way,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said. “Although we were able to win at Yale and Brown, they both had good moments against us the first time we played. They know that, and so do we. The important thing for us is to realize that playing well and having a chance to win comes with creating the same focus and energy each time we take the floor.”
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The Columbia Spectator previews Columbia’s weekend games against Dartmouth and Harvard.
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The Columbia Spectator’s Bart Lopez thinks that all the Columbia men’s basketball needs is a little swagger.
All the articles pointed to important aspects of the team’s game that needed to improve. After reading these stories, it may appear as if we are, in short, inferior to Cornell. But this is not the case. Statistically, the Lions aren’t that far off….
So, what’s the deal? My answer is one word: swagger. I’m sure a few of you were expecting me to answer Coach Jones, but he is not the problem (although he can help solve it). It is all about swagger. The winners have it and we don’t.
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The Boston Globe reminds us that all is not lost for Harvard.
Call it Redemption Friday and Recognition and Reversal Saturday. Unofficially, of course.
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The Cornell Daily Sun previews Cornell’s weekend games against Harvard and Dartmouth.
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The Dartmouth previews Dartmouth’s weekend games against Columbia and Cornell.
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The Harvard Crimson previews this weekend’s games and makes its picks, including the Cornell @ Harvard game.
CORNELL (21-4, 7-1 Ivy) at HARVARD (17-5, 6-2 Ivy)
…I Believe That We Will Play Very Well.
Harvard is certainly capable of taking down Cornell. It has the best player on the court in Lin, the hottest player in the league in Casey, and a raucous home crowd that is finally earning the “Crimson Crazies” moniker.
But Cornell has far more weapons with as many as seven players capable of leading the team in scoring. It can go inside and outside, play on the break or in the half court.
Whether or not Magnarelli can offer meaningful minutes will be critical. In Ithaca, Foote abused every defender the Crimson threw at him, and Harvard is even more shorthanded now. I don’t know that Magnarelli can hold up, and for that reason, the smart money is on Cornell.
Pick: Cornell 74, Harvard 70.
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The Bleacher Report previews this weekend’s Ivy face-offs, including Cornell @ Harvard.
Cornell, yet again is getting ready for Harvard. This game, the most anticipated home game in Harvard history, has been sold out for over a month, and with the Cornell loss to Penn last weekend, now a Harvard win means a tie for first place. This also creates another interesting situation.
With the top two teams tied, and no more head to head matchups, a win-out scenario for both teams would mean a tie for first place. And In the Ivy Leagues, there are no head to head statistics that break up a tie. They will play a game. And According to an Ivy League Playoff representative, the game would be played at a game centrally located, most likely Columbia.
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The Daily Pennsylvanian previews Penn’s weekend games against Brown and Yale. Penn expects that Brown will seek revenge for the controversial finish at their last meeting.
The Bears (8-17, 2-6) left the Pizzitola Center three Saturdays ago with a bad taste in their mouths, after referees ruled that Dan Monckton released his game-winning putback before the buzzer sounded.
“I’m sure they want another shot at us,” Eggleston said. “They definitely could have, or maybe they feel like they should have, won the game.”
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Cornell coach Donahue provides a few comments for Dick Jerardi’s article about Philadelphia University coach Herb Maggee. Donahue’s work with Maggee was the current Cornell coach’s first college coaching job.
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Rivals.com thinks the Cornell @ Harvard game is one to watch:
Cornell at Harvard, 7 p.m. Friday: Harvard gained a lot of notice earlier this season, but the Crimson must beat two-time defending Ivy champ Cornell if it wants to legitimately stay in the league race. Cornell won the earlier meeting by 36 and is tied atop the league standings in the loss column with surprising Princeton.
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Rush the Court will be conducting a rare Friday edition of RTC Live for the Cornell @ Harvard game.
Normally we “take the night off” given the relatively light slate, but tonight is a special occasion. Tonight the unofficial playoff for the Ivy League title and first official NCAA tournament bid commences when Cornell travels to Cambridge, MA to take on Harvard.
When these two teams met on January 30th, it was one of the most highly anticipated Ivy League match-ups in years. Cornell came in 17-3 having won 15 of 16 with its only losses coming against Seton Hall (10 points) and on the road against a pair of top-5 foes in Syracuse(15 points) and Kansas (5 points). Harvard came in 14-3 having won 7 straight with its only losses coming on the road against Army (3 points), UConn(6 points), and Georgetown (16 points). Many were expecting one of best games of the season featuring a match-up of Ivy League Player of the Year favorites Ryan Wittman and Jeremy Lin. Wittman and the Big Red lived up to their billing, but Lin and the Crimson apparently forgot to bring their game with them to Ithaca as they were embarrassed 86-50 while Lin managed to outscore Wittman (19-11), but committed a season-high 8 turnovers (of the team’s 25) with only 1 assist. With Wittman having a relatively quiet game the Big Red were led by seven-foot senior center Jeff Foote, who had 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. Following the blowout, it appeared as if the two teams were headed in opposite directions as the Crimson lost their next game to a surprisingly good Princeton team before bouncing back with 3 straight wins. The Big Red appeared poised to run the table in the Ivy League before stumbling in a shocking loss at Penn before bouncing back to win a hard-fought game at Princeton the following night. All this left the Ivy League with 3 teams sitting near the top of the conference: Cornell at 7-1, Princeton at 6-1, and Harvard at 6-2. The game is being billed as the biggest in the history of Harvard basketball (please, no snickering) and the athletic department is going to try to use a “Fade to Black” theme where the fans wear white shirts in the first half then taking them off to reveal black shirts in the second half [Ed. Note: Another benefit is layering for the New England winter night.] while the audio system will play Jay Z’s “Run This Town” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black” before the start of the 2nd half when the fans will reveal their black shirts in an attempt to throw off the Big Red (who happened to almost win at Kansas, which we think would be slightly more daunting than the visual “hallucination” of having the fans in the stands change their shirts from white to black at halftime).
The big questions coming into tonight’s game are whether Lin will play like his usual spectacular self instead of the sloppy version we saw in Ithaca and whether the Crimson can figure out a way to contain Foote who dominated against their under-sized frontline that now will be without 6?8? Keith Wright and 6?10? Andrew Van Nest. For Cornell, a win would put them in the driver seat to win the league’s automatic bid as they most likely would only need to beat Princeton at home to clinch that spot, which has grown more important now that an at-large seems unlikely after their loss at Penn. For Harvard, a win would put them back in contention for the Ivy League title while a loss would almost definitely send them to the NIT.
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Intro by Bill Bradley.