Get schooled.
Game of the Week: Princeton at Harvard – Friday, February 10
The Saturday game at Lavietes Pavilion is the one Ivy fans have had circled on their calendars most of the season, but if the Crimson loses to a recently improved Princeton squad on Friday, the Penn game won’t mean much. For Princeton, this game is going to determine whether this past weekend’s sweep was part of a dramatic turnaround, or an aberrant bright spot in an otherwise dismal season.
First things first: congratulations to Jon Solomon and Nicole Scheller on their wedding yesterday on the banks of the Delaware River in Stockton, New Jersey. The newlyweds put together an entertaining weekend for those of us visiting from out of town. It was amazing to have the chance to meet so many of you both at the game on Saturday night and at Conte’s afterward.
Much like this point last season, it’s looking like there won’t be much drama as far as an Ivy title chase. The two top threats to Penn both saw the title chances suffer major damage this weekend, leaving a Princeton squad ranked in the bottom 50 nationally alone in second place. As you might expect, this led to some movement this week in the Power Rankings.
Key sequence: Dragutin Kravic found John Baumann for a layup to bring Columbia to within four midway through the second half. Paul Bode answered with a jumper for the Big Green, and the Lions’ Justin Armstrong gave it back to Dartmouth. Mike Lang missed on a three-pointer, but Johnathan Ball grabbed the offensive rebound. Lang dished to Chuck Flynn inside for a layup and foul on Brett Loscalzo. Flynn converted the free throw, then Lang stole the ball from Loscalzo at the other end. Flynn missed a jumper, but Bode got the offensive board and was fouled by Ben Nwachukwu. Bode hit one of two at the line and suddenly Dartmouth had a double digit lead.
Key sequence: With Harvard leading by three, Cornell’s Lenny Collins hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 77 with 36 seconds left. Harvard should have been able to take the last shot of the game, but Graham Dow got a piece of a Mike Beal pass, knocking the ball out of bounds off Jim Goffredo and giving Cornell a chance to win. This time Collins airballed a three-point attempt, but Jason Hartford was there to put the rebound back in for the game-winner with 2.4 seconds left.