Get schooled.
Second place meets third place tonight in New Haven, as two of the three teams with more than a mathematical chance of winning the league square off. Elsewhere, the leaders will try to keep their momentum going in Boston, while fourth place is on the line in Providence, and the loser of of the game in Hanover will find itself in the most undesired location: the cellar.
The title chase nearly came to a shockingly premature end last night, with both second-place teams having to pull out narrow victories to stay in the hunt. One of them will get its shot at the leaders tonight in the first showdown between title contenders in the second round of Ivy play.
With both second-place teams due to visit The Palestra over the next two weeks — and facing each other in a possible elimination battle at The Church in between — it’s understandable for people to focus on those highly anticipated showdowns. However, the reality is that in order for these games to have real championship implications, the challengers need to avoid additional upsets at the hands of also-rans. For this season’s Ivy contenders, Friday night is all about handling their business.
Up until recent years, the Penn-Princeton always seemed to have huge championship implications. The thinking was that both schools were on another level from the rest of the league to the degree that whoever won the head-to-head meetings would go on to win the Ivy title. Ignoring the fact both teams have swept the other six schools only once (1980-81), the stakes generally have been very high when these two teams have gotten together over the years. However, for the fifth time in the last six meetings, that won’t be the case when they take the court at The Palestra tonight.
Only three teams remain with fewer than three league losses, and two of them meet up tonight in central New York in a game with huge standings implications. Saturday’s other three games involve a cheesesteak watch in effect for the Philadelphia area, a battle of cellar-dwellers with ailing stars in New Jersey, and a game in the Big Apple lacking much in the way of a storyline.