A pair of close losses to Big East teams closed out the pre-Christmas slate for Ivy teams, but the season has not been without some gifts for the fans. With one week and nine games left in the 2006 portion of the season, the league is off to a very strong start, ranking 20th or better in all three major ratings.
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| 1. | Columbia (7-4) | 1 | The Lions rallied to make St. John’s sweat a bit, and for that they get to keep the top spot again this week. A number of media folks are starting to jump on the Columbia bandwagon and talking about a worst-to-first scenario, but only time will tell whether they’re a year early with that. |
| 2. | Penn (6-5) | 4 | The good vibes from the comeback win over UIC were shortlived when Penn dropped a winnable game at Seton Hall. Should the Quakers claim a third straight Ivy title, their resume is going to be lacking in the quality wins department, with Drexel being the lone Top 100 win at this point. |
| 3. | Princeton (7-4) | 2 | Princeton used some hot three-point shooting to battle to the end on the road at South Carolina. The upcoming game against winless Iona isn’t going to help the Tigers’ weak strength of schedule, but when the game was scheduled, the Gaels were coming off a 23-8 season. |
| 4. | Brown (4-7) | 7 | The Bears had an outside shooting performance for the ages in an easy win over a Hartford team that had beaten Dartmouth, Cornell, and Yale already. Brown’s 4-7 record might not look that impressive, but it is second to Penn in schedule strength and 2-2 since Keenan Jeppesen departed. |
| 5. | Harvard (6-5) | 2 | The Crimson crashed back down to earth with a shocking blowout loss at home to Sacred Heart in which Harvard failed to match the Pioneers’ intensity. The late rally at Providence made the score respectable, but the lack of defense has become very problematic. |
| 6. | Dartmouth (3-7) | 5 | The Big Green overcame a terrible start to eke out a win over a bad Quinnipiac team, but couldn’t duplicate Harvard’s win at Vermont. The loss was a reminder that even with Leon Pattman and Marlon Sanders back, Terry Dunn still is missing three key frontcourt players. |
| 7. | Cornell (4-6) | 6 | The Big Red has no excuse to be this low or to have a 4-6 record, but when you lose five of six in similarly devastating fashion, this happens. A win at Iowa would turn things around in a big way, but the Hawkeyes have athleticism way beyond anything Cornell has seen this season. |
| 8. | Yale (2-7) | 8 | After blowing the Hartford game, Yale has had plenty of time to sit in the bottom spot and think about what it did. Hopefully the Bulldogs worked out some of the kinks during the layoff — like learning to play defense without fouling — and can give UMass a good game this week. |
