Game of the Week
Penn (7-6) at Columbia (9-5) – Saturday, January 13, 7:00 pm ET
The Quakers are expected to walk away with the league, while the Lions are supposed to be using this season to set themselves up for contention next year. We should find out pretty quickly if these storylines hold up, or whether Penn is vulnerable and Columbia is ahead of schedule. The stakes are high, as it’s the toughest Ivy road trip of the year for the Quakers, and the Princeton-Penn weekend is the highlight of the Lions’ home schedule. Adding fuel to the fire, Columbia ambushed and upset Penn on that very court last February, handing the Quakers their only Ivy loss prior to clinching the title. The Lions will be looking for a repeat of last season’s sweep of the Ps at Levien, while Penn will be out to exact some revenge. By 10:00 on Saturday night we should have a pretty good idea of what lies in store for the Ivy League this season.

Line of the Week

1.3.2007 at North Carolina TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT TP A TO BLK S MIN Ibby Jaaber………… 8-12 2-4 3-4 2 2 4 21 8 2 2 3 35
Impressing – Princeton’s shutdown D. Rather than choosing between keying on national scoring leader Morris Almond or looking to keep his supporting cast in check, the Tigers put the clamps on everyone in a Rice jersey on Saturday. Princeton didn’t just keep Almond under his average of 31.4 points per game — it held the entire Owl team to just 28 total points. – Leon Pattman. Since coming back from a preseason high ankle sprain, Pattman is averaging 18.4 points per game and shooting 46.9 percent from three and an even 50.0 percent overall. The senior is looking like a First Team All-Ivy performer after scoring 50 points in two big wins last week, including 22 after halftime in the comeback win over Harvard. – Yale asserting itself defensively. If not for the Hartford meltdown, the Bulldogs would have won four of their last six entering Ivy play, and it’s been the defense that has turned things around. Since giving up 90 points in the loss at Sacred Heart back on December 4, Yale has made things tough on opponents, holding them to 0.92 points per possession. – Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman. Cornell is leaning heavily on its freshman perimeter duo, and they have proven to be capable of shouldering the scoring burden. Wittman (15.8 points per game) and Dale (13.2 points per game) rank first and second on the team in scoring and have combined to hit 64 of 141 (45.4 percent) from beyond the arc on the season. – League closing in on .500. A strong 6-1 weekend for Ivy teams boosted the league’s combined non-conference record to 53-55 and raised the conference RPI rank to 18th. With five non-league contests remaining, Ivy teams need to go 4-1 in those games to finish with a winning mark outside the league for just the third time since the 1970s.		Distressing – Harvard skid continues. The defense was much better against Dartmouth, but the Crimson offense was done in by turnovers and poor outside shooting, allowing a double-digit second-half lead slip away. Mired in a four-game losing streak, the fast start many expected for Harvard in Ivy play with Brian Cusworth playing now seems unlikely. – Quakers scuffling. Penn played terribly the final nine minutes of both games in North Carolina, resulting in a blowout loss at the Dean Dome and a moral defeat at Elon. In 10 halves since the win at Navy, the final 20 minutes against Illinois-Chicago represent the only good half of basketball the Quakers have played, which is no way to go into Ivy play. – Ben Nwachukwu’s disappearing act. The Columbia center had some big scoring performances early on, averaging 12.4 points over his first nine games, but hasn’t scored in double figures in over a month. Over the past five contests, Nwachukwu is averaging just 5.0 points per game, and has attempted only 14 field goals and 14 free throws during that span. – Brown road trip goes south. The Bears lost to a bad UC Davis team on a buzzer-beater in a game that wouldn’t have been close had Brown not missed 14 free throws. Craig Robinson’s squad then squandered a golden opportunity to atone for that loss with an upset at SMU, blowing a late lead and failing to score on the final possession of regulation. – Mark Zoller slumping in 2007. It was unrealistic to expect Zoller to keep scoring 20-plus every night out, and the last two games showed the Penn forward to be human. He was held to eight points in each contest, shooting just 6 of 17 (35.3 percent) from the field and posting a 2-8 assist-turnover differential while playing through foul trouble.