The winners of Friday night’s P vs. C games meet up tonight in Manhattan, while the losers will tangle out in Ithaca. One team is going to emerge from the weekend feeling very good about itself, and someone will find itself in a major hole. If that weren’t enough, Yale and Brown kick off their league campaigns in Providence, as a former Princeton great makes his Ancient Eight coaching debut.
Penn (8-6, 1-0 Ivy) at Columbia (10-5, 1-0 Ivy) – 7:00 pm ET – SNY/CN8
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Following big wins for both teams last night, this is set up to be an excellent early season Ivy game. Columbia appears to be the league’s best hope when it comes to challenging Penn this year — especially after taking down Princeton last night. Even with most of the Columbia student body still away on break, this may be Penn’s most challenging league game of the season. A win by the Lions would expose the Quakers as human and would give Columbia an early leg up in the Ivy title chase. A Penn victory, however, would be a big blow to the chances of an exciting league race this season.
Columbia used red-hot shooting to get past Princeton, and it will need a similar effort tonight to beat Penn. The Quakers are at their best getting out in transition and using their fastbreak to generate points, so the Lions need to avoid the turnovers and missed shots that lead to these opportunities. Penn figures to look to get the Columbia big men in early foul trouble, so it’s crucial that Ben Nwachukwu and John Baumann stay on the court. Offensively, Columbia shoots the three well, and might have the best inside-outside balance in the league, so Penn won’t be able to focus as much on defending the perimeter as it did last night at Cornell. An interesting historical note in Columbia’s favor: the last two times the Lions beat one P at home on Friday night (2000-01 and 2005-06), they went on to complete the sweep the following night.
Pomeroy says: Penn 75, Columbia 70
Princeton (9-5, 0-1 Ivy) at Cornell (7-8, 0-1 Ivy) – 7:00 pm ET
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It’s very simple: the loser of this game is going to be in serious trouble, two games out in the Ivy standings. While neither team would volunteer for that, it probably would be worse for Cornell to suffer that fate, as the Big Red would have two home losses and still would need to make the toughest road trip in the league. However, a second loss also would be very costly for Princeton, as the Tigers have the Yale-Brown road trip looming after exams and the Seton Hall game. The swing through southern New England has been problematic in recent years for Princeton, who is just 6-4 on that trip the past five seasons and 10-6 since 1997-98. Steve Donahue has taken three of four head-to-head meetings with Joe Scott, and it would be a sweep if not for Scott Greenman’s double-miracle last season in Ithaca.
The game is an interesting contrast in strengths between two teams playing very similar styles. Princeton is defensive-minded, looking to frustrate opposing offenses with a tight, aggressive matchup zone, while Cornell has looked to outscore opponents with Donahue’s Princeton-esque attack. Rebounding — especially at the offensive end — seems to be an afterthought for both coaches, so whichever team ends up grabbing more of the inevitable missed shots will have an edge. Something has to give, however, as both teams are extremely three-point reliant offensively, yet both defenses have done an excellent job of holding opponents in check from the perimeter on the season.
Pomeroy says: Princeton 51, Cornell 49
Yale (4-9) at Brown (5-10) – 7:00 pm ET
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James Jones has had all kinds of problems with Brown in recent years, going just 1-7 against the Bears the past four seasons. However, Glen Miller is in Philadelphia now, and first-year coach Craig Robinson is playing with a depleted roster after some mid-season defections from key players. Yale comes into the game playing much better basketball, winning two of three to close out the non-league slate. Meanwhile, Brown drags a three-game losing streak into its Ivy opener, including a very poor loss at 2-12 UC Davis.
However, just because Miller has moved on doesn’t mean Jones is looking forward to this matchup. Brown gets a whopping 28.6 percent of its scoring on free throws — more than any other Division I program. Meanwhile, fouling has been Yale’s defensive bugaboo, with the Bulldogs ranking 323rd nationally in opponent free throw rate. Brown’s pace of play has varied greatly from game to game, while Yale has looked to push tempo consistently. It will be interesting to see how the Bears do from beyond the arc, as Yale opponents have taken only 27.9 percent of their shots from three, while 44.3 percent of Brown’s attempts are from long range. The Bulldogs should have an edge on the boards, as Brown is one of the weakest rebounding teams in the nation, while Yale has been extremely tough on the defensive glass and decent enough at its own end.
Pomeroy says: Yale 60, Brown 58
