There’s nothing like the full start of Ivy play to bring things into focus. This week turned out to be an uncomplicated one for the Power Rankings, as the six league contests worked out such that it was easy to make sense of all eight spots. The best part is that after a pair of impressive road wins, the favorites are back on top, leaving their fans with plenty of free time now that they won’t be flooding us with complaints about their team’s placement.
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| 1. | Penn (9-6, 2-0 Ivy) | 4 | It looked like the recent slump would be carrying over to Ivy play when Cornell hung tough for 30 minutes. But Penn eventually ran away from the Big Red and followed that up with a rare blowout of Columbia in Levien Gym for a strong statement to the rest of the league. |
| 2. | Yale (5-9, 1-0 Ivy) | 5 | Following the 2-8 start, the Bulldogs now have won three of four, including good road wins at Navy and Brown by comfortable margins. The key to the turnaround has been a stout defense, as Yale has held opponents to just 0.82 points per possession in those three victories. |
| 3. | Cornell (8-8, 1-1 Ivy) | 6 | Penn proved to be too tough a task for the Big Red, halting its winning streak at three games. But there was no hangover, as Cornell bounced back in a big way with a dominating win over Princeton, taking some momentum into the crucial series with Columbia in the process. |
| 4. | Columbia (10-6, 1-1 Ivy) | 2 | The win over Princeton showed that Columbia looks like a team poised to leave the Ivy cellar for the upper half of the league. However, Saturday’s disappointing blowout loss to Penn demonstrated why no team ever has gone from worst to first in Ivy League history. |
| 5. | Princeton (9-6, 0-2 Ivy) | 1 | Princeton isn’t as good as its best win (Rice) or as bad as its worst loss (Cornell), which came just a week apart. Perhaps some time off is in order for a team that looked absolutely exhausted — physically and emotionally — at the conclusion of Saturday’s blowout loss in Ithaca. |
| 6. | Harvard (8-8, 1-1 Ivy) | 8 | Frank Sullivan’s guards did a much better job defensively against Dartmouth on Saturday, holding DeVon Mosley and Leon Pattman in check. With the first of Harvard’s dual Senior Nights looming next weekend, the Crimson really needs to send Brian Cusworth out a winner. |
| 7. | Dartmouth (6-8, 1-1 Ivy) | 3 | The rapidly improving Big Green took a big step backward Friday night, faltering down the stretch and dropping a costly decision to Harvard. These are the sorts of games Dartmouth is going to need to find a way to win if it is to make the climb into the upper division. |
| 8. | Brown (5-11, 0-1 Ivy) | 7 | Craig Robinson’s Ivy coaching debut didn’t go as planned — aside from a nice run spanning halftime, the Bears were outplayed badly by Yale. Inconsistency has been a problem to the point Brown fans go into every game not knowing what to expect offensively or defensively. |
