Game of the Week
Cornell (8-8, 1-1 Ivy) at Columbia (10-6, 1-1 Ivy) – Saturday, January 20, 2:00 pm ET
Both Cs have upper-division talent this year, but their head-to-head games may determine whether both, one, or none of them ends up in the top half of the standings. A sweep of the season series would keep the winning team in title contention while probably wiping out the loser’s chances — while a split would leave both teams clinging to life with two losses and six road games remaining. Each team beat Princeton and lost to Penn this past weekend, but Cornell had better showings and enters Saturday’s game with more momentum. Moreover, history is on the Big Red’s side, as it has won three of the last four against the Lions in Manhattan. Whoever leaves Levien Gym with the victory will be feeling good about itself going into the second leg of the home-and-home in Ithaca the following weekend.

Line of the Week

1.12.2007 at Harvard TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT TP A TO BLK S MIN Barnett, Alex………… 10-21 1-6 1-2 2 9 11 22 4 2 2 3 34
Impressing – Penn rolls through New York. The Quakers came in playing their worst basketball of the season, but got back on track and breezed through their toughest road weekend. Penn’s offense was ruthlessly efficient (1.14 points per possession) and the defense was every bit as tough as last year’s, holding Cornell and Columbia to 0.79 points per possession. – Yale gets defensive. Yale’s improved defense flexed its muscles again in the win at Brown, holding the Bears to just 42 points on 60 possessions. Since falling to 2-9 at Massachusetts on December 28, the Bulldogs have been limiting open looks, forcing turnovers, preventing second chances, and fouling much less — and have won three of four as a result. – Ryan Wittman. Cornell’s stranglehold on the Ivy League Rookie of the Week award continued on Monday when Wittman claimed his fourth honor of the season. The freshman sharpshooter had an excellent weekend against the Ps, averaging 16.5 points on 10-for-18 shooting (55.6 percent) and draining 5 of 10 attempts from three-point range. – Crimson off the schneid. Thanks in large part to a much better defensive effort by guards Drew Housman and Jim Goffredo, Harvard was able to halt its losing streak at four games on Friday. After evening its league and overall records at Dartmouth’s expense, the Crimson now heads into its two-week exam break on a much more positive note. – Brian Grandieri. While Penn’s trio of seniors garner most of the attention, Grandieri showed this weekend that he might be the best player in the league expected back next season. After battling a sore Achilles for the previous month, the junior wing got healthy just in time for Ivy play, averaging 16.0 points and 6.0 rebounds to spark the Quakers.		Distressing – Princeton travels north, goes south. The progress shown in the Tigers’ first 13 games was overshadowed by the rough 0-2 start in Ivy play. Princeton’s league-leaging defense got carved up by Columbia and Cornell, who combined to shoot 60.9 percent and put up 119 points on just 101 possessions, for a 1.18 defensive efficiency for the Tigers. – Lions not ready for primetime. Columbia won on Friday to set up the highly anticipated showdown with Penn on Saturday night, putting dreams of another sweep of the Ps in the heads of their fans. But the Lions couldn’t deliver against the Quakers, looking overmatched at both ends of the court and dropping an ugly, uncompetitive decision. – Brian Cusworth pressing. In his postgame press conference on Saturday, Frank Sullivan said that he felt the media was maing too much of his big man’s impending mid-season departure. The pressure might be getting to Cusworth, who shot just 5 of 15 from the floor against Dartmouth and had to do his scoring damage at the free throw line. – Brown frontcourt. With Keenan Jeppesen and Mark MacDonald gone, Craig Robinson’s remaining forwards have been struggling, particularly on the boards. Scott Friske has regressed, Nate Eads is miscast as a starter, and Sam Manhanga doesn’t pass well enough for the Princeton offense, leaving freshman Matt Mullery as the lone bright spot. – Leon Pattman’s quiet night. It stood to reason that Pattman would enjoy another big night against Harvard after torching the Crimson six days earlier. But Dartmouth’s star guard attempted only five shots in the first 28 minutes, scored just three points in the first half, and had a mere eight points until draining two desperation buckets in the final minute.