Game of the Week
Columbia (10-7, 1-2 Ivy) at Cornell (9-8, 2-1 Ivy) – Saturday, January 27, 3:00 pm ET
Cornell took the first round on Saturday in the city, which means this game is about as much of a must-win for Columbia as a January game can get. In the first meeting, the Big Red surprised by outplaying the Lions inside. With Steve Donahue’s four-guard lineup dictating Joe Jones’s rotation, Ben Nwachukwu spent the vast majority of the game on the bench and was a complete non-factor. Cornell isn’t likely to shoot as poorly as it did this past weekend, so Columbia needs much more out of its center if it is to exact some revenge in Ithaca. The stakes are high for both teams. The Big Red needs to stay a game back of Penn in the loss column, while the Lions essentially are playing for their season already, as a loss would be their third in the league, with all three road weekends still looming.

Line of the Week

1.18.2007 at La Salle TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT TP A TO BLK S MIN Jaaber, Ibby………… g 11-16 3-4 2-5 1 3 4 27 9 3 0 2 40
Impressing – Run-and-gun Quakers. Penn’s defense is getting lit up by non-midmajors this season, which means the only way it’s going to beat these teams is by outscoring them. The Quakers did exactly that in a thrilling 93-92 win at La Salle, using 57.8-percent shooting and an impressive fastbreak to storm back from an 11-point second-half deficit. – Louis Dale leads the way. Steve Donahue continues to get excellent leadership from his freshman class, as Dale took over the game down the stretch on Saturday at Columbia, leading Cornell to victory. The first-year point guard recorded the final nine Big Red points, singlehandedly outscoring the Lions 9-2 over the final 8:58 of the contest. – Mark McAndrew’s big second half. Foul trouble limited McAndrew to four scoreless minutes in the first half on Saturday, but he erupted after halftime, scoring all 27 of his points in the final 20 minutes and leading the Bears to the come-from-behind win. Over the last 11 contests, the junior is averaging 18.4 points and shooting 48.1 percent from three. – Cornell reinvents itself. After relying so heavily on perimeter shooting for points and not playing much defense outside the league, the Big Red has suddenly turned into a team capable of scoring inside and has been shutting down opposing offenses. The team that let so many non-league games slip away late was dominant down the stretch this past weekend. – Penn’s Big Three. La Salle fans have a good idea why Penn is the heavy favorite to win a tough Ivy League this year after watching Ibby Jaaber, Mark Zoller, and Brian Grandieri shred their defense for a combined 73 points on 31-of-52 shooting. When the three best players in the league all wear the same uniform, that’s bad news for the other seven teams.		Distressing – An upsetting loss for Yale. After breezing by a struggling and shorthanded Brown team one week earlier on the road, the Bulldogs should have been able to finish off the sweep at home. But James Jones’s team lost its focus in the second half and did some simple things wrong — like opting to play with only four players at one point late in the game. – Columbia’s late meltdown. It wasn’t a banner scoring performance for the Lions through the first 31 minutes on Saturday, but they did have 43 points on 49 possessions (0.88 points per possession). However, over the final 8:58, Columbia managed just two points on its last 12 possessions for an offensive efficiency of just 0.17, as Cornell left with the win. – Jeff Peterson backtracks. The DeMatha standout committed to Princeton back in October and by applying to the school’s early decision program, he agreed to matriculate there if accepted. Now comes word that he’s not honoring that signed agreement and is looking at other options, possibly leaving the Tiger coaches in the lurch on the recruiting front. – Big Green stumbling out of the gate. Ever since the impressive start against Army, Dartmouth has been coming out flat, falling behind 27-14, 31-23, and 35-22 in its past three games. Leading scorer Leon Pattman bears some responsibility, averaging just 5.3 points in the first half, compared to 11.7 points in the second half of those games. – The eight-semester rule. It’s understandable that schools want their undergrads to finish their degrees in a timely manner, but the strict limit of eight semesters on campus causes problems for athletes. It’s just silly that Brian Cusworth had to leave school for a semester back in 2003-04 and now finds his college career ending 10 games prematurely.