Game of the Week
Brown (4-3) at Providence (5-1) – Sunday, December 9, 7:00 pm
Brown has looked like a first-division Ivy team thus far in the season, and the Bears will be looking for their second major conference win of the season — and second in a row over their city rivals — when they take on Providence this weekend. There’s no doubt last season’s 51-41 loss to Brown will be fresh in the minds of the Friar coaches and players when they take the court at the Dunkin Donuts Center on Sunday. Providence has won five of six to begin the season, with the only loss coming against Miami in San Juan. The game could provide a measuring stick for Brown, as the Friars beat Harvard already by 23 points. The Bears haven’t won back-to-back games in the city series since a sweep in the 1954-55 season — back when the two teams played twice per season.

Line of the Week

11.27.2007 vs. Vermont TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT TP A TO BLK S MIN Barnett, Alex………… 10-21 1-2 4-5 2 9 11 25 2 1 6 1 36
Impressing – Harvard’s big win. Though he’d never admit it publicly, beating Michigan had to be extremely gratifying personally for Tommy Amaker, especially after his rough treatment by the media and fans in Ann Arbor. The victory provided yet more positive national press for a program that has had plenty of good buzz already this fall from its 2008 recruiting class. – Alex Barnett. The Dartmouth junior is off to a sensational start, ranking second the league in scoring (16.8 points per game) and first in both rebounding (7.3 per game) and blocked shots (15). Barnett has shown a much more refined shot selection this season, raising his shooting percentage from 42.2 percent last season to 55.6 percent this year. – Cornell’s point guard play. Between starter Louis Dale and sixth man Collin Robinson, Steve Donahue is getting remarkable production out of his guards. Dale is averaging 14.5 points and 7.0 assists per game, while Robinson isn’t far behind at 13.0 points and 5.5 assists, and the duo is shooting a combined 51.4 percent from three-point range. – Lincoln Gunn. Gunn’s game appears to have grown along with his mane, as his scoring has risen from 6.3 to 11.4 points per contest and his three-point shooting has gone from 29.5 to 44.1 percent. The Princeton sophomore has improved in other areas, with his rebounds jumping from 1.9 to 4.6 per game, and assists up from 1.7 to 3.7 per contest. – Brown using the free throw line. Once again this year, dominating at the free throw line has been a big part of Craig Robinson’s game plan for success. The Bears have attempted an average of 25.3 free throws against 16.0 for opponents in their four wins, but in the three losses, Brown has averaged just 13.7 attempts to its opponents’ 19.3 per game.		Distressing – Where’s the defense? The top three teams in the preseason media poll all are struggling to keep opponents off the scoreboard. Cornell (1.07 points allowed per possession), Yale (1.07), and Penn (1.08) are giving up points at alarming rates, and all three need to put in some work at the defensive end before February if they want to live up to expectations. – Eric Flato struggling. The league’s consensus preseason Player of the Year has not gotten off to the start that was expected of him. Though six games, the senior point guard is shooting just 32.3 percent from the floor and has negative assist-turnover differential at 18-25, while his team’s perimeter defense has had trouble with dribble penetration. – Penn losing the battle of the arc. The Quakers have yielded 10 or more three-pointers on five occasions already this season, and opponents are shooting a blistering 41.3 percent from long range. Meanwhile, Glen Miller’s team has knocked down just 30.9 percent of its attempts from distance — resulting in Penn being outscored by 84 points from three. – Kyle Koncz’s three-point stroke. After proving to be one of the better outside shooters in the league when healthy the last two years, Koncz has struggled to find his shooting touch from long range this season. Through seven games, the senior wing has connected on just 14 of 50 attempts (28.0 percent) from three, and he is just 8 of his last 34. – Columbia’s shooting woes. The Lions ranked 53rd in the nation in effective field goal percentage last season, but they have fallen all the way to 323rd in that statistic in 2007-08. Columbia’s three-point shooting has plummeted from 40.8 percent last year to 27.9 percent this season, and two-point shooting has gone from 48.6 to 41.6 percent.