Game of the Week
Harvard (5-11, 1-0 Ivy) at Dartmouth (5-8, 0-1 Ivy) – Friday, January 11, 7:00 pm ET
The Crimson romped in the first leg of the home-and-home this past weekend, and now it’s the Big Green who finds itself mired in a losing streak after a disastrous four-game road trip that included losses by 22, 26, and 35 points. In the initial meeting, Harvard dominated inside, repeatedly getting the better of Dartmouth in the low post and building up a huge first-half lead. Terry Dunn will need much better performances from his frontcourt, which lost some depth over the holidays with the departure of Adam Powers. Meanwhile, Tommy Amaker has been bringing Drew Housman and Evan Harris — his two top returning players — off the bench, and the Crimson is 2-0 with Housman playing a reserve role and Jeremy Lin handling more of the point guard duties. The Big Green can take some comfort in the fact the home team has won eight of the last nine meetings in the series, and the two travel partners have split the season series in three of the past four seasons.

Line of the Week

1.2.2008 at Army TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT TP A TO BLK S MIN Skrelja, Chris……….. 4-10 0-1 7-8 4 5 9 15 8 2 0 0 36
Impressing – Damon Huffman’s big week. The new year got off to a great start for Huffman, who dropped 23 points on Army — including the game-winner in the final seconds — then exploded for 29 in the win over American. After playing much of last season in Mark McAndrew’s shadow, Huffman finally has been getting his due this year thanks to a big senior campaign. – Cornell gives Duke a battle. In front of the FOX SportsNet cameras, Steve Donahue’s team gave Duke a stern test, hanging around within single digits in the final minute. The Blue Devils ended up exerting their will offensively, but the much-maligned Big Red defense had the hosts looking out of sync offensively for a long stretch in the first half. – Pat Magnarelli. The local product came into the league as one of the top recruits last fall, but a back injury wreaked havoc on his freshman year. Magnarelli has established himself as one of the better sophomore bigs in the league, averaging 11.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game and his 58.5-percent field goal shooting leads the league by a wide margin. – Princeton gets it half-right. For the first 20 minutes against Lafayette, Princeton fans were treated to a glimpse of what Sydney Johnson hopes to bring to Jadwin Gym, as the Tigers roared out to a 43-26 halftime lead. The lead eventually evaporated and overtime brought Princeton’s 12th-straight loss, but the first half was a step in the right direction. – John Baumann. The senior big man ranks fifth in the league in scoring and third in rebounding, and though his shooting percentages are down from last year, he’s getting to the line much more. As Baumann goes, so goes Columbia, which is 4-0 this season when he scores 20 or more points, and 1-8 against Division I opponents when he scores under 20.		Distressing – Veteran teams struggling. Their experienced rosters had logged more college minutes than anyone else in the league entering this season, and the Brothers Jones both are starting four seniors. Yet while both teams have looked great at times, they’ve also had more than their share of the kind of slip-ups more characteristic of younger teams. – Penn’s regression. It looked like the Quakers had turned the corner with back-to-back solid outings just prior to their holiday break, but all of that progress disappeared in the first-half debacle in Fort Myers. Aside from Brian Grandier and Tyler Bernardini, Glen Miller’s rotation is far from settled, which isn’t a good sign with league play approaching. – The Class of 2011. It’s hard to remember a group of freshmen making less of an impact in recent league history, as Peter Sullivan and Penn’s trio of first-year starters are about it as far as key frosh. The league actually declined to give out a Rookie of the Week award in mid-December, despite the seven games that were played that week. – Dartmouth’s slide. The Big Green has to be excited to return home after taking its lumps on the recent four-game road trip that included three blowout losses and a late meltdown at Army. Dartmouth appeared to have left its offense back in Hanover, as it shot just 37.7 percent and put up a woeful 0.83 points per possession in the four losses. – Point guard benchings. Drew Housman and Marcus Schroeder were among the national leaders in minutes played last season, and figured to be among the top point guards in the league in 2007-08. However, under new coaches this season and with their teams stuck in long losing streaks, both Housman and Schroeder lost their starting jobs.