The Ivy League feasted on some weak competition this past week, going 7-3 outside the league with four of the wins coming against teams without Division I wins this season. With four other teams opening Ivy play this weekend, a number of teams are turning up their level of play just in time.
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| 1. | Brown (8-6) | 1 | A loss in the non-league finale at Baylor cost Brown the best non-conference record in the league, but the Bears do have a couple of more impressive things: the top offense and defense entering Ivy play. The Bears also have shown the most consistency so far, with Wagner the only hiccup. |
| 2. | Cornell (8-5) | 4 | Cornell rounded out its pre-Ivy slate with two cupcakes — one non-Division I, the other only technically Division I — giving Steve Donahue his first career winning non-league mark. Jeff Foote’s emergence at the center position could prove hugely beneficial to the Big Red’s Ivy title hopes. |
| 3. | Yale (6-8) | 3 | Following the brutal early part of the schedule, it’s understandable James Jones wanted to play some lesser teams to give his team some confidence entering Ivy play. We’ll find out soon whether to be worried by the fact the Bulldogs had to stage a late rally just to beat a bad Longwood team. |
| 4. | Columbia (7-8) | 4 | Winning three of four is a good sign, but it’s the losses — the defeat to American and the injuries — that are the focus going into the Cornell game. The Lions face a brutal early stretch, opening with four of their five toughest projected Ivy games, to the point the Penn game looks like a respite. |
| 5. | Dartmouth (7-8, 1-1 Ivy) | 7 | The win over Harvard was huge in terms of the margin of victory, the surprising nature of the result, and possibly the impact on the rest of the season. It may have had a carryover effect at UNH as well, as Dartmouth went out and won on the road for just the second time this season. |
| 6. | Harvard (6-12, 1-1 Ivy) | 5 | The Crimson is a very different team in its home whites, as its 5-2 home and 0-9 road splits clearly illustrate, but the 43-point swing against Dartmouth is ridiculous. It’s all made even more bizarre by the fact Harvard tuned up a pretty decent Colgate team three days earlier. |
| 7. | Penn (5-10) | 6 | The Quakers wasted a solid defensive effort against La Salle with a poor offensive showing that cost them their best shot at a Big 5 win this season. Unless Harrison Gaines returns from his hamstring injury, Glen Miller might have to use these final two non-league games for teaching purposes. |
| 8. | Princeton (2-12) | 8 | For 20 minutes against Lafayette, Princeton bore no resemblance to a team that had lost 11 straight games. However, then the second half rolled around, and the Tigers watched their big lead disappear, leaving them a long break to dwell on the loss and the skid that now has reached 12 games. |
