With league play about to descend upon the Ancient Eight, contests over winter break gave one final look at Penn's conference rivals before the "real" season begins.
A bit stingy. To get a sense of how the Princeton defense has been playing recently, one fact from this week says it all: Rice's Morris Almond entered Jadwin Gymnasium on Saturday as the most prolific scorer in the nation, averaging a Division I-best 31.4 points per game.
The Tigers' defense completely shut him down. Almond didn't even break into double digits - his nine points were a season low.
Princeton walked away with a 51-28 victory over the Owls, the fewest points they've allowed since 1991.
Their deliberate offense may have something to do with it, but the Tigers nonetheless rank first in the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 49.2 ppg. The closest in the league is Brown, at 62.9. Penn, meanwhile, is allowing 74.2 ppg.
Easy being Green. A year ago, if you asked any Ivy League hoops fan to name a team that could go 3-0 over break, Dartmouth wouldn't be the most likely answer.
But the Big Green is on a big roll, winning six of their last seven, including a recent trio against Maryland-Eastern Shore, Army and most importantly, Harvard.
The 64-59 win over (2-10) Maryland-Eastern Shore may not be the most convincing victory, but the win over the Crimson on Saturday could be huge. In the only Ivy League game played so far this season, Leon Pattman scored 27 to put Dartmouth atop the league standings, at least for the time being.
History shows that it may not last. The last time Dartmouth won their Ivy opener, in January of 2004, it turned out to be their last win of the season en route to a 3-25 campaign.
Harvard will have a chance for revenge just six days after the loss. On Friday, the Crimson will host the Big Green in Boston. This is the fourth year in a row featuring such a double-header. The past three have featured a Harvard sweep and two splits.
Bad timing. If Harvard wants another split, they'll have to rely heavily on senior Brian Cusworth.
Despite losses to Dartmouth, Providence and UC-Irvine over break, Cusworth's stats have stayed solid. He leads the league in rebounding and blocks, and is in the top 10 in points and shooting percentage.
The Crimson had better enjoy it while it lasts, however. The Jan. 12 game against Dartmouth will be Cusworth's last before his NCAA eligibility is exhausted - just in time for the bulk of Ivy play.
With the loss of Cusworth's 16.5 points, 36 blocks and 8.7 rebounds per game (all team-leading), it's likely that any hopes Harvard has of salvaging their season will quickly evaporate.
Split personality. If the past couple of weeks have taught us anything about the Columbia Lions, it's that they can go from a team that looks like it could challenge for an Ivy title to, well, Columbia, in the span of one game.
On Dec. 30, 277 devoted Lions fans witnessed a humiliating 67-58 loss to St. Francis (N.Y.), only the Terriers' second win of the season.
But just three days later, Columbia used a 16-8 closing run to pick up an impressive 55-54 win over Lehigh. And the Lions closed out winter break with an 87-38 drubbing of Division III Marywood. In the program's biggest margin of victory since 1995, the Lions' starters combined for a grand total of 23 minutes.
Unfortunately for Columbia, their next two opponents, Penn and Princeton, are a far cry from Division III. A repeat of last season's shocking sweep of the "Killer P's," however, would put the erstwhile bottom-feeders on the inside track to a title run, a year ahead of schedule.
Tough week. Cornell kept busy over break, taking on two defending conference champs in a row. The Big Red fell to America East champs Albany last month, 78-75, despite big games from Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman, then to Big 10 champ Iowa, 65-50.
The Big Red did manage to rebound with three straight wins, against Colgate, Division III Ithaca and NJIT.
Wittman has been a key performer for Cornell as a freshman, and his 3.6 treys per game rank in the top 10 of the country. Cornell has also shot its way to eighth in the nation in free-throw percentage.
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