Ivy Hoops Preview | Four new bears breathe new life into Brown

After just two Ivy League games, the Brown basketball team is one third of the way towards matching its 2008-09 Ivy win total.

That’s how poorly the Bears (7-12, 1-1 Ivy) played last season, when they went 3-13 in Ancient Eight competition.

Brown’s respectable record this season — their seven victories puts them two behind last year’s total — is deceiving. Their wins have come against St. Francis (N.Y.), Maine, Bryant, Philadelphia Sciences, Kean College, Wagner and most recently Yale.

Yet the Bears surely would rather have a handful of wins, regardless of the strength of their schedule, heading into the Ivy slate, as opposed to Penn’s dismal 1-13 record.

There have been some positive developments during Brown’s 2009-10 campaign.

The team remains loaded in the frontcourt. Its top four scorers are all forwards measuring 6-foot-5 and above.

Matt Mullery, the Bears’ 6-foot-8 All-Ivy performer, continues to be one of the most dangerous players in the League. The senior averages 15.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 blocks per game, placing him in the top seven in the Ancient Eight in each category.

Three freshmen have stepped in and provided Brown with a deeper team than it had last year. Forwards Tucker Halpern and Andrew McCarthy have displayed potential, including combining for 37 points in the one-point win over Wagner. Additionally, classmate Matt Sullivan has become the leader of the backcourt.

This year’s productive recruiting class is a start, but it will take a while for second-year coach Jesse Agel to build the program back up to respectability, especially when it comes to how the Bears have fared against the Quakers.

Brown will head into Saturday night’s meeting against Penn with a 20-96 all-time record.

Not much changed last year, when the Quakers defeated the Bears by 21 at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I., and by 10 at the Palestra.

To have success during the Ivy season, Brown must take better care of the ball. The team ranks dead last in the Ivy League in turnover margin, mainly due to the fact that it forces just 10.3 per game on defense.

For a squad that gets most of its production from big men, Brown surprisingly also has been out-rebounded by six boards on average per game — though that may change against some of the smaller and athletically-challenged Ivy League teams.

The next two months will reveal whether the Bears have added enough talent to their roster in order to move up the Ivy ladder. Beating Yale on the road Jan. 15 was certainly a good start.

Then again, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the Bears to improve on last season.

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