PRINCETON (17-4, 5-1 Ivy) at COLUMBIA (12-8, 3-3 Ivy)

Princeton has so many Waspy look-alikes that it’s hard to tell who’s beating you. Actually, I think that’s the key to their revered offense: send out a bunch of identical players so that the other team doesn’t know who to match up with. Last Friday, Ian Hummer apparently scored 17 points, but, really, it could have been any sort-of-tall white kid with short brown hair. I’m assuming the official scorer was as confused as I was.

Given the Tigers’ proclivity for playing close games, this matchup—Princeton’s first in-conference road contest—has some upset potential, but the odds are the Tigers edge Columbia.

Pick: Princeton 74, Columbia 69

PENN (9-10, 3-2 Ivy) at CORNELL (5-15, 1-5 Ivy)

Penn is rewriting the standard for heartbreaking losses. Take the final 16 seconds of last Tuesday’s game at Princeton. Leading by one with the ball, Eggleston got T’ed up for calling a timeout that Penn didn’t have.  Then, with the score tied, Miles Cartwright turned over the inbound pass and fouled Hummer. To cap it off, Fran Dougherty missed a wide-open layup with six seconds left that would have forced double overtime.

The Quakers need a win to erase the sting of their last two games (last Saturday, they blew a three-point lead in double overtime to Harvard), and they should be able to get it over Cornell.

Pick: Penn 68, Cornell 63

YALE at DARTMOUTH

The Big Green should be no obstacle for Yale tomorrow night. Dartmouth stuck around with Princeton for a half last weekend, and it gave Harvard a scare earlier in the season, but until the Big Green plays a complete game, I’ll stick with picking against them.

Pick: Yale 68, Dartmouth 59

PRINCETON at CORNELL

Cornell got off the schneid last weekend with its win over Brown. Maybe it can have a Penn-circa-2010 turnaround and start racking up some league wins now. Unlikely, but this Big Red team has enough talent to challenge Princeton and force the Tigers to play well in order to win. I expect they will.

Pick: Princeton 73, Cornell 67

PENN at COLUMBIA