In the previous meeting between these two teams on Feb. 2, the Big Red snuck away with a two-point victory at the Palestra, with sophomore guard Galal Cancer’s jumper with 10 seconds left providing the winning tally. Even better for Cornell, the win convinced highly regarded recruits Johnny AIDS and Mike Malaria to sign on for the class of 2017. Ithaca is a dark place.
Pick: Cornell
PENN at COLUMBIA
Thinking about this game for more than five minutes elicited a series of deafening yawns from me. It isn’t good enough to be interesting but not bad enough to be funny. It’s like Thor. I have nothing more to add.
DARTMOUTH at BROWN
In what is undoubtedly some sinister conspiracy, Brown and Dartmouth find themselves at the bottom of the conference standings for yet another year. If the Ivy League is going to continue this whole “no postseason tournament” thing for the foreseeable future, we need to find a way to make things interesting for teams like these, who will now play out the remainder of their schedules with all the enthusiasm of a sleep-deprived tree sloth. As in the English Premier League, let’s introduce relegation to the Ancient Eight: the last-place team in the conference is demoted to Division III to be replaced by some other suitably snooty institution’s basketball program. I’m looking at you, Swarthmore.
Pick: Brown
PRINCETON at CORNELL
If you’ve had the misfortune of talking to a Cornell fan this week, you might have heard that the Big Red still have a shot at the Ivy title—“look, bro, I’m just saying, we’re only two games back,” or some variation thereof. The Ivy Basketball Twitter account compiles projections of the Ivy teams’ chances of winning the league title by simulating the rest of their seasons, given their respective places in the league standings, offensive and defensive Pomeroy ratings, and an estimation of variance. In its model, Cornell currently has a two percent chance of earning a share of the conference championship. Once the Big Red falls to the Tigers, those odds should drop to near zero, and you can tell Andy Bernard to kindly pipe down.
Pick: Princeton
HARVARD at YALE
Harvard has suffered its share of heartbreak at Payne Whitney Gymnasium in recent seasons—a potentially game-winning layup that rimmed out at the buzzer in 2011, followed by the kick in the groin that was the one-game playoff against Princeton—but the Crimson may have permanently marked its territory on the home of the Bulldogs with last year’s 65-35 flogging. Still, this game is about all Yale has left to play for: a chance to earn some redemption for the defeat in Cambridge and knock Harvard off its current perch.
Pick: Harvard
—Staff writer Andrew R. Mooney can be reached at mooney@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mooneyar.