When we last convened, dear Around the Ivies reader, the Ancient Eight was filled with high drama. Heading into the final weekend of conference play, Harvard and Princeton were jockeying for position atop the standings with a bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. After the Crimson took care of business at home against Cornell and the Tigers laid an orange stripy egg all over the Providence floor, the title remained in Cambridge.

Though the drama may not be as high yet in the early stages of this year’s Ivy season, the high quality of play in the Ancient Eight makes up for it. With a collection of on-the-rise programs as well as old standbys, the Ivy League can now count itself as a solidly mid-major conference.

The first inkling that something was up came in November, when Columbia, of all teams, nearly upset then-No. 2 Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. By December, the Ivy League had climbed up to 11th on Jeff Sagarin’s conference rankings, which rely only on game results and scores. For a time, there were even whispers on Twitter of a #2BidIvy—alluding to the possibility of an Ivy League team making the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid—though those have been mostly silenced after the Crimson suffered a couple of tough non-conference losses.

How did we get here? Princeton has been a big reason. Expected to have a down year after the loss of Ivy League Player of the Year Ian Hummer, the Tigers have remained firmly in the championship conversation behind the stellar play of senior guard T.J. Bray. After plunging into a vat of toxic waste in the offseason, Bray emerged as a basketball-loving mutant, dominating smaller defenders with his now-radioactive 6’5”, 207-lb. frame. Bray has nearly doubled both his scoring and assist averages from last year and turned himself into the frontrunner for conference MVP in the process.

And, hey, is that Columbia being competitive? Why, it is! Opponents can no longer wipe their feet on the perennial doormat Lions, who boast the conference’s third-best record, led by the sharpshooting duo of sophomore guard Maodo Lo and junior forward Alex Rosenberg—both better than 51 percent from three. Brown, Yale, and Dartmouth wrap up a very respectable middle of the conference, with Penn a bit of a disappointment at 4-11—though, with a home win over Princeton last week, the Quakers proved they are still dangerous.

But Harvard remains the class of the Ivies at 15-3, the No. 43 team nationally in Ken Pomeroy’s data-driven rankings. Co-captain Brandyn Curry and senior forward Kyle Casey have been integrated into the team with little trouble, while sophomore Siyani Chambers and junior Wesley Saunders continue to shine. If all shakes out as expected, the Crimson will be heading back to the NCAA Tournament, likely as a 10 to 12 seed.

The only factor that has threatened to derail the league’s momentum thus far is injuries. After a promising start of the season, Dartmouth lost its best player, junior forward Gabas Maldunas, to a torn ACL in January. Harvard was missing key contributors for high-profile non-conference matchups against Colorado and Connecticut, and Bray did not play for Princeton in a close loss against Butler. With a little more luck, the Ivy League—which currently sits at 17th in Sagarin’s conference rankings—could be in an even stronger position. But the Ancient Eight has already proven itself to be nationally competitive, which is more than could be said in many years past. On to the games!

CORNELL V. BROWN

After all those kind words about the Ivy League, it’s time to deliver some not-so-kind ones because Cornell has managed to discover, capture, and mass produce the essence of suck. The Big Red is currently 1-15 (!!!) on the season; its first win didn’t come until January 11 against Division III Oberlin College. That’s right—the program that four years ago made the Sweet Sixteen does not have a Division I win in late January.

Want some more misery? When I opened the team statistics page on Cornell’s website to dig a little deeper, I found a giant “:(”. Opponents are outscoring the Big Red by 14.7 points per game. Ken Pomeroy’s rankings put them at 345th out of 351 teams. Tough.

How did this happen? Cornell was at least halfway decent last season, finishing at 13-18. Before this year, there were complimentary murmurs circulating about sophomore guard Nolan Cressler. They even had a returning All-Ivy first-teamer in junior forward Shonn Miller.

But in late October, it surfaced that Miller would likely miss the entire 2013-2014 season with a shoulder injury. Fifth-year senior Errick Peck, Cornell’s other All-Ivy performer from last season, transferred to Purdue to play out his redshirt year of eligibility, which the Ivy League does not honor. Things should get better for the Big Red as the team’s young core improves in the coming years, but boy, let’s shield the children’s eyes for now.

Pick: Brown

COLUMBIA V. YALE