A quick shout-out to Nelson-Henry’s beard, which—like his post game—has become sneaky good. Chris Kaman remains the standard for basketball player facial hair but the All-Ivy Facial Growth Team—Nelson-Henry, Harvard senior Dee Giger, Dartmouth senior Tyler Meville, Penn junior Henry Brooks, and Cornell junior Deion Giddens—deserves recognition. Stay warm, men, stay warm.

Pick: Brown

COLUMBIA V. DARTMOUTH

Since sweeping Penn and Princeton, the Big Green has lost six straight by at least nine points. This team needs Lithuanian forward Gabas Maldunas (out for the year) in a bad way. Columbia comes into the elven wilderness of Hanover on a roll, with the Lions’ only loss in their past four contests to Harvard in double overtime.

Notable sophomore Lions guard Maodo Lo has found his stride recently, averaging 18.2 points a game over the last two weeks. Lo gets brownie points for his Spectator-given nickname: “The Chairman.” Simply awesome.  

Pick: Columbia

CORNELL V. HARVARD

2010: Cornell 29-5, Harvard 21-7

2014: Harvard 22-4, Cornell 2-22

Do you remember the first game of the season, when this Cornell team was up eight at halftime on Syracuse? Me neither.

Pick: Harvard

BROWN V. PRINCETON

In what has been a lost season for the Tiger faithful, senior point guard T.J. Bray has been a lone bright spot. Bray leads the league in both points and assists but works efficiently, putting up remarkable 55-42-80 shooting splits.

Interesting aside about Bray: as a senior in high school, he turned down a full scholarship from Florida Gulf Coast. While watching teammate Hans Brase miss a wide-open dunk late in the second half of last week’s 59-47 loss to Harvard, I wondered if he briefly regretted turning down Dunk City for Clunk City.

Pick: Princeton