BROWN AT PENN
Compelling your significant other to watch this game on Valentine’s Day would be relationship suicide on the order of making your six-month anniversary present a Qdoba burrito. Watching it alone might be even sadder—think post-midnight delivery orders from the Kong.
Pick: Brown
COLUMBIA AT DARTMOUTH
Other than the scintillating matchups of arguably the Ancient Eight’s best two point guards—Alex Mitola and Maodo Lo—this game is a reminder of what was once a bitter rivalry. I’m not referring to any chippy play between the two teams, but the past vitriol spewed by the Columbia Spectator. Hardly a decade ago, the Spectator ran a column called “CU vs. Cow School: The New Rivalry.” In addition to quoting a Columbia student who described Hanover as “a scene from the Shining,” the article’s writer argues that “[Dartmouth] is hardly even a safety school…their admissions process is about as selective as my Denver community college.” Oh my, Howard, this must be where those danged Ivy League snob stereotypes begin.
Pick: Columbia
CORNELL AT HARVARD
Through six Ivy League games, Cornell has proved it can hang with the heavyweights of the league. The Big Red beat Princeton last Saturday and gave Yale trouble down the stretch despite a terrible six-of-20 shooting night from star forward Shonn Miller. Cornell has an impressive top-75 defense, with Miller the fulcrum in the middle around which it all operates. The big man averages a combined 3.5 steals and blocks a night for a team that holds its opponents to under 38 percent shooting a game.
The problem for the Big Red is that they face a mirror image in Harvard. The Crimson has long stretches where it does not score the ball effectively, often asking junior co-captain Siyani Chambers or Saunders to bail it out late in the shot clock. The Harvard defense—12th in the nation, per KenPom—is another story, with five players often moving on a string. Harvard closes out on opposing shooters extremely well (31.6 opponent three-point field goal percentage) and cleans up on the boards (+4.1 rebounding percentage). Harvard has struggled in the past against teams that press, which Cornell will surely do, but the Big Red likely doesn't have enough offense to get past the hosts here.
Pick: Harvard
—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter at @CrimsonDPFreed.