Harvard-Yale is back, and this time Lee Corso is not coming with it.

If you missed last weekend, here’s a quick recap of where the league stands. Harvard swept the Penn/Princeton road trip for the second year in a row to right the ship after a home loss to Dartmouth. It’s been a tough season for the Killer Ps, who have a combined 14-21 record on the season. Consequently, I’ll be rechristening them the Black-Eyed P's from here on out.

Yale extended its league-winning streak to four with solid victories over Cornell and Columbia. On the topic of rebranding, it’s occurred to me that the twin New York teams have never had a deserving nickname. Since they have spotted a collective 40-38 home record over the last two-plus years and a Columbia affiliate has admitted to inflating grades, I’m going to call them the Gentleman’s C’s.

With every other team posting a 1-1 record or worse over the weekend, the two foes are one-two in the standings once again. Harvard took out Yale on its home floor to clinch the title last year, shutting down everyone but junior forward Justin Sears in a game that was 9-0 at the first media timeout and not much closer the rest of the way. This was after Yale snapped Harvard’s 20-game winning streak at Lavietes earlier in the year—prompting the Yale Daily News to declare that the Bulldogs had slayed the “Crimson goliath."

The rivalry is arguably nastiest in print. James Jones told the New York Times in 2008 that “there seems to have been a drastic shift in restrictions and regulations with the Harvard admissions office,” arguing that Yale “could not get involved with many of the kids that they are bringing in.” Eighteen months ago, Jones fired another shot around the league, noting that a team can meet the Athletic Index eligibility standards by recruiting high-AI athletes who may not play and saying, “It is done. Not here at Yale, but it is done.”

On the court, the teams each boast their own Ivy League Player of the Year candidate. For Harvard, it is do-it-all senior and last year’s winner Wesley Saunders—Harvard’s best playmaker and wing defender. Saunders leads the team in points, steals, and three-point shooting accuracy, ranking second in rebounds and assists. Before the season, Crimson coach Tommy Amaker noted that he has a chance to “become one of the best to ever put on this uniform.”

Yale answers with Justin Sears. The junior leads the league in field-goal percentage, ranking fourth in points and rebounds per game and second in blocks per contest. In conference play, he’s putting up scathing averages of 22.3 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. Jones declared before the season started that “in my mind, it’s hard to make an argument that he is not the best player in the league.”

The Elis come in with the little brother chip squarely on their shoulder. While Harvard has made three straight tournaments, Yale hasn’t made March Madness since 1962. Jones has tirelessly built a program that staked its claim as the best team in Connecticut when it beat in-state rival UConn earlier this year. His team mirrors Amaker’s, from the sparkplug point guards (Bulldog junior Jack Montague versus Crimson junior Siyani Chambers) to the cadre of senior big men (Greg Kelley and Matt Townsend for Yale, Jonah Travis and Steve Moundou-Missi for Harvard).

The football teams played a game for the ages in November. The spring-cap shapes up to be as good; though with 10 games to go, a win won’t settle the race—it will write the story for the rest of the year.

PRINCETON AT COLUMBIA

The winner of this game will grab the inside track to joining the Harvard-Yale duo at the top of the Ancient Eight. Each has three games remaining against the duo, with star young players (Princeton’s Steven Cook, Columbia’s Kyle Castlin) that are nightmare matchups for both teams. If you needed any more reason to watch this one, take a hint from the Columbia Spectator. Not only did the staff see it fit to put two writers to co-write the preview for this week’s games, but Thursday’s page also featured a column comparing Columbia’s loss to Yale to the Super Bowl.

I must say, Howard, those boys seem awfully worked up.

Pick: Princeton

PENN AT CORNELL

In what passes for bulletin board material in the Ivy League, Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Steven Tydings noted that this weekend “the Red and Blue have the chance to rebound against two decidedly less talented squads in Cornell and Columbia.” Oof. But let’s remember that the Quakers are being outscored by nearly five points a game this season. They have won consecutive games just twice this year and failed to put up any semblance of a fight Saturday night against Harvard. By contrast, Cornell led Yale midway through the second half and just made tofu out of mealworms. Don’t sleep on these guys.