While the Ivy League title has already been decided, quite a colorful race is going on for second place.
Cornell, Harvard and Dartmouth are all tied behind Penn at the moment, each with 7-5 conference records. The Crimson and Big Red both have 12-13 overall records, while the Big Green is 10-15.
For Harvard, this will be its first season at .500 or better since 2001-02, when Frank Sullivan's squad earned its fourth straight 7-7 mark in the Ancient Eight. The Crimson has only finished with a winning conference record once in Sullivan's tenure, going 10-4 in the 1996-97 season -- the last time Harvard finished in second place.
Cornell has already bettered last season's six Ancient Eight wins, setting a new high mark for coach Steve Donahue. It last finished 7-7 in 1996-97, and has not had a winning record in the conference since going 9-5 in the 1992-93 season. The Big Red's coach that year was Jan van Breda Kolff, who would go on to coach at Vanderbilt, Pepperdine and St. Bonaventure.
Dartmouth might be the biggest surprise of the Ivy League this year. Under first-year coach Terry Dunn, the Big Green has already recorded its most conference wins in a season since finishing 10-4 in 1998-99.
Sevens up
The current standings make for a rather interesting potential scenario. If Cornell, Harvard and Dartmouth are swept this weekend, Yale wins two of its final three games and Princeton wins all of its final three games, all five teams will finish with 7-7 conference records.
It would not be too much of a stretch for that to happen. The Big Red travels to Yale and Brown and this weekend, while Harvard and Dartmouth visit Penn and Princeton. On Tuesday, Yale will play at Brown and Princeton will host Penn.
Forte going out strong
On Friday, Brown fans will begin to pay a final tribute to one of the greatest players in Bears history, as guard Jason Forte plays all three of his final college games in Providence, R.I.
And although the Bears have disappointed their faithful and many others with their 3-8 record, Forte is still the league's leading scorer, averaging 17.8 points per game.
If he remains atop the charts, it may be hard to deny him a spot in the Ivy League's first team backcourt with Penn's Tim Begley and Yale's Edwin Draughan.
Then again, a three-guard starting lineup is nothing new to fans of the Ancient Eight.
Boston post office
Perhaps the most impressive statistics of this past weekend came from the Harvard-Yale game in Boston on Friday.
While the two schools' rivalry gets more publicity in football and the U.S. News and World Report rankings, the Crimson stoked passions on the hardwood with a resounding 82-66 win over the Elis. The result all but dealt a death blow to Yale's already-fading Ivy League title hopes and clinched a share of the championship for Penn.
Even more impressive was Harvard's dominance in the post. Crimson big men Brian Cusworth and Matt Stehle pulled down a combined 20 rebounds and scored 36 points, while Yale's Sam Kaplan and Dominick Martin were held to nine total boards and six points.
History for Tigers?
The Ivy League has been around for half a century, and Princeton has made plenty of history in that time.
There is, however, one thing the Tigers have never done -- finish an Ivy League season with more losses than wins.
That streak is now in serious jeopardy. Even though the Tigers end the season with three home games, if they lose any one of them they will finish below .500.
Penn fans wishing to engage in a bit of schadenfreude, though, are faced with a bit of a dilemma if they want the Red and Blue to be the team that deals the Tigers their fatal blow.
For that to happen, Quakers fans would have to root for Princeton to win both its games this weekend. It would also give the Tigers some extra motivation to beat their rivals should history be on the line.
