The Daily Pennsylvanian
This was supposed to be the year for Frank Sullivan's Crimson.
This was supposed to be the season Harvard would seriously contend for the Ivy League title. A solid start for the Crimson (10-6, 2-1 Ivy) brought new optimism to the only team without an Ancient Eight basketball title to its credit.
That optimism evaporated Friday night in Connecticut with an 82-74 loss to rival Yale. For the 14th time in as many seasons, Sullivan's team did not open the Ivy season 3-0. New team, same old result.
Harvard has now dropped six straight in New Haven. But as historically shaky as the the Crimson has been -- Sullivan has just one winning season to his credit -- it is not alone in its struggles at Payne Whitney Gym.
Over the past 10 seasons, just Penn (56-9) and Princeton (55-10) have better home league records than Yale (40-26). Since the 2002-03 season, just two teams (you guessed it, Penn and Princeton) have beaten the Elis at home.
The Quakers found out last season how hard it is to play the Elis at home, losing 78-60, despite clearly being the better team. Harvard was the victim of a similar fate despite holding a 138-180 advantage in the Ratings Percentage Index.
The Crimson did not mope for too long about the loss, clobbering Brown, 75-58, the next night.
Junior guard Jim Goffredo's 51 points between the two games earned him Ivy League Player of the Week honors.
Gant still hospitalized
Cornell guard Khaliq Gant remains in an Elmira, N.Y., hospital after sustaining a serious neck injury during practice last Tuesday. The sophomore from Norcross, Ga., had surgery on Friday. Gant had started all 17 games for the Big Red this season.
Details of his current condition remain unavailable because of medical privacy concerns. A local paper, The Ithaca Journal, reported Gant having sensations in his extremities despite not being able to move going into surgery.
Gant's teammates gave him a fitting tribute by scoring 47 points in the second half to defeat Columbia, 81-59, on Saturday. The Big Red players wore a patch with Gant's number 21 on their jerseys.
Guard Adam Gore's career-high 28 points earned him his fifth Ivy Rookie of the Week honor.
Tiger by the tail
Princeton's loss to Davidson Sunday night marked the end of the non-conference season for the Ivy League. The Tigers must have been feeling some hangover from not having played in two weeks because of final exams.
Or maybe the Tigers are just that bad. At 3-12, Princeton is on pace for one of the worst seasons in its history. Joe Scott's team would have to win all 12 of its remaining games to avoid its worst season since a 15-11 campaign in 1992-93.
If the Tigers lose four more games -- not unlikely since all seven of their remaining opponents are ranked ahead of them in the RPI -- they will match the worst season in the program's 105-year history. The 1946-47 Tigers went 7-16 including two losses to Penn and just a pair of wins over current members of the Ivy League.
All Ivy from here
Most Ivy League coaches must be glad to have their non-league slate behind them.
Combined, the Ancient Eight went 44-46 against the rest of the college basketball world -- including 3-1 against non-Division-I opponents thanks to Princeton's loss to Carnegie Mellon.
Half of the league finished above .500, while Princeton and Dartmouth each went 2-11.
Penn's win over Hawaii may be the best the Ancient Eight has to show, since the other seven teams struggled mightily against quality opponents.
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