Harvard is facing one of the most important weekends in the history of its men's basketball program.
Since the Ivy League began official play in 1955-56, the Crimson (2-0 Ivy) has finished above .500 in league play exactly seven times. It has finished closer than four games out of first place once -- in 1983-84. Since then, Harvard has been above .500 one other time, in 1996-97, and has never shared or won the league title outright.
But this year, Crimson fans are hoping for a change. To earn the respect of the rest of the league, Harvard needs to sweep a huge road weekend at Yale (1-1) and Brown (1-1).
The Elis are the only other team besides Harvard and Penn with a winning record overall, and Brown is coming off a big win over none other than Yale last Saturday.
If the Crimson can sweep -- and keep pace next weekend on the road at Columbia (1-2) and Cornell (1-2) -- Harvard will host Penn (2-0) on Feb. 11 with presumably high stakes.
But if the Crimson falters this weekend, the league will start to resemble itself a year ago, when Penn jumped out to a hot start and everyone else beat each other up, giving the Quakers a comfortable ride throughout the season.
Last year, Penn was 2-0 and Columbia was 3-1 (on its way to a 3-11 season), but everyone else was already at least a game behind in the loss column.
Upset specials
Last Saturday saw two upsets in the two travel-partner games that were played -- two of only three games involving Ivy League teams in a 12-day stretch.
Brown beat Yale, 67-62, in Providence, R.I., while Columbia shocked Cornell on a buzzer-beating three-pointer in Ithaca, N.Y., 58-57.
Losing to the Bears has been a common theme for the Elis lately.
Under coach James Jones, Yale is 4-10 against Brown, has not swept the Bears and has won only one game in Providence.
Going back farther, the Elis have won at Brown only four times since the 1991-92 season.
Competition in the Ivy League is about sweeping other teams, especially weaker ones. Brown is 5-10 overall and lost to Maryland-Eastern Shore, and the Elis squandered a huge opportunity to keep pace with Harvard and Penn.
Meanwhile, Cornell needed to beat Columbia to show that it belonged in the title picture.
The Lions came into the game at 7-8 overall and fading fast, having lost to both Penn and Princeton the weekend before.
But after Lenny Collins hit a three with 11 seconds left, Columbia's Dragutin Kravic nailed one of his own with 2.5 seconds to go to win it.
The result gave both teams two Ivy losses in three games, which is a huge hole to climb out of. And despite the identical records, the game served to derail the Big Red while avoiding a completely ruinous beginning for the Lions.
The teams meet again in New York on Saturday afternoon.
Intrastate dominance
Terry Dunn's first year at Dartmouth (0-2) was a big success, as the Big Green finished 7-7 in league play. His second year has not been so good, with Dartmouth at 2-13 overall. But the Big Green's last game should have come as no surprise.
Dartmouth lost 71-59 to 7-12 New Hampshire in its last game eight days ago -- coming after the Big Green beat its instate rival last year. This year's result was preordained a year ago, as Dartmouth has not won two straight games in this annual series since 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Ivies on the radar
Other than Princeton being fourth in the nation in scoring defense -- which comes as no surprise because the Tigers have an unusually few number of possessions per game -- several Ivy teams are in the top 50 in some national rankings.
Princeton, despite only scoring 45.8 points per game as of Jan. 16, averages 7.8 threes per game, good for 50th of 334 Division I teams.
Columbia, which makes 6.1 triples a game, shoots the three extremely well. Its 40.1 percent clip is 20th nationally.
The Lions are also outrebounding teams at a 5.3 boards per game rate, which is 42nd in the nation.
Harvard and Dartmouth have both been shooting foul shots well, at 31st and 40th respectively, shooting 74.1 and 73.3 percent.
The Crimson, in addition to the good foul shooting, is also 18th in the country by committing 15.5 fouls per game.
Penn, led by Ibrahim Jaaber's 3.2 steals per game, is 18th best nationally, with 10.1 steals per game.
Jaaber is eighth in the nation in steals per contest, and is also 47th in field goal percentage, shooting 56.3 percent from the field.
Other Ivy League individual leaders include Cornell's Adam Gore (34th in three-point percentage), Harvard's Jim Goffredo and Yale's Caleb Holmes (seventh and 10th In free-throw shooting, respectively), Harvard's Matt Stehle (39th in rebounds per game) and Dartmouth's Calvin Arnold (25th in blocks per game).
