For a Columbia team that struggled to win four Ivy League games last year, a season opener at Cameron Indoor might seem like a cruel joke.
But no matter how lopsided the matchup seems, the Lions are in fact scheduled to play the No. 12 Blue Devils in the first round of Duke's College Basketball Experience tournament.
The Lions' John Baumann, who was selected to the second team All-Ivy last season, will lead a squad that is returning from an 11-16 year in which it was 4-10 in Ivy play.
Columbia should not be taken lightly, though, as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will remember the fight a different Ancient Eight team put up against his squad last season.
Penn lost 72-59 last season in Durham, N.C., sticking with the then-No. 1 team in the nation all night by out-rebounding the Blue Devils, 34-27.
If Columbia can produce a similar effort on Sunday night, then coach Joe Jones may have more than just another sub-.500 team on his hands.
Cornell at Northwestern
The Big Red may not be facing a familiar opponent as it takes on Northwestern tonight, but the Wildcats' offense should not catch the Big Red coaching staff off guard.
Northwestern is led by former Princeton head coach Bill Carmody, whose game plan seems more commonplace to Ivy League than to Big 10 opponents.
Steve Donahue, Cornell's head coach, led his team to a third consecutive third-place Ivy finish last season, and his team is now picked to finish - as one would expect - third.
Donahue will look for his sophomore guard Adam Gore to pick up where he left off after his Rookie-of-the-Year season, in which he averaged 12.9 points per game.
Gore will find veteran support from the six seniors on the roster as the Big Red will try to defeat a Big 10 opponent for the first time since the 1967-68 season
Princeton - BCA Classic
The Tigers head to Columbus, Ohio, this weekend for a stretch of three games in three days and a possible meeting with host No. 7 Ohio State.
Beginning its season at the earliest point in program history, Princeton will have the first chance to prove why it is considered the front-runner to knock off Penn for the Ivy League crown.
Ranked second in the Ancient Eight after going 10-4 in divisional play, Princeton will face Loyola-Chicago in the first round of the eight-team tournament. Loyola features an All-American hopeful in 6-foot-7 guard Blake Schilb, but is by no means the best team in the bracket.
If Princeton can defeat the Horizon League's preseason No. 1, then it will be the third Ivy League team to face a nationally ranked opponent this weekend.
The Buckeyes will be waiting in the second round for the winner of the Princeton-Loyola game, barring a gigantic upset by the Virginia Military Institute.
The Tigers, coming off the loss of first-team All-Ivy Scott Greenman, will have the chance to prove they can run with a title contender.
Other matchups
This weekend will include two matchups tomorrow, as Harvard hosts Maine at 1 p.m. and Dartmouth faces off in UMass at 5p.m.
Yale will host Allegheny at noon on Sunday.
