Zack Crimmins isn't known for his shooting touch.
Indeed, although he towers over most of his Ivy brethren - the Columbia center is one of three 7-footers in the league - he hardly dwarfs their box score accomplishments, netting just 45 points in his first 27 collegiate games.
Scoring wasn't his forte in high school, either, as he averaged six points as a junior and eight as a senior.
On Saturday, though, the sophomore experienced a new honor - something to accompany being "named" the starting keeper on a hypothetical Lions Quidditch team by a Columbia Spectator columnist last November.
For the first time in his NCAA hoops career, Crimmins led his team in points.
His grand output? Five, going 2-for-6 from the floor and 1-for-3 from the line. That's all it took in Columbia's 28-point loss to Princeton, in which the disheartened visitors shot 23.9 percent - their worst since Nov. 17, 2007, when they converted just 20.4 percent of their attempts against Albany.
It took the Lions nine minutes to put up a crooked number, as they missed their first 13 shots before Patrick Foley ended their misery. Crimmins then sunk back-to-back layups, missing an and-one but bringing Columbia within eight points of the Tigers. It never got any closer.
Ready, willing and Agel. Brown's Jesse Agel worked plenty hard to reach the helm of a collegiate basketball program. Now he might be wondering what he was getting into.
After spending nearly two decades as an assistant - 17 years with Vermont and two with the Bears - Agel was handed the reins last summer, when head coach and President Barack Obama's brother-in-law Craig Robinson bolted for Oregon State.
Ivy win No. 1, however, is still forthcoming. With eight contests remaining, the Bears (6-14, 0-6 Ivy) have already lost more conference games than in 2007-08 and now have a comfortable grip on the Ancient Eight cellar.
True, their top two scorers from last year's second-place finish - Mark McAndrew (16.5 points per game) and Damon Huffman (15.8) - graduated. And they're getting closer: After losing by a combined 38 points to Columbia and Cornell a week ago, they pushed Dartmouth to overtime on Friday. And Saturday they held a 54-46 lead over Harvard with seven-plus remaining, only to see the Crimson win on a last-second free throw.
Next up: the woeful Quakers, who trudge into Providence, R.I., having lost five of their last six.
A vexing Riddle. Who's big and green but hasn't been seen? Why, a Riddle, of course.
Dartmouth forward Josh Riddle was recruited out of Northfield Mount Hermon High School in western Mass. along with David Rufful. The pair spent their post-graduate year suiting up for John Carroll.
"I think we complement each other," Rufful told The Dartmouth.
Yet, thus far, the complementing - and complimenting - has hardly been equally shared. While Riddle has posted 1.3 points per game on 26.9 percent shooting, both second-worst on the Big Green, Rufful has entrenched himself in the starting lineup, earning conference Rookie of the Week honors.
The 6-foot-4 swingman torched Yale for a team- and career-high 14 points in Saturday's 57-54 win, Dartmouth's fourth in the five games since Rufful cracked the team's top five. Over that span, Rufful has averaged 8.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game; Riddle has stayed quite solvable.
