Cornell bball loses @ Princeton

[Chris '03]

[quote ugarte][quote Chris '03]And for that matter, I'm not ready to pencil in 13-1 quite yet. I've seen too many Cornell teams choke away promising seasons. [/quote]
Really? How many promising seasons did Cornell choke away? I've been following the team since 1990. There are individual games that could have been won that weren't but the number of potential Ivy league champion teams in that time - prior to last year, obviously, was zero. The first team capable of winning the conference not only won the conference, they ran the table.

That said, this year's model has lost to Princeton by 20 and blew a 19 point second half lead against Dartmouth so another conference loss isn't inconceivable. It would, however, be a surprise. Cornell is clearly the class of the league this year and any loss would be a major upset.[/quote]

'05- bad losses to Columbia and Harvard ended the season prematurely. They played Penn well at the Palestra but then dropped another game to dartmouth.

'06- 8-6 with bad losses to Columbia and Brown, tough loss to PU, in a year where 12-2 won.

It was a reach for either of these teams to win the Ivy but they also lost their fair share of easy games. The both should have won 10+ games but didn't. I just worry that of the 4 road games left, they'll drop one. Of course, now that they're two games clear of anyone else in the loss column it makes it possible to lose a game they're not supposed to and still win the title.

[upperdeck]

penn-prin at 4-3 one has to lose one more. that leaves two teams with 3 losses and penn/prin/col all play each other as well.  so unless one team runs the table all 3 will have at least 4 losses.
if CU wins this weekend it will have 4 left with a good chance of a 3 game lead with 4 to go.

[ugarte]

[quote Chris '03]'05- bad losses to Columbia and Harvard ended the season prematurely. They played Penn well at the Palestra but then dropped another game to dartmouth.

'06- 8-6 with bad losses to Columbia and Brown, tough loss to PU, in a year where 12-2 won.

It was a reach for either of these teams to win the Ivy but they also lost their fair share of easy games. [/quote]
Two 8-6 teams are your evidence that Cornell choked? It sounds more like evidence that you overrated two Cornell teams.

In 2006, a top 100 Penn squad went 12-2 in conference. Neither loss was to Cornell; in the games against Cornell, Penn won by 40 in Philly and 11 in Ithaca. Cornell played a so-so Princeton team well (a win and a 2OT loss) but while they had bad losses to Columbia (who, ahem, beat Penn once) and Brown, they also had 4 conference wins of fewer than 5 points against the teams that they were apparently supposed to beat. They didn't choke away a title by any stretch of the imagination.

In 2005, a top 100 Penn squad went 13-1 in conference and won the Ivies by 5 games. Both games against Cornell were comfortable wins. Cornell did not have a reasonable chance at the title in 2005 either.

Cornell didn't choke. The team lost its share of 'easy' games in those years because they were not much better than the teams they were playing in those games. They were a lot closer to Columbia in '05 and '06 than they were to Penn.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote Jordan 04][quote Cornell11]The difference between a 2 vs 15 and a 3 vs 14 is marginal, at best. You can account for that 11% difference by saying that typically 14s are better than 15s, and therefore are more likely to beat their competition. The difference between a 2 and 3 is almost non-existent.[/quote]

I don't think that 95% success rate vs. 83% success rate is "marginal" at all.[/quote]No, I agree. Going in with a 17% chance of success is certainly nicer than 5%. You can discount it as 14 seeds are better than 15 seeds, but that's the whole idea of seeding, isn't it?::screwy::

[Chris '03]

[quote ugarte]... another conference loss isn't inconceivable. It would, however, be a surprise. Cornell is clearly the class of the league this year and any loss would be a major upset.[/quote]

How about two more loses?

Now it's a one game (loss column) lead on PU with two to play.

[ugarte]

[quote ugarte][quote Cornell11]Yes, the Out-of-Conference season is over, but no, you don't have enough data to make an informed statement.[/quote]
Your argument is not that my conclusion is premature: Your argument is that my conclusion is incorrect. I hope that you are right. [/quote]
I think we should take the 15 and be happy with it. I'm not sure we're going to avoid a playoff game anymore.