Men's Basketball 22-23

[mountainred]

After the awful second half at Syracuse, it was good to see the team take of business against an overmatched opponent.

[scoop85]

After the awful second half at Syracuse, it was good to see the team take of business against an overmatched opponent.

Lehigh was pretty bad, but somehow they were leading Wisconsin of the half a week or so ago.

[Trotsky]

Women with a 7-point second quarter vs Penn State.

Is that good?

[mountainred]

Women with a 7-point second quarter vs Penn State.

Is that good?

It's not ideal.

[billhoward]

Seven-point second quarter certainly set the tenor for the game and the 31-point MOV.

"Penn State Lady Lions" sounds 1960s. Like back when the guards couldn't go past the mid-court line. Not sure "Lionesses" would be better.

The one diminutive that worked well was when Cornell freshmen played Syracuse pre-1980 and they were called (more by us than them) the Tangerines.

[mountainred]

If anyone wants to watch the Colgate game today, it tips at 2pm.  If 'gate is hitting their threes, they are pretty tough to beat (ask Syracuse), but it is a very winnable game if they aren't (losses to Penn and Delaware).

[Tcl123]

Hmmm.....line is gate -4.5. It's tempting.

[Mr. Niss]

Nice job by the Colgate broadcast to go to commercial while Hansen is laying on the court not moving and not saying a word about how he's doing when they come back.

[Ken711]

Cornell beats Colgate 91-80.

[Mr. Niss]

Those are good couple of bounce-back performances.  First, they beat Lehigh way better than expected, like a top tier team would.  And then they beat Colgate on the road by double digits.  The Colgate broadcasters (laughably) referred to Colgate as "the best team in the region" (they're not better than Syracuse, sorry guys).  I don't know what happened in the Dome other than that even the best teams that rely on so much outside shooting are going to have an off game or two, and we happened to stink the bed up in the one game that would have been amazing to win.  This team is good and extremely well coached.  They may be Ivy League champs good.

[mountainred]

Really great first half, helped by Colgate struggling from the 3pt line, followed a slightly sloppy second half, helped by Colgate bouncing back on threes.  The final three minutes were a slog, but there is lots of room for error with a seventeen point lead.

Dolan was terrific and got some deserved love from the Colgate announcers. And Nix got a few 1st half minutes, which was nice to see.

While I'd love to have another shot at BC, there are no complaints about being 9-3.

[billhoward]

Those are good couple of bounce-back performances.  First, they beat Lehigh way better than expected, like a top tier team would.  And then they beat Colgate on the road by double digits. This team is good and extremely well coached.  They may be Ivy League champs good.

Cornell may be time-to-steal-your-coach-away-to-a-mid-major good?

[RichH]

The Colgate broadcasters (laughably) referred to Colgate as "the best team in the region" (they're not better than Syracuse, sorry guys).

I've always felt Colgate has had a bit of a regional inferiority complex by the way they insist to be called 'Gate the way Syracuse is called 'Cuse.

[billhoward]

The Colgate broadcasters (laughably) referred to Colgate as "the best team in the region" (they're not better than Syracuse, sorry guys).

I've always felt Colgate has had a bit of a regional inferiority complex by the way they insist to be called 'Gate the way Syracuse is called 'Cuse.

Almost cross-town inferiority. Hamilton College is 25 minutes away and Colgate's equal or better academically. (I know, sports matters more.) We'd do it, too, if 'Nell didn't start with a soft consonant. If we still had freshman teams, they'd be Little Nell. All these are minor infractions compared to the stylings of The Ohio State University.

[mountainred]

Thought I would give folks a quick thumbnail on the league now that virtually every out of conference game has been played.

1) Yale (10-3) -- The computers have Yale as the clear league favorite as they are the only league team that is top 100 nationally in both offense and defense.  Yale has a couple of nice wins, though nothing jaw-dropping, and all of the losses were on the road against legit opponents (at Colorado, Butler, Kentucky).  Thrown in the the guy who is IMHO the best coach in the league (James Jones) and Yale is a virtual lock to the make the ILT.

2) Princeton (9-4) -- The computers love Princeton because they have several blowouts, but the resume looks thin to me.  The best wins were at Drexel and at UMBC - meh - and the Tigers' losses don't look nearly as good as Yale's.  Otherwise, this is a standard issue Princeton team which is efficient on offense and holds you to one shot on defense and has a couple of very sold bigs.  Princeton does get to host the ILT this year, so they will be hard to beat if they make it.  And they probably will make it.

3) Cornell (9-3) -- For context.

T4) Harvard (8-5) -- If you had a draft of every player in the Ivy League, Harvard's Senior forward Chris Ledlum probably gets taken first.  Harvard also has two of the league's best wins (v. Loyola (Chi) and at Cal Irvine), but they also have a head-scratching loss to Howard.  I'm not a huge fan of Amaker as a game coach, but his teams play good D and this year's squad follows that trend. If they start hitting their threes, they could be very dangerous, but right now they are 361st (out of 363) in 3pt shooting which is killing their offense.  (So when you get frustrated at our guys, know it could be worse).
 
T4) Penn (6-7) -- The Quakers are the flip side of Harvard in that they have a very good offense (only Cornell's is more efficient) but their D sucks.  Jr. guard Jordan Dingle is Penn's best weapon and maybe the best scorer in in the league.  Penn has four losses to top 100 teams, a couple of nice wins against Colgate and Temple and a "how did they blow that" home loss to LaSalle.  

6) Brown (7-5) -- The Bears lost a number of very good players to graduation, but Mike Martin (another very good coach) does get stud PG Lily back.  Brown started the season 1-4, but they've won 6 of their last 7, with the only loss being at Michigan St.  Brown has been even better than Princeton at holding teams to one shot, but they struggle to score which is highlighted by currently being the worst FT shooting team in the nation.  Sweeping Brown will go a long way to making the ILT, but the Bears will turn both games in rock fights.

7) Dartmouth (4-10) -- The Big Green lost four outstanding players to graduation and have not replaced them.  Dartmouth has only 2 D1 wins, but believe it or not their women's team is even worse.  Cornell opens league play at Hanover and has to avoid the North Country jinx.

Columbia (5-9) -- The Lions were a 4-22 disaster last season and have basically rebooted the entire team.  This year's top six features a junior, a sophomore, and four freshman.  The season started rough, but their last game was a 12 point win at Lafayette.  The Leopards aren't good, but they gave our guys a good scare and took Penn to OT.  I would not be surprised if by the end of the season, Columbia will be playing spoiler (and with the new schedule, Cornell's regular season ends with hosting the Lions).

With the ILT, what matters is finishing in the top 4 since no one is getting an at-large bid.  Pencil in Yale, so you likely have four teams (Princeton, Cornell, Penn, Harvard) fighting for the other three slots, with Brown having an outside shot.  Dartmouth and Columbia are purely playing spoiler.