Two full weekends are in the books, and the Ivy League has a little different look than projected. In this league, a slow start can hurt teams, but this year could be different and this past weekend showed exactly why.
For one, Cornell can be defeated. That might have seemed hard to believe after the first weekend, when the Big Red blew out both Yale and Brown by over 30 points. But with the Big Red losing to Princeton, a team that surely no one would have picked to end their Ivy winning streak (at 19 games), the perception may change. That might be the case even more so with Dartmouth being in the mix at 4-2 after sweeping both of their games at home this weekend.
The race is a little more wide open than many, this writer included, figured it would be.
Tigers On Top Early
How many picked Princeton to be atop the Ivy League at any point in the season? None of you?
It’s okay. It just means you’re in good company. But while it’s early, Sydney Johnson’s team is giving every indication that they aren’t in the kind of rebuilding mode that most thought they would be in this year, as they exit the second weekend of Ivy play with a 4-0 mark after convincing wins over Cornell and Columbia at Jadwin Gymnasium this weekend. The four wins are already more than the Tigers had in either of the last two seasons.
It’s easy to point to freshman Doug Davis as the difference-maker, but there’s certainly more than that. The freshman has come in and given them a boost at the offensive end as their leading scorer at 12.5 points per game. Look down the lineup, and all you can see is improvement. Dan Mavraides and Pawel Buczak have gone from being bit players to key cogs, with Mavraides becoming a double-digit scorer and Buczak combining with Zach Finley for a nice platoon in the middle. Mavraides played in just seven games last season and Buczak barely made it past the halfway point with 15. Kareem Maddox, Marcus Schroeder and Nick Lake have also made strides as well.
“I think that we’ve got different roles, different hats that guys are wearing, and they seem to be wearing them a little bit better this year and have a better feel for what the coaches are asking,” said Johnson. “We don’t necessarily have two or three all-league players, we have 14 guys who are carrying their weight. It’s really helping us right now.”
Even if the Tigers falter later on, this is a good sign that Johnson has the program moving in the right direction. That looked to be the case last season, and now there’s something on the bottom line to show for it, although it’s still early.
Big Green Another Surprise
Dartmouth continues to be a surprise team, as the Big Green finished their four-game homestand 3-1 with a sweep of Brown and Yale to go to 4-2 in the Ivy League. Alex Barnett continued his hot play, earning Player of the Week honors after extending his streak of scoring 20 or more points to four games with 28 against Brown and 13 against Yale. In the second half against Brown, Barnett scored 20 of the Big Green’s 28 points, including their final nine.
The Big Green have also had solid contributions of late from a player at the other end of the experience spectrum. Freshman David Rufful has started the last five games, and the only loss since then came against Princeton last weekend. He had a career-high 14 points against Yale on Saturday.
Here’s a very telling stat: only one of the Big Green’s Ivy games has been decided by more than five points thus far, and they are 3-2 in those decided by five points or less. For good measure, they are 2-0 in overtime.
Crimson Persevere, Take Last Home Game
One had to think that Harvard’s early league schedule gave them a chance to get off to a nice start. Coming back from final exams, they played five in a row at home with Dartmouth visiting and two straight weekends of back-to-back home games. Things didn’t quite start out that way, as they dropped a tough one in overtime to Dartmouth and then a tough loss to Penn to open up the first full weekend. After losing the next night to Princeton, the Crimson were suddenly 1-3, losing three straight at home.
“I thought it took a lot out of us with the Penn and Princeton weekend,” said head coach Tommy Amaker. “We were so excited with momentum and a lot of things, and we dropped both of those games. We were right there in both of them and just couldn’t get them.”
The Crimson dropped another one on Friday, as Yale beat them up inside in an 87-66 win that was every bit as convincing as the score indicates. They simply didn’t look good in this one, as they not only struggled inside but were also out-hustled all night long. The loss extended the losing streak to four games, all at home.
On Saturday, it looked like more of the same might be in store. The Crimson didn’t play well in the first half, although they got better in the latter part, and were down 32-20 at the break. That deficit came with Brown’s star big man Matt Mullery limited to six minutes and six points on 3-3 shooting due to foul trouble.
The second half didn’t look to be any different at first, but after a few early Brown baskets, the Crimson came alive as their defensive pressure slowly got some results. It looked like they might not break through when Peter Sullivan had a big three-pointer to bring the lead back to six at 57-51. But Harvard rallied to take their first lead with less than three minutes to go, and still had to make key plays in the final minutes before Jeremy Lin was fouled as time expired and made the first free throw to give them the win.
Who led the perseverance? The seniors.
“I can’t say enough about our seniors. We started all three of them tonight,” said Amaker. “That, to me, was the biggest thing in terms of getting ready for this game in seeing if we could put a halt to our losing streak, if our seniors could come and lead the way. They did it.”
One of the seniors, Evan Harris, was in his first two games back from a knee injury and is still probably about 70 percent. But he gutted out a quiet double-double against Brown with 12 points and 11 rebounds to go with four blocked shots. Harris said the team got together earlier in the day and talked about what they had to do, and the seniors – himself, Andrew Pusar and Drew Housman – all took the lead.
Amaker felt that a big difference in the second halves on the two nights was the team’s offense. On Friday night, Yale’s big men beat up the Crimson inside, and on Saturday, Mullery was unstoppable in the second half. But the Crimson’s overall response was different on Saturday night as they fought and looked more like the scrappy team they have been when they have won games.
“We shot very poorly in the second half against Yale. Tonight in the second half, we shot it fairly well,” Amaker said. “I think a lot of times, kids’ defensive energy can go way down if they’re not scoring. We weren’t able to score against Yale. We missed so many open shots and just couldn’t put the ball in the basket, and shot poorly from the foul line. I think we were very deflated going back on defense against Yale, and they took advantage of it.”
The Crimson surely hope that Saturday’s win gets them back on track, as they will be on the road the next two weekends.
Bulldogs Bounce Back From Rough Weekend
Yale had a tough weekend on the road a week earlier, losing at Columbia and Cornell. That slowed the Bulldogs after they started Ivy League play by sweeping Brown and looked ready to turn the corner. The Bulldogs were hit by illness and didn’t play well in the two losses.
While the Bulldogs aren’t a great offensive team, it was at that end where they were especially lacking the prior weekend, as they shot under 30 percent in the two games. In Friday’s win over Harvard, the Bulldogs played a solid offensive game, shooting over 55 percent from the field and committing just ten turnovers, which matches their season low. They pounded the Crimson inside with a 40-22 edge in points in the paint, and their post players had their way, from Ross Morin (15 points on 5-9 shooting) to reserves Paul Nelson, Michael Sands and Greg Mangano, who combined for 12 points on 5-12 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.
“We had a rough weekend last weekend,” said Morin, the team’s captain. “This week we really focused on our offensive execution. We really showed that we can score sometimes on offense and hit some outside shots.”
The Bulldogs felt they had a good week of practice leading up to the weekend. While they won big on Friday, they suffered a tough loss at Dartmouth on Saturday. The offense still clicked, as they shot over 52 percent from the floor, but two things hurt: turnovers that led to points and allowing offensive rebounds. Dartmouth had one fewer turnover than Yale, but turned Yale’s 15 turnovers into 20 points. The Big Green also had nine offensive rebounds, while the Bulldogs had just one.
James Jones said that his team needs to defend well to have a chance to win. The Bulldogs have done that, and if their offense looks more like it did this weekend, they should be in games and win their fair share the rest of the way.
Tough Times on the Road For Brown
It’s easy to think that Brown is happy to be heading home after two weekends of being on the road. Add in their games against Yale including the first game at home, and the Bears have just completed a string of five straight games on the road. But more than just playing five straight on the road, the Bears have lost a couple of tough ones, especially this past weekend as they dropped two games that they had a great chance to win late in the game.
Friday night took overtime, but the Bears had a chance to win in regulation before not making a field goal for almost the final five minutes, and also had an early three-point lead in the extra session. On Saturday, they looked to be in great shape with a 12-point halftime lead. But even Matt Mullery’s big second half, which led to a 27-point effort on 13-16 shooting, wasn’t enough to hold off Harvard as others were unable to get going in the second half. The end result was another tough loss.
“We’ve had five of our six games come down to the end, and we haven’t been able to make the play to win the game,” said head coach Jesse Agel. “I give our guys a lot of credit for coming back night in, night out.”
In early Ivy League games, Mullery has been getting beat up inside. Teams have been trying to knock him around, and he’s taken a great deal of contact and he doesn’t have the most physically mature body to begin with. It shows in the statistics, as his field goal percentage in the first five Ivy League games was below 45 percent. Saturday’s effort will get that back up some.
The Bears have yet to develop depth, which has been a concern all season long. They get a tremendous amount out of their five starters, but little from the reserves, and as the weekends of Friday and Saturday games pile up, so will the minutes on the starters.
“This is the most our bench has played all year,” Agel said after the loss at Harvard. Our guys are playing 40 minutes a game. I give them a lot of credit for sucking it up and playing as hard as they can.”
Other Notes
- After road teams had an early edge, the homecourt advantage appears to be returning. Road teams took the first three Ivy League contests, but home teams have won 12 of 19 games since then.
- Columbia had a nice three-game winning streak going until they ran smack into a wall in the form of red-hot Princeton on Saturday. In that game, no Lion scored more than the five points that sophomore big man Zach Crimmins had.
- A week after they opened up Ivy League play with a win, Penn dropped two at home. It marked the first time the Quakers were swept at home during Ivy League play in 41 years.
