The phrase “that’s why we play the games” is a cliché, but one that is uttered so often because the conventional wisdom in trying to pick who will win and where a team might finish in the standings doesn’t lead to a high percentage of correct selections. Sure, there are occasions where things go largely as expected, like last season’s CAA, but those are basically the exceptions that prove the rule.
With that, we bring you the 2019-20 Ivy League in college basketball at the midway point.
The conventional wisdom was that this would be a three-team race between Harvard, Penn and Yale, with Yale getting a little less mention than the other two. Both the Crimson and Quakers had lots of depth, though the Crimson have taken a hit with Seth Towns leaving school after injuries plagued him following his sophomore season, while Yale lost their best player and more but still brought a lot back and has the dean of coaches in James Jones.
The team that got off to the fast start, and was thought of as being a notch below those three, was Princeton. They swept arch rival Penn before the back-to-back weekends started, then took care of Dartmouth and Harvard at home. But Yale came to Jadwin Gym on Friday night and blew them out 88-64, making the game look more like a mismatch than a battle for first place. Yale is now 6-1 in the league and 18-5 overall.
The Bulldogs actually lost their top three scorers from a year ago, but are still putting up over 77 points a night on over 47 percent shooting. The players who waited in the wings as secondary guys last season were clearly ready for increased roles this season. Just think: if they had pulled out what was a close loss at North Carolina, they would have had a 14-game winning streak before Harvard beat them in New Haven last weekend.
The bigger surprise is not that Harvard is just 4-3 after they handled Cornell 85-63 in Cambridge, running out to a big lead in the first half and coasting from there. Rather, it came in Philadelphia, where Brown used a big second half to take over and knock off Penn 75-63 for their fifth straight win after Yale swept in them before the back-to-back weekends began. The scene was the same as the final regular season game last year, where Penn beat the Bears and knocked them out of the league tournament a night after the Bears won at Princeton. The Quakers, like Harvard, are just 4-3 as well.
Now, the Bears will go to Princeton on Saturday night for a crucial game with second place on the line as both teams are 5-2. Both teams had their struggles before league play, with Brown losing five out of six before beating Rhode Island and a non-Division I team at home. Princeton, meanwhile, lost their first five games of the season and were 1-7 through eight games, but they won three out of four before their five-game winning streak (with a non-Division I win mixed in there) to open league play.
Last weekend, Brown beat Harvard on a three-point play right before the buzzer, a heart-breaking loss for the Crimson. Could that win end up sparking the Bears to an even bigger run? A win on Saturday night will go a long way towards that being the case. But either way, the league isn’t quite turning out the way many thought it might at the midway point, and chances are, the final result will look similar relative to expectations. It will make the league that much more fun to watch this year.
Side Dishes
Northern Kentucky and Wright State continue to appear on a collision course for a regular season finale for all the marbles in Highland Heights. The Norse handled IUPUI 84-70, getting 31 points, six rebounds and seven assists from Jalen Tate, to stay a game back of the Raiders, who pulled away from visiting UIC 75-58.
The two leaders in the Summit League scored double-digit home wins on the night, as South Dakota State knocked off Denver 90-78 and North Dakota State took care of Purdue Fort Wayne 80-70. It looks more and more like the showdown in Fargo in less than two weeks will determine who has the top seed in the league tournament, though each team still has to play South Dakota, who is a game back, one more time as well.
Other results of note: Akron handled Central Michigan 80-67 to join Bowling Green atop the MAC East at 9-3; Davidson blew out St. Bonaventure 93-64 in Olean; Monmouth beat Canisius 85-71 to go to 8-5 in MAAC play, and they are joined by Siena, who held off Rider 73-64, with the Broncos a half game back at 8-6; and St. Peter’s continues to lead the MAAC, as they knocked off slumping Quininpiac 84-72 in Jersey City to hand the Bobcats their fourth straight loss and seventh in nine games.
Steve Masiello will be running the show at Manhattan for a little longer, as the school has signed him to a contract extension that will keep him at the school through the 2022-23 season. Masiello was set to leave for South Florida back in 2014, but ended up back in Riverdale after revelations that he did not get a degree from Kentucky as stated on his resume. After leading them to a second straight MAAC title and NCAA Tournament appearance, the Jaspers went through a big four-year slump where they have finished no better than .500 in MAAC play. They have since rebounded to a 7-6 mark this year after losing at surging Iona on Friday night.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a busy day of action, as is typical, and there are plenty of important games among those on the schedule.
- In the ACC, Syracuse visits Florida State (noon), Clemson hosts Louisville and Duke hosts Notre Dame (4 p.m.) Later, Virginia goes to North Carolina in a matchup that has lost a lot of luster (8 p.m.)
- The American Athletic Conference has Houston going to SMU (6 p.m.)
- A big rivalry game in the Atlantic 10 is also big for the standings as Richmond hosts VCU (4 p.m.)
- A full slate of Big 12 action is on tap, starting with Oklahoma visiting Kansas (noon), then Oklahoma State hosts Texas Tech (1 p.m.), Texas visits Iowa State (2 p.m.), West Virginia visits Baylor in what should be a great battle (4 p.m.) and Kansas State visits TCU (5 p.m.)
- Big East action has Georgetown visiting Butler (2:30 p.m.), DePaul visiting Creighton (7:30 p.m.) and Providence hosting Seton Hall (8 p.m.)
- The Big Ten gets going with Ohio State hosting Purdue (noon), then Rutgers hosts Illinois in a big one (4:30 p.m.) before the big game of the day as Michigan State hosts Maryland (6 p.m.)
- A key game in the CAA race is William & Mary hosting Delaware (4 p.m.)
- The Ivy League has the second of its back-to-back nights of action, and a couple of big ones are on tap as Brown visits Princeton in a battle of teams tied for second place and Yale visits Penn (6 p.m.)
- The MEAC has a key game between contenders on its slate as Norfolk State hosts Morgan State (6:30 p.m.)
- The Missouri Valley has a couple of key games on tap as Bradley visits Southern Illinois (2 p.m.) and Northern Iowa visits Loyola-Chicago in a game that might unfortunately be overshadowed nationally (8 p.m.)
- In the Ohio Valley Conference, Eastern Kentucky is just a game back of the top, and they visit one of the leaders in Austin Peay (4:30 p.m.)
- Pac-12 action is highlighted by Oregon State hosting Colorado (10 p.m.) and Stanford hosting Arizona (10:30 p.m.)
- Key games in the SEC include Mississippi State at Arkansas (1 p.m.), Ole Miss at Kentucky (2 p.m.), LSU at Alabama (4 p.m.) and South Carolina hosting Tennessee (6 p.m.)
- The SWAC has a big game between contenders as Grambling visits Prairie View A&M (6:30 p.m.), while later on Jackson State visits Texas Southern (8:30 p.m.)
- An interesting matchup in the West Coast Conference has Pacific visiting a Saint Mary’s team that is actually a half game back of them (8 p.m.), while later on Gonzaga travels to Pepperdine (10 p.m.)
