Men's hoops faces Brown, surging Yale in crucial Ivy weekend

Yale only tallied 31 points. That's it. The number put them in dead last, just behind Brown.

But the Elis have surprised everyone in and out of the league ever since they received those 31 votes to finish in eighth place by the pre-season Ivy League Media Poll. The now third-place Elis are breathing down the necks of front-runners Princeton and Penn, and tonight will begin their final drive to completely reverse the pre-season ranking given to them.

In a season that has a four-horse race going into the final weekend, the Tigers (13-10 overall, 8-3 Ivy League) will play Yale (10-14, 7-4) at John J. Lee Amphitheater tonight in a game with postseason implications for both parties involved. Penn (11-15, 8-3), tied with Princeton in first, travels to Brown (13-11, 7-4) tonight. Saturday night, the teams swap, as the Tigers head to Providence, R.I., and the Quakers come to New Haven, Conn. The Bears and Elis are each just one game back from the Tigers and Quakers, and all four teams will play each other once during the next five days.

Princeton's first test will be at Yale — a team that has turned heads ever since its Ivy opener, an 85-83 overtime victory at Harvard. The Elis went on to win their next two games, and traveled to Princeton and Penn tied with the perennial powers at 3-0 in the league.

There was a conspicuous hole in the Eli offense in those two games, however. Senior captain Neil Yanke has started and played in 21 of Yale's 24 games this season, but was sidelined during that key stretch when Yale went on the road to face its fellow league leaders.

Yanke sat on the bench while he recovered from a calcium deposit in his calf and watched the Elis lose two straight games on the road. Yale even lost its next game at home to Cornell, the Big Red's only league win on the road this season. Once again, it appeared safe to write off the struggling Elis.

But during the five games following the Cornell loss, Yale has managed to go 4-1, and a good deal of the credit for its success rests on the shoulders of their 6 foot, 11 inch center.

In Yale's last six games, Yanke has been on fire. During that stretch, he shot 67.2 percent (39 of 58) from the field and averaged 17.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. When the Elis traveled to Columbia he had 14 points and nine rebounds, and the next night at Cornell he had 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

Lately, Yanke's offense production has been well above his season average of 12.9 points and 6.6 rebounds. Tiger senior center Nate Walton — a full four inches shorter than Yanke — will probably need help in containing the Eli center. Princeton has had to deal with taller centers all season long by bringing over a second player to double team the opposing big man. But if the Tigers try that tactic tonight, they'll leave open Yale's two other leading scorers — forward Ime Archibong and guard Chris Leanza.

"[Yanke] makes a tremendous difference," Tiger head coach John Thompson '88 said. "He alters the game on the defensive end and on the offensive end."

The Tigers will not only have to stop Yanke this weekend, but contend with playing on the road. The four teams at the top of the league are a combined 20-2 in conference games this season at home, and the Tigers are 2-3 on the road. And Princeton has left New Haven the past two years with two narrow losses, losing to Yale on their court by two points in each game.

"Teams definitely play better on their home court," junior guard Ahmed El-Nokali said. "We just have to match their intensity."

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The Tigers will also have to play at the top of their game the following evening when they travel to Brown. The red-hot Bears own a six game winning streak, and also have a chance at the Ivy title.