Men's hoops can clinch share of Ivy title with two wins

Who needs a tournament for excitement when a season finale is as exciting as this year's Ivy League race? With three games left, the men's basketball team leads Yale by half a game and Penn by a game. And who does Princeton play this Tuesday? None other than Penn (21-6, 8-3), probably for the Ivy title.

The Tigers (14-9, 9-2) are back in first after spending a few weeks chasing Yale (17-9, 9-3). Princeton regained the spot last weekend and is in an envious position heading into the last three games of the season. Three wins equals Princeton's second Ivy championship in two years.

With the Tuesday matchup at Penn on the horizon, the Tigers are looking to take care of business at Cornell (5-20, 2-10) this evening and then at Columbia (11-15, 4-8) tomorrow night.

If any of the next three games are a lock, it should be against the Big Red, which, ranked seventh in the league, have had a bit of a depressing seaon.

The Big Red were without an Ivy win going into last weekend, but, with the aid of Cory Toppert's hot hand, managed to beat fellow cellar dweller Dartmouth in New Haven. In the weekend meetings with Dartmouth and Harvard, Toppert shot 8-14 from the field and five of six from three-point range. The 70-61 win over Dartmouth was Cornell's first road win in 17 games dating back to last season's matchup in New Haven, Conn. against Yale.

The last matchup between the two teams was 33-9 at halftime and then ended with the final of 60-38. On the night, junior Ray Robins totaled 28 points and was virtually unstopable against the weak Big Red defense.

Last year's meeting in Ithaca, though, was an entirely different story. In that game, the Big Red handed the Tigers an upsetting 17 point loss, a setback which some thought the team would not be able to overcome, but did.

While Princeton's shooting has not been that great on the season, Cornell's has been nearly atrocious, shooting just 37.9 percent from the field and 31.4 percent from three point range. The Tigers will look to exploit Cornell's offensive woes this evening and make sure that the Big Red's shooting percentage does not go up.

If the Tigers lose a game this weekend, it would likely be against senior-laden Columbia on senior night.

The Lions, like the Big Red, are at the end of a disappointing season. Columbia was expected to contend for the Ivy title this season, but has not played to its potential.

The Lions, however, are coming off a weekend of solid performances, including a win at Dartmouth and a narrow 59-56 loss against a Harvard team that is still technically in the race for the Ivy championship, although the odds of the Crimson still actually winning it are close to none.

In Columbia's last meeting with the Tigers Feb. 1 in Jadwin Gym, Princeton came out with an ugly 49-41 win after being down by six at halftime. Junior guard Kyle Wente was the star in that game, scoring 17 points. Senior guard Ahmed El Nokali also had a solid night of 5-8 shooting for 11 points.

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The Lions like to get the ball underneath to big man Craig Austin. In the last meeting between the two, Austin was held to just 3-12 shooting on the evening. If he is kept at such horrendous shooting again tomorrow, the Tigers should get out of New York without any problem. If he is on, though, the Tigers might be a little upset going home.

When thinking of such a scenario, ideas of last season's loss at Columbia come to mind. In that game, the Tigers struggled against the Lions and lost by 17.

The scenario for the last leg of the Ivy race is as such. If the Tigers win the next three games, they win the Ivy title outright. If Princeton, Penn and Yale win their six games on the weekend and the Quakers beat Princeton on Tuesday, there will be the first ever three-way tie for the title. If the Tigers lose a game this weekend and both Penn and Yale win theirs, then the Tigers will play the Quakers for a share of the title. Both of the latter scenarios would result in a playoff.