Men's hoops takes on Yale, Brown in games that may decide the Ivy title

This season, Princeton and Penn have not been the end-all of men's Ivy League basketball. An old program with a familiar name has shown up and taken the reins from the dominant "P's." That program, surprisingly, is Yale — 9-1 in the Ivy League.

Despite their two losses to Division III teams, the Elis are on top of the league and looking for the kill this evening against the Tigers. The home game is of uber importance for Princeton (11-9 overall, 7-2 Ivy League). However, win or lose, the Tigers will then host Brown tomorrow night.

If Princeton comes out with a win, it will tie Yale at the top of the league standings with four games to play. If the Tigers should lose, Yale would be two games ahead of Princeton and virtually unstoppable. The Elis have only three games left, including a pair against wannabes Harvard and Dartmouth.

If the Bulldogs want to go for a tiger's jugular to finish the big cat off, then in tonight's game, Yale should attack the Tigers' perimeter shooting. Ivy League teams live and die by the three, and Princeton is no exception.

In the Tigers' two Ivy losses this season, they shot under 23 percent from behind the arc. In the seven wins, the team is shooting about 42 percent from three-point land.

When Princeton travelled up to New Haven two weeks ago, the Elis used solid perimeter defense to keep Princeton's three-point shooting at 19 percent. Yale then used a balanced attack and an end-of-the-game run on the scoreboard to pull away by the final of 60-50.

For the Tigers to win this evening, the squad will have to show up with one of its better shooting performances. One way the team can do this is for the players without the ball to make cleaner, quicker cuts around the baseline so that shooters can get open on the perimeter for good looks at the basket.

Against Penn, a game in which the Tigers shot 26 percent from behind the arc, Princeton's cuts around the basket were slower than usual. Thus, the team did not get as many good looks.

If the Tigers can do all of the above, then they should be able to go into the game against Brown still in the race for the Ivy crown.

Win or lose against Yale, the game with Brown is still very important. A loss to the Bears, even after a win against Yale, would still likely lead to the Tigers' finishing second or third in the league. A win against Brown after a Yale win, of course, would keep the Tigers standing tall among the league leaders.

Brown will be traveling to Princeton tomorrow night as one of the most underachieving teams in the league.

The Bears showed promise with all five starters returning and a big win over Yale near the beginning of the season. Since then, though, the team has fizzled to fourth place, and is all but mathematically eliminated from contention.

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Even with its chances of winning the title being low, Brown would still salvage the season if it could get a win against one of the two P's.

The season is winding down. The race for the title is close. Princeton victories would equal a shared driver's seat position. A single loss would put the Tigers out of the race.