Looking for a miracle, m. basketball needs to sweep

The season is not over. Contrary to what many Princetonians have been saying, the men's basketball season is still going, and the Tigers will do battle against Cornell tonight and Columbia tomorrow night, both at home.

Yes, an Ivy title and NCAA tournament berth are unlikely, but there is still a lot of basketball left to be played.

In order for Princeton (13-10 overall, 8-3 Ivy League) to earn a share of the Ivy title, they need Penn (19-5, 11-0) to lose out and for Brown (15-11, 10-2) to lose at least one of their final two games. If Brown loses both games, Penn and Princeton will play for the automatic bid. If Brown loses only one of two, all three teams will have a two-game playoff.

The most likely scenario, however, is that Penn will defeat both Cornell (8-16, 4-8) and Columbia (2-23, 0-12), thereby clinching the Ivy title.

If Brown continues to win, they would most likely get a bid to the NIT, and the Tigers would be left on the outside looking in. There is, however, the small chance that both teams will be selected. If Princeton upsets Penn at home to close the season, its chances of an NIT bid would improve dramatically.

This is getting rather far ahead, though. Immediately on the Tiger's plate are Cornell and Columbia, two teams that should not be overlooked — well, at least not Cornell.

While Princeton handled both teams rather easily the first time it played them, these two would like nothing more than to end Princeton's hopes of any sort of postseason.

Cornell has had a very inconsistent year, playing very well at times and struggling at others. The Big Red have posted two victories over Harvard, but they were also blown out twice by Yale and once by Dartmouth.

They narrowly missed pulling off the biggest upset of the Ivy season when they took Penn down to the wire in an exciting 70-67 loss.

The Big Red are paced by guard Ka'Ron Barnes, a junior who is averaging 13.7 points per game. Sophomore Eric Taylor is the main presence down low for Cornell, and he is averaging just over 12 points per game while also chipping in pn the boards with an average of seven rebounds per game.

The last time the two teams met, Princeton was shooting the ball very well. Junior guard Ed Persia led the way with 16 points, including four of five from beyond the arc.

The Tigers have beaten the Big Red 17 straight times at Jadwin, currently their longest such streak against any team.

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On the other hand, Columbia will be looking to avoid its 17th straight loss when it faces Penn tonight.

The Lions have had a very disappointing season so far, having won only two of their 25 games. As a team, they are averaging just over 50 points per game, and in four of their 12 league contests, they have failed to reach that mark.

The Lions would be the first team since the Dartmouth squad of 1965-66 to go 0-14 in the Ivy League. Columbia is currently ranked 325 out of 327 in the RPI rankings for Division I schools.

While the less talented Lions will be undermanned on Saturday, do not count them out of this game completely. They will most likely be playing to avoid going 0-14, which should definitely have the team fired up.

In addition, Columbia has played well at times this season, especially in their 47-40 home loss to Penn. The Lions were hanging on until a Quaker run late in the game sealed Penn's victory.

Senior forward Marco McCottry leads the Lions with 8.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He is an athletic player, and though he is only six feet, four inches tall, his athleticism helps make up for his lack of size.

The key for the Tigers this weekend will be to continue their excellent offensive execution in recent games. Princeton has hit over 50 percent of their shots in four of the last five games, including the loss to Brown.

While the fans may have thrown in the towel after that loss, the players and head coach John Thompson certainly haven't — Thompson simply wipes his head with it.