Men's Basketball: Tigers to battle Columbia, No. 22 Cornell for Ivy lead

So here it is: the headliner, the matchup we’ve all been waiting for, the game against the nationally ranked defending Ivy League champion that will pit the league’s last two undefeated teams against each other. Just don’t tell that to head coach Sydney Johnson ’97, because the men’s basketball team plays not one but two games this weekend. Princeton (13-5 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) hosts Columbia tonight (8-12, 2-4) and No. 22 Cornell (20-3, 6-0) on Saturday night.

Princeton has quietly rattled off four consecutive Ivy League victories, all of which came on the road, so tonight’s matchup against the Lions will be the Tigers’ first league home game of the year. And while it may not have the flashy appeal of the game against the nationally ranked Big Red, it will be every bit as important.

“Late last season, we had a similar scenario where we were playing Columbia and then the following night was against Cornell,” Johnson said. “If we had beaten Columbia, we may have had a chance to tie Cornell for the championship if we had beaten them the following night. We lost to Columbia on Friday night, so Saturday didn’t mean much in terms of trying to win a championship. And that was extremely disappointing for our players and for our staff.”

That’s not to say that the Ivy League crown will be decided after this weekend — it won’t — but last year’s experiences illustrate how every single game is crucial.

Columbia’s league record is somewhat misleading. The Lions have already played their pair of games against Cornell, and one of their other losses came against Harvard. Outside of those three games — against two of the tougher opponents in the league — Columbia is a respectable 2-1, with double-digit victories over both Dartmouth and Brown. Its other loss came against Yale last weekend.

The Lions, a team with a relatively potent offense, will pose some serious challenges for the Tigers’ defense. In particular, Princeton will have to be diligent about boxing out the Lions on the defensive end. Columbia has three forwards — Asenso Ampim, Brian Grimes and John Daniels — that rank in the top 10 in the league in offensive rebounds per game. As a team, the Lions average 1.1 more offensive rebounds per game than their opponents.

The Tigers will also have to key in on guard Noruwa Agho. Agho has scored more than 20 points 10 times this year en route to a league-best average of 17.7 points per game. He’s efficient, too, with 48.4 percent shooting from the field and over 50 percent from beyond the arc.

Then there’s the Big Red. Cornell has dominated league play so far — its smallest margin of victory through six games was a 14-point win against Brown last weekend. Two of Cornell’s losses came against two of the top three teams in the nation — No. 1 Kansas and No. 3 Syracuse. Both were away games. The Big Red very nearly knocked off the Jayhawks, too, leading the game up until the final minutes.

Cornell is led by a fantastic trio of seniors — forward Ryan Wittman, center Jeff Foote and guard Louis Dale. Wittman leads the team with 17.3 points per game. Dale, who was awarded Ivy League Player of the Year two seasons ago, contributes 11.1 points per game and is also an effective point guard, with an assist-to-turnover ratio better than 2-1.

Foote pours in 12.7 points per game, but, as the reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, he makes an even more pronounced impact on defense. He averages 8.6 rebounds per game and has 43 blocks on the season. Johnson said his team doesn’t need to do anything different schematically but that players do need to recognize the situation.

“To be honest, I think we actually just try to do what we normally do,” Johnson said about dealing with a shot blocker like Foote. “Say we run a certain play, and if the shot blocker is in the area to make a block on it, you say to a guy, ‘Get your body into him before you try to challenge him. If he’s still in position you try to pass it out. I don’t think we try to do anything more than just be smart.”

And if that wasn’t enough, Cornell also boasts last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year: guard Chris Wroblewski, who chips in 9.1 points per game. Add it all up, and you have an extremely dynamic offense. As a team, the Big Red averages 76.7 points per game and wins its games by an average of 13 points. With Foote manning the paint, it also holds its opponents to 40.5 percent shooting.

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Last year, the Tigers snapped Cornell’s 19-game Ivy League winning streak with a stunning 61-41 victory at Jadwin Gymnasium. Both teams’ rosters remain almost completely intact after last year, but Johnson said he doesn’t believe anyone should read too much into that game.

“In the back of our players’ minds, that might help a small amount,” Johnson said of the possibility of last year’s win providing a bit of confidence. “But I would just hope that [our players] are more locked into who we are this year.”

To be fair, Princeton’s strengths have led to some pretty good results thus far. The Tigers have won 11 of their last 12 on the strength of their stingy defense and balanced offense.

“I think we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I think our defense has been solid — not flawless, but it’s been solid — and offensively we’ve just been trying to focus on getting good shots as a team,” Johnson said.