Ivy League Friday...

[NattyBumpo]

I probably should wait, but I cant imagine anyone putting a dime on Cornell in this matchup. Some of the ratings I check now and then, to see if the books are shading a side or if the # is mostly generic, suggest a pk for this game. So some possible shading might suggest the book giving us the winner. I'm kinda guessing, but what the hell.... its my thread. I have Princeton -4 at minimum. I think it could possibly be higher but I wont tinker with my ratings just yet.

This Cornell team is in a bad way right now. The three top teams in the Ivy League at this point, in my opinion, are Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Probably in that order. This is the Princeton team that sent Harvard packing last year and stole the automatic bid to the ncaa tournament. They are pretty close to being in tact this year. I think Penn and Columbia make up the second tier, in that order. Until Cornell gets healthy, and improves down the stretch, they will probably join the dregs with Dartmouth and Brown. Maybe not quite that bad, but it could be ugly early on.

Cornell is seriously thin in experienced talent this year and that is compounded by three key injuries (Sr guard Gatlin, Jr fwd Peck, and a key defensive guard in Adjei who is listed as questionable for this game). The bulk of the playing time has been given to three freshmen guards, one freshman fwd, one sr guard who averages 9 pts and 4 rebounds, and a jr foreward averaging 7 pts with 6 rebounds. No notable size to speak of. The tallest being listed at 6'8.

Princeton is more than capable of getting this road win. They are the epitome of a "road warrior". They beat FSU recently on the road. Princeton will impose a slow pace on the small size and thin depth of Cornell and eat them alive. Only way they lose to this team, in this spot, is if they play their worst game and Cornell plays its best.

Scheduling and travel in the Ivy League have a lot of unique nuances. People often get flabbergasted when oddball results make the perception of Ivy League games unpredictable. But, there's really nothing here to second guess. Its the first game of conference play.

Gimme gimme gimme ...

847 - Princeton -1 @ Cornell

...as fast as I can get it.

[NattyBumpo]

Loser... mother ******* *****!!!!!!

A bit of erroneous analysis on suggesting Princeton could control the boards here. Cornell was a bit smallish in height but played up to the challenge. Terrible perimeter shooting for Cornell couldn't keep Big Red honest inside. Credit the Cornell defensive effort.