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Let the Ivy race begin
Princeton, Penn open league play trailing Yale, Columbia
By Justin Feil
Princeton Packet Sports Writer
Thursday, Jan. 27, 2000
Long before the first jump ball, Pennsylvania and Princeton were picked at the top of most preseason polls again, mostly in that order.
Friday night, the big P's test that out when they begin Ivy League action, the last of the 318 Division I teams to start league play. Without Princeton and Penn, who have combined for the last 12 Ivy titles, it's hard to believe that anyone would consider the Ivy season to have already begun.
Princeton and Penn trail two Ivy unbeatens: front-runner Yale — losers to Holy Cross and Big South cellar dweller Liberty — and second-place Columbia — losers to the worst independent team in the nation, Stony Brook.
Part of that will change this weekend at Columbia. Or will it?
Listen to Columbia head coach Armond Hill and it will. Listen to the Tigers' Bill Carmody and it might.
Hill was asked Wednesday why he was being so pessimistic and downplaying his team's chances this weekend considering that the Lions have clawed their way to five straight wins.
"Raise your hands if you think we can beat Penn and Princeton," Hill responded. "How many hands are up?"
Only two drifted up, but one of them was that of Carmody, who was shaking his head at the former Princeton assistant's humility.
Columbia always plays Princeton tough, and if there was a year that anyone might upset Princeton or Penn, this is it, and Carmody knows it. One of the big P's will win the league, but they will lose and it will affect the race as the Tigers' losses to Yale and Harvard last year did.
The 8-7 Tigers are hurting for starters with experience. That would have been the case anyway, but add in the loss of senior Mason Rocca and junior Nate Walton, and Princeton will suit up eight sophomore or freshmen players. That means fewer guys who understand just how trying the Ivy games can be, even fewer who have actually won a title yet. That's what the tough pre-Ivy schedule is for though.
Princeton defeated above Ivy-caliber schools like Rutgers and Texas Christian (both middle-of-the-road league teams), but that's it. Princeton barely beat Monmouth and Bucknell and lost to Lafayette — three Ivy-like teams.
Penn, which will open up the Ivy season at Columbia Friday night with a 6-7 overall record, isn't in the exact same boat, but it doesn't have full sails either. Healthier as a team, Quakers center Geoff Owens has been hampered by crippling shin splints. He limps up and down the court as dramatically as Penn has at times.
The Quakers are the Washington Wizards of the Ivy League — lots of talent, no chemistry. They also don't have a lot of experience beyond three returning starters. Two freshmen start and three other first-year guys see significant time. Penn hasn't meshed even in ugly wins over Army, Drexel and Lehigh and it struggled mightily in a blowout loss to Kansas. Penn's best win was over California, the Pac-10's eighth-place team.
At this point the Ivy championship is anyone's, but realistically it's still Princeton's or Penn's. It probably won't come down to who wins the Feb. 15 meeting at Jadwin Gym, but it will come down to March 7 in the Palestra depending on who emerges less scathed through the rest of the league.
But that's why they play the games, particularly those involving Princeton and Penn.
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