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Confident Princeton to travel to Harvard, Dartmouth
Tigers need sweep to stay in Ivy League race
By Justin Feil
Princeton Packet Sports Writer
Thursday, Feb. 24, 2000
Penn and Princeton.
To Tigers and Quakers fans, it's an intense rivalry.
To the other six Ivy League men's basketball teams, it's the two most daunting weekends of the season. First Penn, then Princeton, or vice versa. It doesn't matter usually. It's two losses.
"Obviously, it's Penn and Princeton, so it's huge," Harvard leading scorer Dan Clemente said of this weekend. "We're trying to pick up the intensity in practice and get ready."
The junior forward, the 1997-98 Ivy Rookie of the Year, and his teammates host Princeton first at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Tigers then travel to Dartmouth for a 7 p.m. tip-off Saturday.
"It's road conference games," Princeton coach Bill Carmody said. "At Cornell and Columbia, they're tough games. Here, they're blowouts.
"Harvard knows they played us even in the second half (in the teams' first meeting this season). They beat us up there last year with some of the same guys. I know they're preparing for us, and probably think they can beat us."
That "probably" is the difference between the Ivy's top two teams and the rest of the conference. Penn and Princeton go into games expecting to win. They've split 28 of the last 30 conference championships.
"Obviously, that's something we're trying to change," Clemente said. "Penn and Princeton seem to have an attitude that they're not Ivy League teams. They have that attitude and that arrogance and they're good."
It's what makes a win by any of the other six that much more special. If there are to be upsets this weekend, history favors Dartmouth against Princeton and Harvard against Penn — the Saturday night games. Of the nine combined losses to the "other" Ivy teams, eight have come Saturday evening. A Penn upset would but Princeton back within a game of the Quakers and give them a shot at the Ivy crown.
"We're not looking past anyone," Princeton back-up center Terence Rozier-Byrd said. "We know we have a difficult weekend ahead of us. Both teams are going to come out and play us hard. They both have explosive scorers, Harvard with Clemente and Dartmouth with (Shawn) Gee and (Greg) Buth. We're just going to play as hard as possible to come out with victories."
Rozier-Byrd is just one of the Princeton players who looked at other Ivy schools, namely Penn (officially) and Yale (unofficially). But he settled on the Tigers for the same reason that many other current Ivy players dislike the school now.
"I like the fact that everyone plays with a sense of confidence," he said. "Like (Clemente) said, it's not just Ivy League basketball. We like to think of ourselves as a competitive team in the nation, not just one of the teams around. Everybody has that confidence in their abilities."
Princeton will bring its healthiest team in a long while to Cambridge for Friday's contest. Though senior Mason Rocca's minutes will be limited due to the tendinitis in his ankle, everyone else is at full speed, according to Carmody. It should give Princeton all the confidence in the world that it will pull off its 26th Ivy sweep in the last 30 weekends.
"There might be arrogance here, but I don't see it," Carmody said. "I wish there was more of an arrogance to tell you the truth. I don't see that arrogance at all. If it's there, I'm glad. Let's get a little more of it. I don't think our guys are cocky at all. I wish they were a little cockier because we've played some pretty good teams and done decently against them this year. We should be cocky and strong and playing with confidence."
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