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Championship games come early in the Ivy League
Penn-Princeton basketball rivalry best in sports
By Bob Nuse
The Packet Group
Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000
The television types that run college basketball will tell you that "Championship Week" begins in March.
That's the time of year when every conference in the country — sans the Ivy League and Pac-10 — gather to hold their post-season tournaments, which are nothing more than week-long events that renders the previous three months of basketball meaningless.
All a conference tournament does is allow teams that don't belong in the NCAA tournament's field of 64 teams a chance to find a way into the field. It lets a team like Wake Forest, that finishes with a losing record in the ACC, run off three wins and make the tournament. It has no affect on a Duke, North Carolina or Maryland, teams that will be in the field regardless. All the better they get knocked out in the first round of the ACC event, leaving more time to rest for the NCAA tournament.
In earnest, "Championship Week" began Tuesday night at Jadwin Gym, when Pennsylvania all but locked up the Ivy League title and the NCAA tournament berth that goes with it with a 55-46 win over Princeton.
Princeton trails Penn by two games with seven left to play. There is still a chance the Quakers could stumble between now and the March 7 rematch at the Palestra in Philadelphia. If that happens, maybe Princeton wins and forces a playoff game a few nights later.
Chances are, however, none of the other six teams in the league will beat Penn. Thus, the league champion was decided on a mid-February night at Jadwin.
Of course, if there were a post-season Ivy League tournament, Tuesday night's game would have been rendered as meaningless as the thousands of other regular-season college basketball games we're forced to endure.
Even if Princeton loses twice to Penn, they'd still have a shot to win the conference tournament and go to the NCAAs. So what if Penn went 14-0 during the regular season? All that matters is the first week of March.
The days of getting excited about regular-season college basketball are long gone. There is no other game that will be played this year that can match the intensity or importance of Tuesday night's game at Jadwin Gym — no matter what the television guys who run college basketball tell you.
Ohio State-Indiana? What difference does it make who wins? They're both in the NCAA tournament already. How excited are we supposed to get about a game that means nothing more than if a team gets a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the field of 64?
Stanford-Arizona? Now that would be a great game. Two teams rated in the top 10. Both of them are 10-1 in the league. That would be a classic. Of course, it doesn't mean a thing other than which one gets the No. 1 seed in the West Regional and which one is the No. 2 seed in the East.
For Princeton and Penn, all that matters is winning the league championship. The regular-season league championship. Princeton loses, and now at best can hope to get into the NIT. That's what happens when you play in a league that merits one NCAA bid.
Although it lacks the tradition and rivalry of Princeton-Penn, a game like Maine-Hofstra could muster up some excitement this year. Both teams are 12-2 in the America East. Only one team will go to the NCAA tournament. Of course, what happens in the regular season makes no difference because the only game that matters is the one they'll play in the conference tournament final, if they both happen to make it.
Princeton-Penn basketball is as good as it gets. It's the best rivalry in sports. And in the world of college basketball, it's the only one where the game really matters.
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