The Aftermath

Basking in the glow of last night”s Penn victory, the shameless anti-Harvard critic, devoted Penn supporter and loyal IHO commenter The Ancient Quaker weighs in on the altered landscape of the Ivy League standings this morning. The author of this piece is not affiliated with Ivy Hoops Online, but we always welcome and encourage commenters, outside contributors, and readers to share their opinions and thoughts. 

Let me begin with a retraction—the Columbia Lions are not a dangerous team after getting blown out by Brown.

Loyal followers of Ivy Hoops Online, if you need to know anything about The Ancient Quaker know this: The Ancient Quaker does not gloat. (Even though Harvard’s home winning streak has now passed in to history like so many illegal recruiting trips.) The Ancient Quaker does not revel in another team’s misfortune. (Unless of course that team resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.) And finally, The Ancient Quaker is above all not self-righteous. (But I told you so.)

Now excuse me a moment while I climb down from my high horse.

The Penn-Harvard rematch was certainly one of the more entertaining games in recent memory. Jerome Allen and Zack Rosen, after the dark years of Glen Miller, have once again brought The Quakers back to basketball relevancy. What’s more, they did so playing relatively poorly with what seemed like half the team in foul trouble and without a significant offensive contribution from the oft injured Tyler Bernardini. If Mr. Miller can be lauded for anything (besides a fleeting uptick in Kaopectate stock during his brief but nauseating tenure as coach), it is for recruiting the guard from Colonia, New Jersey. I think this game was less about

Harvard folding like a cheap seersucker suit and more about Zack Rosen’s com/od/ free-credits-report.com scoresandreporting/was emailed to:Thanks for sharing About. refusal to go quietly into the Boston night. I would say he put on an amazing performance, but in reality it was nothing extraordinary for him. He routinely carries the team on his back almost every game: 20 cold-blooded points, just another day at the office for Mr. Rosen.

In fairness, the Harvard squad, as predicted, appeared tired from the game against the Tigers and once again, as is fast becoming their trademark (think Marv Levy’s Buffalo Bills), lost their poise in the clutch. To this I say thank you to our biggest rival. Leave it to the old guard of Penn-Princeton to saddle the Crimson with its only two Ivy losses. As for the Tigers, I don’t think I’m being premature in saying gratis in advance for tiring out Yale next weekend before the Elis head to The Cathedral for their eventual undoing. The Bulldogs are an extremely erratic team and two long nights away from their New Haven home (where I hear you can get a decent Grinder as well as a vicious mugging at no extra charge) is probably more than they can handle.

Obviously nothing has been won yet. As Coach Allen is fond of saying, he does not believe “in moral victories.” The Quakers still have three more games to play, two of which are against the League’s top teams, namely Yale (in Philly) and Princeton (away). Clearly this is the most difficult path to the title of any school and tonight’s upset notwithstanding, the Crimson are still the team to beat. It would be foolish to think otherwise. Nevertheless Harvard’s confidence must undoubtedly be shaken by the loss. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose at least one game next weekend against either Cornell or Columbia. (Remember, despite coughing up a giant hairball in Providence on Saturday night, the Lions lost to the Crimson by only five points when they visited Cambridge in January.) Then who wins the Ivy League crown will be determined like it should be and has been for the last 50 years, in the first week of March by Penn and Princeton.

Stay Red and Blue my friends,

The AQ