Home of the weekly live podcast On the Vine with Peter Andrews and Mike Tony, where our roundball poets delve into all things Ivy hoops.
Check out our archive of the latest On the Vine podcast, in which IHO’s own George Clark (Toothless Tiger) and Ian Halpern (Bruno March) join Peter Andrews & Mike Tony to cover the latest Ivy action. Segments include reflections on the ugliness of Harvard-Yale, Princeton’s identity issues, reasons to watch out for Dartmouth down the stretch, and predictions on who will prevail in this weekend’s matchups:
A great podcast, as usual!
Another excellent weekend of Ivy hoops on tap. Harvard and Yale will try to seperate themselves from the middle teams this weekend. The last thing either of them want is to turn a two-team race into one with three or four teams competing for the title.
Although certainly favored in both home games, Columbia and Cornell do pose problems for Harvard. If Columbia can duplicate its incredible formula from the Penn game – solid defense, balanced high percentage three-point shooting and good front court play – then it stands a fighting chance. In Cornell’s favor is that it has controlled the tempo in each of its league games. If they can dictate the flow of the game, hit some outside shots and hold their own in the front court, maybe they throw a scare into Harvard.
While Princeton is certainly a tough matchup for Yale, should have a less stressful Friday night game against Penn. As long as Yale does not look past the Quakers, it does not seem to be much cause for concern. Yale is a much stronger, talented, mature and composed team. Other than the fact that Penn will be more rested for a Friday home contest against the Bulldogs, as opposed to Saturday night blowout losses to Harvard and Columbia, there seems to be little to think that they will be able to win tonight.
As TT mentioned on the podast, Yale seems to have a very good recent run at Jadwin. While both very good teams, Yale seems to be the more consistent. Princeton’s defense is not as good as Harvard, so it would seem that Sears will go back to his dominant self. Like Columbia, if Princeton can get hot from the three-point area, then things may swing their way. Unlike Harvard, though, Yale can also get hot from way outside and go toe-to-toe with the Tigers.
Princeton should have a comfortable matchup against Brown tonight. They are the better team in all phases of its game. Plus, they will probably want to take out its frustrations from last Saturday’s game in Ithaca.
Getting back to Penn – Coach Allen’s fate does not seem to be set. A 5th place finish with a team composed mostly of a large number of freshman, a few inexperienced sophmores and two underperforming juniors would certainly help his cause. From the last two weeks, it is obvious that this team cannot hold its own with the top teams of the league. However, last Friday’s win at Cornell was very big for the team. Beating a more mature and stronger team on its home court was a good step forward. In order to continue moving forward, the Quakers would have to beat Brown on Saturday night.
Since Brown has lost its best all-around player (Leland King), fouls a lot, does not have any consistent three-point threat, has been outrebounded in league play and is playing on the road, it looks like Penn should actually be favored in that game.
While I do not agree with Bruno that Dartmouth will go 4-0 in its next four games, they will probably stand a better chance of winning some games now that they are back home. Cornell seems like the more likely place for them to win. However, the Big Green are another Ivy team that has a problem with consistency. First, Matola was the hot hand, then it was Gill two weeks ago. Last week, both seemed to disappear and Miles Wright took over. Until Dartmouth can show that they can have more balance and consistency from the backcourt, and stronger front court play, it will be hard for them to challenge any teams other than Brown and Penn.