Now that we’re well into nonconference season, we’ve got a bead on how the Ivies are coming along so far. Our Richard Kent breaks down his Ivy power rankings. What are yours?
1. Yale (5-3) The best team by far thus far. Makai Mason is making an early case for Ivy Player of the Year, coming up big against top competition (37 points and 15 assists against SMU and Duke combined). Justin Sears is, well, Justin Sears (and the reigning Ivy POY, who has to like his chances of doing major damage to the Tigers, who he scored 53 points against in two games a year ago) after Stony Brook forward Jameel Warney dominated the Tigers in the frontcourt last week. Brandon Sherrod is a specimen after taking a year off. Should have beaten the Mustangs and were competitive at Cameron Indoor for a half.
2. Princeton (4-1) The slate of opponents (just 301st in KenPom strength of schedule) and defense are suspect, and the 14-point loss at Stony Brook raised some eyebrows, but the overall record is solid. Henry Caruso has been a pleasant surprise, shooting 64.6 percent from the floor so far this season and ranking second in the conference in scoring (17.6 points per contest) behind Cornell’s Robert Hatter.
3. Columbia (5-5) Another team with issues on defense, ranking next to last in the conference in defensive field goal percentage and defensive three-point field goal percentage. Maodo Lo and Alex Rosenberg continue to be offensive weapons, of course.
4. Harvard (2-6) The worst record in the Ivies, but gave Kansas all it could handle in Lawrence and still actually plays tough defense. Zena Edosomwan has been solid, leading the league in rebounding (nine snares per game) and the bench is one of the tops in league with Patrick Steeves and Weisner Perez starting to command defenses. .
5. Penn (4-4) A pleasant surprise. The La Salle win was a solid victory over a top 150 team. The Quakers have adjusted to the loss of Tony Hicks, but they need to find someone other than Sam Jones who can drill treys in Steve Donahue’s three-heavy system.
6. Cornell (5-4) A very solid win against Siena at home. Robert Hatter can play and now everybody knows it – he was named Ivy Player of the Week for lighting up Colgate and the Saints.
7. Dartmouth (2-3) Thought the Big Green would be better, with a bad loss at Marist now on the resume from last month. The Hartford win was encouraging, though, since it demonstrated significant depth for that will only gather momentum as the season progresses, with senior Brandon McDonnell and sophomore Cameron Smith stepping up to help down the Hawks.
8. Brown (3-6) The Bears have played an ambitious schedule and have played some top teams (Providence, SMU) tough for at least half the game. Cedric Kuakumensah has been an offensive machine. The defense has been good. The league play-opening home-and-home against Yale next month will say a lot.
For Columbia, Luke Petrasek has emerged as a superior player and has the best percentage statistics of any Lion and Grant Mullins with his driving ability and His 3 point shooting acumen is arguably almost as important as Maodo Lo in the Lions lineup. The Lions defense has not caused them to lose their games as much as their inability to close(a historic inability which includes last minute shots against them from Penn’s Kevin Egee, Harvard’s Patrick Harvey, Brown’s Jason Forte as well as Brown’s Jesse Woods, three foul shots with 1 second to play to win). If they can close, the Lions can be like the Mets were in the last third of this season, not only winning , but running away with the crown.
1. Yale (strong and steady)
2. Columbia (good offense, slightly improving defense; hopefully, they can win those close games)
3. Princeton (last night’s game was rough on the offensive end, but they still had a good chance to win; they have been able to weather the loss of Brase, but his absence really shows when they play quality teams)
4. Harvard (decent production from the various Freshman – looking at Penn from last year when they had 4 different rookies of the week, it is hard to see if that means a lot going into future seasons; team that is improving, but will have some big ups and big downs while they grow)
5. Cornell (the schedule may not be the strongest, but they are fun to watch; Mad Hatter is lighting it up and there fast pace can overwhelm equal or lesser competition)
6. Brown (they have cut down on the turnovers, Cedric is playing well, Speith, Blackmon and Hobbie are improving; the loss against G’town was horrible, but they had been steadily improving before that blowout)
7. Penn (pro – the fouls and turnovers are down, getting more FT than the opposition; DNH is healthy and playing well; better team and coaching atmosphere. con – for a team designed around the three pointer, they have the wrong personnel; freshman are not improving and Auger taking a big step back in sophomore season; falling way behind early; seem to be trending downward as they face better competition – hopefully, things change tonight against Temple.
8. Dartmouth (too early, as usual, to know much about the Big Green. Luckily, they have a coach who has an ability to get steady improvement from his team; Boudreaux and McDonnell look good)