As NCAA Tournament fever begins to sweep college basketball fans around the nation, the Ivy League is stirring up its own March Madness. A phenomenal weekend has left the league with a three-way tie for first place, and six teams with a shot, however small, to win the crown and a berth in the "grand-daddy of them all."
Columbia
The Lions were though to be out of the running after losing on last second shots in both games the previous weekend against Brown and Yale. The closing road was not to be any easier, as the mighty P's, Penn and Princeton were coming to New York.
In the mother of all home weekends, the Lions roared and bared fierce teeth, and came away with a big slice of the favorites backsides. Columbia swept, yes I said swept, the perennial league-leaders pulling their conference record even at 5-5.
Friday night saw the Lion's lethal defense show up from the get go holding John Thompson III's Tigers to only 13 first half points, and only 42 on the game. Center Chris Wiedemann scored a game high 14 in the 59-42 win, and Lion super-stud Craig Austin chipped in 14 with six assists.
Saturday saw another wire-to-wire victory for the Light Blue. They grabbed the lead from the Quakers at 13:56 of the first half and rode Austin's 25-point evening to a 69-57 victory. The Lions now stand at 5-5 in the league, 1.5 games out of first.
With home games against Brown and Yale, and a road trip to Dartmouth and Harvard to close the season, the Lions need some help with the P's in order to pull off their first Ivy League championship since 1967-68.
Harvard
The Crimson were an early surprise, and were in third place after the previous weekend, but their trip into southern New England left them tied for fifth with Columbia.
Friday night they entered the domain of the Brown Bears, and came away bloodied in a rare high-scoring Ivy league affair. Even with five players in double figures and a clutch 19-point performance from reserve guard Brady Merchant could not overcome the inside scoring of the Bears, and Harvard left with a 90-82 loss.
Hoping to climb back into the heart of the championship race, Harvard traveled to their oldest rival, Yale, on Saturday. The Eli's gave Harvard a very different kind of game.
Harvard managed only a 31.9 percent shooting percentage against the young Bulldogs defense. Dan Clemente, second in the league in scoring, was held to 13, and Andrew Gellert was the only other Crimson player in double figures as the Eli's triumphed 66-58.
One of the top three-point shooting teams in the Ivy league and in the country, Harvard shot a pitiful 4-of-26 from beyond the arc at Yale. Harvard stands at 5-5 as well, but will need to come back from this disappointing showing.
The boys of Veritas-land have more control over their own destiny, with games against the P's and against Columbia, but might need some help to avoid hearing those "Boola-Boola" chants at the end of the season.
Brown
The Bears are the hottest team in the Ivy League as of this moment. On a three-game win streak coming into the weekend, following a sweep of New York State, the Bears and Ivy scoring leader Earl Hunt rocked the league this week and vaulted themselves into fourth place, a mere half game out of the league lead.
Harvard came to the Bears home on Friday, and were slammed inside the paint. Forward Alai Nuualiitia poured in 17 points and nabbed 15 boards, and junior center Shaun Etheridge added 18 with 14 rebounds, nine of which were offensive.
To complement the inside game, Brown turned to Hunt, who shot only 6-14 from the floor, but cashed in down the stretch from the charity stripe. The sophomore shooting guard hit 11-15 from the line en route to a game-high 23 points and a 90-82 Brown victory.
Saturday night Brown beat up on our own Dartmouth Big Green 86-67. The inside focus turned outside due to Ian McGinnis's '01 presence, and didn't hurt the Bears at all.
Hunt hit 12-15 from the floor and torched the Big Green for 33 points. Point guard Omari Ware added 20 points as Brown shot 56.6 percent from the floor on their way to a fifth consecutive victory.
The red hot Bears are 5-4, and control their own destiny completely, as they play both Princeton, Penn, Yale and Columbia before the season is done. The defensive game tapes had better be rolling in coaches offices across the league, or Hunt and his Jay Leno-chin may yet lead Brown to its first NCAA berth since 1985-86.
