As the next chapter in the 2000-01 Ivy League men's basketball season draws nearer, it's worth looking at the teams that comprise the three-way tie for the league lead.
As everyone expected, Penn and Princeton are tied for the lead. As no one expected, Yale is the third team in the equation.
Penn
The Quakers, who opened the season 0-8, looked like the best team in the league on paper, but have not been nearly as dominant as some expected them to be. However, they were still undefeated in Ivy play until the second week of February.
Since then, Penn has been slipping, with three double-digit losses and a lone victory against the Big Green that was very close.
On Friday, Penn flexed some defensive muscle and held Cornell to a measly 32 percent shooting percentage. Still, the Quakers found themselves down by five at the half.
The second half saw Penn hit everything in sight, shooting a red-hot 68.4 percent from the floor, yet not take the lead until Jeff Schiffner nailed a short bank shot at 5:25. Things stayed tight and Cornell's Ray Mercedes hit a reverse layup to tie the score with 23 seconds to play.
On their final offensive possession, point guard Dave Klatsky, third in the league in assists, threw a beautiful alley-oop pass to senior center Geoff Owens for a dunk and a victory, 59-57.
On Saturday, Penn came out slow, and never recovered as they lost to Columbia 69-57. Plummer again had a 1-10 night shooting, and this time the defense could not contain Columbia's Craig Austin who lit the Quakers up for 25 points.
Still, Penn has the best shot at coming out on top with their experience and athletic ability. The Quakers host Dartmouth and Harvard this coming weekend.
Princeton
The Princeton Tigers were decimated in the offseason, losing four starters for a variety of reasons. Yet they were in first place coming into the weekend after a solid showing in beating Penn by 14.
The Tigers are a very young team, mostly freshman and sophomores, and coach John Thompson III has several times had to answer questions about the effects of Ivy road games on the inexperienced players.
The Black and Orange waltzed into New York on a high from the Penn victory only to have their offense destroyed by Columbia's ferocious defense. Despite the return of leading scorer and veteran guard Mike Bechtold from an ankle injury, the Tigers scored only 42 points on 27.1 percent shooting.
Columbia locked up pivot man Nate Walton, holding him to eight points and freshman sensation Andre Logan to five.
The Tiger offense didn't play much better on Saturday and yet trailed by only six at the half. A 9-0 run by Cornell to open the second half drove a stake through Princeton's heart, and they fell 66-49.
With Bechtold playing limited minutes again, the defending Ivy champions shot only 37.2 percent, led by Kyle Wente's 14. However, no one else scored double digits; the team's reliance on the three-point shot was exposed, as the Tigers scored half their buckets on treys, despite shooting only 32 percent from beyond the arc.
After the depressing weekend, the Tigers have to wonder if they can come back and win another league title. They are helped by the return of Bechtold, if he can get back to prime playing form, and three out of the remaining five games at home.
They will be tested this weekend by Dartmouth and Harvard who both gave them tight games two weeks ago.
Yale
Yale is the surprise team of the year in the Ivy League. Picked by many to finish dead last in the league, they have played very strongly all year and deserve to be in a tie for first.
The Eli's came into the weekend on a cold streak as well, having lost four of their last five. Yale had to travel to the north New England Ivies, Dartmouth and Harvard, in an attempt to right their ship.
Yale torched the Big Green on Friday night to start the weekend off right. Yale held the Green to 33.3 percent from the floor and a ridiculous 14.3 percent from three-point land.
Yale turned its scoring hat over to big man Neil Yanke against the small Dartmouth five. Yankee poured in 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds in the 28-point victory.
Saturday proved to be a much tougher contest for the Bulldogs, as the Crimson came to town. The Yale defense showed up once again, as they held the potent Harvard offense to 58 points on 31.9 percent shooting.
Yale did a great job against the second leading scorer in the league Dan Clemente who scored 13 points on 5-17 shooting, and against point guard Elliot Prasse-Freeman who shot 4-14 on his way to only nine points.
Yanke again was the go-to-guy with 18 points, but the Bulldogs provided good balance to back the big man up.
The weekend sweep gives a boost to the underdog among the league leaders, and they might need it if Leanza can't get his three-point shot untracked. The Eli's travel to New York this weekend before hosting the P's next weekend in an effort to grab their first league title since 1961-62.
