News and Notes: Around the Ivy League- Columbia schedule released, Dartmouth and Yale lose players

Below some news and notes around the Ivy League...

In scheduling news, this week Columbia released its 2009-2010 slate. Unfortunately for Columbia fans, the schedule appears to be the least challenging in the Ivy League. The two "premier" games are a pair of Big East opponents in DePaul and Syracuse. While Syracuse is a good test for any team, the De Paul Blue Demons are picked by most season previews to finish last again in the Big East. Outside of the two Big East teams, the remaining opponents are all low-majors and no team is picked by any major preseason preview to compete for a title within their respective low-major leagues.

Six of the Ivy League teams have officially announced their finalized schedules.

• Cornell will play 31 games, including two Division III games (PSU Behrend and Clarkson)
• Brown will play 31 games, including two non-Division I opponents (Keene State and Philadelphia Sciences)
• Columbia will play 28 games
  
• Harvard will play 28 games, including one Division III game (MIT).
• Princeton will play 28 games, including one non-Division I opponent (Goucher College)
• Yale will play 31 games, including one Division III game (Albert Magnus)
  

In related Ivy scheduling news, Seton Hall's Herb Pope, a 6'9" former elite high school All-American and transfer from New Mexico State told NBEBasketballReport that the Pirates are expecting a big season. Seton Hall visits Cornell's gym, Newman Arena on November 20.

RushTheCourt.net has a story on the implosion at Binghamton. Notably for the Ivies, Cornell nearly scheduled Binghamton this season but a date was never agreed upon. Now the Bearcats must play the season without five key players, each recently booted off the roster.

But Binghamton is not the only D-I program with significant discipline issues. Several members of the Kansas Jawhawks' basketball team were involved in a physical altercation with the school's football team. Cornell faces Kansas on January 6.

Meanwhile, Cornell's season opening opponent on November 14, the Crimson Tide of Alabama lost a forward for the season.

In Ivy League roster news, Yale center, Garrett Fiddler, a 6'10" post was removed from the official team roster this week. Fiddler averaged 5.9 points and 3.8 rebounds per game a year ago. The Bulldogs are scheduled to play on December 29 and December 31 at Colorado and Colorado State respectively, both games originally set as homecomings for Fiddler.

Also dropping from an Ivy roster is Dartmouth big man, Elgin Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald averaged 4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game a year ago for the Green.

Below are the projected roster sizes for the Ivy League teams for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons.

• Cornell (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 19 players, including 8 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 14 total players, including 3 seniors, 2 high school verbal commitments and 1 transfer)

• Columbia (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 18 players, including 3 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 17 total players including, 3 seniors and 2 high school verbal commitments)

• Princeton (no updated roster)

• Harvard (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 18 players, including 4 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 15 total players including 0 seniors and 1 high school verbal commitment)
  

• Penn (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 17 players, including 1 senior) (for '10-'11-- 22 total players, including, 7 seniors and 6 high school verbal commitments)

• Dartmouth (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 15 players, including 2 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 13 total players including 2 seniors)
  

• Yale (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 14 players, including 4 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 13 total players including 3 seniors and 3 high school verbal commitments)

• Brown (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 14 players, including 0 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 15 total players including 4 seniors and 1 high school verbal commitment)
  

Below is a list of players who were on Ivy League rosters at the beginning of '08-'09, but left their team due to reasons other than exhaustion of NCAA eligibility and/or graduation.

BROWN
Noel Hollingsworth
Morgan Kelly
Colin Aldridge

COLUMBIA
none

CORNELL
Marc Van Burck

DARTMOUTH
Brandon Ware
Elgin Fitzgerald

HARVARD
Eric Groszyk
T.J. Carey
Kyle Fitzgerald
Adam Demuyakor
Ndu Okereke
Darryl Finkton
Cem Dinc
Alex Blankenau

PENN
Tommy McMahon
Harrison Gaines
Remy Cofield
Garvin Hunt

PRINCETON
Unknown- 2009-2010 roster not yet available

YALE
Garrett Fiddler