Cornell Basketball in the News

From the Daily Pennsylvanian's Andrew Scurria:

Yes, they can.

It’s a longshot, but Princeton still has a path to the Ivy League title and the NCAA Tournament. And, believe it or not, so do both Yale and Dartmouth(!), although they face even longer odds.

As you can see here, Princeton — the same Princeton I witnessed the Bad News Quakers beat, fair and square, on its home floor in February — is 7-4 in conference play and sits 1.5 games back of Cornell (9-3), which hasn’t punched a ticket to a darn thing yet.

The Big Red host Penn on Friday and Princeton on Saturday, while Columbia hosts Princeton first and then Penn. The Tigers then wrap up the regular season with one more game next Tuesday, a contest against the Quakers at the Palestra that could wind up being crucial. If there is a tie for first place when the dust settles, a playoff at a site to be determined will decide who gets the NCAA auto bid.

With some help from Cornell’s sports info office, the title scenarios are laid out after the jump.

• If the Big Red beat Penn on Friday, or if Princeton loses to Columbia, Cornell clinches a share of the title. A Cornell win and a Princeton loss would give Cornell the title outright. If Penn and Princeton both win on Friday, nothing’s decided.
• Princeton must beat Cornell on Saturday to stay alive. The Big Red clinch an outright title with a win in that game, regardless of what else happens.
• If Cornell beats Penn but Princeton wins out, the Tigers and Big Red will finish in a tie for first place, forcing a playoff. (This despite what would be a Tigers sweep of Cornell.)
• If Cornell gets swept over the weekend, Princeton can lose one of its other two games and still end up with a share of the title. This is where things really get hairy, because in that scenario either Yale or Dartmouth (both 7-5) could also end up in first place by winning both of their weekend games. So we could end up with a three-team playoff.
• Two Cornell losses and three Princeton wins would give the Tigers the title outright.

Whatever happens will be infinitely more exciting than last year, when it seemed like Cornell had things wrapped up around the third week. I hope Cornell ends up in the NCAAs again; their profile is the strongest, and their seeding would be higher than any other Ivy’s. But I’d be happy if we were treated to a playoff, too. Both advocates and opponents of a conference tournament would get what they want.