New York Times on the Ivy Race

From the New York Times' Quad Blog:

It’s Cornell’s and Princeton’s to Win or Lose

Harvard’s 71-70 victory over Cornell in men’s basketball on Saturday night has made the Ivy League’s final full weekend very intriguing.

Cornell (19-9 over all, 9-3 Ivy) has the easiest path to the title: it is ahead of second-place Princeton by a game in the loss column with two games to play, both at home, where it is 5-0 in league games and 11-0 over all.

So, why the intrigue?

If Princeton (12-12, 7-4) can win its remaining three games — at Columbia, at Cornell and at Penn, the Tigers will finish 10-4 and grab at least a share of the Ivy League title and force a playoff for the league’s N.C.A.A. bid. (Of course, if Cornell is swept this weekend, Princeton can win the title outright.)

Princeton beat Cornell (by 20) and Columbia (by 28) earlier in the season, but that was at Jadwin Gym, and lost to Penn in overtime, also at Jadwin. Cornell is undefeated at home, and Columbia is 4-1 in Ivy home games.

At 7-5, Yale and Dartmouth have not been mathematically eliminated, but they play each other on Friday, and need Cornell to be swept for one of them to have a shot.

Also, in case you missed it, the New York Times did a feature on Cornell's Ryan Wittman last week (click here).