For years it had pretty much been Pennsylvania and Princeton . . . Princeton and Pennsylvania. When the talk got around to Ivy League basketball, there were the Quakers and the Tigers (or the Tigers and the Quakers) and then there was everybody else.
Harvard and Yale? Brown and Dartmouth? Columbia and Cornell? Please. From one winter to the next, the Ancient Eight was composed of the Terrific Two and the So-So Six. And if you think that's a bit harsh, consider that Penn and/or Princeton has won or shared 46 of the last 50 Ivy League titles dating back to the Eisenhower administration.
Nobody's seen that kind of domination since those days when the Legion of Doom was coming in off the top rope.
But then the 2007-08 campaign dawned, Cornell's Big Red rambled unbeaten through the Ivy League to end the uninterrupted 19-year run of the Tigers and Quakers . . . and folks scratched their heads. Who knew, huh? Who knew that the rules allowed another team to snare the championship, if only another team was good enough?
Well, with an Ivy record of 14-0, Cornell was plenty good enough last year. And it intends to prove it's good enough this time around, too. All it needs to do is win its back-to-back games this weekend in Newman Arena at Bartels Hall against . . . uh-huh.
Pennsylvania tonight and Princeton on Saturday.
"It's like a boxing match," said Big Red coach Steve Donahue earlier this week. "You're concerned about your opponent on Saturday, but if you look past the fight on Friday, you're going to get knocked out. And that means, you won't be ready for Saturday. So, it's simple: You prepare for Friday and do the best you can on Saturday."
The particulars pretty much come down to this:
Cornell, which is 19-9 overall and 9-3 in the Ivy League, is in complete control of its destiny. Sweep the Quakers and Tigers, and no matter what else happens in any other Ivy outpost the Big Red will move on to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season and for only the fourth time in history.
Foul up, though, and any of three other clubs Princeton (7-4), Dartmouth (7-5) and Yale (7-5) could steal not only the league title, but the accompanying automatic invitation to partake in March's celebrated Madness. Each development, of course, would be unacceptable down there in Ithaca.
This, then, amounts to big doings in the cozy town along Cayuga Lake, which will be treated over the weekend to a de facto Ivy League Tournament.
"There is," Donahue said, "a great buzz around campus. I expect both games to be sold out. That won't make our job any easier. We still have to beat Penn and we still have to beat Princeton. But I'll tell you what: We have a great place to play in. We have a student side and we have an Ithaca side, and both have been packed all season. It provides a great atmosphere for our guys."
That great atmosphere, in which 4,473 can sit and glow, has helped Cornell to a 19-game home winning streak stretching across these past 15-plus months the third longest such thing in the country. Moreover, the Big Red has won 32 of its last 35 affairs inside the spiffy joint, including 13 consecutive Ivy League contests.
So, Donahue's athletes, who split with Penn and Princeton on back-to-back nights last month (beating the Quakers 88-73 in Philadelphia and losing to the Tigers 61-41 in New Jersey), are confident in their building. And they're confident, too, that despite those three league losses, they're an even more formidable bunch than was last season's undefeated outfit.
"It's a shame that some people might think we've taken a step back," suggested Donahue. "But in some ways that's a compliment to the program that the bar is set so high. If you ask me, I think we're better than we were last year. We're bigger and stronger and deeper. But on those three nights this season, those other teams played well and we didn't . . . and they deserved to win.
"The thing is, coming off of last season, people have been shooting for us. Teams have been really fired up and have done a great job of executing against us. Every game has been played so hard because so much has been riding on each one. But I'm not apologizing. Like I said, it's a compliment that some people expected us to run the table again."
The truth of the matter is Cornell is in the Ivy's proverbial driver's seat solely on merit. Eight of its players are averaging double figures in minutes played and three of them Ryan Wittman (18.5), Louis Dale (13.7) and Jeff Foote (12.2) are averaging double figures in points scored. Meanwhile, a healthy mix of two seniors, four juniors, a sophomore and a freshman can be found in that eight-man rotation.
As such, there is some "there" there. And having earlier hit the road to play, alphabetically, Indiana, Minnesota, St. John's, Saint Joseph's, Siena and Syracuse (against which the Big Red built a 16-point lead before looking down, losing its balance and falling off the high wire), there is some toughness, as well.
Penn and Princeton, then, may well have issues over these next two nights.
"We had our failures early," said Donahue of his bunch that was 5-6 before Christmas, but has gone 14-3 since. "But these guys picked themselves up off the canvas and have played pretty well. So, they'll be ready. It's another Ivy League weekend, which means you have to take care of business on Friday and be prepared to come back the next night."
Pennsylvania. Then, Princeton. With the belt on the line.
Ithaca will have seen worse weekends.
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