Rivals.com Ivy League Preview

Above, Cornell tri-captain, Jon Jaques.

Rivals.com published their online version of their Ivy League season preview. (The hard copy version can be viewed here) Rivals.com should be embarrassed with the photograph they selected. The photo is captioned as a picture of Cornell's Ryan Wittman but is in reality a photo of Jason Hartford (Cornell '08). Sorry Rivals.com, you are two years, two inches and about 25 pounds off. Below is the preview:

29. IVY LEAGUE

Cornell was the only league team to finish with an overall winning record last season. The league can only hope that isn't the case in 2009-10, but the rest of its members have little hope of unseating the Big Red.

Cornell returns all the key pieces from a team that fell to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Senior forward Ryan Wittman is the prohibitive favorite to bring home league player of the year honors, and coach Steve Donahue has bolstered the roster with some prominent newcomers.

There are other programs on the rise, though, including Tommy Amaker's Harvard Crimson and former Ivy pacesetter Princeton, which has a special young point guard in Doug Davis. Yale, Columbia and Penn need to find or develop more help up front to push into the upper echelon.

Ryan Wittman of Cornell.

Predicted order of finish
1. Cornell
2. Princeton
3. Harvard
4. Columbia
5. Penn
6. Yale
7. Brown
8. Dartmouth

Preseason All-League Team
First team
C Jeff Foote, 7-0, Sr., Cornell
F Matt Mullery, 6-8, Sr., Brown
F Ryan Wittman, 6-7, Sr., Cornell
G Louis Dale, 5-11, Sr., Cornell
G Jeremy Lin, 6-3, Sr., Harvard

Second team
F Tyler Bernardini, 6-6, Jr., Penn
F Peter Sullivan, 6-5, Jr., Brown
G Doug Davis, 5-11, Soph., Princeton
G Chris Wroblewski, 6-0, Soph., Cornell
G Alex Zampier, 6-3, Sr., Yale

Player of the Year
F Ryan Wittman, 6-7, Sr., Cornell
Newcomer of the Year
G Brandyn Curry, 6-1, Fr., Harvard

Regular-season winner last season: Cornell (lost in first round of NCAA tourney to Missouri as a No. 14 seed)
Tournament winner last season: This league has no tournament