GETTING INSIDE
For the Big Red, the goal this season isn't just to win the Ivy League, but to get into position to win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament. Hence a brutal early-season schedule that saw Cornell play games at Alabama, Massachusetts and Syracuse, and host Seton Hall. Still to come: games against Davidson and perhaps St. John's in the Holiday Festival, and trips to LaSalle, Kansas, and South Dakota.
There were some big wins in the early going -- victories over the Crimson Tide and the Minutemen, and neutral site victories over Toledo and Vermont. But the Big Red lost some of its thunder nationally to a resurgent Harvard squad that beat Boston College and nearly upset UConn, especially considering Cornell's own double-digit losses to Seton Hall and Syracuse.
Still, as the Big Red was quietly doing things like knocking off St. Joseph's and going on the road to beat Bucknell in overtime, it was also providing an illustration to the rest of the league as to what makes Cornell so tough for other Ivy League teams to match up with.
Like a lot of teams in the Ivy League, and in other small-to-mid-major conferences, Cornell relies heavily on the 3-pointer. Four different players average more than three attempts per game, and three of them are shooting 41% or better (Louis Dale is the laggard at 31 percent). Cornell averaged more than 21 attempts from 3-point range through the season's first nine games, which may be a little more than optimal for the offense.
That's because it also has an inside game that's very hard to match up with. Jeff Foote is a legitimate seven-footer, and he's backed up by Kentucky transfer Mark Coury. The Big Red's forwards are also tough to match up with, Jon Jaques and Adam Wire dangerous on both ends of the court.
This is also another deep team, a trademark of the Donahue era. UMass transfer Max Groebe and talented freshman Errick Peck in particular are options that most in the league would love to have starting for them this year, but both are coming off the bench here.
The Big Red may have challenges ahead of them in league play, but knocking off a team as talented and loaded as this one isn't going to be easy, regardless of what's happened in the first month of the year.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Adam Wire has been particularly effective on the offensive glass. The reserve forward has pulled down 17 of his 38 boards on the offensive end.
--The traditional way to defend Jeff Foote late in games has been to put him at the line -- he shoots a pedestrian 62% from the stripe for his career. However, entering the MSG Holiday Festival in mid-December, Foote was on a streak of 22 makes in 29 attempts, a more robust 76% clip.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: vs. Harvard, Jan. 30 -- The Crimson are suddenly a popular choice to challenge or topple the Big Red for the Ivy League throne, thanks to Harvard's victory over Boston College. Moreover, Harvard always gets up for big games, so Cornell will get all it can handle here even at home.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 11-3, first place in the Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It doesn't surprise me. In all honesty, it doesn't surprise me because the kid plays like that in practice for four years. He just hasn't gotten the opportunity." -- Coach Steve Donahue told the Ithaca Journal, after senior Jon Jaques scored 15 points against St. Joseph's in his first career start.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: Cornell is putting itself into position for a better NCAA Tournament seed than it's gotten over the past couple of seasons, assuming it can hold off Harvard, Princeton and the rest of the contenders in the Ivy. The Big Red scored wins at Alabama, Massachusetts, Drexel, Bucknell, and St. Joseph's in the first month of the season, losing only to Seton Hall and Syracuse.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: In addition to the mid-December Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, which featured a potential matchup with St. John's, the Big Red concluded their winter on the road with games at LaSalle, South Dakota, and Kansas.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Ryan Wittman, F Jon Jaques, C Jeff Foote, G Chris Wroblewski, G Louis Dale. Key Subs -- G Geoff Reeves, F/C Mark Courey, F Adam Wire, F Errick Peck, G Max Groebe.
ROSTER REPORT:
--F Alex Tyler suffered a calf injury on Nov. 27 that sidelined him through mid-December. He should return to the starting lineup when healthy, and was expected to be ready for the MSG Holiday Festival.
--Anthony Gatlin is sitting out the season as a transfer from Centenary College. He was a 38% shooter over his two years at Centenary, so he should fit in with the rest of the gang in 2010-11.
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GETTING INSIDE
Thanks to the exam period and the Ivy League schedule, Brown's early season started with a rush and ended with an extended rest.
The Bears played 11 games in 24 days to start 2009-10, going 4-7 during that stretch. After that came a three-week break before the team was next scheduled to take the court on Dec. 28.
While it's nobody's idea of an ideal time between games, the Bears freshmen will be glad for the rest. They've earned it.
Matt Sullivan started alongside brother Peter from his first day on campus, averages more than 30 minutes a game, and is third on the team in scoring at 8.6 points per game. Fellow frosh Andrew McCarthy started six of the season's first 11 games, leading the team in rebounding and averaging 8.5 points a night. Tucker Halpern hasn't started yet, but as the sixth man he's playing 20 minutes a night, scoring both from the 3-point line and the paint, and showing some strong passing and rebounding ability as well.
The only freshman not getting in on the fun is Tyler Ponticelli, out with a back injury. But he'll likely see playing time as well when healthy.
Brown finished in last in the Ivy League in 2008-09, and isn't expected to do much better this year either. For that to change, the freshmen are going to have to continue to develop alongside veterans Matt Mullery, Peter Sullivan and Adrian Williams.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Jesse Agel should be grateful that spending four years in Providence, Rhode Island was so appealing to the Sullivan family. Brothers Peter and Matt are the Bears second and third leading scorers, combining to average 21.5 points, six rebounds and four assists per game.
--Adrian Williams is one of the team's best shooters, but he struggled during the first 11 games of the season. He took 51 3-pointers -- and just 18 from two-point range -- and made only 14 of them, a mediocre 27.5% performance.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: vs. Yale, Jan. 22 -- After last season's struggles, it's even more important for the Bears to give their fans some reason for optimism. A victory in the hope opener against a talented Yale squad would be a tangible sign that progress is being made.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 3-11, eighth place in the Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I feel like we hit a home run with our first recruiting class and we need to keep doing that year after year. You need kids who attack the academic side of this institution as hard as the basketball side. I want kids who love the game, love our program and also can deal with a strenuous academic load." -- Coach Jesse Agel told the Providence Journal.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: Matt Mullery needs some help. Coach Jesse Agel challenged the senior to have an Ivy League Player of the Year caliber season, but while he's been very good early, he's also gotten the brunt of opponent's attention on defense. The other Bears were doing a better job of making opponents pay for that as December began, and if that continues to build, Mullery should be even better when Ivy League play begins.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: Most of December is all about academics -- the Bears don't play a game between Dec. 7 and Dec. 28. When play resumes, Brown has another intensive basketball stretch, with six games in 14 days beofre completing the nonconference schedule Jan. 11 against Quinnipiac.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Peter Sullivan, F Andrew McCarthy, C Matt Mullery, G Adrian Williams, G Matt Sullivan. Key Subs -- F Tucker Halpern, F Chris Taylor, G Jean-Herbert Harris, G Garrett Leffelman.
ROSTER REPORT:
--Freshman Tyler Ponticelli missed the first part of the season with a back injury. It was unclear when he would be ready to return.
--Garrett Leffelman was one of the reserves the coaching staff was counting on to take a major step forward this season, but that didn't happen through the first 11 games. Leffelman saw action in every game, but averaged less than 10 minutes per night.
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COLUMBIA
GETTING INSIDE
Columbia was predicted to be a middle-of-the-pack team in the Ivy League, but it has shown flashes of ability to do more in the early season. One underlying question -- will everyone stay healthy?
That was the scourge of the team a year ago, and it flared up again before the season started. Patrick Foley and Niko Scott battled nagging injuries over the summer, while Max Craig hurt his foot and missed the early part of the schedule. But in general, the Lions were able to play its top players once the games began, and the result has been a more electrifying Lions squads than in previous years.
It all starts in the backcourt. Noruwa Agho came on strong as a freshman late in 2008-09, and has emerged as one of the league's top scoring threats this season. Combined with a healthy Foley and Scott, the Lions are tough to stop on the perimeter.
The paint has been more of a work in progress. Brian Grimes has emerged after two years on the sidelines (one because of NCAA transfer rules and one due to injury), while Asenso Ampin has been more of a defender and rebounder than an offensive threat. Freshmen John Daniels and Mark Cisco are averaging a combined 7.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, not bad production in the middle.
Through the first month of the season, the Lions were an outside-in scoring team, at one point leading the NCAA in 3-point shooting. Agho began the year making a ridiculous 64% of his shots from beyond the arc (29-45). If that keeps up, even the Ivy's top teams will face a challenge in shutting down the Columbia attack.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Columbia began the season with five wins in its first nine games. In each of the five victories, the Lions outrebounded their opponent. In each of the four losses, it did not.
--The Lions have been among the best 3-point shooting teams in the country through the season's first month. After nine games, the Lions were sinking shots from beyond the arc at a 47% clip (52-110).
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: vs. Cornell, Jan. 23 -- The unfortunate thing about being Cornell's travel partner is that the Lions are done with the Big Red two games into the Ivy League season. Anything less than a split will make it hard to catch the Big Red, so to avoid falling into an early hole the Lions need to upset the Ivy favorites at home.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 7-7, tied for fourth place in the Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We have a lot of guys who are just starting to play together. And it's going to take us some time before I feel like we're where we need to be. I think we're moving in the right direction." -- Coach Joe Jones told the Columbia Daily Spectator.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: The Lions are going to be tough to beat at home. It went 3-0 in Levien Gym early in the season, with the highlight being a 14-point victory over Bucknell. Unfortunately, the team wasn't as strong on the road, losing at Sacred Heart and Stony Brook, as well as the more predictable outcomes against DePaul and Syracuse.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: Columbia has five games left before the Ivy League schedule, beginning Dec. 23 at Quinnipiac. Three of those contests -- Maine, American and St. Francis (N.Y.) are at home.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Brian Grimes, F John Daniels, G Patrick Foley, G Noruwa Agho, G Niko Scott. Key Subs -- F Asenso Ampin, G Kevin Bulger, G Steve Egee, C Mark Cisco.
ROSTER REPORT:
--Noruwa Agho is having a monster start to his sophomore season. He won three early Ivy League Player of the Week awards, and was averaging close to 19 points per game through mid-December.
--Center Max Craig was expected to anchor the middle after sitting out the 2008-09 season as a transfer, but was to miss the first part of the season with a foot injury. He was out for the Lions first nine games, and it was unclear when the Loyola Marymount transfer would be ready to enter the lineup.
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DARTMOUTH
GETTING INSIDE
On one level, the Big Green were fortunate this offseason. Terry Dunn's squad returned three starters, as well as five key reserves. It also brought in a five-member recruiting class that looked capable of contributing right away.
But by the most accurate way of measuring things, no program suffered a bigger offseason loss than Dartmouth.
The Big Green were expected to finish in the cellar in 2008-09, but instead finished 7-7 in conference play thanks to the huge season from Ivy League Player of the Year Alex Barnett. Barnett led the team in both points and rebounds, and was the rock of consistency on a team that otherwise struggled to maintain continuity from game to game.
When Barnett graduated, he left a team that combines a two-man senior class (Marlon Sanders and Robby Pride) and two juniors (Ronnie Dixon and Clive Weeden) with a host of sophomores and freshmen. The question was whether enough offense would emerge for a team that struggled to score a year ago even with Barnett on the roster.
Early returns show that the Big Green still have a ways to go. Through the season's first eight games, no Dartmouth player was averaging double figures in scoring. Dartmouth as a whole averaged less than 60 points a game, and even with the team's strong defense it's hard to see that being enough against the top teams in the Ivy League.
It's a balanced attack, with six players averaging more than five points per game, but none of the top 10 scorers are shooting better than 45% from the field. That's a number that will have to get better if the team hopes to match the surprising Ivy success of a year ago.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Jabari Trotter was counted on to emerge as a scorer this season, and while his 9.5 ppg average won't earn him a lot of attention, it does make him the high scorer on the team. He's also the Big Green's top 3-point threat, making 11 of his first 26 attempts from beyond the arc.
--Matt LaBove has made the biggest impact of any of the freshmen. The center started four of the team's first eight games, led the team in blocks and was second in rebounding.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: vs. Harvard, Jan. 23 -- A year ago, the Big Green stunned most in the league by splitting its first two games with a good Harvard squad. The best bet for 2009-10 is to win the rubber match at home with the Crimson, who sometimes struggle against less-talented teams.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 7-7, tied for fourth place in the Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I think we played for a full 40 minutes - we didn't have any lapses. We didn't collapse when they made their run." -- Robby Pride told the Dartmouth News, after the team's first victory of the season against Hartford.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: The concerns about the Dartmouth offense were well-founded. Without Alex Barnett on the court, the Big Green often struggled to score, and found far fewer easy looks at the basket than the team enjoyed a year ago.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: Dartmouth doesn't have an easy run heading into the Ivy League schedule. Its final five games before the conference opener were road games against Lehigh, New Hampshire and Quinnipiac, and home dates against Colgate and Bucknell.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Josh Riddle, C Matt LaBove, G Robby Pride, G Ronnie Dixon, G Jabari Trotter. Key Subs -- G Marlon Sanders, G/F David Rufful, C Clive Weeden, F Mbiyimoh Ghogomu, G R.J. Griffin.
ROSTER REPORT:
--Marlon Sanders missed three games with a leg injury, but was back on the court by mid-December. He was one of the team's top ballhandlers early, with 13 assists and just five turnovers.
--Herve Kouna was on the sidelines for three games with a shoulder injury, and the forward has played just limited minutes in the season's opening month.
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HARVARD
GETTING INSIDE
For the second year in a row, Harvard has joined Cornell as the most impressive Ivy League team in the first month of the season. The Crimson knocked off the ACC's Boston College for the second year in a row, and gave UConn all it could handle before losing by six on the road.
Meanwhile, senior guard Jeremy Lin has been the subject of features by every college basketball news outlet in the country, as the combination of his background, his stats, and his choice of colleges being perfect copy. Harvard, predicted to finish fourth in the preseason poll, suddenly became a trendy pick to knock off two-time defending champion Cornell and take the title.
The challenge for coach Tommy Amaker is taking the momentum that the non-conference slate has brought and translating that into Ivy League play. A year ago, that's where Harvard faltered.
In 2008-09, the Crimson beat a ranked Boston College team by 12 in January. But it suffered a rude awakening in conference play, splitting its first two games with a Dartmouth squad that wasn't supposed to be very good. It finished a disappointing 6-8 in Ivy League play.
Even then, though, Harvard was tough to beat when it was on top of its game, as it showed by being one of just three teams to topple the Big Red. When that didn't happen, however, the team struggled.
It's worth noting that while Harvard did play well early against marquee teams, it also lost to Army and needed three overtimes to beat William & Mary at home. Amaker will make sure that his team remembers that as much as it does the better efforts against top teams.
NOTES, QUOTES
--One big asset for Harvard early in the year has been the play of its bench. Through the first nine games of the 2009-10 campaign, the Crimson reserves had yet to be outscored.
--Not only is Jeremy Lin getting attention around the country, he's also getting accolades at home. Lin was named the Ivy League Player of the Week three times before the holiday break, including back-to-back honors on Dec. 7 and 14.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: at Columbia, Jan. 29 -- Harvard opens the Ivy League season with two games against Dartmouth. Assuming it can sweep the Big Green -- which it failed to do a year ago, losing at home -- the next game will be a trip to face the dangerous Columbia Lions. Win on the road there, and the title talk will start to get louder. But with Cornell looming the next night, will the Crimson be living in the moment, or looking ahead?
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 6-8, tied for sixth place in the Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Jeremy has been one of the better players in the country. We've seen this out of him. He's been as consistent as anyone. Some folks who haven't seen him play are probably wowed by some of the things he can do, but we aren't. That's probably the best compliment I can give him. What you saw this afternoon, that's who he is." -- Harvard coach Tommy Amaker told the Hartford Courant, after Jeremy Lin scored 30 points, including 22 in the second half, in a loss to UConn.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: The Crimson are as deep and talented as anyone in the Ivy League. Harvard nearly pulled off the win of the year in the Ivy League when it dropped a close game at Connecticut, and beat Boston College on the road for the second year in a row. Even though at this point everyone knows he's coming, Jeremy Lin has still proven almost impossible to stop for 40 minutes.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: Harvard goes to Washington to face Georgetown on Dec. 21, and takes a West Coast trip to meet Seattle and Santa Clara just after the New Year. But after that it's right into the Ivy League season with a Jan. 9 opener at home against Dartmouth.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Doug Miller, F Keith Wright, G Christian Webster, G Oliver McNally, G Jeremy Lin. Key Subs -- G Brandyn Curry, F Pat Magnarelli, G Dee Giger, F Kyle Casey
ROSTER REPORT:
--Oliver McNally missed most of the Boston College game after injuring his foot in practice, but wasn't expected to be sidelined beyond that.
--Jeremy Lin has started the year on fire, leading the Crimson in points, rebounds, assists and steals. The one downside? He's also tops on the team in turnovers, averaging more than three per game.
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PENNSYLVANIA
GETTING INSIDE
For better or worse, the expectations at Penn are not the same as the expectations at many other schools in the Ivy League. If there was ever any doubt about that, it was dispelled on Dec. 14, 2009, when the Quakers fired coach Glen Miller seven games into the season.
Miller began his time in Philly by taking the Quakers to the NCAA Tournament in 2007, following the departure of former coach Fran Dunphy when Dunphy took the job down the road at Temple. But ever since then, it's been a string of disappointments: 13-18, 10-18, and an 0-7 start to the 2009-10 campaign.
Making that extra galling is that while Miller struggled at Penn, former Quaker assistant Steve Donahue has built a powerhouse at Cornell. Donahue was a candidate for the job before Miller was hired, but it's hard to see him making the move now, given the situation he's in with the Big Red and the potential to move up the coaching ladder.
Jerome Allen was named interim coach, and will have the job for the remainder of the season. His presence is a reminder of the school's glory days, as he was a part of some of the best teams in recent Quaker history as a player. Not only did he go undefeated in the Ivy League from 1992-95, he and the Quakers knocked off Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament. Still, the first-year assistant will be in for a challenge in his new role.
The coaching change generated some excitement around a program that was spiralling towards disaster, so in that respect the coaching change did its job. But he had only a month to get a winless team ready for Ivy League contention, which would have been a tall order for even Dunphy.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Jerome Allen wasn't the obvious choice to become the Quakers coach; assistant John Gallagher has a lot more experience as an assistant coach, though he's only been with the program a year and a half. However, Allen was reportedly the players' choice for the job.
--Despite the coaching change, at least one recruit appears to be staying in the fold. Steve Rennard has reportedly already been accepted to the prestigious Wharton School of Business, which is too big a lure to pass up.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: at Yale, Jan. 29 -- The Quakers may have been an early-season dud, but in the Ivy League it's all about the conference title and the automatic bid. A win here in Penn's conference opener against a tough Yale squad would erase a lot of the bad memories of the season's first month.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 6-8, tied for sixth place in Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's kind of hard to put into words. It's just the whole feel when we're out there together is kind of all over the place. Back then, you just felt it. You just felt the chemistry, and it was a lot easier." -- Senior Darren Smith told the Daily Pennsylvanian, on the difference between his freshman year, when the team won the Ivy League, and the current squad.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: The Glen Miller experiment just wasn't going to work. Miller never connected with the Penn fans like his predecessor, the affable and successful Fran Dunphy, and it didn't help Miller than Dunphy didn't travel far when he left the Quakers and is now running the Temple program. Athletic director Steve Bilsky decided he had no choice but to make a change.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: Jerome Allen is going to have to wait until January to make his home debut as the Quakers head coach -- and likely until then for his first win. Penn finishes December with a trip to North Carolina to face Davidson and Duke, then travels to play Lafayette and UMBC. The first home game for Allen? Against his former coach, Fran Dunphy's Temple squad on Jan. 13.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Jack Eggleston, F Rob Belcore, C Mike Howlett, G Darren Smith, G Zack Rosen. Key Subs -- G/F Dan Monckton, G/F Zack Gordon, F Brian Fitzpatrick
ROSTER REPORT:
--Tyler Bernardini was hampered by injuries early in the season, and played in just two of the first seven games for the Quakers. His absence certainly didn't help Glen Miller's cause, as he might have made a difference in some of the losses.
--Andreas Schreiber was sidelined in early December by a shoulder injury.
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PRINCETON
GETTING INSIDE
Princeton struggled mightily in nonconference play in 2008-09 before surprising everyone with a second-place finish in the Ivy League. The team was predicted to reach that level again during the preseason, but as coach Sydney Johnson discovered, that didn't mean there would be smooth sailing in 2009-10.
The Tigers split their first eight games, with a four-game losing streak against Army, George Washington, California and Rutgers. Princeton struggled to shoot the basketball, and after knocking off Central Michigan 71-68 in the season opener it hadn't broken the 70-point barrier again through mid-December.
By that point, however, the rest of the program appeared to be clicking on all cylinders. Back-to-back blowouts of Lafayette and UNC-Greensboro had everyone optimistic that the preseason predictions were on track, in part because Princeton was shooting the ball better while continuing to do what it does best -- stop the other team from scoring and take advantage of charity.
Princeton ended the first month of the season first in the Ivy League in both scoring defense and free throw percentage. The combination, when working, makes the Tigers tough to beat. By making points hard to come by, those free throws can make a big difference in close games.
The Tigers start their Ivy League schedule late, so there's still a month to get all of the rough edges smoothed out before the games become critically important. But the Tigers definitely looked a lot better in mid-December than it did at the beginning.
NOTES, QUOTES
--The Princeton offense is traditionally supposed to generate high-percentage shots, but that didn't prove to be the case for the Tigers in the first month of the season. In fact, it wasn't until the eighth game of the season that the Tigers made as many as half of their shots.
--As Dan Mavraides goes, so go the Tigers. The junior entered mid-December averaging nearly 14 points per game in victories, and 7.5 points per game in defeats.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: vs. Yale, Jan. 30 -- Per usual, the Tigers open the Ivy League season later than most of the other teams, and the opener comes the previous night at Brown. Yale has had some good moments early in the season, and this game would either give the Tigers a leg up in the conference race or thrust them squarely in the middle of the pack.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 8-6, tied for second place in Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I think today showed us that we don't need to always be in close games. It's okay to have a big lead and maintain a big lead." -- Nick Lake told The Daily Princetonian after the Tigers 65-50 victory over UNC-Greensboro in December.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: The expectations that the Tigers could contend in the Ivy League may not be off base. Take away losses at California and Rutgers, both of which are BCS programs, and the Tigers won four of their first six games including wins at Central Michigan and UNC-Greensboro.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: Princeton has an interesting road game at Maine on Dec. 20, then a 10-day break before finishing 2009 with a home game against Wagner. The goal for both of these is to get the offense on track, though given the Tigers' January exam schedule it has more time than the rest of the league to work out any kinks.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Patrick Saunders, C Pavel Buczak, G Douglas Davis, G Marcus Schroeder, G Dan Mavraides. Key Subs -- F Kareem Maddox, F Ian Hummer, F Nick Lake, F Will Barrett, C Zach Finley.
ROSTER REPORT:
--It didn't take Ian Hummer long to make an impact at Princeton. The freshman was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week after scoring 17 points against UNC-Greensboro, a game in which he went 9-11 from the free throw line.
--Forward Patrick Saunders had a strong start to his sophomore season. As of mid-December, he was second in the league in both overall shooting percentage and 3-point shooting percentage.
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YALE
GETTING INSIDE
The first month of the season for the Bulldogs didn't have the flashy victories that league rivals Cornell and Harvard secured. But Yale coach James Jones has his eyes on the bigger prize, an Ivy League title and the NCAA berth that goes with it.
Jones knew that his team probably wouldn't be ready for prime time in the season's first few weeks. Alex Zampier returned from the 2008-09 squad that finished tied for second in the conference, but the other four starters graduated. Getting a rotation that could provide Zampier enough support on offense while still maintaining the trademark Yale defensive intensity was a priority.
Record-wise, the early returns were mixed. But by mid-December, a rotation had started to gel that looked capable of getting the team into position to contend.
Forward Michael Sands was a big scorer in high school, and is showing that touch in college now that he's in the starting lineup. He's averaging double-digits, including a dramatic game-winning dunk against Hartford.
Senior Jordan Gibson is also averaging more than 10 points per game, and Greg Mangano looks like a scoring threat as well now that he's recovered from an early-season foot injury. Paul Nelson has been strong in the paint, recording his first career double-double against Hartford.
Yale was predicted to finish fifth in Ivy this season, but with the new starters playing well, don't be surprised if the Bulldogs surprise by how long they stay in the race.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Albany, New York isn't exactly a popular Winter Break destination, but at least two members of the Yale program will be looking forward to the Jan. 3 trip to face the Great Danes. Coach James Jones graduated from the school in 1996, while senior Alex Zampier played his high-school ball in the area.
--The Yale freshmen are making an early impact in the playing rotation. Michael Grace came off the bench to dish out seven assists against Bryant, while Austin Morgan added six points.
KEY EARLY-SEASON CONFERENCE GAME: at Brown, Jan. 22 -- For the Bulldogs to challenge for the Ivy League title, they have to sweep their season-opening home-and-home with Brown. The Bears haven't looked very good in the early season, but standout forward Matt Mullery is capable of dominating games by himself.
LAST YEAR'S CONFERENCE RECORD: 8-6, tied for second place in Ivy League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "If we want to win a championship, which we all do, we have to play better than we are. We're trying to learn that way now. If we can keep everybody healthy and we get a rotation and understand what we're trying to do, we can do that." -- Yale coach James Jones told the New Haven Register.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
WHAT WE LEARNED IN NOVEMBER: Alex Zampier is pretty good even without Ross Morin and the 2008-09 seniors backing him up. Zampier leads the team with an average of about 18 points per game, with Jordan Gibson and Michael Sands also in double figures.
DECEMBER AT A GLANCE: The Bulldogs spend four weeks away from home, with five road tilts in between the home win over Bryant on Dec. 9 and the game against Albertus Magnus on Jan. 7. Yale faces tricky games at Providence, Colorado, Colorado State, Albany and Lehigh before classes resume.
PLAYER ROTATION: Usual Starters -- F Jordan Gibson, F Michael Sands, C Paul Nelson, G Porter Braswell, G Alex Zampier. Key Subs -- F Greg Mangano, G/F Reggie Willhite, F Josh Davis, G Michael Grace, F Rhett Anderson.
ROSTER REPORT:
--Alex Zampier was playing with a minor leg injury in December. It limited his mobility, though he remained one of the Bulldogs most effective players.
--F Greg Mangano missed the first six games with a foot injury, but is becoming one of the Bulldogs top offensive options as he gets back into game shape.
