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Cornell at Harvard, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3
We are almost at the end of our regular season of our Under the Radar Games of the Day. With our final installment looming tomorrow (as conference tournaments are ineligible for recognition), tonight we head to the Ivy League where the battles for both the regular season title and the final spot in the conference tournament are both heating up. Entering play tonight, the Penn Quakers hold a one game lead over Harvard, meaning that a Penn win tonight (at Yale) combined with a Harvard loss would lock up the outright title, while the reverse would put us in a tie heading into tomorrow’s finales. Although Yale has all but locked in the third conference tournament spot behind the top two teams, the fourth spot is still an amazing four team battle between Cornell, Columbia, Princeton and Brown. Cornell and Columbia are 5-7 in conference play while Penn and Brown are 4-8 and playing each other in a virtual elimination game tonight.
Tonight’s choice for our Game of the Day is the Cornell-Harvard battle in Cambridge. Harvard enters play at 15-12 overall, though they have won 6 of 7, only losing last weekend at Penn. Seth Towns was impressive in that game, despite the loss, scoring 22 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Cornell enters play tonight at 11-14 overall, with one of those defeats being a 3 point home loss last month to Harvard. Keep a very close eye on Stone Gettings for the Big Red tonight, as had had a career high 32 points (to go along with 10 rebounds) the first time these two teams met. It may require similar if not more heroics for Cornell to score the road upset tonight, but if they do, especially with Columbia having to play at Harvard tomorrow night, the Big Red may find themselves with a spot in the Ivy League tournament next weekend.
NEWS AND NOTES
-After leading top ranked Virginia for the entire game and appearing to have picked up a big win that would have almost assuredly secured them a spot in the Tournament, Louisville fouled a three point shooter while up four with less than a second to go, then after rebounding the third missed freethrow and getting fouled traveled due to running the baseline while inbounding the ball. Virginia then banked in a three at the buzzer for a win. I don’t know how many more ways Louisville can have their hearts broken this year. Both on and off the court.
-Wichita State needed overtime, but held on to win at UCF, which sets up a season finale against Cincinnati for the top seed in the American Tournament.
-Middle Tennessee blasted Western Kentucky. I think they deserve to be in the field if they can avoid a loss prior to the semifinals of the conference tournament. I just hope the committee feels that way as well.