For yesterday’s Bracket Rundown podcast involving a full Hoops HD panel – CLICK HERE
Cornell (13-11, 5-3 Ivy) at Princeton (13-8, 5-3 Ivy) – 8:00 PM EST (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to historic Jadwin Gym where the Princeton Tigers will play host to the Cornell Big Red in a matchup of teams currently tied for third place in the Ivy League. The top four teams qualify for the conference tournament to be held at Yale later in March. Princeton won the first meeting between both teams at Cornell 70-61 two weeks ago. The Tigers had a 3-game losing streak that included losses against Yale and Brown on the road and against Harvard at home before finally beating Dartmouth at home last Saturday. Devin Cannady leads the Tigers with 18.2 points per game.
Cornell would be the #4 seed if the Ivy League ended today; they have a two-game lead over both Penn and Brown in the conference standings. They have wins over both teams thus far and play them once more; they are also the only team in the Ivy to have won at Harvard so far. The only surprising loss was at Columbia, but the Big Red are still in good shape as far as Ivy League tournament hopes so far. Matt Morgan leads Cornell with a whopping 23.6 PPG average.
NEWS AND NOTES
– Shortly after yesterday’s News and Notes were published, news broke out of Syracuse that Jim Boeheim struck a passenger on a freeway in Syracuse while driving home late at night after the Orange’s home win against Louisville. The passenger was ultimately ruled dead at an area hospital. All indications are that this was indeed a freak accident – Boeheim was cooperative with authorities and issued a brief statement yesterday expressing condolences for the victim and his family. ESPN also decided not to broadcast their normal College GameDay festivities from Syracuse on Saturday (when they will be hosting Duke on national TV) and it is unknown whether or not Boeheim will be coaching for Syracuse on Saturday. Needless to say, our best wishes go out to the victim’s family in this tough time.
– As expected, Zion Williamson’s knee sprain was ruled a Grade 1 sprain and is expected to be day-to-day for Duke.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-BOWLING GREEN AT OHIO (MAC). The Falcons continue to roll after a tough win at home over Akron; they remain tied for first in the conference and shouldn’t have too much trouble against an Ohio team that was sand blasted at Buffalo on Tuesday.
-KENT STATE AT BUFFALO (MAC). After a brief blip in January, the Bulls are now playing their best basketball of the year. Kent State can be a dangerous team, but the Golden Flashes had a surprising midweek loss at Central Michigan.
-HARVARD AT BROWN (Ivy League). The Crimson are in second place in the league, but they will have a sneakily tough road trip with Brown and Yale back-to-back this weekend.
-CANISIUS AT MONMOUTH (MAAC). Canisius leads the conference with a half game lead on 5 teams currently tied for second. Monmouth is one of those teams, but the Hawks missed on a chance for the outright lead themselves after losing at home to Marist last Sunday.
-IONA AT MANHATTAN (MAAC). This is another fun New York-area rivalry in the conference, and Iona is another of the 5 aforementioned teams tied for 2nd in the conference at the moment.
-NIAGARA AT RIDER (MAAC). Could Rider just be toying with everyone in the league? They had a five-game losing streak that opened up the conference race, but have now won two straight games against Monmouth and Saint Peter’s to get back on track.
-DARTMOUTH AT YALE (Ivy League). Yale has a bigger matchup tomorrow night, but they don’t want to overlook Dartmouth and potentially end up tied for first with Harvard at the end of the night.
-COLUMBIA AT PENN (Ivy League). It’s now or never for the Quakers – they are two games back of Princeton and Cornell in the standings for fourth place and cannot afford a loss in their weekend homestand.
-DAVIDSON AT RHODE ISLAND (A-10). Davidson fell out of the top of the A-10 with a home loss to Dayton on Monday night and cannot afford another loss if they want to entertain any faint hopes of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
-INDIANA AT IOWA (Big 10). Iowa’s streak of good fortune was interrupted with a home loss against Maryland, but how will they do against an increasingly desperate Indiana team? This in-season collapse for the Hoosiers is bringing back memories of 1985 for IU fans.