Sat Feb 7th

Short, and hopefully sweet:

Yale at Dartmouth +3.5  Play: Dartmouth +3.5 2x
Cornell at Penn +6.5 Play: Cornell -6.5 3x
Brown at Harvard -6  Play: Brown +6 1x
Columbia at Princeton -5.5  Play: Columbia +5.5 3x

Literally, unbelievable

Tonight’s games just go to show that no matter how many games you’ve watched,  who you talk to, or how many predictions have come to fluition in the past, anything can happen on any given night in the Ivys.  I’ve followed the league for 10 years now, half of those much closer than simply a fan, and I’m at a loss for words after seeing that Cornell score.

Sometimes you have to just tip your cap in awe.

Week 2

Somehow, before the “real” conference season even began we’ve dug ourselves into a 10 unit hole.  That’s just unacceptable, and its time to buckle down and right this ship.  It’s never easy… This weekend’s schedule:

Friday
Yale at Harvard -4
Brown at Dartmouth +1
Cornell at Princeton +7
Columbia at Penn -5.5

Saturday (with line guesses)
Yale at Dartmouth +3
Brown at Harvard -2
Cornell at Penn +7
Columbia at Princeton -4

Game of the week: The sucker’s pick is Cornell at Princeton, the two unbeaten teams.  More like the Blowout of the Week.  Princeton has two quality wins, but its more a factor of the extreme mediocrity of the 7 teams below the Big Red than anything special in the New Jersey tap water.  The game I’m most interested in is Cornell at Penn.   Despite all of the Penn injuries, illnesses, and deserters, the Palestra is still the toughest place to play, and Miller is still one of the best in the league at X’s and O’s.  Expect a close one here early, with the Red pulling away in the second half.

Yale at Harvard: I’ve been staring at this game all week, and can’t make any headway whatsoever.  Harvard is a sham, Lin is a great little guard, but he loves to drive and dish…to guys who dont want to shoot.  Jones and Yale finally outcoached Brown for two solid wins to start the season (Agel is no Robinson or Miller I guess), but then got drubbed against a weak Columbia team and absolutely destroyed at Cornell.   Gun to my head, I Yale on the ML for the better line.  Rationale?  Someone is going to stink up the joint by more than 4.  Pass

Brown at Dartmouth:  Miserable start for Brown, and not at all how Agel pictured the start of his Ivy head coaching career.  0-4 is hang up the sneakers time with respect to the postseason.  Looking deeper though, both Yale games were completely winnable, and they just didn’t execute against Columbia.  If Al Pacino did a film about basketball, he’d be right in saying “it’s a game of posessions”.  One going this way or that way could have resulted in Brown going into Dartmouth with a 3-1 record, favored by 5+.  Play: Brown -1 2x

Cornell at Princeton: Cornell went 14-0 last year, returns everyone, and is the most dominating force of the past decade.  Luckily for us, Princeton pulled 2 wins out against a hot Dartmouth team, and an extremely overrated Harvard team.  If not for those wins, this line would be twice as high.  Play: Cornell -7 4x
Columbia at Penn: If I was able to go to one of the 4 games, this would be it.  These are two teams that are playing without full strength rosters.  Penn is missing a ton of talent, or they never have lost at Dartmouth, and this one would be a gimme.  Instead, I’ll take the points with the defensively focused Lions.  Play: Columbia +5.5 1x

Holy Smokes

What a weekend.

Cornell 4-0
Princeton 2-0
Columbia 2-2
Yale 2-2
Dartmouth 2-2
Pennsylvania 1-1
Harvard 1-3
Brown 0-4

The only constant so far is Cornell, which has been utterly dominant, and is already running away with this thing.  Harvard has taken a pounding, and for all intents and purposes is out of the running.  Penn’s letdown tonight puts them behind the 8-ball early, but their team was too young and inexperienced to pose a serious threat to the Big Red this year.  The biggest positive surprise has been Princeton, lead by the probable Rookie of the Year guard Doug Davis, and his frontcourt partner Sophomore Dan Mavraides.  They’ll be put to the test next weekend against the C’s.

Saturday Jan 31

Saturday
Yale at Cornell -8 = -14
Brown at Columbia pk = -4
Penn at Dartmouth +7 = +5
Princeton at Harvard -6 = -6

Yale showed their true colors last night, up by 9 at the half, leading the entire game up until 3 minutes left, then losing by ELEVEN.  Assholes.

Looking at tonight’s card, only two plays:  Harvard -6 1x, Penn -5 3x

First Friday Extravaganza

Here were the predictions, followed by the actual line in bold

Friday
Yale at Columbia +4 = -2
Brown at Cornell -10 = -14
Princeton at Dartmouth -2 = +1.5
Penn at Harvard pk= -6

Two lines clearly stand out - the first being Columbia favored over Yale, despite Yale’s two back to back wins over Brown last week.  I guess they say home court is worth a few points, but not that many.  The Jones brothers fiasco will go to Yale tonight.  Play: Yale +2 1x

The second, and more obsurd is the Harvard vote of confidence, favoring them by 6 over Penn.  Harvard beat BC, and now they’re the best thing since sliced bread.  I guess the national spotlight 15 minutes of fame faded before they lost to Dartmouth (almost twice).   Play: Penn +6 1x

Lastly, despite the two losses to Yale, I continue to think that the Bears are a solid team, and will fight tooth and nail to at least be an upset threat.  Play: Brown +14 2x

The Princeton Dartmouth shitshow is the pass of the week.

Opening Oddities

In the most atypical league in the country, the first few games of Ivy play are no exception.  Where else do you get to see two team play each other back to back in less than a week’s time?  Agaisnt all expectations, Darthmouth rose out of the cellar and split with Harvard — nearly taking both games.  That aught to take a little of the wind out of Amaker’s sail after their “program defining” BC upset.  Yale also made a statement in the league’s opening games, taking two from the Bears.  Cornell had a nice warmup, trouncing their travel partner Columbia twice with ease.

Now the season really gets underway, and Fri/Sat back to back games become the norm.  Lets see what we have to look forward to this week, with line guesses included:

Friday
Yale at Columbia +4
Brown at Cornell -10
Princeton at Dartmouth -2
Penn at Harvard pk
Saturday
Yale at Cornell -8
Brown at Columbia pk
Penn at Dartmouth +7
Princeton at Harvard -6

The game of the weekend for me is Penn at Harvard.  Penn’s first Ivy game will be a tough challenge after their miserable January so far in the Big 5.  It’s a game they have to take if they hope to challenge Cornell at all for the conference.

Conference Tipoff

The first game of the season long Ivy Playoffs begin tonight with Harvard traveling up the road to Dartmouth.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, their season may have already peaked. A stunning 12 point win over then-ranked #24 BC has been quoted as a milestone victory for the program. For any Ivy league team to complete on an ACC level requires the starts to align, and they did with Harvard shooting 50% from the floor, making more free throws than BC attempted, and forcing 16 turnovers from a bigger, stronger, and more athletic team.

So what happens from here? It’s easy to daisy chain the events that took place: BC beat #1 ranked UNC, then 72 hours later lost to lowly Harvard in front of a very generously quoted 3,000 fans. Harvard is now coming off their epic victory, and traveling up to sleepy 2-10 Dartmouth for a game that will be lucky to draw 300 fans. The Big Green haven’t won a game in a month, and will be lucky to win one the rest of the way.

Harvard’s team has proven that they can compete on any given night, and is undoubtedly going to give Cornell coach Steve Donahue a couple more sleepless nights than anticipated.

Play: Harvard -7.5 1x

Patience

I’ve gotten a few emails recently asking what the heck is going on.  There are games going on, and no posts!!11  Well, patience my friends.  One thing that took me years to learn is that there are basically 2 types of gambling - The first is putting a few bucks on the game of the night to make things more interesting.   That’s fine, if you’re looking for entertainment.  Personally, I’d rather get mine from a 12 pack of beer, large pepperoni pizza, and free internet porn.   The second type of gambling is wagering objectively and patiently with the only desired outcome being to have more money than you started with at the end of the year.

The latter is what we’re trying to do here.  Though there will be plenty of losses, heartache, and broken remote controls mixed in along the way, it should all be worth it if our patience leads to some extra units at the end of the year.

If you need a fix, play some bowl games.  Things don’t get heated up here until February.

Day and Night

LaSalle +4 at Cornell (Loss)
I felt pretty good going into the second half up by 11, AND getting 4 more points.  Are there any statistics that show the probability of a team winning the first half by 11, then losing the second by 20?  I guess it’s not unprecedented, especially in the Ivy’s.  Last year to open conference play Harvard beat Dartmouth by 26 on the road, then lost to them SIX DAYS later at home by 13.

To add insult to injury, of course Columbia covered on the unplayed lean.