AROUND THE IVIES: Men's Basketball Ready for Road Test At Yale

The last two times the No. 23 Harvard men’s basketball team has stepped foot in Payne Whitney Gymnasium in New Haven, the result has been, well, pain. A lot of it.

First, there was the heartbreaking 70-69 loss to Yale last Feb. 26, when junior guard Brandyn Curry’s last-second layup attempt rattled around the rim and out.

But that was nothing compared to the scene two weeks later, when the Crimson met Princeton in the Ivy League playoff on the Bulldogs’ neutral home court. Again, the game came down to the buzzer, and you know what happens next.

If Harvard had won either of those two contests, it would have gone dancing for the first time since the Truman presidency. Instead, here we are 66 years later, with the Crimson still striving for that elusive taste of March Madness.

But now, Harvard is in a better position than ever before to achieve that goal. The Crimson’s historic—by its standards—14-2 run through its non-conference schedule, highlighted by a championship in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament over Thanksgiving, placed it in the Top 25 for the first time in program history on Dec. 5.

Harvard has remained ranked in six of the seven weeks since, receiving a barrage of national media attention while positioning itself for an at-large bid if it is unable to win the Ancient Eight.

But the Crimson wants nothing to do with that safety blanket. Instead, after splitting with the Tigers last season, Harvard is determined to win its first outright Ivy title in program history.

And while the Crimson is certainly it the favorite to do so, its road to the top will not be easy. The Ivy League’s 14-game regular season schedule is like nothing else seen in all of college basketball. Because the Ancient Eight does not have a postseason tournament—the only Division I conference not to do so—it is the league’s regular season champion who gets the NCAA automatic bid, making every game that much more important.

As Harvard learned last season, there’s no room for error. Every basket can be the difference between the chance to nearly upset a future Final Four team on national TV—as Princeton received—and getting left out of the party despite a Top-35 RPI, instead being miserably underseeded and sent to the middle of Oklahoma for the NIT—as befell the Crimson.

HARVARD (16-2, 2-0 Ivy) at YALE (12-4, 2-0)

The men’s hockey game between these two schools will be the one nationally televised tonight, but it's the basketball contest that holds far more meaning. In fact, it’s probably the biggest game remaining on the Ivy League schedule.

The Bulldogs are the only team with a legitimate shot of challenging Harvard for the 2011-2012 Ivy crown. Other than a bad loss at Quinnipiac, Yale’s only defeats this season have come from the hands of BCS-conference teams (Seton Hall, Wake Forest, and Florida). Junior guard Austin Morgan has given Harvard enormous trouble in the past, and the Bulldogs possess the type of size the Crimson can at times struggle with, highlighted by senior center Greg Mangano.

It’s understood that Yalies are accustomed to making bold proclamations (“Iraq has nuclear weapons” comes to mind), but Mangano, a 6’10 center who can shoot the three, surprised everyone when he declared for the NBA draft after his junior season. He eventually came to his senses, returning to school after a stint playing for Team U.S.A. at the World University Games in China. And this year, Mangano has indeed proven himself to have NBA-level talent, leading the conference with 19.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game.

The contest’s key matchup will be between Mangano and Crimson co-captain Keith Wright, whom Mangano ripped on Twitter after Wright was named last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year. Mangano thus will certainly have a chip on his shoulder tonight, while Wright—whose numbers have dipped in the Crimson’s slow-paced, team-oriented offense this season—will be out to back up his award.

This game will almost definitely be close, and what should be a rowdy Yale student section—much like many others Harvard has encountered in opposing gyms this season—will be hungry to see the Bulldogs upset a Top 25 team and its biggest rival.

But this is a more experienced Crimson squad than last year’s, one that has proven it knows how to win tight road games and one that fully understands the importance of emerging from New Haven with a victory after its heartbreak there last season.

It certainly won’t be easy, but just like the U.S. News and World Report rankings and most everything else, I’m taking the Crimson to come out slightly ahead.

Pick: Harvard 68, Yale 65

DARTMOUTH (4-14, 0-2) AT BROWN (6-13, 0-2)

Perhaps Brown should hire Billy Bob Thornton, because this season, it’s been all bad news for the Bears. First, top recruit Rafael Maia was deemed ineligible by the NCAA in November. Soon thereafter, forward Tucker Halpern was lost for the season thanks to a bad case of mononucleosis, a crippling blow to a team that should have been on the rise this year.

Dartmouth, meanwhile, gave the Crimson a run for its money in the squads’ two games this season—even leading by seven in the second half of the teams’ Jan. 7 contest at Lavietes Pavilion—but eventually reminded everyone why the Big Green will be the league’s bottom dweller once again.

This game should generate as little interest as Rob Schneider’s new CBS sitcom, so let’s move on.

Pick: Brown 64, Dartmouth 57

HARVARD AT BROWN

The Bears, to their credit, gave the Crimson as much trouble as anyone last year. Brown held a 22-point halftime lead on Feb. 12 at Lavietes Pavilion before being outscored 54-25 in the second half of Harvard’s win, a major turning point in the Crimson’s season. Two weeks later, the Bears led by 11 at the break in Providence before again being dominated, 44-27, in the second.

Sophomore guard Sean McGonagill, the reigning Ivy Rookie of the Year, can be an elite scorer—as evidenced by his 39-point outing against Columbia last season—while Toledo transfer Stephen Albrecht and former Macaulay Culkin doppelganger Andrew McCarthy average double digits as well. But the Crimson has too many weapons of its own for the Bears to compete.

Pick: Harvard 73, Brown 60

COLUMBIA (12-7, 1-1) AT CORNELL (6-11, 1-2)

Much like Brown, both these teams were brutally hit by the injury bug early in their seasons, when Columbia guard Noruwa Agho—the conference’s leading scorer last year—and talented Cornell forward Errick Peck were both lost to season-ending knee injuries.

The result was two teams with little chance of competing for anything in the 2011-2012 season. In Ithaca, Big Red senior guard Chris Wroblewski was left to tearfully sit around and read the Cornell Basketball Blog, recalling the good 'ol days when he was achieving greatness with Ryan, Jeff, and Lou. Things have been better in N.Y.C., where the Lions finished with a winning record in non-conference play thanks in large part to the play of junior guard Brian Barbour.

Freshman Shonn Miller has provided hope for Cornell’s future and is the clear frontrunner for the league’s Rookie of the Year in 2012, but success is still a long way away for both these teams.

Pick: Cornell 67, Columbia 62

DARTMOUTH AT YALE

I’m on a word count and running out of room, so let’s just sum this up by saying that to think this game will be close would be about as inaccurate as a Tom Williams resume.

Pick: Yale 74, Dartmouth 58

PRINCETON (10-8, 1-1) at PENN (10-9, 2-0)

Following two great seasons, the Tigers have suffered an expected return to the middle of the Ivy pack after the departures of Sydney Johnson, Dan Mavraides, and Kareem Maddox. Penn, meanwhile, once again looks poised to not live up to its talent level, losing multiple winnable games early on.

Ian Hummer has blossomed into an elite big man for Princeton, averaging 17.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. In Philly, Zack Rosen is giving Mangano a great race for Player of the Year—hopefully Greg’s not too mean if Rosen wins—averaging 18.3 points and becoming the Quakers all-time assists leader in the process.

Rosen and fellow senior Tyler Bernardini will be leaving everything on the court in a last-chance effort to reach the Big Dance this season, but for now, this game looks like a battle for third place.

Pick: Penn 73, Princeton 66

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.