AROUND THE IVIES: Smith Gets Big In Nick Of Time

Presumably, this is how the discussion in the Harvard men’s basketball locker room went prior to the team’s game last Friday against Penn:

Crimson Coach Tommy Amaker: “…and, you know, we’re going to need our big guys to step up. Jonah has been doing it all season. Steve, we’re going to need a little more consistency out of you. And Kenyatta, I mean…you were a three-star recruit, top twenty in the country at your position, so it’s time—“

Sophomore Kenyatta Smith: “I WAS WHAT?” [sprints to court, blocks ten shots]

I wonder what the Thursday night odds were on Smith winning Ivy Player of the Week. He certainly earned the award, racking up 34 points on 93 percent shooting, 16 rebounds, and 16 blocks in the weekend’s two games, including a near-triple-double on Friday. Those are comical numbers for a guy who came into the matchup against Penn averaging 3.8 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, but the Crimson wouldn’t have swept the Killer P’s without him.

Perhaps more encouraging than the gaudy stats he put up on the Quakers was his play the next night against Princeton, in which he filled Harvard’s biggest hole—an intimidating interior defensive presence to complement sophomores Jonah Travis and Steve Moundou-Missi. If Smith can submit something that approaches that performance on a consistent basis, Harvard’s slim lead atop the Ivy standings starts to look quite a bit more formidable.

HARVARD at BROWN

The Crimson opens its weekend with a light jaunt to Providence to take on the Bears and freshman forward Cedric Kuakumensah, coming off an Ivy Rookie of the Week performance. Kuakumensah was particularly impressive in defeat against Cornell on Saturday, overwhelming the Big Red with a string of seemingly unrelated consonants and vowels on his way to 13 points, 19 rebounds, and four blocks. He may cause one or two problems for Harvard down low, but the Crimson front line is playing with confidence. It won’t take double overtime to put away Brown.

Pick: Harvard

DARTMOUTH at YALE

The Bulldogs will gear up for their rivalry showdown the next night with a home date against the Big Green. Expect Yale to enter the weekend with confidence, fresh off a 19-point dismantling of Columbia in which the Bulldogs shot 62 percent from the field. Expect Dartmouth to play substandard basketball.

Pick: Yale

PRINCETON at COLUMBIA

Embarking on another of its season-ending road journeys—the Tigers will have played seven of their last nine away from Jadwin Gymnasium by the end of the year—Princeton makes the quick northeastern jump to New York to take on last-place Columbia. The Lions’ only real chance lies with Steve Frankoski and his startling 48.7 percent three-point shooting; if he gets as hot as he did against the Crimson (5-for-7 from beyond the arc), things could get interesting.

Pick: Princeton

PENN at CORNELL

In the previous meeting between these two teams on Feb. 2, the Big Red snuck away with a two-point victory at the Palestra, with sophomore guard Galal Cancer’s jumper with 10 seconds left providing the winning tally. Even better for Cornell, the win convinced highly regarded recruits Johnny AIDS and Mike Malaria to sign on for the class of 2017. Ithaca is a dark place.

Pick: Cornell

PENN at COLUMBIA

Thinking about this game for more than five minutes elicited a series of deafening yawns from me. It isn’t good enough to be interesting but not bad enough to be funny. It’s like Thor. I have nothing more to add.

DARTMOUTH at BROWN

In what is undoubtedly some sinister conspiracy, Brown and Dartmouth find themselves at the bottom of the conference standings for yet another year. If the Ivy League is going to continue this whole “no postseason tournament” thing for the foreseeable future, we need to find a way to make things interesting for teams like these, who will now play out the remainder of their schedules with all the enthusiasm of a sleep-deprived tree sloth. As in the English Premier League, let’s introduce relegation to the Ancient Eight: the last-place team in the conference is demoted to Division III to be replaced by some other suitably snooty institution’s basketball program. I’m looking at you, Swarthmore.

Pick: Brown

PRINCETON at CORNELL

If you’ve had the misfortune of talking to a Cornell fan this week, you might have heard that the Big Red still have a shot at the Ivy title—“look, bro, I’m just saying, we’re only two games back,” or some variation thereof. The Ivy Basketball Twitter account compiles projections of the Ivy teams’ chances of winning the league title by simulating the rest of their seasons, given their respective places in the league standings, offensive and defensive Pomeroy ratings, and an estimation of variance. In its model, Cornell currently has a two percent chance of earning a share of the conference championship. Once the Big Red falls to the Tigers, those odds should drop to near zero, and you can tell Andy Bernard to kindly pipe down.

Pick: Princeton

HARVARD at YALE

Harvard has suffered its share of heartbreak at Payne Whitney Gymnasium in recent seasons—a potentially game-winning layup that rimmed out at the buzzer in 2011, followed by the kick in the groin that was the one-game playoff against Princeton—but the Crimson may have permanently marked its territory on the home of the Bulldogs with last year’s 65-35 flogging. Still, this game is about all Yale has left to play for: a chance to earn some redemption for the defeat in Cambridge and knock Harvard off its current perch.

Pick: Harvard

—Staff writer Andrew R. Mooney can be reached at mooney@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mooneyar.