Tigers Pounce into NCAA Tournament

For probably the first time in his life, Sydney Johnson was rooting for Penn last weekend.

After Princeton beat Harvard last Friday night, a reporter asked the Tigers' Brian Earl what he thought of the Dartmouth-game. Earl and Johnson, Princeton's captain, said they hadn't heard yet, and the reporter told them that the Quakers had won. The teammates then started giving each other high fives.

Going into last weekend, Princeton was two games ahead of Dartmouth in the standings, followed by Harvard and then Penn. In most years, Penn and Princeton fight for the league title, and as a result Johnson & Co. find themselves pulling for whoever's playing the Quakers.

Except for last weekend.

"Holy shit," Johnson initially muttered before composing himself for the press. "It's hard [to root for Penn]--I've hated the Quakers for so long."

Arguably, Princeton (11-0 Ivy, 20-3) is better than it was last season, when it beat UCLA in the first round of the NCAAs. Only one player left to graduation (Chris Doyal), and the team's last loss was in December. And, of course, the departure of Pete Carril has not prevented first-year coach Bill Carmody from running that annoying offense.

Harvard Women Raging

Wake up and rub your eyes. The Harvard women's basketball team is winning the Ivy League title again.

After winning every league game by almost the same score of 80-63, Harvard (11-0, 17-6) has a one-and-a-half game lead over Brown with three left to play. Brown comes to Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday but, Vita Redding or no Vita Redding, not many give the Bears much of a chance.

So Harvard's focus will soon turn to its NCAA seed, which may not be favorable. The Crimson did not fare extremely well out of conference, but last year's team certainly proved to be more deserving than its 14th rank. In any case, Harvard will just have to wait and see what happens.