AROUND THE IVIES: Difficult Road Trip Awaits Men's Basketball

The Harvard men’s basketball team jumped back into the Associated Press Top 25 and tied a season-high with a No. 21 ranking in the coaches poll this week, but it was an alum of the squad who owned all the headlines.

With three spectacular games in which he went head-to-head with two former All-Stars and a No. 1 overall pick—against whom he averaged 25.3 points and 8.3 assists—Jeremy Lin ’10 quickly became one of the most-discussed items in the sports world.

In less than a week, Lin singlehandedly caused New York City to forget that the Giants won the Super Bowl on Sunday, helped Knicks fans discover that basketball can actually be fun to watch, and made Mike D’Antoni remember how effective his system can be when there’s a true point guard running it.

All of a sudden, Lin was a bigger Broadway hit than "Book of Mormon," the first Harvard affiliate to play the role of the triumphant underdog since Matt Damon in "Invictus," and the first New Yorker ever to excel at driving through traffic.

Linsanity became the talk of the Linternet—trending worldwide three times on Twitter in five days—as the punning industry was revived with sayings such as "Just Lin Baby."

By Thursday night, Lin had a higher player efficiency rating than Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, and Dwayne Wade, had been praised by Magic Johnson and Steve Nash, had become the first player since Isiah Thomas 30 years ago to put up 28 and eight in his first career start, and the first since LeBron in 2002 to go for 20 and eight in his first two starts.

That’s two Hall of Famers and five future Hall of Famers in one paragraph—not bad company for someone who for two months was believed to be less talented than Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby.

Yes, Linception has occurred, and the dream is real.

While doing all this, Lin was often referred to as "the point guard from Harvard," implicitly reminding everyone that indeed, Harvard has a basketball team and, in fact, it’s very good.

And this weekend, the Crimson’s perfect conference record will be on the line during what will be its toughest road trip of the year. Penn and Princeton are two teams in the upper echelon of the conference, and both are dangerous enough to defeat Harvard on their home floors.

So tonight, as Lin prepares for his toughest task yet versus Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, his former teammates are also in for a big challenge against Zack Rosen and the Quakers (+1 for rhyming!).

HARVARD (20-2, 6-0 Ivy) AT PENN (12-10, 4-1)

Many will likely compare this game to one from two years ago, when a 20-3 No. 22 Cornell squad went into Philly and got smoked worse than a Don Draper cigarette, losing 79-64 to a Penn team that had been 3-15 to that point.

This year’s Quakers are a lot better than 2010’s, and—as Harvard learned in last year’s thrilling double-overtime victory—The Palestra is as tough an arena to win in as there is in Ivy basketball.

Rosen has turned into the league’s best guard, ranking second in the conference with 18.3 points and first with 6.0 assists per game. He has quietly become the biggest Jewish basketball sensation since...um...Omri Casspi? Jordan Farmar? Can we officially count Amar’e now?

Okay, so the competition’s not great. But Rosen’s good. And I’m sure his grandmother is very proud. He’s also a senior, meaning he’s well aware that this is his last chance to go dancing (his future wedding Horah not included).

But Harvard, for its part, may very well have Rosen’s kryptonite, and it’s not a bad piece of gefilte fish.

No, in the land of the cheesesteak, the difference maker may be cheesecake.

"Cheesecake" is the nickname of Harvard’s Brandyn Curry. The junior point guard—who is statistically the best lockdown defender in the Ancient Eight—and the rest of Harvard’s outstanding defense should make things very tough for Rosen and company offensively.

Meanwhile, starting four guards, the Quakers lack the size to defend Keith Wright and Kyle Casey at the other end. If Laurent Rivard and the other Harvard shooters can match Penn’s long-ball ability (Tyler Bernadini and Rosen rank first and third in the league in three-point percentage, respectively), the Crimson should be able to pull out another close victory in Philly.

Pick: Harvard 67, Penn 63

BROWN (7-16, 1-5) AT COLUMBIA (13-9, 2-4)

The Lions played a weird pair of games last week. On Friday, they barely squeaked past Dartmouth, 64-62, and then on Saturday came out and played Harvard as tough as anyone has all year (UConn notwithstanding). The Crimson has the third-longest home winning streak in the country, but the Lions stayed in the game from start to finish at Lavietes Pavilion.

So it’s tough to know what to expect from Columbia. But Brown let me down last week with its Friday loss—my only wrong pick on the season thus far—while the Lions are at home and, in Brian Barbour, have the best player on either team. So we’ll go with them.

Pick: Columbia 65, Brown 62

DARTMOUTH (4-18, 0-6) AT PRINCETON (11-10, 2-3)

Last week, we made a "Least Athletic Lions" team. This week, let’s do the same with Tigers—I’m thinking Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, Prince Fielder nine years from now, Tony from Frosted Flakes (he’s not Grrrrreat), Calvin’s buddy Hobbes, and former mustachioed French Prime Minister Georges "Le Tigre" Clemenceau.

And yes, once again, that squad would still beat Dartmouth.

Pick: Princeton 70, Dartmouth 61

YALE (15-5, 5-1) at CORNELL (8-12, 3-3)

The Bulldogs rebounded nicely last weekend from their embarrassing defeat to Harvard, sweeping the Killer P’s and in so doing keeping themselves alive in the Ivy race. Yale should dominate Cornell inside in this one, as the Big Red simply do not have anyone capable of defending Greg Mangano.

Also, one wonders: who would Clifford the Big Red Dog root for in this game?

Pick: Yale 74, Cornell 67

HARVARD AT PRINCETON

Ugh, we’re doing this again?

At The Crimson, we’re not supposed to use the word "revenge" in our sportswriting, as it sounds mean, like something a crazy serial killer might be after. Instead, we’re encouraged to use a nicer word, like "retribution."

Nope. Not this time. This is for revenge. Only a little bit, of course, but last year still hurts. And at least a serial killer is nice enough to end their victims’ lives on the spot, rather than tearing out their hearts by preventing them from doing something they haven’t done in 65 years and then forcing them to suffer for eleven long months afterwards.

So no, this is not a do-or-die game, like last year’s playoff, but it would still be nice beat the Tigers and Doug Davis on their home court—even if Dan Mavraides and his villainous taunts are no longer there to make winning even sweeter.

But doing so will be no easy task. The last time Harvard won in Jadwin Gymnasium, the Berlin Wall was still standing.

Pick: Harvard 68, Princeton 64

BROWN AT CORNELL

After deciding to transfer from Toledo, Brown’s Stephen Albrecht originally committed to Cornell, then backed out and went to Brown.

Technically, Albrecht is only a sophomore, though he’ll be 23 in August. That means by the time he graduates, he’ll be pushing Abe Liu/Andrew Hatch levels of elderliness.

In any case, Albrecht would’ve been a nice fit in Cornell’s backcourt with Chris Wroblewski, whose numbers have dipped in every offensive category this season.

Alas, much to the despair of Mr. Cornell Basketball Blog, it was not meant to be. But despite not having Albrecht, the Big Red should still win this game at home.

Pick: Cornell 66, Brown 60

YALE AT COLUMBIA

I think this will be closer than one might expect. The second game of the New York road trip is always tough, since Ithaca and New York City are nowhere near each other.

And Columbia—unlike a lot of other teams in the Ancient Eight—has the size to matchup well with the Bulldogs, led by one-half of the "Sweatband Boys," Mark Cisco. (The other half of the duo is Andre Drummond’s proctologist, Blaise Staab—google image him.)

Though Cisco has the talent to frustrate Mangano, Yale on the whole is simply a much better team. But be on upset alert with this one.

Pick: Yale 67, Columbia 63

DARTMOUTH AT PENN

Let’s just say you could take the five least athletic Quakers...

Only kidding. Dartmouth would probably win that matchup, Betsy Ross’s turnaround jumper notwithstanding.

But Penn will take this game, and the Big Green will go another week in search of that elusive conference win.

Pick: Penn 78, Dartmouth 66

LAST WEEK: 7-1

SEASON: 13-1

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