AROUND THE IVIES: Saunders's Numbers Prompt Comparison to Lin

Much of the credit for the Harvard men’s basketball team’s league-seizing weekend sweep, and in particular for Jan. 31’s win over Princeton, has to go to standout junior guard Wesley Saunders. Against the Tigers, Saunders excelled on both ends of the court, leading the Crimson in points, rebounds, assists, and steals.

At this week’s media conference, Saunders’ numbers prompted an interesting comparison to the last Harvard player to record such a stat line: that sacred object of Crimson reverence, Jeremy Lin ’10. ESPN’s Jack McCluskey summed up the debate in an article on Tuesday, noting that Saunders, like Lin during his senior season, is currently in the Ivy League’s top 10 in nine different statistical categories. But unlike Lin, Saunders is given the assignment of guarding the opposition’s best perimeter offensive player in virtually every game Harvard plays, using his speed and length to block driving lanes and disrupt shots.

So, advantage Saunders? Not so fast. Let’s not forget that, before Lin’s arrival in Cambridge, the Crimson, for lack of a better word, sucked. The program had not had a winning season since 2001-2002, when it finished barely over .500 at 14-12. Lin’s supporting cast included freshmen versions of Brandyn Curry and Kyle Casey and a guy named Doug. Among Saunders’ teammates are seniors Casey and co-captain, a first team All-Ivy point guard in sophomore Siyani Chambers, and two All-Ivy honorable mentions in co-captain Laurent Rivard and junior Steve Moundou-Missi. The Crimson is an Ivy juggernaut, as opposed to the inexperienced group Lin threw on his back for a third-place Ivy finish in 2009-2010. Teams have much more to worry about now than just one player, which creates more openings for Saunders to exploit than Lin had.

This is not to say that Saunders can’t eventually match Lin’s achievements. He is still a junior and has been one of the best two players in the conference the last two seasons. Like Lin, he is a total outlier athletically in the Ivy League. He has worked every year to fill the holes in his game, especially his jump shot, which has morphed into a reliable weapon. And unlike Lin, he can play a lick of defense. Saunders certainly has the best shot of anyone on Harvard’s team to record meaningful professional minutes—though Saunsanity doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

DARTMOUTH V. YALE

Well, Dartmouth certainly had some spunk last weekend. The Forest Guardians protected their Hanover stronghold admirably in sweeping Penn and Princeton in a development foreseen by roughly no one. I’m still not sold they can keep it up without injured star Gabas Maldunas, though they do appear to have some better strategies on the court now than the “cower-and-die” approach they adopted in their 30-point loss to Harvard. I’ll give this one to the Big Green, but not with any trace of conviction.Pick: Dartmouth

HARVARD V. BROWN

Somehow, a share of first place will be on the line for the Bears when they travel to Lavietes Pavilion on Friday night. Too often the Ivy League punching bag, Brown has made some big strides over the last couple of years, and, as mentioned above, it wasn’t so long ago that Harvard was a perennial also-ran in the conference, as well. The result will likely be a comfortable win for the Crimson, but not before everyone takes a moment to appreciate the a-changin’ times. You know all sorts of huffy Penn and Princeton alums are outraged by the impropriety of it all. “Howard, I’ll tell you what I’ve heard,” they tell each other breathlessly. “I think these other schools have started recruiting.” And then they pine for the good old days, when you got ahead in this world through hard work and functioning alcoholism.Pick: Harvard

PRINCETON V. COLUMBIA

It turns out we may know less about these teams than we thought. Both Columbia and Princeton flopped pretty heavily on their first weekend road trips of the season, getting swept like so much dust under the rug. This is a tough weekend for Columbia to embark on another challenging road trip; they could very easilycome out of it near the bottom of the league with four conference losses—and right when we thought they might actually be good, too. Maybe Columbia was divinely preordained to never experience any sporting joy. Columbia is the Cleveland of the Ivy League.

Pick: PRINCETON

PENN V. CORNELL

The reports of Cornell’s death may have been greatly exaggerated. After I trumpeted their ineptness from the mountaintop last week, the Ithaca boys proved me wrong by…losing two more games. But they were kind of close! The Big Red took a lead into halftime on the road against Brown, then fell by four the next night at Yale. Leading scorer Nolan Cressler got a little support from his teammates, particularly Devin Cherry, who combined with Cressler to score 48 points against the Bulldogs. And, would you look at that, Cornell moved three whole spots up Ken Pomeroy’s national rankings—all the way to 342nd. I call that progress.

Pick: PENN

DARTMOUTH V. BROWN

Here’s how Brown’s website introduces the bio of second-year head coach and former Bears basketball player Mike Martin: “When Thomas Wolfe wrote, ‘you can never come home again,’ he didn’t have Mike Martin in mind.”

Now, I know the Brown faithful are all a-flutter over the job Martin has done in Providence, but I think they may have overdone it in the gravitas department here. You mean to tell me that Wolfe’s inspiration was something other than the life experiences of a middling college athlete 70 years in the future? I don’t buy it.

And now for an inexhaustive list of things Thomas Wolfe did not have in mind when authoring You Can’t Go Home Again: Superman, LeBron James, Edward Snowden, The Shah, Princess Leia.

Pick: DARTMOUTH

CORNELL AT PRINCETONThe last two non-Harvard Ivy League champions could be battling it out for last place this weekend. Unfortunately for Cornell, this one will be decided by a basketball contest and not a game of Candy Crush, the activity that has been occupying most of the Big Red’s practice time this season. Princeton wins in a rout.Pick: PRINCETON

PENN V. YALE

Some Columbia students filmed what is being termed as a “feminist porno” in a campus library last week. [ALL JOKES REDACTED; EVERY POSSIBLE GROUP IS OFFENDED]

So, yeah, expect Columbia in a wild, physical affair.

Pick: COLUMBIA

HARVARD V. YALE

There’s nothing the Crimson would love more than to give the Bulldogs the “dryer treatment” in Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday night. And while the Crimson should take care of business, Yale is no pushover; Harvard coach Tommy Amaker has maintained all season that the Bulldogs are “as talented as anyone in our league,” his own team included. The rangy trio of Javier Duren, Justin Sears, and Armani Cotton could give the Crimson some problems—but Harvard is simply too good, and its home-court advantage too unassailable (19 straight home wins), to drop a game here.

Pick: HARVARD