You can throw away Cornell, they of the hideous Saturday track record, fading confidence and an ice-cold Cody Toppert. Harvard caught Princeton on perhaps its worst night of the year and still couldn't beat them. I don't see that happening again, nor Harvard stepping up enough to give itself a chance. Dartmouth? Uh, no.
That leaves the Lions, who are now 4-6 in the Ivy after a second sweep of the Dartmouth/Harvard weekend and playing with confidence. Their overall effort level and balance has the potential to make this Princeton team, one that can be sloppy at times, more uncomfortable than the other three teams.
More importantly, it is a complete misperception that Columbia played out of its mind or that Princeton played terribly when the Tigers escaped The Loading Dock with the overtime win on Valentine's Day. Princeton actually shot better than 50 percent from the field for the game, outrebounded the Lions by seven and shot 22 more free throws (including 16 in OT). Columbia only shot around 47 percent in both halves and knocked down a solid-but-not-outrageous 8 of 18 from three-point range in regulation, yet still felt like it let Princeton off the hook.
Throw in the revenge factor. Add in Kravic coming on as a reliable secondary scorer. Mix in Joe Jones's motivational tactics and a team that's too na?ve to realize it shouldn't be playing this well. Toss in that most of the Lions remember the close loss at Jadwin to end last season's disaster and know that they can compete there. Finally, add in a Princeton team that now is under the pressure of being the undisputed leader, has a habit of starting very slowly, and could be missing senior leader Ed Persia?which would impact the rotations?and you have the recipe for a season-changing upset Friday night.
