AsiaSunset
Postdoc
Posts: 4361
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: The State of Ivy Basketball
03-07-06 11:10 AM - Post#16950
In response to mrjames
When two teams dominate the league to the extent the P's have, it's clear something is wrong.
However, as to specifics:
1) I heard Fran talking about the schedule and it provided me with a new perspective. The Princeton academic schedule forces us to play them twice during what we would describe as the Ivy part of our schedule. Thus we play a Fri/Sat set, followed by a Tues game against PU, then followed by another Fri/Sat set. When you factor in the enforced NCAA no practice day, both PU and Penn have one day to prepare for the 2nd Fri/Sat set. I'm not convinced we don't in fact have a built-in handicap the way the schedule is set up.
2) When we travel with PU we generally pull large home crowds and increase the energy level of opposition fans in their gyms. This can sometimes work to both teams disadvantage. When Columbia comes to Jadwin and the Palestra it's nothing special. Yet this year they organized a special weekend in NYC around the P's visit and pulled off major upsets in both games.
3) The AI has been adjusted. BB is no longer a banded sport. My understanding is that all teams can compete academically for the same players. Harvard does need to manage its overall recruit pool to a higher number, but I don't think AI has to be managed on a sport by sport basis. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this. In short I think any school can go out and grab the top 3 guys thinking Ivy and still have plenty of room to meet the school's AI target number in their total pool across all sports.
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