College Hoops Notes: Cornell clinches Ivy crown

By Matt Smith

When the horn sounded at Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Cornell University in the sleepy town of Ithaca, New York, the Big Red had not only punished Harvard 86-53, but became the first official team to be admitted into the NCAA Tournament.
With that win, Cornell clinched the Ivy League, and though it will likely be a No. 15 or 16 seed, the Big Red have won 14 games in a row since losing to Duke on Jan. 6 and are 20-5 overall and 12-0 in conference.
The game was essentially over by halftime as the Big Red had a 45-20 lead, stamping their ticket to the Big Dance on March 1 and winning their first Ivy League title since 1988.
Not only is winning their first conference title in 20 years impressive, it stops an amazing streak and reign of terror in the conference by Penn and Princeton. No other team other than those two has won an Ivy League crown since Cornell won it in 1988; until now.
"It's hard to put into words," Jason Hartford, Cornell's only senior, told the Associated Press after the game. "No words can express the feeling to that one sound of the horn. All we could do is run as fast as we could to the middle of the court and jump as high as we could to be able to share it with the people that were there with you the whole way."
Hartford is only the team’s seventh leading scorer. The top two scorers, Ryan Wittman (15.3 ppg) and Louis Dale (13.1 ppg) are just sophomore.
This team has nine freshman and sophomore that will return to a team looking to establish its own little reign of terror, keeping Penn and Princeton thirsting for a return to the Big Dance in the process.

Bracket Watch: Things have changed slightly in some conferences, but have stayed the same for the most part. The for sure thing is that the Big East is still getting at least eight bids.

Big East
Ticket punched: Georgetown, Louisville, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Marquette, Pittsburgh.
Probably: Villanova, West Virginia.
Outside looking in: Syracuse, Seton Hall.
Syracuse and Seton Hall both hurt its respective causes with the Cuse losing to Pitt, a game in which the Orange led late in and the Hall lost to lowly St. John’s. Syracuse has lost three straight since its big win over Georgetown. Wednesday’s game between these two is probably an elimination game, meaning the loser needs to win the Big East Tournament.

ACC
Ticket punched: North Carolina, Duke.
Probably: Clemson, Miami, Maryland.
Outside looking in: Virginia Tech, Wake Forest.
After beating Duke and winning its third straight ACC game, Wake has gone from the underrated team to the team that blew it by losing three straight. The Deacons need to win their final two and then win two in the ACC Tourney to get in. Clemson probably punched its ticket by beating Maryland Sunday night, with that loss putting the Terps squarely on the bubble. Still, Maryland and Miami will probably sneak in with 20+ wins and a .500 mark in conference play.

Big 12
Ticket punched: Texas, Kansas.
Probably: Kansas State, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma.
Outside looking in: Nebraska, Texas Tech.
Even though it has the third best SOS in the country, it’s probably too little, too late for Tech. A win over Texas makes you think, but a late season and conference tourney run is a necessity. The four teams listed as probably in are about as in as they are out right now. All are squarely on the bubble. KSU has lost four in a row, the Aggies continue to flounder in conference play, OU lost Blake Griffin for the remainder of the regular season and Baylor still doesn’t seem to get much respect.

Big Ten
Ticket punched: Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State.
Probably: None.
Outside looking in: Ohio State, Minnesota.
The Buckeyes have lost four in a row, including losses against Minnesota and Michigan. They are out as of right now. The Gophers win over OSU is not going to be enough, despite having 18 wins right now, because their SOS is horrid.

Pac-10
Ticket punched: UCLA, Stanford, Washington State.
Probably: USC, Arizona State, Arizona.
Outside looking in: Cal, Oregon, Washington.
Arizona has the nation’s best SOS, but four losses in the last five games and six losses in the last eight games leaves the Wildcats at 17-12 and 7-9 in the Pac-10. They are a very, very iffy probably at this moment. Cal, Oregon or Washington will have to win the conference tourney to get in.

SEC
Ticket punched: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State.
Probably: Florida, Arkansas.
Outside looking in: Mississippi, Kentucky.
Absolutely no change here as Kentucky’s hopes of shaking off a bad start and getting in the tournament took a hit with a close loss at Tennessee. That win might have made their conference performance to much to ignore. Arkansas came very close to moving into the ticket punched category with a win over Vanderbilt, but two losses in a row before that makes it impossible to do so. A win over Ole Miss and the Hogs are in and the Rebels are out.

Others
Ticket punched: Cornell, Gonzaga, Memphis, Drake, Butler, Xavier, Davidson.
Probably: St. Mary’s, Kent State, BYU, UNLV, Illinois State.
Outside looking in: Houston, UAB, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, St. Joseph’s.
The biggest movement occurred in the mid-majors as Gonzaga and Davidson have done enough to get in. Both played very tough out of conference schedules and have won their regular season conferences, with Davidson going 20-0 in the Southern Conference. Gonzaga by beating St. Mary’s just stamped its bid as well. Cornell is the only team officially in the tournament, winning the Ivy League with the blowout of Harvard. Illinois State moves up to probably, giving the Missouri Valley the possibility of two teams. The Red Birds have won three big games in a row, beating Creighton, Southern Illinois and Wright State. The MWC has three very good teams, but either New Mexico or UNLV will get left out because the conference probably won’t get three while Conference USA and the A-10 will probably have their fringe teams left out. Maybe Houston and UMass could sneak in.

Rankings: Memphis moves back to one, because it has one loss and should not have been dropped below No. 2 anyway, because all the Tigers did was lose a close game at home to a top five team. The main polls, ESPN and USA Today will have UNC No. 1, but that doesn’t seem right to me. Is anyone else noticing Xavier’s ascent up the charts. The Muskateers, if they win out, will definitely grab a No. 2 seed. This team is for real.

1. Memphis (28-1)
2. North Carolina (27-2)
3. UCLA (26-3)
4. Duke (25-3)
5. Tennessee (26-3)
6. Kansas (26-3)
7. Xavier (25-4)
8. Georgetown (24-4)
9. Texas (24-5)
10. Stanford (24-4)
11. Purdue (23-6)
12. Vanderbilt (24-5)
13. Wisconsin (24-4)
14. Connecticut (23-6)
15. Louisville (24-6)
16. Butler (27-3)
17. Notre Dame (22-6)
18. Michigan State (23-6)
19. Indiana (24-5)
20. Drake (25-4)
21. BYU (23-6)
22. Marquette (21-7)
23. Mississippi State (20-8)
24. Washington State (22-7)
25. Gonzaga (23-6)