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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO

    Talking Props for Amaker's Crimson Squad

    ESPN is publishing summary evaluations of the non-conference schedules of the major conferences. Tommy Amaker's Harvard team is getting credit as a tough opponent And although the BC reference is a backhanded compliment, the FSU reference puts the Crimson on the same plateau as UConn.

    BOSTON COLLEGE

    Toughest: 76 Classic (Nov. 24-27), Harvard (Dec. 29)

    Next-toughest: UMass (Nov. 21), Boston University (Dec. 3), Stony Brook (Dec. 11), Rhode Island (Jan. 2)

    ...........

    Toughness scale (1-10): 3 -- Steve Donahue can be forgiven for a less-than-overwhelming schedule, with all five of his top scorers gone. But the facts are the facts. There are some nice mid-majors here -- Boston U. and Stony Brook could potentially win in Chestnut Hill -- but hanging your hat on the top team in the Ivy League isn’t going to turn a lot of heads.

    FLORIDA STATE

    .................
    Toughness scale (1-10): 7 -- A lot of eyes will be watching the Seminoles this season, seeing if the preseason excitement is warranted after the surprise Sweet 16 run. This schedule will help clear the issue. Two tough road games -- in East Lansing and in Gainesville -- will be stiff tests obviously. The rest of the schedule, on the surface, looks just OK. But Florida State, after opening with UMass down in the Bahamas, will potentially face Harvard and UConn in its next two games. That would be quite a 1-2 punch in back-to-back games.
    Quite an upheaval in the Ivy League with Harvard showing signs of blowing up the Princeton-UPenn cartel that has won most of the basketball championships. As you remember, Harvard lost on a last-second shot in a playoff to Princeton for the NCAA bid last year, after the two were declared co-champions. This year it is a heavy favorite in the league where athletic scholarships are paid out of the general scholarship fund.

    sagegrouse

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Columbus, Ohio
    Harvard Cartel?

    He was so good in Taxi Driver.

    Amaker's doing great things with the Crimson bball program; that Big Media has taken notice is a wonderful thing. Now it's time for Harvard to take the next step forward as a program and win the league and make a splash in March.

    What do the rest of the Ivies bring to the table this season?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Corey View Post
    Harvard Cartel?


    What do the rest of the Ivies bring to the table this season?
    Nothing to compare with Harvard, that's for sure. My Princeton Tigers had a horrendous offseason after the best season since 2003-2004. We tie Harvard for the title, beat them in the playoff game, then almost beat Calipari and UK (woulda, coulda, shoulda). Anyway, Sydney Johnson made a strange lateral move (downward move in terms of prestige) and left Princeton for Fairfield while most of the Tigers best players graduated. UPenn has not shown signs of regaining its former dominance. Cornell is still rebuilding after losing Donahue to BC. Meanwhile, Amaker is recruiting athletes the likes of which the Ivy League rarely sees. If Harvard doesn't dominate the Ivy League this season and for a few years to come, it will be a major shock. Since it looks like there's nothing the TIgers can do to stop Harvard this year, I would accept one amazing season from the Crimson that sees them win the Ivy crown and make a tourney run if it means Amaker gets a high major job offer from a strong program and leaves Harvard so they can fall back to where they belong . . . at the bottom of the Ivy League.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by COYS View Post
    Since it looks like there's nothing the TIgers can do to stop Harvard this year, I would accept one amazing season from the Crimson that sees them win the Ivy crown and make a tourney run if it means Amaker gets a high major job offer from a strong program and leaves Harvard so they can fall back to where they belong . . . at the bottom of the Ivy League.
    As a Harvard alum, I take exception to this statement. It's Yale that belongs at the bottom of the Ivy league.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    It's the Ivies Boys

    I think that they still play Ivy games only back to back on Fridays and Saturdays. With very few exceptions, Daley's Penn team, and maybe Harvard now (I don't follow), the Ivies always had 4 or 5 teams that could really play. Problem was that they went only 5, max 7 deep. Teams with 7, or an exceptional player ( Bradley, Petrie, the Hummers) and/or a great coach, Van Bredakoff, Daley, and especially Carrol (with his offense that completely changed the entire concept of the game and made it almost impossible to prepare properly for when you played Princeton/Penn, usually, if going in you were expected to be a contender and then it was always on the road, well, it can lead to predictable league outcomes. But, calling those two teams dominant in the league has a different meaning than in say, the ACC. At least from what I saw, that just really wasn't so. Of course, that was a lifetime (getting much closer than I'd like to mine) ago. It's me, Grey, always with an off-the-beaten-path take, beard. Nice to visist. Later, guys.

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