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Harvard at Yale
2/12/10
Harvard was rolling along having one of it's best years ever until it ran into fellow Ivy League buzz-saw Cornell at the end of January and suffered a 36 point set back. They followed that game up with a loss at home to Princeton. Harvard now finds themselves in 3rd place in the Ivy League and in a situation where they can't afford another loss.
Harvard has played better, against stiffer competition than 2nd place Princeton has, and certainly than Yale has. For example, Harvard went to George Washington and won 66-53 while Princeton lost by 15. Yale's non conference lay hasn't come close to Harvard's. Yale has losses to teams like Quinnipiac and a 2 point win over Hartford. Harvard meanwhile, has played with some of the better teams in the nation, or, at least, much better than most Ivy League teams.
Yale even has a home loss to Brown who is 1-5 in Ivy League play. So, yeah, you'd have to draw the conclusion that Harvard is the much better team here. We're a little concerned about Harvard's play against common opponents. Yale and Harvard have played 6 common opponents and the stats in those six games, for both teams, are relatively close.
So we have some hesitation about playing Harvard tonight. The Yale - Harvard rivalry is one of the best and oldest in all of college sports, be it football, basketball or whatever. Yale has held the upper hand in this series in recent years and this would appear to be a golden opportunity for Harvard swing that series momentum their way.
We're not thrilled with Harvard's back to back losses to Cornell and Princeton but on the up side they appear to have gotten things back on track with a 14 win over Penn. Schedule strength is important in our handicapping process, and how a team performs against that schedule. We have Harvard winning this game handily tonight. That's what our numbers say, and we stick to our numbers for college hoops. Harvard 76-60. Lay the -5