Here is tonight's edition of Betting the Ivies.


Dartmouth at Penn -7.5
The Quakers have played much better as of late and are always tough at The Palestra. Still, I like Dartmouth to keep it close with Alex Mitola hitting a few 3-pointers.
Pick: Dartmouth

Shonn Miller

Brown at Cornell -4.5
The Bears have had another disappointing season and have not fared well on the road. Look for Shonn Miller and the Big Red to roll in the first part of important weekend in its battle for third place in the Ivy.
Pick: Cornell

Yale at Columbia -4.5
The Bulldogs rolled over Columbia earlier in the season but in that the Lions were battling the flu bug and star Brian Barbour hardly played. But Yale has owned this series and should have enough to pull off the slight upset on the road.
Pick: Yale

Harvard at Princeton -6
This is the game of the year in the league as Princeton has to protect its homecourt to gain at least a share of the league lead. If Harvard wins the Crimson can start packing for the NCAA. If the Tigers win the race will go down to the final day. I like Princeton to win a war here so I'll take the points and Harvard could win this on the court.
Pick: Harvard

Best bet: Cornell

MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY
Yale at Harvard
Where: Lavietes Pavilion, Cambridge, Mass.
When: Today, 7 p.m.
Records: Yale 7-12 (1-1 Ivy league); Harvard 10-6 (2-0)
Video: gocrimson.com
WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Scouting Harvard: The Crimson opened Ivy play by sweeping Dartmouth but it didn’t come easy. In the first meeting in Hanover, N.H., Harvard trailed 43-42 at halftime but shot a blistering 60 percent from the field in the second half to escape with a 75-65 win. Two weeks later in Boston, the Crimson rallied from a seven-point deficit with 1:10 remaining in the second half to force overtime and then outscored the Big Green 20-15 in the extra period to win 82-77. Wesley Saunders (16.3 ppg.) leads the Crimson in scoring. Harvard leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (69.9 ppg.), field goal percentage (.478) and three-point field goal percentage (.403).
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs begin a four-game Ivy League road trip after defeating Brown in overtime last week. Ten
players all saw at least 12 minutes of action in the game in Yale’s 76-64 win to rebound from a loss at Brown the week before. Austin Morgan (11.5 ppg.) continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring. He was named the Ivy League co-player of the week after scoring 16 points in Saturday’s win. Freshman Justin Sears earned co-rookie of the week honors after leading Yale with 18 points and eight rebounds against the Bears. The Bulldogs lead the Ivy League in rebounding margin (+3.8) and offensive rebounds (13.0 per game) and are second in scoring offense (66.4). Harvard swept the season series last year. The Crimson has won three straight at Lavietes Pavilion. Yale’s last win there was an 87-66 decision in 2009.

Yale fans all across the country will have two opportunities to catch the Bulldogs this season thanks to the Ivy League television package. Yale’s home game with Florida on Sunday, Jan. 6 will be televised live on the NBC Sports Network at 5:30 p.m. A little more than a month later, on Saturday, Feb. 23, the CBS Sports Network will come to the historic John J. Lee Amphitheater for the Yale-Harvard game at 8 p.m.

Yale and Florida are playing for the second straight year. Last December in Gainesville, the Bulldogs scored the first nine points of the game, before the Gators, ranked No. 10 in the nation at the time, rallied for a 90-70 victory. Both teams put on a shooting display from three-point range. Yale finished 11-of-21 from beyond the arc, while Florida was 12-of-21. The Gators return three starters from a squad that went 26-11 and fell one game shy of the Final Four last year.

Last year’s Yale-Harvard game at Lee Amphitheater was one of the most anticipated Ivy games in recent Yale history. It was sold out well in advance, and the 2,532 fans that packed the Amphitheater saw Harvard escape with a 65-35 victory. The Crimson went on to capture the Ivy League title.

The two games are part of an 11-game television package that includes 10 games on the NBC Sports Network and one on the CBS Sports Network and features all eight schools.

The 11-game package comes on the heels of the Ivy League and the NBC Sports Group announcing a two-year renewal of their national television rights agreement for football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse games last June.

On Thursday, the Ivy League announced today that its directors of athletics have decided not to move forward with proposals for postseason tournaments in men's and women's basketball.
"After careful consideration of these proposals, the athletics directors decided that our current method of determining the Ivy League Champion and our automatic bid recipient to the NCAA Championship is the best model moving forward," said Robin Harris, Ivy League Executive Director.
In men's and women's basketball, the Ivy League plays a 14-game, double round-robin schedule where each team plays each other home and away. The team with the best conference record in each sport is awarded the Ivy title and the League's NCAA Tournament automatic bid.
The Ivy League athletics directors discussed the proposals at their annual meetings, which concluded Thursday afternoon in Red Bank, N.J.
The Ivy League Office will not comment further on this matter.