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

YALE AT PENN, PRINCETON

Friday vs. Penn,
Where: The Palestra, Philadelphia
When: 7 p.m.
Video: pennathletics.com

Saturday at Princeton
Where: Jadwin Gym, Princeton, N.J.
When: 6 p.m.
Video: goprincetontigers.com

Records: Yale (7-14, 1-3 Ivy), Penn (4-16, 1-2), Princeton (10-7, 3-0)

What to look for

Scouting Penn: The Quakers are coming off a split with Columbia and Cornell
last weekend. Miles Cartwright scored Penn's last eight points in a hard-fought 62-58 victory over Columbia. The next night, Cornell rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to edge the Quakers 71-69. Fran Dougherty (13.8 ppg.) and Cartwright (13.7 ppg.) lead the team in scoring. Dougherty also averages 8.1 rebounds, while Cartwright has a team-best 66 assists. Jerome Allen is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Quakers.

Scouting Princeton: The Tigers, who host Brown on Friday, have won five straight games overall and have a 20-game winning streak in Ivy League games at Jadwin Gym. Ian Hummer
is second in the league in scoring (15.9 ppg.) and fourth in rebounding (6.7 rpg.). Hummer was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the fi fth time this season after averaging 19.0 points in a sweep of Cornell and Columbia last week. Princeton (10-7, 3-0 Ivy) is No. 1 in the Ivy League and No. 14 in the nation (through Feb. 3) in scoring defense, now at 57.5 ppg. allowed. Mitch Henderson is in his second season as the head coach of the Tigers.

Scouting Yale: The lost a hard-fought game at Harvard last week and then were upset at Dartmouth dropping them to 1-3 in the league. Yale played both games without freshman star center Justin Sears due to an ankle injury. The Bulldogs appear to be getting healthy as both Brandon Sherrod and Jesse Pritchard have returned but only Sherrod played last week and in limited fashion. This is traditionally the toughest trip of the season for the Bulldogs but if they can't manage a split their Ivy League hopes appear to be in grave shape. After this weekend Yale plays four straight games at home.

- Bill Cloutier

Men’s basketball gamedays
YALE AT PRINCETON, PENN
Today at Jadwin Gymnasium, Princeton, N.J., 7 p.m.
Saturday at The Palestra, Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Records: Yale (19-7, 9-3 Ivy); Princeton (16-11, 7-4); Penn (17-11, 9-2)
Video: goprincetontigers.com; pennathletics.com
Scouting Yale: The final weekend of the season is full of possibilities for the Bulldogs. Yale could actually win the title outright if all things go its way. Yale trails Harvard by a game in the Ivy League. If the Bulldogs sweep the weekend series and Harvard loses its last two games (at Columbia and Cornell) Yale would win the league and become the first school in the nation to earn an NCAA berth. While all four results will be considered upsets the fact that the Bulldogs are still alive is testament to how well they’ve played this season. Yale finished the season 11-1 at home and is currently 8-6 on the road. The Bulldogs are trying for their first 20-win season since 2002.
Scouting Princeton: The Tigers are 37-6 all-time against the Bulldogs at Jadwin. Princeton is still mathematically alive in the Ivy League race helped by their win over league-leading Harvard earlier in the season. Yale beat Princeton 58-54 at New Haven this season. Ian Hummer led the Tigers with 18 points in the game. Yale hasn’t swept the season series against the Tigers since 2008.
Scouting Penn: The Quakers ended Harvard’s 28-game home streak on Saturday to move to within a half-game of the Ivy League lead. Led by Zach Rosen, Penn has won fivestraight, four of which have come by three points or less. Rosen was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Monday. He scored the Quakers' last 16 points in a win at Dartmouth and the last nine points in the victory over the Crimson.
Probable starters
Yale
Name, Ht, Year, Pos, PPg.
Jeremiah Kreisberg, 6-10, So., F, 7.7
Greg Mangano, 6-10, Sr, C, 18.5
Reggie Willhite, 6-4, Sr, F, 12.6
Austin Morgan, 5-10, Jr, G, 12.3
Michael Grace, 6-0, Jr.G, 5.5
Princeton

Name, Ht, Year, Pos, PPg.

Patrick Saunders, 6-8, Sr., F, 6.3
Ian Hummer, 6-7, Jr., F, 16.2
Brendan Connolly , 6-11, Jr.C, 5.3
T.J. Bray, 6-5, So., G, 7.2
Doug Davis, 5-11, Sr., G, 13.2

Off the bench: Yale: Brandon Sherrod, 6-6, Fr., F, 4.1, Jesse Pritchard, 6-5, So., G, 2.2. Princeton: Denton Koon, 6-8, Fr., F, 5.2, . Mack Darrow, 6-9, Jr., F, 6.8.
 Bill Cloutier

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN -- Yale’s loss to Harvard a week ago made this weekend’s games imperative. The Bulldogs’ men’s basketball team had to sweep powerhouses Penn and Princeton if they were to truly contend for an Ivy League crown.
Mission accomplished.

Reggie Willhite and Greg Mangano both scored 20 points and Yale held off a late rally to defeat Princeton 58-54 before 2,175 fans at the Lee Amphitheater Saturday night. The win, Yale’s third straight, moves them to 15-5 overall and 5-1 in the Ivy League. Harvard leads the league at 6-0 and both teams have eight games left.
“It feels amazing,” Yale captain Reggie Willhite said. “Coach told us before the game how Princeton had beaten us five straight times. We knew how important it was to get a Penn-Princeton sweep. It’s always one of the most difficult parts of the season and to win both of them at home feels great.”
Princeton, one of the preseason favorites in the league, fell to 11-10 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy. The Tigers were led by Ian Hummer with 18 points. Mack Darrow had 11 and Patrick Saunders had 10.
Yale was fantastic in the first half. The Bulldogs took a 32-23 lead into the break despite shooting 2-for-10 from 3-point range. The rest of their game, however, was precise led by Willhite, who had 13 points at the break. Yale’s defense held Princeton without a point for nearly 10 minutes.
“We re-geared after Harvard,” Willhite said. “Everybody understood what this weekend meant, myself included, and we played pretty well.”
The Bulldogs opened up the advantage to a dozen early in the second half but it seemed like they wanted to put the game away from the 3-point line. Yale missed five straight shots from long range in a scoreless span of nearly five minutes.
While the stretch didn’t hurt them much on the scoreboard, Jones said the offense went stagnant and Princeton finally began to chip away. Hummer led the charge scoring 10 straight Tiger points and Princeton eventually closed the gap to 53-51 on a putback by Darrow with 1:08 to play.
“I still felt pretty good,” Jones said. “We maintained the lead for the most part. I just felt we took some ill-advised shots but what’s anchored us all weekend was our defense.”
Yale didn’t buckle and Jeremiah Kreisberg made two free throws on the next trip to extend the lead to four. Princeton, which missed several open 3-pointers in the second half, never got closer than three points in the final minute and never had the ball with a chance to tie the game. The Tigers shot 33 percent from the field in the game.
“Our guys did a good job of staying focused and we did all that was necessary to win the game,” Jones said. “We got a little tight in the second half and we stopped trying to win the game and instead tried to manage it.
“We haven’t been in that situation in games, to manage the lead.”
Kreisberg played his best game in weeks for the Bulldogs. The sophomore forward from Berkeley, Calif., scored nine points and two took charges.
“I texted him last night and told him I have great confidence in him and he was going to have a good game today,” Jones said. “He’s been in a little bit of a haze but he got himself out of it. He knows he’s a good player. He just needs to make sure he has the confidence.”
It was the fifth time in Jones’ tenure at Yale that he’s swept the weekend series against Penn and Princeton. The Bulldogs, who are 9-1 at home, now play four straight games on the road capped by a Feb. 18 trip to first-place Harvard.
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Yale's split against Harvard and Dartmouth certainly didn't seal its fate in the Ivy League but it made this weekend very important.
The Bulldogs welcome Penn into town on Friday night and then have to turn around and meet Princeton.
While Princeton also has the quick turnaround, playing Brown the previous night, it frankly isn't as difficult as getting ready to play Penn.
Brown is 1-3 in the league and actually is quite similar to Yale.
The difference between preparing for Penn and Princeton is night and day.
Chatted with Greg Mangano's dad the other day and he said his son is tired.
It certainly hasn't hindered his play but think about Mangano's grueling schedule in the past year.
Twice he went to China, the first time playing exhibitions with his teammates. Then he tried out for the World University Games and earned a spot on Team USA.
You know how hard he had to work to make that team.
Now he's the focal point of opposing defenses every night of the season at Yale.
After the season is over he'll get little time off as you can be sure he'll be headed to every NBA camp he can to get more exposure.

In case you missed it, former Princeton guard Mitch Henderson (1998), who served under Bill Carmody the past 11 seasons as an assistant with Northwestern University, is the new Princeton basketball coach.
Henderson replaces Sydney Johnson after a 16 day search for the Tigers’ next head man.
Princeton assistants Martin Bahar and Tony Newsom have both followed Sydney Johnson to Fairfield.
Bahar had already been working out of Connecticut for roughly the past 10 days.