Be Sure to Watch for the (Poison) Ivy League

Being a coach in the Ivy League has to be a hard job, you can only recruit a very select group of young men, who have virtually no interest in playing in the NBA and they went to college, ready for this, for an education. Betting the Ivy League can be a real education also. Playing only when school is out on Friday and Saturday nights, (expect for the occasional Penn and Princeton weekday game –their so special), they at least draw attention, especially when the NBA takes a break for All-Star weekend. Here is what to watch (or lookout) for in Ivy action tonight.

Handicapping the Ivy is extremely difficult unless you read up on all eight teams, as seven of the eight started league play with losing records, so you have to just focus on what they are doing now. Take the Big Green from Dartmouth; they were supposed to be a one man team behind senior forward Alex Barnett. Though Barnett is indispensable, coach Terry Dunn has played 10 players in games, when most experts weren’t sure if they had five useable players. Dartmouth is 4-2 and 5-1 in league play and 15-5 ATS after two or more consecutive Unders.

Bookmaker.com has Columbia as 8.5-point favorite over the Big Green (what’s that mascot look like, Gumby). The Lions have a ferocious defense which only allows 40.2 percent of shot attempts. They need to since the offense only makes 39.7 percent of heaves towards the rim. Columbia (3-3, 4-2 ATS in Ivy) lost at Princeton and is 9-2 ATS after one or more consecutive losses. The Lions appear to be oversized favorite until you notice the Big Green is like a small light green sponge on the road losing by over 18 points a game.

Princeton (4-0 SU & ATS) is in first place, after stammering through non-conference slate like Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman the other night. The Tigers have a seven game winning streak and have guarded like the Secret Service in giving up just 56.8 ppg. Princeton is making the trip up to Yale and is 5-0 ATS on the road this season.

This will be just Yale’s second league home game (3-3, 2-4 ATS) and they 4-1 on the year at John J. Lee Amphitheater (typical Ivy, can’t call it gym, have to call it an amphitheater). In tonight’s performance, err contest, the Bulldogs are going to have to do better than convert 28.5 percent from beyond the arc and make more than 65.7 percent from the charity stripe to win as two-point favorites. Yale has won last four matchups.

Had to go back and actually confirm Harvard (2-4, 0-6 ATS) beat Boston College after the Eagles had tumbled than No. 1 North Carolina. Based on how the Crimson has played since, the B.C. loss should go down as one of the great all-time flat performances ever. Can’t help but think Harvard will regret the day they hired Tommy Amaker as coach, since the term “good coach” and his last name are never used in the same sentence. Harvard is 2-11 ATS as a road underdog or pick under Amaker, but at least has Jeremy Lin who scores 20 ppg in Ivy play.

Cornell (5-1, 4-2 ATS) is the most powerful team in the league and has a record that worthy at 15-7. The Big Red saw their 19-game Ivy League winning streak end last weekend at Princeton 61-41 and they are better than a two touchdown favorite over Harvard to make it two wins in a row, starting another streak. Cornell has been dealing with injuries and has enough talent to work thru them. Big Red (not a gum reference) is 12-4 ATS after playing a road game.

One of my favorite sports betting movies is James Caan in “The Gambler”. In that movie, Caan is listening for basketball scores and hears one he doesn’t like and says, “Brown? Brown ain’t crap” or words very similar. Well, Caan is correct again, with the Bears in last place (0-6, 2-4 ATS), but they actually favored by a point over Penn (1-3 SU & ATS) at home, since they have also played like a, a, crap. With Brown (Chris Berman’s alma mater) 0-7 ATS after playing a game as a road underdog, not sure I’d support either team. The Quakers are 9-18 ATS as underdogs and don’t exactly exude the confidence infomercial maven Kevin Trudeau.

Be careful playing in the Ivy League patch, you don’t want to wake up scratching in the morning.

Red Wydley wrote this article.