News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

Below, news and notes...

• Busting Brackets previews Syracuse and writes, "Syracuse faces home games with their historic rivals Cornell, Colgate, and St. John’s at home. They also travel to the home arena of another historic rival with #12 Villanova."

• Below, the Sports Network's Ivy League preview, in part:

College Basketball Preview - Ivy League

The Sports Network

OUTLOOK: Although they were a non-factor in the league for much of its existence prior to just a few years ago, the Harvard Crimson have risen to the top of the heap under head coach Tommy Amaker with three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. They even put the program on the national radar with a pair of upset victories in the second round in the past two years. Amaker's program has proven to be one of the most dependable in the mid-major ranks, and with the return of several key performers, another league championship seems to be in the cards.
Harvard wasn't the league's only squad to enjoy a little postseason glory last season. Yale and Columbia each won multiple games in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, with Yale advancing all the way to the championship game, while Princeton earned a win in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational. Although the Ivy League has and will likely continue to be just a one-bid league in terms of the NCAA Tournament field, these three teams showed late in the season that the conference is as deep as ever, and all three are possible threats to dethrone the Crimson at the top.
Filling the promising, up-and-coming team void are Dartmouth and Brown, both of which have some of the best frontcourt talent in the league. The Big Green and the Bears will need to translate their potential into success on the court before they are considered one of the league's best, but at least the pieces are in place for growth.
The same cannot be said of Penn and Cornell, however. Not much is expected to change for last season's league bottom dwellars, as both already-lackluster rosters lost significant talent in the offseason. Cornell is in especially poor shape as one of the worst teams in the nation a season ago (2-26) with no relief in sight.
CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Harvard
PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH: 1. Harvard, 2. Yale, 3. Columbia, 4. Princeton, 5. Dartmouth, 6. Brown, 7. Penn, 8. Cornell
TEAM BY TEAM ANALYSIS:
***
CORNELL: The Big Red's fall from grace has not been pretty. The team won three straight league championships from 2008-10, but it has failed to break .500 in any season since. Last season, coach Bill Courtney's fourth, was the worst in school history, as it finished a woeful 2-26, including 1-13 in the league. Unsurprisingly, Cornell ranked second to last in all of Division I in scoring margin (-14.3), and a quick turnaround will be difficult with the departure of its best player Nolan Cressler (16.8 ppg). Devin Cherry (12.3 ppg) will likely take over as the top scoring option during his senior season, although he'll need to improve upon his accuracy from 3-point range (.250) and the free-throw line (.690). Robert Hatter (9.0 ppg) was solid as a freshman and is expected to take on a much bigger role.