After an 81-59 dismantling of Columbia last Saturday, Cornell hopes to scale the Ivy rankings with games against Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.
In a battle of contrasting colors, the Red (7-11, 2-2 Ivy) square off against the Green (2-15, 0-4) tonight at Newman Arena, and take the court tomorrow night to face the Crimson (11-6, 3-1), who are tied with Yale for second place in the Ivies.
In its contest tonight, Cornell faces a struggling Dartmouth squad currently riding a six-game losing streak. The Green is still reeling from last Friday’s 73-70 double-overtime loss to Brown.
Dartmouth head coach Terry Dunn has been understandably frustrated with his team’s results and is less then optimistic about how his squad matches up against Cornell.
“Cornell’s been playing pretty good basketball right now. Defensively, they’re playing pretty well. I think offensively they’re shooting the ball pretty well and I think we’re doing just the opposite so I’m not sure how well we’re going to match up,” Dunn said.
Averaging 60.9 points per game, Dartmouth is last in the league in scoring defense, allowing 70.3 points per game. The Green is seventh in defending the 3-point shot, with opponents shooting 39.3 percent, while Cornell has limited opponents to an Ivy League-best 29.6 percent from behind the arc.
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue was by no means ready to write off Dartmouth, noting the Green have played only four of its 17 games at home so far this season.
“No one in the country has to do the kind of stuff that we do in our league with scheduling,” Donahue said. “I don’t think our guys ever look down on anybody in the Ivy League. Dartmouth has very good personnel.