Non-conference is officially over: the Ancient Eight are in the house! Tonight marks the annual Friday kickoff for Hoops Nation's brainiest, zaniest, no-postseason-tourney-iest league. Every game counts in the 14-Game Tournament®, and tonight's Palestra tip-off counts more than some others do. Pennsylvania (6-5) is widely presumed to be the team to beat again, seeing that historical co-power Princeton (2-10) is, um, really bad. Cornell (5-9) was picked as the Team To Finish Third, primarily due to the on-paper strength of their frontcourt, so this should serve as a barometer of how competitive the Ivy Odyssey will be. But it's been the Bears' guard play that's been their main strength so far - senior
Lenny Collins (13.1 ppg) and freshman
Adam Gore (12.4 ppg) have provided the . Penn is coming off a 78-63 loss at
Fordham's Rose Hill Gym, while Cornell got
rocked at Albany. Now that they're back in the great big ivory tower of college hoops, it's time to catch Ivy Fever all over again.