Columbia has struggled this season and that is unlikely to change tonight against Princeton, where they're a double-digit underdog.
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No ACC games today, and only one Ivy League game was postponed - huzzah!
Seattle O’Sullivan 2021-2022 ACC season so far: 24-28, -$171.39
Seattle O’Sullivan 2021-2022 Ivy League season so far: 21-19, +$48.17
(Standing Caveat: The universe is chaotic. Life is unpredictable. Things happen. Like injuries. In following Seattle O’Sullivan’s betting advice, be advised that you should always monitor your bets during the day to make certain unforeseen things have not occurred which might change your wagering opinion. Thank you.)
Columbia Lions at Princeton Tigers, 7 pm Eastern
The Pick: Princeton -15.5 (-112), bet $11.20 to win $10
Princeton will always get credit for almost beating Georgetown way back in 1989, which is funny to me because a) the object is to win the game, after all, and b) they kinda choked it away. But whatever; folks who follow college basketball will always overrate the Tigers because they figure Pete Carril never left campus. He has. But that doesn’t mean Princeton won’t smack Columbia all over the place tonight. Princeton may be overrated at 136 in the Pomeroy Rankings, but Columbia is 347th, and as the kids say today, “That ain’t it.” Columbia has the 328th best adjusted offense, playing the 349th best adjusted schedule. There are 358 teams in the Pomeroy Rankings; that means Columbia’s offense is the 30th worst playing the ninth easiest schedule. As Pete Carril would say, “That ain’t it.”
Brown Bears at Harvard Crimson, 7 pm Eastern
The Pick: Brown +3.5 (-112), bet $11.20 to win $10
“Harvard makes mistakes too; Kissinger taught there,” remains one of my favorite lines from a Woody Allen movie, and if there’s anything gamblers know, it’s to make plays based on Woody Allen movies. Actually, you shouldn’t even make plays out of Woody Allen plays, and definitely not his movies once he got all serious and started biting Ingmar Bergman. I digress. What I meant to say is, Harvard is not that good. Brown is better. The Crimson’s record stands at 8-4 but that includes a game against Babson, who doesn’t have a logo on the ESPN app and doesn’t include a canceled game against Princeton that they would’ve probably lost. The Bears’ adjusted defense is 117th in the nation, per Pomeroy, which isn’t the ’85 Bears, both in talent, year, and well, sport, but it’s pesky, holding teams to under 68 points per game. Yes, Brown has lost four in a row, but aside from conference rival Penn, the teams were all of a high quality. I’m not as high on Brown as I was, say, a month ago, but I continue to think that they’ll play up to their level of competition. Maybe one day, Woody Allen will cite them in a film that no streaming service will host.
The Pick: Teaser - Brown +9.5 w/Princeton -9.5, -125, bet $12.50 to win $10
No, it isn’t for the symmetry of “9.5.”
Cornell Big Red at Pennsylvania Quakers, 7 pm Eastern
The Pick: Cornell +4.5 (-106), bet $10.60 to win $10
I think Penn is better than the record indicates, and they’re at home tonight…but I don’t think they know how to put teams away just yet. Of their four wins this year, only one was by more than eight points. I watched them allow a terrible Bucknell team to hang around before they pulled that one out. The Quakers play hard but don’t do anything particularly well. Cornell is 9-3, and while they haven’t beaten anyone frightening, they take care of business; Penn cannot say the same - yet. Also, Cornell has a style - their adjusted tempo is seventh in the nation, while Penn’s style according to those same rankings is much slower…with bad defense. I think Penn wins tonight but it’s annoyingly closer than it should be. I’m fine with being annoyed and winning money.