Men's Hoops Tabbed for Eighth in Ivy Preseason Poll

PRINCETON, N.J. — The Ivy League released its 2009-10 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll on Wednesday, and the Dartmouth Big Green were picked to finish eighth in the conference. Cornell was unanimously selected to repeat as the league champion for the third straight year.

Dartmouth (9-19, 7-7 Ivy in 2008-09) returns three starters and 10 lettermen who helped the Big Green tie for fourth place in the Ivy standings last year, its best finish in four years. The voters, however, likely took into account the loss of 2009 Ivy Player of the Year Alex Barnett, who led the league in scoring at 19.4 points per game and was among the league leaders in nearly every offensive category. Barnett is now playing professionally in France.

“You don't replace a player of Alex's caliber,” said Big Green head coach Terry Dunn, beginning his sixth year at the helm. “He was a complete player and at times carried us on his back. But we have great experience returning this year, and those players will need to step up their production as a whole. No one player will have the pressure of doing what Alex did for us.”

Co-captains for the Big Green are seniors Jarrett Mathis (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Robby Pride (Denver, Colo.). Mathis is a 6-8 center who returned for a fifth season due to numerous injuries throughout his Dartmouth career — he has played in just 14 games to date. Pride is a 6-1 guard who can play either the point or the two and averaged 4.7 points per game while shooting 43.4 percent from the floor.

The leading returning scorer is sophomore point guard Jabari Trotter (Northridge, Calif.), who started every game as a rookie and averaged 7.0 points per game. Fellow sophomore David Rufful (Warwick, R.I.) started 13 of the 28 games at the wing, scoring 6.3 points per game while contributing 33 steals, second only to Barnett last year.

Dartmouth opens the season with three games on the road, beginning at Boston College on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., while the home opener takes place against Loyola (Md.) on Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. Ivy League action starts up on the road at Harvard on Jan. 9.

2009-10 Ivy League Men's Basketball Preseason Media Poll

Team (1st-place votes)	Points
1. Cornell (16)	128
2. Princeton	96
3. Penn	92
4. Harvard	86
5. Yale	59
6. Columbia	55
7. Brown	41
8. Dartmouth	19

Schedules