Unless you live under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the New York Giants won Super Bowl XLVI last night. But in the midst of all the Super Bowl hype, the men’s basketball team had two games this weekend, and ended up splitting the pair on the road against Dartmouth and Harvard. The 1-1 record this weekend brings the Lions’ overall record to 13-9, with their Ivy record at 2-4. Even though I’m not a big proponent of “moral victories,” the way the Lions fought this weekend can definitely be considered a positive. Follow the jump if you’re curious about exactly what I mean, and how this can affect the Lions in their next few games.

1. The close W—Lions 64 – Big Green 62

A couple things about this one—first off, it probably never should have been as close as it was. The Lion first-ranked-field-goal-percentage defense allowed the Big Green to shoot 42.9 percent from the floor—a significant increase from their average of 39.7 percent. This included a very high 57 percent from the three-point line—although, it’s worth noting that the Big Green took just seven three-point shots.

However, junior center Mark Cisco once again came up big as he was 7/8 shooting, including a very clutch game winning jump shot with just four seconds left in the game.

In all, Dartmouth showed that they could play better than their 0-5 Ivy record, but this was a game that fell dangerously close to “trap game” status.

2. The close and positive loss—Crimson 57 – Lions 52

I feel compelled to point out before getting started that Harvard is the No. 23 ranked team in the country, because every point that follows will essentially come back to that.

Now, this game was the second of a back-to-back for both teams, which is tough in and of itself in basketball. But what’s more is that the Lions had to travel for both of their games, while the Crimson could sleep in their own Harvard beds. Even though that could take a significant mental and physical toll, the Lions didn’t let any of it bother them and played a hell of a game.

No, they didn’t win, and that’s never a small thing (take it away Herm Edwards), but this game could be a big turning point for the Lion season. First off, they held a Crimson offense that averages 65.7 points-per-game to just 57 points. Secondly, the Light Blue took Harvard’s +12 scoring margin, and kept it to +5—something that no other Ivy team can say so far this season, as Harvard’s smallest margin of victory in Ivy play was +9 against Brown.

But my favorite stat is that the Lion bench outscored the Crimson bench 16-1! That’s a fairly absurd margin and it signals that the Lions have figured out how to score in any situation a little bit better than Harvard.

3. Home sweet home

Okay, so this has been a little more than “three quick thoughts,” but now that the Super Bowl is over (as is the rest of the NFL season…), we can all get back to focusing on our own teams—especially this one that has a big weekend coming up.

The Lions will play two games at home this weekend—the first versus Brown on Friday, and the second versus Yale on Saturday. These two games will most likely be a good indication for how the rest of the Lion season will go. Brown comes in with a 1-5 Ivy record and the potential to be another “trap game,” while Yale is second in the Ivy standings at 5-1, and first in scoring at 71.1 points-per-game. It’s going to take a big defensive effort to stop the latter team, but based on what we saw against Harvard, I bet the Lions will be up to the challenge.