Wish I had stayed up super late like Bruce Marshall did. Say that because at around 2 am ET (think he's out West) he got Cornell at +6.5, which I wish I had done as that's long gone. But our model has the Big Red only losing by 3 and they are as hot offensively as any team in the country in averaging 92.8 PPG during a five-game winning streak. Cornell made 10 3-pointers against the conference's top 3-point defense in Dartmouth on Saturday and connected on 22-of-31 shots from inside the arc (.710), becoming the nation's top two-point shooting offense on the season (.608).

The humongous total is understandable in light of the regular season matchups, when Yale and Cornell approached NBA numbers against each other. This time, an NCAA Tournament berth is at stake on a neutral court, so the law of gravity could apply with scoring. Yale has gone Under in seven of its past eight outings -- the exception being versus Cornell -- and its most recent four games have ended with 139, 143, 131 and 116 points. Though the Bulldogs averaged north of 80 points per game, its defense is best in the Ivy, with a yield just under 70 ppg in league action. One of these teams might reach 80, but both seem improbable.

Yale goes for the hat-trick vs. Cornell but as we've seen in Champ Week, that's not always easy. To prevent the Eli from accomplishing as much today in Providence, Cornell has to do a bit more on defense than the earlier meetings, losing both and allowing 97.5 ppg in the process. But the Big Red haven't lost since the second Yale loss on Feb. 21, winning five straight impressively, including Saturday's semifinal romp past Dartmouth when jr F AK Okereke had another big effort, scoring 25. Cornell has the offense (85 ppg, ranks 5th nationally) to trade points, especially as Yale is having trouble carrying some of these recent numbers, narrowly escaping Princeton's upset bid on Saturday. Play Cornell (Ivy at Providence)