Harvard vs Cornell Prediction 2/14/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Cornell Big Red and the Harvard Crimson meet Friday in college basketball action from Lavietes Pavilion. Here’s a Harvard vs Cornell prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Harvard vs Cornell pick.

Cornell Big Red Betting Preview

Cornell has had some nice runs so far this year—as well as a few downturns. Overall they’re not doing too badly record-wise, though. The Big Red started out on a spotty 4-3 run with wins over Marywood, Samford, Lafayette, and Iona mixed with losses to La Salle, Robert Morris, and Syracuse. After a three-game win streak over Colgate, Army, and California, Cornell fell to Illinois State and Siena in the next pair. The Big Red have since gone 6-2 in their last eight games. The two losses in that time came courtesy of Brown and Yale. Otherwise, it’s been wins over Penn State-Schuylkill, Columbia, Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Harvard in that time. In total that gives Cornell a 13-7 overall run through their first 20 outings of the year so far.

Matched up against Yale last weekend, the Big Red came out of halftime sporting a 54-44 deficit. Cornell didn’t end up getting any closer on a 49-44 second half and lost the game 103-88 in the end. Cooper Noard was the team’s leading scorer in the defeat with 28 points and three rebounds over 29 minutes. Both AK Okereke (five rebounds; six assists) and Nazir Williams (four assists; two steals) chipped in 14 points as well. Adam Hinton also notched 14 points with three rebounds in 15 minutes of play off the bench.

Harvard Crimson Betting Preview

Over on the Harvard side, they had a decent run going in December and January but other than that they’ve had quite a difficult time in the record column so far this year. The Crimson lost seven of their first nine outings, beating Marist and Colgate among losses to Navy, American U, Northeastern, Colorado, UMass, St. John’s, and Holy Cross in that time. A 4-2 stretch came next with losses to Furman and Princeton among wins over New Hampshire, Iona, Bowdoin, and Brown. Since then Harvard has hit the skids on a 1-4 run. The lone win in that time was over Columbia. Otherwise, it was losses to Penn, Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth, giving the Crimson a 7-13 record through their first 20 games of the year.

In the Dartmouth game back on Saturday, the Crimson were within two points at the break. Harvard was blitzed in the second half on a 43-25 run though, and ended up losing 76-56 in blowout fashion by game’s end. Robert Hinton led the team with his 20 points, four rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 32 minutes. The only other player on the team to finish in double-figures was Chandler Pigge, who notched 11 points with seven boards, three steals, and one assist in 31 minutes on the floor.

Why the Harvard Crimson will win

• Harvard has won each of its last four games against Cornell following a road loss.
• Cornell has lost 18 of its last 22 road night games against the Ivy League.
• Cornell has lost the first half in seven of its last eight games against the Ivy League at Lavietes Pavilion.

Why the Cornell Big Red will win

• Cornell has won each of its last six road games.
• Harvard has lost eight of its last 10 games against the Ivy League.
• Harvard has lost the first half in 11 of its last 13 home games against the Ivy League.

Harvard vs Cornell Prediction

I’ll stick with Cornell. The Big Red took a rough loss to a pretty good Yale team in their last outing though, and they’ll need a bounce-back here. Cornell shot well (47.1 percent) in that one and scored 19 points off 11 Bulldogs turnovers. That said, the Red also coughed up 62.5 percent shooting to Yale and had 12 turnovers of their own for 13 opposition points. The good news is that Cornell is scoring very well these days. They’ve hit 72 or more points in every game so far this season.

These teams last saw each other recently in a 75-60 home win for Cornell on February 1. The Big Red started slowly in that one but ended up shooting 57.1 percent from the field. The turnovers (12 for 15 Crimson points) were a major problem, though. Provided the Red can clean those up, however, I think they’ll be just fine in the rematch.