2:31 PM
seo all
The Big Red line up for the national anthem at Harvard last season. The Big Red return to Cambridge this weekend.Cornell Team Report
By The SportsXchange/YahooSports/Rivals.com
February 25, 2009
Getting Inside
The Big Red suffered its second Ivy League loss of the season Feb. 20, a 72-60 defeat at Yale. While the rest of the league cooperated to allow Cornell to take a two-game lead into the season’s final fortnight, it’s another sign that though the Big Red are dominant statistically, it still looks to be more vulnerable than most thought at the start of the season.
In both losses in Ivy League play this season, Cornell has fallen behind early. Slow starts have been a problem at times for the Big Red, and it trailed for most of the first half against Yale and was down 29-20 at halftime to Princeton.
The Big Red never got back in the game against the Tigers. It caught up against the Bulldogs and took a seven-point lead, but then gave up an 11-0 run to surrender it for good.
Cornell seemed to lose energy once it got the lead in the second half, letting down its guard and letting Yale get back into the game. That happened in the team’s double-overtime win over Dartmouth as well, when it seemed to lose focus and allowed the Big Green to come back and nearly stun Cornell on its home court.
In both losses, the team struggled shooting the basketball. It went 14-for-44 (31.8 percent) from the field and 2-for-17 from 3-point range against the Tigers, and 23-for-60 (38.3 percent) and 7-for-22 from long range against Yale.
On an individual level, it’s apparent that for all the talent on the roster, Louis Dale might be the most important player.
Ryan Wittman struggled at times early in the conference season and still sometimes isn’t as aggressive at taking shots as the coaching staff would like, but Dale seems to be the guy who impacts the team the most when he’s off his game. The 49 percent shooter on the season went 5-for-23 in the two losses, with nine turnovers.
Cornell has a two-game lead with four to play, and it could clinch the title this weekend. But it’s clear that the Big Red has some kinks to iron out before March Madness begins.
Notes, Quotes
• Cornell thought it would have an advantage inside against Brown, so it concentrated on getting the ball to its frontcourt. Alex Tyler, Jeff Foote and Brian Kreefer combined to score 36 points on 15-for-21 shooting against the Bears.
• The Big Red dominated the Bears on the glass, winning the rebounding battle, 48-29. That was music to coach Steve Donahue’s ears, after his team was outrebounded by Yale the previous night and seemed to struggle against the Bulldogs’ physicality.
Quote To Note: “A lot of teams can go into the post and get you to guard you and then kick it out. I think we, in reality, are better having them chase our guards and having our bigs active on the perimeter and then go back inside. That works for us for the most part. People can chase us and it seems to work well and spaces people out.”—Coach Steve Donahue told the Cornell Daily Sun.
Strategy And Personnel
Coach Steve Donahue took advantage of an undermanned Brown team to empty his bench early. Fifteen players got in the game, each played at least five minutes, and the reserves totaled more minutes than the starters.
Player Rotation: Usual starters—G Louis Dale, G Geoff Reeves, C Jeff Foote, F Ryan Wittman, F Alex Tyler. Key subs—G Chris Wroblewski, G Adam Gore, F Adam Wire, F Brian Kreefer, G/F Jason Battle.
Game Review:
Cornell 79, Dartmouth 76 (2OT)
Yale 72, Cornell 60
Cornell 85, Brown 45
Game Preview:
at Dartmouth, Friday, Feb. 27
at Harvard, Saturday, Feb. 28
vs. Pennsylvania, Friday, March 6
vs. Princeton, Saturday, March 7
In Focus: Harvard is one of those teams that coaches hate to play, because though the Crimson’s record isn’t impressive, it’s played well against good teams and has a big win at Boston College to show its potential. The Big Red played one of its best games of the season when the two teams met in Ithaca, getting a season-high 31 assists on 39 baskets. But if Jeremy Lin is healthy—he was hobbled last weekend by a sore ankle—Harvard has the firepower to cause Cornell problems in the rematch.
Roster Report:
• Louis Dale cracked the 1,000-point mark for his career in the victory over Brown. He became the 23rd player in school history to accomplish that, and the second member of the current team to do so, following Ryan Wittman.
• Adam Gore is working his way back into the lineup after suffering his second torn ACL over the off-season, but thus far the senior has been more of a feel-good story than a regular contributor. He’s played in each of the last eight games, but only three times has he had more than 10 minutes of action and he hasn’t played much in tight situations. Coach Steve Donahue is more comfortable with freshman Chris Wroblewski as the key backcourt reserve.
• Conor Mullen is sad to see the team finish its season series with Brown. The senior and co-captain doesn’t get into the game all that often, but five of his six points in Ivy League play this season came in the two games with the Bears.
OTHER IVY LEAGUE TEAM REPORTS
Brown wasn’t expected to beat Cornell last weekend, and it didn’t. The 85-45 home loss, however, was the team’s worst of the season and had coach Jesse Agel fuming.
The Bears were undermanned heading into the game, with starter Scott Friske out with mononucleosis and Morgan Kelly in the starting lineup. Still, Agel expected better from his team, especially since Cornell rested its starters much more than usual and reserves wound up getting more than half of the Big Red’s minutes.
What annoyed the coach is that he felt Cornell gave his team an opportunity early. The Bears changed defenses on the Big Red, which bothered Cornell for the first few minutes.
But Brown couldn’t get anything going on offense, and it didn’t give itself much of a chance with turnover trouble and rebounding woes. The Bears gave the ball away 18 times, a problem that’s surfaced throughout the season, and were outrebounded 48-29. They allowed the Big Red to shoot 52.5 percent from the field while making only 18 of its 57 shots on offense.That’s the recipe for a blowout, and that’s exactly what the Bears got. Agel got a long look at his bench in the second half, but the reserves didn’t do much to prove themselves as deserving of more time.
Losing is one thing, but getting pushed around and taking it is another. It’s at least the second time this season that Agel has expressed those concerns about his team, and his motivational skills will be tested as he looks for improvement while his team plays out the string over the final two weeks of the season.
From the Columbia Team Report:
If Columbia can come back from a tough loss to Yale, the team is in a position to make a run at the top spot if someone else does the work against Cornell that the depleted Lions squad was unable to do in January.
From the Dartmouth Team Report:
A weekend road sweep of Penn and Princeton makes this the biggest week for Dartmouth basketball in quite some time.
The wins over the Quakers and Tigers leave the team at 6-4 in the Ivy League. First-place Cornell split its two weekend games, so the Big Red are 8-2 heading into the final two weeks. A two-game deficit with four to play is tough to overcome, but the Big Green get their chance to put a dent in that gap when it hosts its Ithaca-based rivals on Feb. 27.
***
Now, the game with Cornell is huge. Dartmouth can’t lose again and have a realistic chance at winning the title, so in that regard every game is equally important. But it’s a chance for the Big Green to pull to within one game of first place and put a lot of pressure on the prohibitive favorite.
The Big Green lost by three in double overtime at Cornell two weeks ago, a game in which Dartmouth came back at the end of both regulation and the first overtime before falling just short. If Dartmouth can even the score on its home court, the last few days of the Ivy League season will get very, very interesting.
***
“We all understand what is riding on these games. If we lose, it’s over. Our backs are against the wall, and we know it.”—Robbie Pride told the Dartmouth News.
The Crimson is mathematically eliminated from the title race with four games to play, but it can still play the spoiler. Cornell comes to town in first place, but with just a two-game lead and four games left to play, it hasn’t locked up anything yet. The Crimson have played their best games this season against some of the best teams on the schedule, and though the Big Red blew out Tommy Amaker’s club when the rivals met in Ithaca earlier this month, Harvard has the talent to pull off a shocker and make the final week of the Ivy season very interesting.
Princeton continues to struggle after its surprising start in league play, and it enters the week having dropped four of its last five games after opening the Ivy slate with four wins in a row. That leaves Princeton in a crowded group two back of first-place Cornell.
While Sydney Johnson’s team isn’t out of the running, especially considering it still gets a chance to face Cornell on the road after beating the Big Red earlier in the season at home, it can’t afford to have the lapses in intensity and defensive effort that the Tigers have shown over the past couple of weeks.
After a sweep of the New York schools last weekend, coach James Jones and the Bulldogs have a message for the rest of the Ivy League: Don’t count Yale out.
The victories over Cornell and Columbia leave Yale in a three-way tie for second place at 6-4, with Princeton a half-game behind at 5-4. With just four games left in the Ivy League season, the odds might be against the Bulldogs, but that doesn’t mean the team isn’t doing all it can to ratchet up the pressure on the Big Red.
Beating the first-place team on Feb. 20 was an illustration of how far the team has come over the past few weeks. When Yale went to Ithaca to play Cornell, it scored 13 points in the first half and went away quietly. It finished with 36 points in that game, but it doubled that to 72 in the rematch.
***
For the Elis to have any chance at the title, the team can’t lose again. Moreover, Yale has to rely on the rest of the Ancient Eight to give it some help, since it’s finished the season series with the Big Red.
***
Four Bulldogs scored in double figures against Cornell, none of whom was more surprising than Chris Andrews. The senior guard’s 10 points was his season high.
***
“We know we need some help. But we’re just going to focus on what’s in front of us.”—Travis Pinick told the New Haven (Conn.) Register.
0 comments:
Post a Comment