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(Photo, Tina Chou)The SportsXchange and YahooSports have published the team reports for each of the Ivy League schools. Below are links to each of team reports as well as the full report for Cornell.
- Brown team report
- Columbia team report
- Cornell team report
- Dartmouth team report
- Harvard team report
- Penn team report
- Princeton team report
- Yale team report
February 24, 2010
GETTING INSIDE
This marks a special weekend for eight of the Big Red basketball players, part of a career that has been full of them and continues with the hope and expectation that better weekends are to come.
The games against Princeton and Penn will mark the final home games for Cornell’s senior class. Ryan Wittman, Jeff Foote, Louis Dale, Alex Tyler, Jon Jaques, Geoff Reeves, Andre Wilkins and Pete Reynolds will each be playing in Newman Arena for the final time.
I’s been a great run, with back-to-back Ivy League championships and trips to the NCAA Tournament. Though it would take a lot to clinch a third round of both feats this weekend—Cornell would have to sweep its games, Columbia would need to beat Princeton, and Harvard would also have to lose once—the Big Red can take a huge step toward that goal by beating Princeton on Feb. 26.
Much of the talk this season has been on the bigger basketball picture, like what kind of seed this team could earn by winning out and whether it will take the next step forward by making it out of the first round. This weekend has more than its share of storylines: the opportunity to all but lock up the title by knocking off the Tigers, and the determined quest for revenge against a mediocre Penn team that handed Cornell its only Ivy League loss.
But more than that, it’s an excuse to reflect on what has been a remarkable senior class.
Wittman could win Ivy League Player of the Year honors. Foote can legitimately expect a professional basketball career as a 7-foot center who can play—though apparently not at St. Bonaventure, where he started out. Dale has rebounded from injuries to become a very good lead guard once again, with Tyler and Jaques trading starts at forward. Reeves has been a key reserve.
It’s not often than any school has this kind of a group, and the Big Red seniors have had a huge role in taking a nondescript program and making it the one everyone envies in the Ivy League. That’s definitely something worth honoring.
NOTES, QUOTES
—Cornell broke out of its shooting slump in a big way during the weekend of Feb. 19-20. The Big Red went 27-for-48 from 3-point range in victories over Harvard and Dartmouth.
• The Big Red set the school’s all-time record for victories when it beat Dartmouth to earn its 23rd win of the year. It beat the mark of the 2007-08 squad that finished 22-6.
On The Spot: The one strange thing about the wins over Harvard and Dartmouth was the lack of a role for on-again, off-again starter Alex Tyler. The senior didn’t play extensive minutes in either game and was never a factor on the court.
Quote To Note: “Games like this, so much at stake, with no Ivy League tournament—this is great. There’s nothing like it.”—Cornell G Louis Dale, to The Ithaca Journal, after his team’s victory over Harvard.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
Season Recap: Cornell moved back into first place in the Ivy League with its wins over Harvard and Dartmouth, combined with Princeton’s loss to Brown. The Big Red was 9-1 in the Ivy League through Feb. 23, four games away from a third consecutive trip to the NCAAs.
Player Rotation: Usual Starters—F Ryan Wittman, F Jon Jaques, C Jeff Foote, G Chris Wroblewski, G Louis Dale. Key Subs—G Geoff Reeves, F/C Alex Tyler, F/C Mark Coury, F Adam Wire, F Errick Peck, G Max Groebe.
Game Review:
Cornell 48, Princeton 45
Cornell 79, Harvard 70
Cornell 88, Dartmouth 70
Game Preview:
vs. Princeton, Friday, Feb. 26
vs. Pennsylvania, Saturday, Feb. 27
at Brown, Friday, March 5
at Yale, Saturday, March 6
In Focus: The stakes are high for Cornell-Princeton. With a win, the Big Red would take a giant step toward wrapping up its third consecutive conference title. A loss makes things far more dicey, so Steve Donahue is hoping his team can do a better job of controlling the tempo at home than it did when the teams first met at Princeton, and the game ended with both teams scoring in the 40s.
Roster Report:
• Ryan Wittman won Ivy League Player of the Week honors for his efforts against Harvard and Dartmouth. That marks the sixth such award of the season for the senior.
• Errick Peck hasn’t played a ton of minutes as a freshman, but he should get his shot next year. He gave a taste of what to expect in the Dartmouth game, when he scored 14 points and went 5-for-5 from the field.
• Jeff Foote has been struggling at the free-throw line, and he was shooting just 56.5 percent at the stripe through Feb. 23. However, the senior center did go 5-for-6 on free throws during the weekend of Feb. 19-20.
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