Photo Highlights

We posted this video clip during August. Just one more look at some of our favorite photos from the 2008-2009 Cornell Basketball season. Midnight Madness is less than two weeks away folks!

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New Addition to the Cornell Coaching Tree

With the announcement of Zach Spiker leaving his assistant coaching duties at Cornell for the head coaching position at Army, we have updated our list of the Cornell Coaching Family Tree.

Cornell is expected to commence an immediate national search for a replacement assistant, while current assistant, Nat Graham will likely step up into the "top assistant" role on the team. Graham has been with Cornell for five years.

Since April 2009, most of the other Ivy League schools have experienced some level of coaching changes within their programs.

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Coach Zach Spiker, To Be All He Can Be

Army has hired Cornell's top assistant coach, Zach Spiker as their new head coach. Below is Army's official announcement and some related articles.

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• Times Record Herald: Zach Spiker: The story, the details
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• Times Record Herald-Spiker to become Army men's basketball coach
• Sports Network-Army names Spiker men's hoops coach

OFFICIAL ARMY PRESS RELEASE

Army Names Zach Spiker Men's Basketball Head Coach Courtesy: Army Athletic Communications

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Zach Spiker, a fast-rising star in the college coaching profession, has been named new men’s basketball head coach at Army it was announced Saturday by Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson.

One of the architects behind the recent resurgence of the men’s basketball program at Cornell University, Spiker has served as an assistant under head coach Steve Donahue the past five years. Spiker helped the Big Red to upper-division finishes in the Ivy League during each of his five seasons in Ithaca, N.Y. He was instrumental in helping Cornell’s recruiting efforts the last five years, culminating in the Big Red winning consecutive Ivy League titles the past two seasons. It marked the first back-to-back league titles for Cornell in school history and the first time a team other than Pennsylvania or Princeton copped consecutive Ivy League championships.

“We couldn’t be more excited to name Zach Spiker as the head coach of our men’s basketball program,” U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Buster Hagenbeck said. “Zach impressed us with his high-energy level, intimate knowledge of our program and well-conceived plan to deliver a championship to the Army program.”

“We conducted a national search and spoke to a tremendous pool of candidates,” Anderson stated. “Throughout the process, one individual clearly rose to the top.”

“Zach is highly regarded by some of the most well-respected coaches in the country. He is widely recognized as one of the true young talents in the coaching profession and someone we feel is ready to lead our program to a Patriot League championship,” Anderson added.

With Spiker on the sidelines alongside Donahue, Cornell is coming off the most successful consecutive seasons in school history. One year after establishing school records for victories (22) and consecutive wins (16), points (2136), three-point field goals made (228) and highest free-throw percentage (.761), the Big Red set school records for points (2281), three-point field goals made (241) and blocked shots (121) last winter.

After registering a 22-6 overall record in 2007-08 (and a perfect 14-0 Ivy mark), the Big Red posted a 21-10 slate last season, closing out consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in school history. Cornell won the Ivy League championship by three games and tied a school record with a perfect 13-0 home record, extending its home winning streak to a school-record 21 games (the third-longest active streak in the country). Juniors Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman repeated as first-team All-Ivy League selections, while Jeff Foote was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and was a second-team all-league selection. Freshman Chris Wroblewski earned Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors, marking the third time in the last four years a Cornell player was presented with the award. Spiker played a large role in recruiting all those players to Cornell.

“I am extremely humbled and excited by the opportunity that Mr. Anderson has given me to coach at West Point,” Spiker said. “I can’t wait to get to work, and I am looking forward to serving this senior class to make this season the best it can be. I am confident we will all work together and make this a great experience for everybody.”

Spiker had helped Cornell to its first Ivy League title in 20 years in 2007-08 as Cornell became the 13th team in league history to go unbeaten in conference action (14-0). Four Big Red players were named to the All-Ivy League team, including conference Player of the Year Louis Dale. Dale became the second Big Red player to earn the honor, and the second sophomore in league history to capture the award. He was joined as a unanimous first-team all-league selection by classmate Ryan Wittman. Juniors Jeff Foote and Adam Gore were also second-team picks.

During Spiker’s five-year tenure at Cornell, the Big Red notched a 50-20 Ivy League record. That stands as the best mark among Ivy League teams in that time. The Big Red finished no lower than third in the conference standings over that stretch. In the previous five seasons, Cornell posted a 20-50 record in conference play.

Spiker was part of a 2006-07 Cornell club that won 16 games and finished third in the Ivy League with nine wins, surpassing the team’s win total from the previous year. Wittman was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, while Dale was an All-Ivy selection. Spiker also assisted in the development of All-Ivy selection Andrew Naeve.

In 2005-06, Spiker helped the Big Red to its second-consecutive winning season in Ivy League play for the first time in 18 years. Adam Gore was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and joined Lenny Collins on the All-Ivy second team.

During Spiker’s first year at Cornell (2004-05), the Big Red earned their highest Ivy finish in 17 years and achieved their first winning season (8-6) in conference play since 1992-93. The Big Red had two players named to the first team All-Ivy League squad for the first time since 1997. The team’s overall win total of 13 marked its highest since 1996-97.

Spiker joined the Cornell staff in June 2004, returning to Ithaca after spending the previous two seasons as an administrative assistant at West Virginia University under head coach John Beilein. He helped the Mountaineers to a pair of Big East Tournament appearances and an invitation to participate in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2003-04. While in Morgantown, Spiker was responsible for managing on-campus recruiting visits, opponent scouting, postgame film breakdown and overseeing the team’s daily event schedules.

Prior to joining the Mountaineer staff, Spiker served from 2000-02 as a graduate assistant coach at Winthrop University under head coach Gregg Marshall, helping the Eagles garner a pair of NCAA Tournament berths after winning the Big South tournament in successive seasons.

Spiker joined the coaching ranks after completing his playing career at Ithaca College.

The Morgantown, W.Va., native graduated from Ithaca in 2000, earning a bachelor’s degree in communications. He received a master’s degree in sport management from West Virginia in the spring of 2004.

“In many ways, this process reminded me of the search we conducted when hiring Maggie Dixon to lead our women’s program a few years back,” Anderson offered. “Maggie was a bit of an unknown commodity, but we felt she was the perfect choice to lead our women’s program. We feel Zach is the right individual to head our men’s program at this time for many of those same reasons.

“We feel very fortunate to name Zach Spiker as our new men’s basketball coach today. We think Zach will inject great energy into our program and provide tremendous leadership to our cadet-athletes.”

Spiker and his wife, Jennifer, will reside at West Point with their son, Charlie, born this past spring.

Spiker will begin his new duties at Army immediately.

A formal press conference to introduce Zach Spiker as Army’s 30th men’s basketball head coach will be held in West Point’s Randall Hall Auditorium on Tuesday.


THE SPIKER FILE

Army, Oct. 2, 2009-Present
Head Coach

Cornell, 2004-Oct. 1, 2009
Assistant Coach
Five Seasons
Two NCAA Tournament appearances
85-57 (.599)

West Virginia University, 2002-04
Administrative Assistant
One National Invitation Tournament appearance
31-29 (.517)

Winthrop University, 2000-02
Graduate Assistant
Two NCAA Tournament appearances
37-25 (.597)

Nine-Year Record as an Assistant – 153-111 (.580)

Four NCAA Tournament appearances
One NIT appearance

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News and Notes: Around the Ivy League- Princeton Posts Roster

In Ivy League roster news, Princeton became the eighth and final Ivy team to release its 2009-2010 roster. Notably, two Princeton sohomores, Zane Ma and Max Huc dropped out of the program.

Below are the projected roster sizes for the Ivy League teams for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons.

• Columbia (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 19 players, including 3 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 18 total players including, 4 seniors and 2 freshmen)

• Cornell (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 19 players, including 8 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 14 total players, including 3 seniors and 2 freshmen)

• Harvard (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 18 players, including 4 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 15 total players including 0 seniors and 1 freshman)
  

• Penn (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 17 players, including 1 senior) (for '10-'11-- 23 total players, including, 7 seniors and 7 freshmen)

• Princeton (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 16 players, including 4 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 16 total players including, 3 seniors and 4 freshmen)
  

• Dartmouth (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 15 players, including 2 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 13 total players including 2 seniors and 0 freshmen)
  

• Yale (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 14 players, including 4 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 13 total players including 3 seniors and 3 freshmen)

• Brown (updated roster) (for '09-'10- 14 players, including 0 seniors) (for '10-'11-- 15 total players including 4 seniors and 1 freshman)
  

Below is a list of players who were on Ivy League rosters at the beginning of '08-'09, but left their team due to reasons other than exhaustion of NCAA eligibility and/or graduation.

BROWN
Noel Hollingsworth
Morgan Kelly
Colin Aldridge

COLUMBIA
none

CORNELL
Marc Van Burck

DARTMOUTH
Brandon Ware
Elgin Fitzgerald

HARVARD
Eric Groszyk
T.J. Carey
Kyle Fitzgerald
Adam Demuyakor
Ndu Okereke
Darryl Finkton
Cem Dinc
Alex Blankenau

PENN
Tommy McMahon
Harrison Gaines
Remy Cofield
Garvin Hunt

PRINCETON
Zane Ma
Max Huc

YALE
Garrett Fiddler

IVY LEAGUE 2010-2011 RECRUITING VERBAL COMMITMENTS

CORNELL

• Jake Matthews G 6-2 Greensburg PA Greensburg Salem HS
  
• Manny Sahota F 6-6 Bramton ONT Canada St. Marguerite d'Youville Secondary
• Anthony Gatlin F 6-8 190 Pearland HS TX/Centenary College (Junior)

Brown

• Dockery Walker F 6-7 Westtown PA HS
  

Columbia

• Dyami Starks G 6-2 Duluth East HS MN
  
• Steve Frankoski G 6-2 Hanover NJ St. Benedict's Prep School of Newark
  

Dartmouth

• 
  

Harvard

• Matt Brown G 6-2 Northfield MA Northfield Mount Hermon School
  

Penn

• Miles Cartwright G 6-3 Los Angeles Loyola HS
  
• Dau Jok G 6-2 Des Moines IA Roosevelt HS
  
• Cameron Gunter F 6-8 Ridley PA HS
  
• Casey James G 6-3 Mission Viejo CA Capistrano Valley HS
• Kevin Panzer F 6-8 Mission Viejo CA Capistrano Valley HS
  
• Austin Kelly G 6-2 Hollywood CA Harvard-Westlake HS
  
• Steve Rennard G 6-0 Metuchen NJ St. Joseph's

Princeton

• Ben Hazel G 6-4 Wheaton MD Good Counsel HS
  
• Chris Clement G 6-1 Round Rock TX Stony Point HS
  
• Daniel Edwards C 6-9 Highland Park TX HS
  
• T.J. Bray G 6-3 Waukesha WI Catholic Memorial HS
  

Yale

• Jeremiah Kreisberg F 6-8 Oakland CA Head Royce HS
  
• Greg Kelley F 6-8 Newton MA New North HS
• Isaiah Salafia G 6-3 Crowell CT HS

(updated 10.7.09)

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Cornell Basketball on the "Greatest Stage in the World"

Davidson announced its 2009-2010 schedule this week. Below is an excerpt referencing Cornell.

Davidson will play in the Holiday Festival, the nation’s longest-running holiday tournament, Dec. 20-21, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Cornell, Hofstra and St. John’s join Davidson in the tournament, and the Wildcats will take on Cornell in their first contest, their first meeting in school history against the Big Red.

It will be a homecoming for [Davidson coach, Bob] McKillop, who played high school basketball at Chaminade on Long Island and college basketball at Hofstra. He began his coaching career at Holy Trinity High School and coached at Long Island Lutheran before coming to Davidson in 1989.

“Madison Square Garden is perhaps the greatest stage in the world, and this will provide a significant challenge for us as we continue to work towards being a consistently successful program,” said McKillop.

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Schedule Update: Penn and Cornell Share Four Common Nonconference Opponents

Today Penn becomes the seventh team in the Ivy League to officially announce its finalized schedule. Notably, the Big Red and the Quakers will face four common nonconference opponents as both squads will square off against Davidson, Drexel, St. Joseph's and La Salle.

Penn's other marquis games are visits to Villanova, Penn State, Duke and a home game against Temple in the Palestra.

In addition to the common opponents with Penn, Cornell also gets Kansas, Alabama, Syracuse, Seton Hall, UMass, and potentially a third Big East opponent in St. John's. But what adds to the lure of the Cornell schedule is the Big Red's participation in two preseason tournaments, The Legends Classic and the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival.

While Penn's schedule appears a step below Cornell's in both attractiveness to fans and the level of difficulty, the Quakers definitely have a challenging slate and should be well-prepared for Ivy League play.

Last season, Penn visited Cornell in Ithaca on March 6, 2009, the Big Red's thirteenth Ivy game of the fourteen game Ivy round robin season. The Big Red's victory over Penn sent the Cornell fans streaming onto the court in celebration as Cornell captured its second consecutive Ivy League title and NCAA Tournament bid.

Could Penn witness another court storm in Ithaca? Maybe.

A year earlier, during 2007-2008, Cornell clinched an Ivy title and bid with a March 1, 2008 victory over Harvard. It was Cornell's twelfth game of the Ivy round robin play.

Who is Cornell's twelfth game of this Ivy season? You guessed it. Penn, on February 27 and in Cornell's Newman Arena.

Below are the Ivy schedules thus far released.

• Cornell will play 31 games, including two Division III games (PSU Behrend and Clarkson).
• Brown will play 31 games, including two non-Division I opponents (Keene State and Philadelphia Sciences).
• Columbia will play 28 games.
  
• Harvard will play 28 games, including one Division III game (MIT).
• Penn will play 28 games.
  
• Princeton will play 28 games, including one non-Division I opponent (Goucher College).
• Yale will play 31 games, including one Division III game (Albert Magnus).

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Big Red Madness and The Red-White Game

Mark Coury, a transfer to Cornell from Kentucky, pictured above, participates in the 2007-2008 Kentucky Wildcats' Midnight Madness slam dunk contest. Kentucky fans are so rabid that they are camping out for tickets to the 2009 Midnight Madness event, which regularly sells out each year.

Cornell has yet to announce whether it will host a midnight madness type event or the date of the annual intersquad public scrimmage--"The Red-White Game."

Cornell has not held a midnight madness since 2000.

The two most likely dates for the Red-White Game are on Saturdays, either October 17 or October 24. The game will likely take place following one of Cornell's home football games with an estimated 4 p.m. (late afternoon) tip-off.

The October 17 date is homecoming weekend (against Fordham) and is only the basketball team's second NCAA-permitted practice session (national Midnight Madness is October 16). Thus, October 24 appears the more likely date for the Red-White Game with the football team hosting Brown.

Coury ditched the Kentucky blue for Cornell's Red and the Ivy League education.

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