Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Legends Classic Photos


Below, photo highlights from Cornell's three games in Philadelphia last weekend against Toledo, Vermont and Drexel during the Legends Classic.  Cornell swept through the field undefeated.

Cornell Athletics Game Notes for Bucknell Game






GAME INFORMATION
Game #8: Cornell vs. Bucknell
Tip off: Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Sojka Pavilion (4,000), Lewisburg, Pa.
2009-10 Records: Cornell (5-2, 0-0 Ivy); Bucknell (4-3, 0-0 Patriot)
Series Record: Series tied 22-22
Last Meeting: Cornell won 75-64, Jan. 6, 2009 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard, Matt Grassie)
Bucknell Web Site: www.BucknellBison.com
TV: None
Live Stats: Available at www.BucknellBison.com
Live Video: Available at www.BucknellBison.com

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (122-135, .475) ... Donahue became the fourth Robert E. Gallagher ‘44 Coach of Men’s Basketball at Cornell on Sept. 6, 2000.

ITHACA, N.Y. — After starting the season with a 5-1 record away from home base, Cornell will look to build on that lofty road record when it visits Bucknell on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 7:00 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. Barry Leonard will provide the calls on 93.5 WVBR-FM, which can be heard live on the internet as part of the RedCast subscription service.

Cornell brings a three-game win streak into the road game against the Bison, capping an undefeated run through the 16-team Legends Classic tournament with wins over Toledo, Vermont and Drexel in consecutive days this past weekend in Philadelphia.

The All-Ivy trio of Louis Dale, Jeff Foote and Ryan Wittman have lived up to their billing so far this season. Dale is averaging 10.7 points, 4.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game, while Foote is at 12.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. Wittman, the second all-time leading scorer at Cornell, paces the squad with his 17.1 points. Additionally, Chris Wroblewski, last season’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year, is putting up 10.1 points per game as the fourth double-figure scorer. Seniors Mark Coury, Jon Jaques, Alex Tyler and Geoff Reeves, juniors Max Groebe and Adam Wire and freshman Errick Peck round out the rotation.

The Bison enter the contest with a 4-3 record, including winning four of their last five outings. Head coach Dave Paulsen, in his second season with Bucknell, has his team playing lockdown defense, surrendering less than 70 points per game while limiting opponents to under 40 percent shooting overall and 33 percent from 3-point range.

ABOUT BUCKNELL
• Conference: Patriot League
• Head Coach: Dave Paulsen (Williams ‘87), second season.
• Bucknell has won four of its last five contests, with its only loss to Cornell’s Ivy League rival Columbia, after opening the season with consecutive losses.
• Darrly Shazier and Patrick Behan pace the team with 12.4 ppg., with Behan also grabbing 6.4 rpg. Shazier had 27 assists and just nine turnovers through seven games.
• Bryan Cohen is also in double figures at 11.0 ppg.
• The Bison have been outstanding defensively, limiting foes to .398 shooting overall and .333 from 3-point range.
• The Bison are coming off an impressive 85-61 win at Wagner on Nov. 28 behind a career-best 19 points by freshman Bryson Johnson.

CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell is 135-111 all-time against current members of the Patriot League.
• The Big Red is 22-22 all-time against Colgate and has also played Army (20-13), Colgate (70-53), Holy Cross (2-3), Lafayette (7-11), Lehigh (12-8) and Navy (2-1).
• This is the only schedule game Cornell has against a Patriot League opponent.
• This is the only scheduled meeting between the Big Red and a member of the Patriot League in 2009-10.
• Head coach Steve Donahue is 20-19 against Patriot League teams at Cornell.

THE SERIES
• The series is tied 22-22 after the Big Red won last year’s contest.
• Head coach Steve Donahue has never led a team to victory on the road against the Bison. Cornell last won in Lewisburg, Pa., during the 1999-2000 season, a 59-56 triumph, and has lost all four games since by an average of 18.5 points..
• The two teams had their first meeting in the 1899-1900 season when the Bison won 29-10.
• The Big Red snapped a five-game losing streak to Bucknell in the series with last year’s 75-64 triumph.

THE STORY LINE
• Cornell will look for its first win at Bucknell under head coach Steve Donahue, who has lost all four games to the Bison in Lewisburg, Pa.
• The Big Red will also attempt to take a 23-22 edge in a series that started back in the 1899-1900 season.
• Cornell enters the game with a 5-1 record away from Newman Arena, including winning all four contests in the 2009 Legends Classic.
• The last contest at Bucknell, an 88-75 defeat at the hands of the Bison in 2007-08, is widely looked at as the turning point in Cornell’s consecutive Ivy League title run. After falling to Bucknell to slip to 4-3 on the year, the Big Red had a players only meeting at Sojka Pavilion. Out of its came a run where Cornell finished the season with an 18-3 finish, including an unblemised Ancient Eight schedule. Since that loss, Cornell has gone 44-15.

REVIEWING THE LEGENDS CLASSIC
• The Big Red joined Florida as the lone unbeaten teams in the 16-team Legends Classic with its 4-0 run.
• Cornell went 4-0, winning its games by an average of 11.5 points.
• Senior Louis Dale averaged a team-high 13.8 ppg. in the tournament, while classmate Ryan Wittman averaged 13.5 ppg. to earn tournament most valuable player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by senior reserve Jon Jaques.
• Four players averaged in double figures during the tournament.
• Defensively, the Big Red limited its four opponents to 43 percent shooting overall and 30 percent from 3-point range, while forced 18.0 turnovers per game and outrebounding its foes by 2.0 per game. Cornell averaged 9.5 steals in the four contests.

PLAYER NOTES
• The top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski have made 50-of-56 free throws this season (.893), including 9-of-10 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points.
• Senior Ryan Wittman had a career-low four points at UMass, but has averaged 18.6 points in the five games since.
• Sophomore Chris Wroblewski is 12-of-28 from 3-point range in his last five games (43 percent) after hitting just 1-of-5 (20 percent) in his first two.
• Junior Adam Wire has 16 of his 33 rebounds on the offensive glass, while 21 of Jeff Foote’s 57 rebounds have also come on the offensive end.
• Senior Louis Dale has 16 steals in seven games, twice as many as any other player on the team.
• Senior Jeff Foote has 12 blocked shots, four times more than any other player on the Big Red.
• In Cornell’s five wins this season, Mark Coury has made 11-of-13 shots from the floor (.846), while Geoff Reeves has hit 17-of-28 shots (.607).
• During Cornell’s three-game win streak, senior Louis Dale has 14 assists and just five turnovers.

TEAM NOTES
• Cornell has scored at least 70 points in five of seven contests.
• Since shooting 50 percent in the season-opening win over Alabama, the Big Red has hit on just 43 percent of its field goals despite going 4-2 over that stretch.
• The Big Red has held opponents under 60 points in each of its last two games.
• Cornell has a positive assist:turnover ratio in six of its seven games this season.
• The team has hit 23 more 3-pointers this season than its opponents and has 26 more assists.
• Its .760 free-throw percentage, if maintained, would be just off the school record of .761 set in 2007-08.
• Excluding the Syracuse game, where the ninth-ranked Orange shot better than 50 percent from the floor and from 3-point range, Cornell’s defense has held opponents to .436 shooting overall and .329 from the arc.
• One area Cornell will look to for improvement will be keeping its opponent off the foul line. The Big Red has committed at least 18 fouls in six of seven games and has averaged 20.1 per game. Those fouls have sent its opponents to the line an average of 24.6 times per game. Cornell’s foes have attempted 47 more free throws over the first seven contests.
• The Big Red has hit more 3-pointers than its opponent in all seven games.

NEXT UP
• Cornell returns home on Sunday, Dec. 6 when it meets Saint Joseph’s at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena. The Hawks captured a 71-67 victory a season ago at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa.
• Cornell will the have a two week break before returning to action in the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. The Big Red will face Davidson on Sunday, Dec. 20 at noon at Madison Square Garden, then will meet either St. John’s or Hofstra in the finale.

GW is taking the George Mason game very seriously









If you can't remember the last time George Mason played George Washington in hoops (the universities, not the men) your not alone. It's been years, 11 actually. For most of recent history George Washington felt they had nothing to gain being a mighty Atlantic 10 team playing a lowly CAA team, despite the close proximity. But then something happened. The NCAA banned schools like GW from recruiting players from these high school "diploma mills" that had helped the school produce a winner. Left having to recruit locally against others GW hasn't adapted well and have recently been in the basement of the A-10 conference. Guys like Pops Mensah-Bonsu who starred for the Colonials would not be allowed to play in today's NCAA rules.

So now that George Washington is no longer an Atlantic 10 power, their marketing department says George Mason vs GW is a rivalry now and they have the website to prove it! The "Battle of the Orange Line" slogan is good but I really want to know how much the school paid for this whole "Beat George Mason" campaign. And look there's more video!:



Very cute. I'm glad George Mason is their superbowl for this season. It will be interesting to see how many George Mason fans are in attendance because I know plenty are buying up the tickets. Through all of GW's promoting there still seems to be a lot of tickets left for seats in that high school gym of their's. I really hope this rivalry idea sticks, and next year's GW - Mason game at the Patriot Center should draw a great crowd.

GW fans love to remind us that Mason is 1-9 all-time against them but here's a fun fact about the game I noticed: George Washington, despite having a basketball program for 102 years, has the same number of NCAA tournament wins as George Mason.

George Mason vs Tulane Video Highlights



[Video by Thuc Phan]

Monday, November 30, 2009

Cornell No. 10 Mid Major for Third Consecutive Week

Above, Cornell's coaching staff. From left to right, Nat Graham, Steve Donahue (head coach), Kevin App and Woody Kampmann.

Each week of the season The Cornell Basketball Blog posts the rankings in the Mid Major Top 25 Poll as voted upon on CollegeInsider.com.

In the November 30 (week no. 3) edition of the CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Top 25 Poll, Cornell held steady for the third consecutive week at its No. 10 ranking. Cornell's rankings this season are as follows:
During the last two seasons, Cornell was the only Ivy League team to receive recognition in the final results. Cornell concluded 2008-2009 in 29th position after finishing the 2007-2008 season ranked No. 18.

Roughly 200 Division I teams comprise The CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll (out of 347 Division I teams). Eligible teams are from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Continent, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Sun Belt, West Coast.

MID MAJOR TOP 25-COLLEGEINSIDER.COM

Record

Points

Previous


1. Gonzaga (31) 5-1 775 2
2. Butler 4-2 743 1
3. Portland 5-1 622 9
4. Northern Iowa 4-1 607 7
5. Illinois State 6-0 598 12
6. VCU 4-1 554 6
7. Old Dominion 4-2 550 3
8. Siena 4-2 531 4
9. Western Kentucky 2-2 461 5
10. Cornell 5-2 451 10
11. Akron 5-2 450 18
12. George Mason 3-3 367 11
13. St. Mary's 4-1 360 22
14. Rider 4-3 302 14
15. Niagara 4-3 262 15
16. Murray State 5-1 202 23
17. Northeastern 2-2 199 16
18. Cal State Fullerton 3-0 171 21
19. Long Beach State 4-3 167 17
20. Wright State 3-2 123 13
21. Ohio 4-1 118 19
22. Detroit 4-2 116 20
23. Northern Colorado 5-0 112 25
24. Bradley 4-2 96 NR
25. Western Carolina 5-1 92 NR

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Missouri State 87, Texas-San Antonio 86, San Diego 84, Morgan State 79, Kent State 73, Southern Illinois 66, South Alabama 46, Pacific 44, UC Santa Barbara 42, Wichita State 37, Cleveland State 28, Radford 26, Indiana State 24, Iona 24, Buffalo 23, Eastern Michigan 23, Wisconsin Green-Bay 21, Milwaukee 20, Sam Houston State 18, Oakland 17, Wofford 17, IUPUI 16, Coastal Carolina 15, Vermont 13, Appalachian State 12, Denver 12, Troy 10, College of Charleston 10, Davidson 8, Montana 8, Campbell 7, Norfolk State 7, Creighton 6, Mount St Mary's 6, Stony Brook 6, Eastern Kentucky 5, North Texas 5, Furman 4, Seattle 4, Ball State 3, Canisius 3, Harvard 3, Loyola 3, Morehead State 2, Army 1, Bucknell 1, Chicago State 1, South Carolina State 1.

VOTING PANEL: Randy Bennett (St. Mary's), Will Brown (Albany), Rick Byrd (Belmont), Dave Calloway (Monmouth), Kermit Davis (Middle Tennessee), Steve Donahue (Cornell), Anthony Evans (Norfolk State), James Fox (Davidson), Mike Gillian (Longwood), Steve Hawkins (Western Michigan), Dick Hunsaker (Utah Valley), Eddie Jackson (American), Kerry Keating (Santa Clara) *, Billy Kennedy (Murray State), Tod Kowalczyk (UW-Green Bay), Jim Larranaga (George Mason), Jim Les (Bradley), Mike Lonergan (Vermont), Bob Marlin (Sam Houston State), Gregg Marshall (Wichita State), Tom Moore (Quinnipiac), Jimmy Patsos (Loyola MD), Tom Pecora (Hofstra), Vann Pettaway (Alabama A&M), Rick Scruggs (Gardner-Webb), John Shulman (Chattanooga), Brad Stevens (Butler), Gary Stewart (UC Davis), Scott Sutton (Oral Roberts), Wayne Tinkle (Montana), Ernie Zeigler (Central Michigan)

* Santa Clara head coach Kerry Keating is the chairman of the Top 25 voting panel for the 2008-09 season.


NOTE: The Mid-Major Poll is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast.

The CollegeInsider.Com Mid-Major Top 25 is now in its eleventh season of existence.

Around the Rim with Brian Delaney and the Ithaca Journal


By Brian Delaney
Ithaca Journal
November 30, 2009

At the beginning of Sunday's post-game press conference, minutes after Cornell dispatched Drexel for its third straight win, Steve Donahue got choked up.

The win was nice, but it was no different than any other non-league road victory in November. No one's season ended. No dreams were crushed. To those who don't follow the Big Red, Donahue's emotions were probably more cause for confusion than anything else.

But they were certainly sincere, evoked by two game-sealing free throws knocked down by Jon Jaques in the final seconds.

Donahue then did the best thing he could think of to reward his senior tri-captain. He selected Jaques (pronounced 'Jakes') to the Legends Classic Philadelphia Subregional all-tournament team.

"I can't say enough about Jon Jaques," Donahue said. "I know people were surprised by that, but (deep breath). To me, it's um, he's what we're all about. No one cares about how it gets done, and that kid (deep breath, long pause) ... Yeah, let me finish with that, just because he's our captain. Three years of not playing. You don't know how difficult those two foul shots are for a kid like that. And then to go in and knock them down when we've got two guys in foul trouble, a guy hurt and a guy with the flu, he doesn't miss a beat with everything we do.

"He does everything we ask as a teammate and a member of our team, and that's why we're good."

Within the program, Jaques -- a 6-foot-7 small forward with a sweet shooting stroke -- is as well-liked and as valued as anyone. For four years, he's donned a white practice jersey and played the role of the upcoming opponent's best wing player. On game days, he has sat on the bench offering encouragement and advice to teammates, embracing his role as deep reserve and setting an example for younger players who could very well leapfrog him on the depth chart.

His best stat lines at Cornell have come against Division III opponents like Ithaca College, Alvernia and Ursinus. In the public eye, he's more known for his occasional blog entries on The New York Times Web site than his shot-making ability.

Donahue has always maintained that five or six years ago, a player of Jaques' talents would have seen significant minutes. But for the last 2 1/2 seasons, Jaques has merely been caught in a numbers game on a winning team.

On Sunday, it was numbers that opened a door. Starting forward Alex Tyler sat out with an injury. Replacement Adam Wire picked up three fouls in three minutes and center Jeff Foote drew two fouls and sat for the final 8:37 of the first half.

Jaques played 11 first-half minutes. He didn't score, but he was not a liability. Far from it. He came away with a steal, a rebound and played good defense. And in a free-throw shooting situation late, Donahue did not hesitate to sub Jaques in for Foote.

"This was special," Jaques said. "Obviously my first significant minutes in a while, so it was special to come in and help the team win. Even if I hadn't made the free throws, I was happy with how I was contributing."

His teammates loved it.

"He loves basketball more than anybody on this team," Tyler said. "To see him go out there and actually get some minutes and play well, it's so great when somebody has a chance and they're given a chance and they take advantage of it. Everyone on this team loves it when he gets an opportunity like that."

Jaques' contributions are likely not done. Tyler is targeting the Dec. 20-21 series at Madison Square Garden for his return. Cornell visits Bucknell on Wednesday and hosts St. Joseph's on Sunday.

***

What the?

Rare occurrence alert: On Nov. 24, Drexel beat Penn at the Palestra, 58-49. Incredibly, neither team hit a 3-pointer.

Drexel was 0-for-11, and Penn was 0-for-8. Credit Penn's Mike Mahoney for this tidbit: the last time two teams didn't make a 3 was Feb. 9, 2002, when Charleston Southern and Elon went a combined 0-for-18.

Weekly honors

For the second time this season, Cornell's Ryan Wittman will split the Ivy League Men's Basketball Player of the Week award.

Wittman and Columbia's Noruwa Agho shared the honor.

Cornell and Columbia, by the way, again open the Ivy schedule with a Saturday home-and-home. They might very well be the league's two best teams.

CNNSI.com's Seth Davis Discusses Cornell

CNN/SI.com's Seth Davis writes the following today with respect to Cornell:
Alabama's wins over Baylor and Michigan make Cornell's win in Tuscaloosa look that much more impressive. Could this be a year when an Ivy League team wins a game in the NCAA tournament? Me thinks it could be so.

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