The Sweet Sixteen

Time for a new topic?

ESPN.com has a great Drew Litton cartoon up this morning.

[sports.espn.go.com]

Should be a very interesting game. Cornell is going to have to keep shooting 60% to probably have any chance. Temple and Wisconsin turned out to be great matchups due to their limited size and athletic ability. With Cousins up front, and Wall and Bledsoe in the backcourt, Kentucky is simply in a different world with regard to talent and athleticism. The more Foote and Dale have to work at the defensive end, the less they'll have to give on offense.

Although, if Kentucky wins, in a few years when they have their tournament wins vacated due to Calipari recruiting violations, we'll be able to claim they never beat us.

Jordan 04

Although, if Kentucky wins, in a few years when they have their tournament wins vacated due to Calipari recruiting violations, we'll be able to claim they never beat us.

When this matchup actually materialized yesterday, that's one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind

Sounds like an idea for a sign, such as "Headline 2011: Cornell beats Kentucky to get to Elite 8"

phillysportsfan
Sounds like an idea for a sign, such as "Headline 2011: Cornell beats Kentucky to get to Elite 8"

It ususally takes the NC$$ a few years to do the investigation and hand out the punishment and taking wins away. Might be a 2013 headline, not 2011.

I just realized that there's an interesting coincidence regarding our opponents Thursday (in hoops) and Friday (in hockey): their team nicknames are both the Wildcats.

HeafDog
I just realized that there's an interesting coincidence regarding our opponents Thursday (in hoops) and Friday (in hockey): their team nicknames are both the Wildcats.

which would have also been the case if we played Northern Michigan Friday as the PWR suggested.

HeafDog
I just realized that there's an interesting coincidence regarding our opponents Thursday (in hoops) and Friday (in hockey): their team nicknames are both the Wildcats.

"Who are we?"
"Wildcats!"
"Who are we going to beat?"
"Wildcats!"

Monday's USAToday "cover story" in the sports section: [www.usatoday.com]

There was an accompanying sidebar picked up from the Ithaca Journal describing Cornell's amazing four-sport weekend.

Cornell striving to maintain its perfect record against Kentucky: [bigbluehistory.net]

Game story from the Louisville Courier-Journal: [bigbluehistory.net]

And here's the Calipari interview with Mike and Mike: [www.sportingnews.com]

Syracuse reports that Wed practices at the Dome will be free and open. Times are:

Noon-Wash
1 PM-CU
2:10-WV
3:10-UK

Free parking and shuttle buses from Skytop.

Recent piece at SI.com by Alexander Wolff on how NCAA seedings are more and more based on adjustments being made to RPI: [sportsillustrated.cnn.com]

Note the Jeff Sagarin quote and Wolff's last paragraph. Couldn't agree more. Also of interest to those who study computer rankings is this Wolff piece, written seven years ago, on the genesis of RPI: [sportsillustrated.cnn.com]

Al DeFlorio
Cornell striving to maintain its perfect record against Kentucky: [bigbluehistory.net]

Game story from the Louisville Courier-Journal: [bigbluehistory.net]

And here's the Calipari interview with Mike and Mike: [www.sportingnews.com]

That day in 1966, UK's top scorer was Pat Riley (24 pts)

Boston Globe article today by Dan Shaughnessy: [www.boston.com]

Best line:

"Donahue is a onetime high school junior varsity coach who has five kids. Kentucky is coached by the one and only John Calipari, a man with more vacancies than the Bates Motel."

Closing paragraph is a good one, too.

All the sportswriters from the Northeast Kingdome rooting for the Ivy League may be seen elsewhere as part of the Eastern elite liberal leftie etcetera establishment which can be shortened to "assholes." Fans from the rest (God's country) of America know Louis Dale is funnin' them with the "babies and memories" line [cited today on the [online.wsj.com] editorial page] but they're not sure how.

Wildcat Nation probably also wonders why Calipari can't also be called Coach K.

Al DeFlorio
Boston Globe article today by Dan Shaughnessy: [www.boston.com]

Best line: ...

Worst line: "Had he stayed in Lexington, odds are Calipari would have run him out of the program."

That's the worst line because it ignores that Calipari didn't have a chance because Billy Gillespie ran him out. Coury transferred to Cornell because he wanted a chance to play, not simply because he was a stellar student. God, I hate the fit-this-narrative method that dominates sportswriting so much.

No matter how big the check, you wouldn't want to sell a script to Hollywood if facts and timelines are that important.

John Belushi
Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

Some days you have a column due and nothing to say. This part was mildly amusing:

Matt Taibbi / Trueslant.com
Normally broadcasters reserve their drooling over white-athlete stereotypes for descriptions of individual players like Wes Welker, Steve Nash, and… well, of Wes Welker. You do get some during NFL draft season, when you hear all the various Mel Kipers talking about fourth- and fifth-round talents who are worth a shot because they are “consistent,” “able to take coaching,” have “high football intelligence,” are “good in the locker room,” and “try hard and play through the whistle.” (My favorite of these cliches is actually, “Mature; is a coach’s son.”). The commensurate glowing descriptions of black athletes, of course, are more like, “Flattens the fuck out of guys” or “Will dunk on your face and laugh about it.”

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

As somebody said on another thread, sports journalism is plug and play of a few simplistic cliches (see also, political journalism). Hopefully nobody cared about the media who backed us mechanically, and now won't give a thought to the media who attack us mechanically. Next week they'll have moved on to some other inspiration, tragedy or outrage to fill their quota of being paid by the yard.

They just don't matter.

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

I honestly don't mind that article at all. It makes a valid point, even though they "won the genetic lottery" or whatever other way you want to say it, anybody who plays sports at a high level has to a) love the game, b) spend a TON of time practicing. The athletes on both sides have put a lot of hard work in to get where they are. That said, I hope we wipe the floor with them LETS GO RED!

There are times when a column or game story hits it so well. The perfect storm was the Boston teams and Boston sportswriters circa 1976-1990. Rick Reilly in Sports Illustrated most weeks, also (forgot his name) the SI columnist from Marquette. Steve Rushin, maybe.

But yeah, I think the obvious pendulum swing was toward Cornell being different and fresh (and those press conference quips were priceless) so the obvioius pendulum swing back is to find some flaw with Cornell, and then move on past Cornell. I'm waiting for the column that asks why if Cornell is such hot stuff, three people went over the bridge railing. And the pendulum swing will be even faster should Cornell fall by a big margin in whatever game is the final one.

billhoward
And the pendulum swing will be even faster should Cornell fall by a big margin in whatever game is the final one.

Actually, I give them a pretty good shot against Northern Iowa.

Trotsky

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

As somebody said on another thread, sports journalism is plug and play of a few simplistic cliches (see also, political journalism). Hopefully nobody cared about the media who backed us mechanically, and now won't give a thought to the media who attack us mechanically. Next week they'll have moved on to some other inspiration, tragedy or outrage to fill their quota of being paid by the yard.

They just don't matter.

I actually liked Taibbi's article. Not because it is original - it isn't, except with respect to this game, this week - but because it has to be said. There are a lot of reasons to like Cornell's team but there are a lot of reasons why Cornell's success would become a huge story and not all of them are pretty.

The dominant cliche has been "Cornell's smart plucky kids" and this is a really flawed theme. Not only because Kentucky players work just as hard (if not harder) than Cornell's players on the court but also because it demeans the intelligence of the the Kentucky players. Mark Coury, for example, used to be a Kentucky player. I've been told that John Wall was a diligent student in high school. We know that Dale got a 1300 on his SATs (because Donahue said it in an interview) but how many players got into Cornell because of basketball? Probably not all but certainly some. And, at the same time, Cornell's players are very f'ing good. Wittman and Foote are considered fringe NBA prospects and Dale would be also if he were 6'3" instead of 5'11'.

I don't think it means that all of these sportswriters are racist - latent or otherwise - because "Cornell in the Sweet 16" is a great story. But the easy story everyone is writing has racial undertones and it is about time that somebody noticed.

Edit: DeMarcus Cousins interview. He's no dummy. I saw this and an interview with John Wall. They are giving Cornell plenty of respect. [www.courier-journal.com]

Dana O'Neil at ESPN.com; this one compares Donahue's success to both Dunphy at Penn and Pete Carril, and ties in CU's unique structure. It includes some quotes from Carril.

And Cornell even made it into the fake news this week:
Study: Announcers Increasingly Able To Believe What They're Seeing

ugarte

Trotsky

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

As somebody said on another thread, sports journalism is plug and play of a few simplistic cliches (see also, political journalism). Hopefully nobody cared about the media who backed us mechanically, and now won't give a thought to the media who attack us mechanically. Next week they'll have moved on to some other inspiration, tragedy or outrage to fill their quota of being paid by the yard.

They just don't matter.

I actually liked Taibbi's article. Not because it is original - it isn't, except with respect to this game, this week - but because it has to be said. There are a lot of reasons to like Cornell's team but there are a lot of reasons why Cornell's success would become a huge story and not all of them are pretty.

The dominant cliche has been "Cornell's smart plucky kids" and this is a really flawed theme. Not only because Kentucky players work just as hard (if not harder) than Cornell's players on the court but also because it demeans the intelligence of the the Kentucky players. Mark Coury, for example, used to be a Kentucky player. I've been told that John Wall was a diligent student in high school. We know that Dale got a 1300 on his SATs (because Donahue said it in an interview) but how many players got into Cornell because of basketball? Probably not all but certainly some. And, at the same time, Cornell's players are very f'ing good. Wittman and Foote are considered fringe NBA prospects and Dale would be also if he were 6'3" instead of 5'11'.

I don't think it means that all of these sportswriters are racist - latent or otherwise - because "Cornell in the Sweet 16" is a great story. But the easy story everyone is writing has racial undertones and it is about time that somebody noticed.

Edit: DeMarcus Cousins interview. He's no dummy. I saw this and an interview with John Wall. They are giving Cornell plenty of respect. [www.courier-journal.com]

What do you expect from the media, they are lazy, it is much easier to write an article saying it is the battle of the smart guys vs future NBA players than to actually get interviews with the players and do some research. The other reason is that the media really believes we have no shot so the only way they can generate interest in the game is with all these side stories about Cornell being a bunch of smart players

There's also great two-page photo of the Cornell-Wisconsin game in this week's Sports Illustrated, with Louis Dale outhustling a crowd of players for the ball.
Meanwhile, Cornell has been getting almost as much air time on Mike Francessa's WFAN sports radio show as the Yankees and Mets. Francessa said Cornell would have a decent shot at getting to the Final Four if it didn't have to play Kentucky next.

phillysportsfan

ugarte

Trotsky

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

As somebody said on another thread, sports journalism is plug and play of a few simplistic cliches (see also, political journalism). Hopefully nobody cared about the media who backed us mechanically, and now won't give a thought to the media who attack us mechanically. Next week they'll have moved on to some other inspiration, tragedy or outrage to fill their quota of being paid by the yard.

They just don't matter.

I actually liked Taibbi's article. Not because it is original - it isn't, except with respect to this game, this week - but because it has to be said. There are a lot of reasons to like Cornell's team but there are a lot of reasons why Cornell's success would become a huge story and not all of them are pretty.

The dominant cliche has been "Cornell's smart plucky kids" and this is a really flawed theme. Not only because Kentucky players work just as hard (if not harder) than Cornell's players on the court but also because it demeans the intelligence of the the Kentucky players. Mark Coury, for example, used to be a Kentucky player. I've been told that John Wall was a diligent student in high school. We know that Dale got a 1300 on his SATs (because Donahue said it in an interview) but how many players got into Cornell because of basketball? Probably not all but certainly some. And, at the same time, Cornell's players are very f'ing good. Wittman and Foote are considered fringe NBA prospects and Dale would be also if he were 6'3" instead of 5'11'.

I don't think it means that all of these sportswriters are racist - latent or otherwise - because "Cornell in the Sweet 16" is a great story. But the easy story everyone is writing has racial undertones and it is about time that somebody noticed.

Edit: DeMarcus Cousins interview. He's no dummy. I saw this and an interview with John Wall. They are giving Cornell plenty of respect. [www.courier-journal.com]

What do you expect from the media, they are lazy, it is much easier to write an article saying it is the battle of the smart guys vs future NBA players than to actually get interviews with the players and do some research. The other reason is that the media really believes we have no shot so the only way they can generate interest in the game is with all these side stories about Cornell being a bunch of smart players

I'm not complaining about the extra exposure Cornell is getting as a "bunch of smart kids." I mean if people believe the basketball players are smart, they probably assume the kids that go for academics are pretty damn smart too. Anything that will make Cornell more recognizable on a resume is a good thing.

ugarte

Trotsky

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

As somebody said on another thread, sports journalism is plug and play of a few simplistic cliches (see also, political journalism). Hopefully nobody cared about the media who backed us mechanically, and now won't give a thought to the media who attack us mechanically. Next week they'll have moved on to some other inspiration, tragedy or outrage to fill their quota of being paid by the yard.

They just don't matter.

I actually liked Taibbi's article. Not because it is original - it isn't, except with respect to this game, this week - but because it has to be said. There are a lot of reasons to like Cornell's team but there are a lot of reasons why Cornell's success would become a huge story and not all of them are pretty.

The dominant cliche has been "Cornell's smart plucky kids" and this is a really flawed theme. Not only because Kentucky players work just as hard (if not harder) than Cornell's players on the court but also because it demeans the intelligence of the the Kentucky players. Mark Coury, for example, used to be a Kentucky player. I've been told that John Wall was a diligent student in high school. We know that Dale got a 1300 on his SATs (because Donahue said it in an interview) but how many players got into Cornell because of basketball? Probably not all but certainly some. And, at the same time, Cornell's players are very f'ing good. Wittman and Foote are considered fringe NBA prospects and Dale would be also if he were 6'3" instead of 5'11'.

I don't think it means that all of these sportswriters are racist - latent or otherwise - because "Cornell in the Sweet 16" is a great story. But the easy story everyone is writing has racial undertones and it is about time that somebody noticed.

Edit: DeMarcus Cousins interview. He's no dummy. I saw this and an interview with John Wall. They are giving Cornell plenty of respect. [www.courier-journal.com]

Maybe UK is just putting on a good show for the media:
[mbd.scout.com]

Interesting thread on Syracuse board, I know it is just hearsay but it is probably true, makes it all the more sweeter if we can somehow knock off this NBA team

YankeeLobo

phillysportsfan

ugarte

Trotsky

RichH
And the backlash: [trueslant.com]

As somebody said on another thread, sports journalism is plug and play of a few simplistic cliches (see also, political journalism). Hopefully nobody cared about the media who backed us mechanically, and now won't give a thought to the media who attack us mechanically. Next week they'll have moved on to some other inspiration, tragedy or outrage to fill their quota of being paid by the yard.

They just don't matter.

I actually liked Taibbi's article. Not because it is original - it isn't, except with respect to this game, this week - but because it has to be said. There are a lot of reasons to like Cornell's team but there are a lot of reasons why Cornell's success would become a huge story and not all of them are pretty.

The dominant cliche has been "Cornell's smart plucky kids" and this is a really flawed theme. Not only because Kentucky players work just as hard (if not harder) than Cornell's players on the court but also because it demeans the intelligence of the the Kentucky players. Mark Coury, for example, used to be a Kentucky player. I've been told that John Wall was a diligent student in high school. We know that Dale got a 1300 on his SATs (because Donahue said it in an interview) but how many players got into Cornell because of basketball? Probably not all but certainly some. And, at the same time, Cornell's players are very f'ing good. Wittman and Foote are considered fringe NBA prospects and Dale would be also if he were 6'3" instead of 5'11'.

I don't think it means that all of these sportswriters are racist - latent or otherwise - because "Cornell in the Sweet 16" is a great story. But the easy story everyone is writing has racial undertones and it is about time that somebody noticed.

Edit: DeMarcus Cousins interview. He's no dummy. I saw this and an interview with John Wall. They are giving Cornell plenty of respect. [www.courier-journal.com]

What do you expect from the media, they are lazy, it is much easier to write an article saying it is the battle of the smart guys vs future NBA players than to actually get interviews with the players and do some research. The other reason is that the media really believes we have no shot so the only way they can generate interest in the game is with all these side stories about Cornell being a bunch of smart players

I'm not complaining about the extra exposure Cornell is getting as a "bunch of smart kids." I mean if people believe the basketball players are smart, they probably assume the kids that go for academics are pretty damn smart too. Anything that will make Cornell more recognizable on a resume is a good thing.

Just don't go looking for a job in Kentucky on the off chance that we win tomorrow.

Not as many common opponents as with Temple (I forgot to check against Wisconsin), but here are the COP with Kentucky:

                  Cornell             Kentucky
Drexel            W 61-54(A)          W 88-44(H)
Alabama           W 71-67(A)          W 66-55(H), 73-67 (N)

The Drexel comparison is more telling, but I can't extract much of value from this that we didn't already know. Cornell and Kentucky played Drexel within a few weeks of each other, but back in 2009. Cornell played Alabama to open the season; Kentucky played them in mid-season and in the SEC tournament.

All we can say is "Kentucky is probably better than Cornell. Now let's go play the game."

Interesting note (to me): Cornell handed Alabama a loss in their first game; Kentucky in their last game. I'm a bit surprised that a 17-15 Alabama team wasn't even invited to the CIT; HARVARD got invited to the CIT.

ugarte
Not as many common opponents as with Temple (I forgot to check against Wisconsin), but here are the COP with Kentucky:

                  Cornell             Kentucky
Drexel            W 61-54(A)          W 88-44(H)
Alabama           W 71-67(A)          W 66-55(H), 73-67 (N)

The Drexel comparison is more telling, but I can't extract much of value from this that we didn't already know. Cornell and Kentucky played Drexel within a few weeks of each other, but back in 2009. Cornell played Alabama to open the season; Kentucky played them in mid-season and in the SEC tournament.

All we can say is "Kentucky is probably better than Cornell. Now let's go play the game."

Interesting note (to me): Cornell handed Alabama a loss in their first game; Kentucky in their last game. I'm a bit surprised that a 17-15 Alabama team wasn't even invited to the CIT; HARVARD got invited to the CIT.

And to add to the Harvard sucks thread, Harvard got killed by 20+ by Appalachian State

Now the Onion gets into the act:

[www.theonion.com]

"It'd be foolish to ascribe any of the properties of a pan-dimensional function space to the NCAA Tournament," said Cornell center Jeff Foote...

Beeeej
Now the Onion gets into the act:

[www.theonion.com]

"It'd be foolish to ascribe any of the properties of a pan-dimensional function space to the NCAA Tournament," said Cornell center Jeff Foote...

Where did they get that "ass in the air" bear logo? I assume that their own graphics folks made it. Can we steal it?

Roy 82

Beeeej
Now the Onion gets into the act:

[www.theonion.com]

"It'd be foolish to ascribe any of the properties of a pan-dimensional function space to the NCAA Tournament," said Cornell center Jeff Foote...

Where did they get that "ass in the air" bear logo? I assume that their own graphics folks made it. Can we steal it?

I'm pretty sure I've seen it before. I think they use that when they need a banner-style logo.

ugarte

Roy 82

Beeeej
Now the Onion gets into the act:

[www.theonion.com]

"It'd be foolish to ascribe any of the properties of a pan-dimensional function space to the NCAA Tournament," said Cornell center Jeff Foote...

Where did they get that "ass in the air" bear logo? I assume that their own graphics folks made it. Can we steal it?

I'm pretty sure I've seen it before. I think they use that when they need a banner-style logo.

I've seen it too. The University owns it.

32-16 at the half. Getting ugly. We don't belong on the same court as Kentucky. Great run though!

YankeeLobo
32-16 at the half. Getting ugly. We don't belong on the same court as Kentucky. Great run though!

Amazing how much better UK is than Temple/Wisconsin. They have some holes in their game, especially in the half court offense, but they what is especially impressive and surprising to me is how good they are on defense. As much as I despise Calipari, the guy knows how to coach and motivate.

scoop85

YankeeLobo
32-16 at the half. Getting ugly. We don't belong on the same court as Kentucky. Great run though!

Amazing how much better UK is than Temple/Wisconsin. They have some holes in their game, especially in the half court offense, but they what is especially impressive and surprising to me is how good they are on defense. As much as I despise Calipari, the guy knows how to coach and motivate.

Yeah, Calipari is no slouch, aside from that awful call he made in the 2008 National Championship game, not giving that foul with 5 seconds left.

Granted, he's practically dealing with an NBA team in Kentucky, making Cornell look like a high school team right now. They can't even run an offense because of UK's athleticism on defense. I don't think the press playing off the "dumb kids vs smart kids" storyline all week helped our cause either. Kentucky is taking it to their future financial advisers.

C'mon Wittman...

Making a nice little run here, dont think it's going to be enough but at least Kentucky's not wiping the floor with them

YankeeLobo
Making a nice little run here, dont think it's going to be enough but at least Kentucky's not wiping the floor with them

We really had some chances in the second half, and getting it down to six was pretty impressive. UK started hitting foul shots, and we couldn't get over the hump.

What a season, and what a career for our seniors. I never thought we'd play on such a big stage!

UK had much better defense than expected. As anticipated, UK ran the transition amazingly well, but I didn't think they could have shut down the 3 as well as they did. They left Cornell with some difficult, hand-in-your face shots that didn't fall. The open ones didn't fall either for the most part. Got them down to a few points in the closing minutes but just could not sustain.

Great season. Cornell was a lot of fun to watch and should hold their heads up high. We are all very, very proud of this team.

scoop85

YankeeLobo
Making a nice little run here, dont think it's going to be enough but at least Kentucky's not wiping the floor with them

We really had some chances in the second half, and getting it down to six was pretty impressive. UK started hitting foul shots, and we couldn't get over the hump.

What a season, and what a career for our seniors. I never thought we'd play on such a big stage!

It was close, if our star showed up it would've been closer, but we wouldn't be there without him anyway. Kentucky put on an absolute clinic on perimeter defense, Donahue just had no answer for Calipari and the Kentucky athletes.

YankeeLobo

scoop85

YankeeLobo
Making a nice little run here, dont think it's going to be enough but at least Kentucky's not wiping the floor with them

We really had some chances in the second half, and getting it down to six was pretty impressive. UK started hitting foul shots, and we couldn't get over the hump.

What a season, and what a career for our seniors. I never thought we'd play on such a big stage!

It was close, if our star showed up it would've been closer, but we wouldn't be there without him anyway. Kentucky put on an absolute clinic on perimeter defense, Donahue just had no answer for Calipari and the Kentucky athletes.

Hard to say that our star "didn't show up." Their stars are simply better than ours. Kentucky defended the perimeter the same way that Missouri did last year and Stanford did in 2008. Cornell is not going to match up well with an elite team that can defend foot one-on-one and pressure the three point shooters.

This was a great year. To think there is an iota of shame in losing to this Kentucky team is insane. The best team won last night but that doesn't detract from how good this team is: as players, as people, as a unit, and as representatives of a league with a sports culture that doesn't make a mockery of the term student-athlete.

Another recap of the Cornell-Kentucky game was on Saturday's (3/27/2010) Only a Game.

If Bill Littlefield and Peter Sagal were fired at each other inside the Large Hadron Collider, the generation of anti-affectation particles would destroy the universe.

In the Ithaca Journal

Brian Delaney
Noel also said that Cornell's success has raised an interesting question with regards to what the Ivy League will do with the money Cornell earned by playing three games in the NCAA tournament. It had been 12 years since an Ivy team played multiple games at the Big Dance.

To recap, Noel said the university presidents voted years ago to take the yearly NCAA participation sum (Noel called it "a unit" ) and inject the whole amount into the base budget of the Ivy League office. The tournament representative (which has been Cornell for three years running) sees none of that money directly. Because the Ivy is granted an automatic tournament berth each year, the Ivy League office has always been able to count on that sum being available to them. That sum this year is $220,000 per game paid annually over a six-year span.

Since Cornell played three games, it garnered the Ivy League a $660,000 pay check each of the next six years. Noel said he hopes that when the question of what to do with the extra $440,000 is addressed by the league office, Cornell will garner some consideration for its role in the matter.