neat NYC area chance to see Cornell hoops

So I had seen that Cornell was visiting NJIT in Newark for a basketball game. I thought it might be interesting, but its a Tuesday night (the 15th). The idea of going on a work night for a sport I'm not so thrilled about wasn't particularly compelling.

HOWEVER, I just saw that the game is not in NJIT's little gym, but rather at the Prudential Center! I've been a couple times already, but its a nice place and the chance to see Cornell play there raises the bar, even if it'll be 90% empty.

Its actually a men and women's double-header (both Cornell @ NJIT). Women's game at 6 PM may be hard to make after work, but 8 PM shouldn't be.

If you haven't been to the Prudential Center, I highly recommend you make the trip if at all possible. Tickets are $20 reserved and $10 GA. Its just a PATH ride from Manhattan or Hoboken. Or a pretty easy trip on NJ Transit from most locations. The arena, as you're probably aware, is just a 3 block walk from Newark Penn Station. And even if you're driving, the Newark traffic situation isn't all that bad for weekend Devils games, nevermind something like this.

If other people are interested, maybe we could have our own little eLynah section

You know, that does sound like fun. I might do that.

Did a story on this back in October. NJIT has yet to win a game in Division I. I think they are 0-16 as of today, and just lost by 30 last night to lowly Navy.

Cornell can definitely lose this game, and I am not going to guarantee victory, but I expect that this 18,500 seat venue will be empty unless Cornell does a better job marketing the event to our N.J./NY alumni.

[cornellbasketball.blogspot.com]

CornellFan
Cornell can definitely lose this game, and I am not going to guarantee victory, but I expect that this 18,500 seat venue will be empty unless Cornell does a better job marketing the event to our N.J./NY alumni.

And even if they did, its a weekday night. Massive marketing would maybe draw, what? 5K maybe?

Btw, the NJIT people told me they don't open the top level for NJIT games there, and the 'General Admission' tickets are behind the baskets.

Also, this isn't a unique thing for NJIT or anything, they play about a third of their home games at the Rock, instead of their 1100 seat gym. Games against Army and Rutgers drew 900 and 1700, respectively. But it'll be a cheap, quiet chance to see a pretty new building, and a finally good Cornell hoops team.

It'd be nice to have a little eLynah crowd

NJIT is playing a total of 4 games this season at the Prudential Center.

Since they drew 900 for Army and 1,700 for Rutgers (both on Thursday nights)-- I am hopeful they can draw at least 1,000 for Cornell.

The game starts at 8 pm in order to make it easier for people to get to the game after work.

The Cornell Club of Northern New Jersey should be motivating its members to attend this game.

BTW...

don't look now---

but of Cornell's three losses.... Ohio is now 9-4, Colgate is 8-5, and Syracuse is 11-3.

So... Cornell's 6-4 record is not looking so terrible.

Getting ahead of myself, BUT... if we can get by NJIT and Alvernia, we can head into Ivy play at least at 8-5 (with the loss to Duke).

And... if Cornell somehow pulled off an Ivy League championship, even with a modest 10-4 Ivy record, the Red would enter the brackets with a respectable 18-9 slate.

Too bad Cornell is only playing 27 regular season games. The trip to France cost us three games. We could have had a better opportunity to win 20+ games this year.

CornellFan
NJIT is playing a total of 4 games this season at the Prudential Center.

Since they drew 900 for Army and 1,700 for Rutgers (both on Thursday nights)-- I am hopeful they can draw at least 1,000 for Cornell.

The game starts at 8 pm in order to make it easier for people to get to the game after work.

The Cornell Club of Northern New Jersey should be motivating its members to attend this game.

BTW...

don't look now---

but of Cornell's three losses.... Ohio is now 9-4, Colgate is 8-5, and Syracuse is 11-3.

So... Cornell's 6-4 record is not looking so terrible.

Getting ahead of myself, BUT... if we can get by NJIT and Alvernia, we can head into Ivy play at least at 8-5 (with the loss to Duke).

And... if Cornell somehow pulled off an Ivy League championship, even with a modest 10-4 Ivy record, the Red would enter the brackets with a respectable 18-9 slate.

Too bad Cornell is only playing 27 regular season games. The trip to France cost us three games. We could have had a better opportunity to win 20+ games this year.

While you say a "modest 10-4 record," Cornell has only reached that level a few times in the past 40 years. My sense of this team is that they will be all over the map in the Ivy this year -- win a few games easily, win a number of tight games, and lose a few games that will leave us scratching our heads. I would sign for 10-4 right now, notwithstanding that the League appears to be rather weak this season.

CornellFan
but of Cornell's three losses.... Ohio is now 9-4, Colgate is 8-5, and Syracuse is 11-3.

So... Cornell's 6-4 record is not looking so terrible.

I certainly didn't expect wins against Syracuse or Ohio - or even Bucknell, which followed up the win against CU with a win against LBSU - and agree that the Colgate loss isn't horrible. But the problem with the Colgate and Ohio losses (and the Bucknell loss, to some extent) aren't the fact of the losses but the how. Collapses against Ohio and Colgate and a blowout loss to Bucknell.

That said, I think you are right about the team's chances in the Ivies. The computers are ranking us just behind Brown which will make for an interesting season. I was shocked to see that in the Mid-Majority rankings, Penn is in the bottom five in all of Division I. (Maybe after Florida Gulf Coast "shocked" is a little strong, but the loss to FGC was shocking.)

The good news is that Cornell always seems to play better (under Coach Donahue) against the Ivies then it does against low majors from other leagues (America East, Patriot, NEC etc).

In the last three years of Ivy play, Cornell was 8-6, 8-6, and 9-5 (collectively 25-17). However, six of those losses were to a powerful Penn team.

Thus, we were 25-11 in the 36 games against the other Ivies, for a .694 winning percentage.

Now that Penn appears to be struggling and more like Clark Kent than Superman... and we seem at least slightly better than we were the past three years... is it a stretch for us to expect a Cornell 10-4 record (.714 winning percentage)?

Cornell can get the job done and there is room for hope. I would't call us the favorites, but our chances look pretty good.

CornellFan
and we seem at least slightly better than we were the past three years... is it a stretch for us to expect a Cornell 10-4 record (.714 winning percentage)?

It's always a stretch to expect something that hasn't happened before (recently anyway). It's not a stretch to have realistic hopes for a 10-4 record.