Womens Basketball

Red women pulled out a gutsy win over the Bonnies last night. They have some good 1st years like Kust and Clarke. Unfortunately like the last 2 seasons they have no reliable outside shooters. Like in football maybe it's time to move on from Smith as Head Coach.

rss77
Red women pulled out a gutsy win over the Bonnies last night. They have some good 1st years like Kust and Clarke. Unfortunately like the last 2 seasons they have no reliable outside shooters. Like in football maybe it's time to move on from Smith as Head Coach.

Yep, the other Ivies (especially Princeton and Columbia!) have developed far stronger programs than Cornell. Other than when Jeomi Maduka fall into her lap 15 years ago, Smith hasn't produced particularly good teams. Time to move on as you said.

Afternoon game against Marist. 15-0 lead, Marist came back to tie at 48 in the third, Cornell pulls away with a 26-13 4th Quarter. 6-5 record so far.

ugarte
Afternoon game against Marist. 15-0 lead, Marist came back to tie at 48 in the third, Cornell pulls away with a 26-13 4th Quarter. 6-5 record so far.

It would have been nice if we had been able to defeat Syracuse after building up a 14-point lead. The women's team has been beating a lot of weak teams, so their record will be misleading heading into Ivy play. Yale, on the other hand, has a 2-10 record, but has lost a lot of close games while playing a much stronger schedule. I expect Yale to do much better than Cornell in Ivy play.

dbilmes

ugarte
Afternoon game against Marist. 15-0 lead, Marist came back to tie at 48 in the third, Cornell pulls away with a 26-13 4th Quarter. 6-5 record so far.

It would have been nice if we had been able to defeat Syracuse after building up a 14-point lead. The women's team has been beating a lot of weak teams, so their record will be misleading heading into Ivy play. Yale, on the other hand, has a 2-10 record, but has lost a lot of close games while playing a much stronger schedule. I expect Yale to do much better than Cornell in Ivy play.

If (as expected) we have a losing record in Ivy play, I think it will be time for a coaching change.

From the Cornell website on Dayna Smith:
In her 18 seasons at the helm of the Big Red program, Smith has led Cornell to unprecedented success. The winningest coach in the history of the program, and the second-longest tenured active women’s basketball coach in the Ivy League, she has raised the bar for the Big Red, making success an expectation among its players, alumni and fans.
If this is what it looks like with the bar raised, I'd hate to see what it would it would look like otherwise. Also, Smith has been coaching for 21 seasons, but her bio on the official website hasn't been updated to reflect that. In any case, in 21 seasons, she has had two winning records and one .500 season, with one Ivy title. Her overall Ivy record is 102-192, a 34.7 winning percentage. It's hard to make a strong case for retaining her, even if she is the longest-tenured active coach in the Ivy League (or the second-longest, since it's listed both ways on the Cornell website).

Princeton 79
Cornell 38

Seems not great.

Chris '03
Princeton 79
Cornell 38

Seems not great.

Smith’s got to get the hook after this season.

scoop85

Chris '03
Princeton 79
Cornell 38

Seems not great.

Smith’s got to get the hook after this season.

Smith's got to go, but not because of this blowout loss to Princeton. Princeton is a dominant program in Ivy women's basketball. Earlier this season, it lost by three points to No. 3 UCLA on the road, lost to Caitlin Clark and Iowa by 9 points, and beat No. 20 Oklahoma. Princeton is going to have a lot of blowout wins in the Ivies this season. It has won a game in the NCAA tournament each of the past two seasons.

Yes Princeton is getting top 100 players. Thinking Ivy WBB is going to be a three team race between Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton. Smith has not been able too attract top shelf talent to East Hill.

rss77
Yes Princeton is getting top 100 players. Thinking Ivy WBB is going to be a three team race between Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton. Smith has not been able too attract top shelf talent to East Hill.

Princeton’s always been strong, but Columbia and others have left us stuck in our tracks. Time for a change at the top.

How about some love for the women's basketball team. They beat Dartmouth handily for their first Ivy win in a battle for the basement.

dbilmes
How about some love for the women's basketball team. They beat Dartmouth handily for their first Ivy win in a battle for the basement.

Glad for them, but that program needs new leadership.

And some players who can put the basket. Cornell has been pretty poor especially shooting 3s.

rss77
And some players who can put the basket. Cornell has been pretty poor especially shooting 3s.

Proving my point.

The saddest thing about the women's basketball program is that due to years of mediocrity, there is no fan base and no excitement about the program. The official attendance for their home loss to Yale on Saturday was 183. It can't help recruiting efforts if potential players watch a game either in person or on TV and see it being played before such a small crowd. Cornell is 1-7 in the Ivies, but that one win was Dayna Smith's 100th career Ivy victory! It will be interesting to see how the new AD deals with this program moving forward.

dbilmes
The saddest thing about the women's basketball program is that due to years of mediocrity, there is no fan base and no excitement about the program. The official attendance for their home loss to Yale on Saturday was 183. It can't help recruiting efforts if potential players watch a game either in person or on TV and see it being played before such a small crowd. Cornell is 1-7 in the Ivies, but that one win was Dayna Smith's 100th career Ivy victory! It will be interesting to see how the new AD deals with this program moving forward.

I expect there will be a "change in leadership" after the season.

scoop85

dbilmes
The saddest thing about the women's basketball program is that due to years of mediocrity, there is no fan base and no excitement about the program. The official attendance for their home loss to Yale on Saturday was 183. It can't help recruiting efforts if potential players watch a game either in person or on TV and see it being played before such a small crowd. Cornell is 1-7 in the Ivies, but that one win was Dayna Smith's 100th career Ivy victory! It will be interesting to see how the new AD deals with this program moving forward.

I expect there will be a "change in leadership" after the season.

Dartmouth holds off Cornell to break a 26 game league losing streak. Their last win came against Cornell. The women looked reasonably competitive in the non-conference part of the schedule, but the wheels have come off.

mountainred

scoop85

dbilmes
The saddest thing about the women's basketball program is that due to years of mediocrity, there is no fan base and no excitement about the program. The official attendance for their home loss to Yale on Saturday was 183. It can't help recruiting efforts if potential players watch a game either in person or on TV and see it being played before such a small crowd. Cornell is 1-7 in the Ivies, but that one win was Dayna Smith's 100th career Ivy victory! It will be interesting to see how the new AD deals with this program moving forward.

I expect there will be a "change in leadership" after the season.

Dartmouth holds off Cornell to break a 26 game league losing streak. Their last win came against Cornell. The women looked reasonably competitive in the non-conference part of the schedule, but the wheels have come off.

If Moore is serious about upgrading the program, she’ll make a coaching change after the season.

mountainred

scoop85

dbilmes
The saddest thing about the women's basketball program is that due to years of mediocrity, there is no fan base and no excitement about the program. The official attendance for their home loss to Yale on Saturday was 183. It can't help recruiting efforts if potential players watch a game either in person or on TV and see it being played before such a small crowd. Cornell is 1-7 in the Ivies, but that one win was Dayna Smith's 100th career Ivy victory! It will be interesting to see how the new AD deals with this program moving forward.

I expect there will be a "change in leadership" after the season.

Dartmouth holds off Cornell to break a 26 game league losing streak. Their last win came against Cornell. The women looked reasonably competitive in the non-conference part of the schedule, but the wheels have come off.

The women won some close non-league games against weak opponents. Their best non-league game was the eight-point loss to Syracuse. Cornell led going into the fourth quarter of that game.

And there it is. Smith out:
[cornellbigred.com]

Chris '03
And there it is. Smith out:
[cornellbigred.com]

I’m glad Moore acted quickly on this. The program has become non-competitive.

AI in Sportswriting PR then sent to a first-year-law class to suck out any residual signs of life.

Cornell PR
"The Ivy League has become one of the preeminent women's basketball conferences in the country," Moore said. "As we embark on a new leg of this journey, we do so with unwavering confidence in our ability to discover an exceptional leader who will embrace the ideals of the Ivy League and Cornell University, and who will cultivate, prepare and propel extraordinary student-athletes toward academic and basketball achievement as well as lifelong success and wellbeing."

Perhaps if it said,
"The Ivy League has become one of the preeminent women's basketball conferences in the country, and we'd like to be part of it..."

Three winning seasons in 17 years under Dayna Smith, a 2008 Ivy title and trip to the NCAAs, is suboptimal.

Good luck on finding a good coach. Let's find another Brian Earl (four losing years, Covid, two winning years, this team will finish > .750), get 5 years out of her or him, maybe the new coach stays longer and wins more.

billhoward

Three winning seasons in 17 years under Dayna Smith, a 2008 Ivy title and trip to the NCAAs, is suboptimal.

True, yet the 2008 tiebreaker at Columbia (against Dartmouth) was fun.

I imagine the fact that this is an endowed position made the choice easier, but good on Moore making this well-needed decision

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Colgate women’s coach, who Moore hired and has turned the Raiders program around, is on the short list.