Thought I'd write a short preview of next Monday's game against the Pepperdine Waves.
Pepperdine:
After an awful 9-23 season that included 3 separate 5+ game losing streaks, the Waves look to make a "splash" this year in the WCC. Picked to place 7th in the WCC in the preseason poll, but this speaks much more to the strength of one of the nation's premier mid-major conferences than it does to the strength of the all-new Pepperdine roster.
Portal acquisitions and preseason all-conference team members Petar Majstorovic and Will McClendon will lead the team. Majstorovic is a Junior Forward who started his career at Syracuse before transferring to Long Beach State, where he was an all-confrence honorable mention. McClendon is a 5th year guard who had a promising Junior year campaign at San Jose state before he transferred to UNT for his senior year, where his season was cut short after 4 games with an injury.
Pepperdine returns only one player of note from last year's season, so expect an uncertain team identity and potentially some growing pains as the team gets used to playing with each other. However, there is a lot of talent on this roster, and I expect this to be a great game and a suitable challenge for the Big Red.
On Cornell's end, expect a bit of regression from the teams of the last several years, but there is still plenty to be excited about. Junior Mateen Rafiq has the potential to be an all-ivy guard, and look to Jacob Beccles to finally take the leap that Cornell Basketball fans have been looking for since his promising Freshman season.
Anthony Nimani is my pick to surprise a lot of people. I expect him to take a huge jump this year, and by the end of the year, he'll be a name a lot of people (this is relative; we're talking about Ivy basketball here) will be talking about.
Kaspar Sepp was a somewhat promising, if not a little frustrating, option at the 5 last year, and I hope he can iron out his game.
I will also look to JJ Sanchez, a portal pickup from Citrus College, where he led one of the best JUCO teams in the country deep into the 3C2A playoffs, and freshmen Mikehi Williams and Quinn Gibson, to make an impact off the bench.
With the weakest Ivy field in years, and a proven winning coaching staff with an excellent track record of developing players, I am extremely excited about the season and what this team can accomplish.
Good summary, nycred. I would add that Pepperdine has a highly-rated freshman. From their write-up: "Freshman wing Alex Constanza arrived in Malibu as the highest-ranked high school recruit on record in program history. The 6-foot-8 wing from Miami was ranked No. 47 in the ESPN SCNEXT 100, No. 58 by Rivals and No. 59 in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2026. A consensus four-star prospect, Constanza is also the lone class of 2026 high school recruit on the roster."
The Waves are tall and the Big Red are not. The computers have this as one point game with Bart saying Pepperdine wins and Kenpom favoring the good guys. Of course, those models don't have much fresh data.
columbia v davidson [wbb] tipping off now. let's get this season started.
Women tackling UConn. ::)
Quote from: Al DeFlorio on November 02, 2026, 04:51:43 PMWomen tackling UConn. ::)
probably the best strategy for keeping it close
I've already seen enough of Sepp.
Pleased with this first half. Pepperdine is a good team and we are playing them well. This is the best the freshmen have looked in an opener in a while, and the most they've played in an opener in a while (don't care to look it up, but it has to be the most combined freshmen minutes in years).
So if this was 2025-26, we'd open up a lead here (which we have done), and around the 10-12 minute mark we'd go cold and the other team would start whittling it away until they took the lead and pulled away. It's a new season. Time for a different result.
Too many 2nd shots for Pepperdine. Gotta concede in today's college basketball world-talented bigs are not coming to Cornell.
Stop with the Harlem Globetrotters crap, stop fouling, get good shots.
i can't watch this. Same story every year.
Quote from: Mr. Niss on November 02, 2026, 07:14:52 PMSo if this was 2025-26, we'd open up a lead here (which we have done), and around the 10-12 minute mark we'd go cold and the other team would start whittling it away until they took the lead and pulled away. It's a new season. Time for a different result.
uhhhh
Cornell lead as big as 13 (more?) down to 3 with 2:52 to go
Just cannot defend inside
A typical relaxing 1 point win. Lots of good an bad. Freshmen Gipson and Williams are great additions and sure didn't play scared.
Defended barely enough to win 86-85. Cornell gave up the lead with ~20 seconds left.
Gibson got fouled, then missed both free throws badly but Cornell got the long rebound. Beccles hit a driving layup to retake the lead after a timeout.
Cornell forced a jump ball on an awkward drive from Constanza with the possession arrow in our favor. Got the ball in, and Kannavan was fouled immediately with under 6 seconds to go. He missed the front end of a one and one. Pepperdine was out of timeouts, drove, kicked the ball out to an open shooter behind the arc... brick. exhale.
What a game, some familiar flaws with this Cornell team but seeing way too much negativity and whining already.
86-85 Final Score, Cornell Big Red win against a great Pepperdine team, jacob beccles scores the game winning basket
+ great shooting from 3
+ great games from rafiq, beccles, imegwu
+ good contributions from newcomers quinn gibson (8 rebounds) and mikehi williams
- kaspar sepp turnover that almost cost us the game (13 7 and 6 tho)
- too much fouling
- late game near-collapse
kaspar sepp is so close to being good but also so dangerously weird. terrible ball handler, reluctant shooter, too-aggressive passer. there's something there, though. i see why jaques plays him.
Quote from: ugarte on November 02, 2026, 08:24:39 PMkaspar sepp is so close to being good but also so dangerously weird. terrible ball handler, reluctant shooter, too-aggressive passer. there's something there, though. i see why jaques plays him.
All true, but not like Jaques has a lot of other options on the bench who are arguably a "big".
Quote from: nycred on November 02, 2026, 08:18:23 PM- kaspar sepp turnover that almost cost us the game (13 7 and 6 tho)
- too much fouling
- late game near-collapse
stop the negativity and whining
Quote from: Mr. Niss on November 02, 2026, 10:07:46 PMQuote from: nycred on November 02, 2026, 08:18:23 PM- kaspar sepp turnover that almost cost us the game (13 7 and 6 tho)
- too much fouling
- late game near-collapse
stop the negativity and whining
i can't tell if you're joking
Quote from: scoop85 on November 02, 2026, 08:47:14 PMQuote from: ugarte on November 02, 2026, 08:24:39 PMkaspar sepp is so close to being good but also so dangerously weird. terrible ball handler, reluctant shooter, too-aggressive passer. there's something there, though. i see why jaques plays him.
All true, but not like Jaques has a lot of other options on the bench who are arguably a "big".
And by not a lot, you mean "none." It's not like Jeff Foote is sitting on the bench looking for PT. Imegwu has skills, but he's a shooter not a rebounder. Sepp is flawed, but fine.
I will take a win where the other guys get 18 more FTs and 6 more offensive rebounds. It really felt like more.
Very impressed by the poise and skills of Gibson and Williams; though Gibson's first two FT's were ugly. Have we had a true freshman play such important minutes since Nazir?