ELynah Forum

Quote from: billhoward on December 27, 2025, 04:48:55 PMBackground check makes sense. The wording of the announcement was awkard. Might have been better to say "made official once paperwork [or formalities or administrative details] are finished."

It could be details were about to leak out, so Cornell got a story out quickly.

A while back (like 50 years ago), working summers for the Rochester paper, I broke a story on Cornell hiring a new basketball coach. Cornell was about a week away from going official. Fast forward 3 years and The Sun broke a story on his firing for violating some mickey mouse NCAA rules, the players actively disliking him, and an alcohol problem. Cornell runs a much tighter ship now.

Ahh, Tony Coma, those were the days....

Quote from: chimpfood on January 02, 2026, 02:51:36 PMWe have Alfred State tripled up at halftime. They are 2-10 as a DIII school. Yikes

Final 133 - 65.  A new all-time scoring record for the Big Red -- by 10 points.

Cornell has played Alfred State twice.  This was the close game.  I guess it was a workout, got some game time for the deep bench, and no one got hurt.  Otherwise, on Monday it counts.

Beccles is definitely a PG, but next down the list is ... Rafiq?  According to KenPom, Baldwin gets the second most minutes at PG (not his best position) then Fishburne and Noard. 

Nix is probably best suited for PF, but how many minutes can you give DJ? -- same with Sepp (who is way undersized at center).  Everyone else is really is a SG, though Fiegen is skilled enough to play a smallish SF.  This is only survivable playing the style we do, but it's limiting and exploitable. 

Cannot see the guys staying with MSU.

Thought I would share a look at the rest of the league.  For dramatic purposes, teams are ordered along the pre-season poll.

1)  Yale.  The Bulldogs were the preseason favorite and have looked the part.  Yale is 11-1; their only loss is to a good, but not great, URI squad.  They don't have a WOW win (Akron's good, but they are still Akron).  Maybe they get a win at Alabama on Monday. They have the league's best coach and the favorite for Ivy POY in Nick Townsend (the only returning member of last year's all-Ivy 1st team).  Nick averaged 23 and 7 against the good guys last year.  What's unusual is that they are doing this with offense and not defense; Yale is top five in three point percentage and free throw percentage, while the computers say their defense is below average.  The Elis are close to a lock for the ILT.

2) Harvard.  The Crimson have underwhelmed.  Amaker's strength as a coach has always been recruiting.  In the darkest timeline, the Crimson would have the last two ROY's and the odds on favorite for this year.  In this timeline, Mack took his talents to G-town and 4 Star Elzie Harrington stayed on the west coast at San Diego St.  What's left is effectively a six man team (they are bottom 20 in bench minutes) and the Crimson are just 6-7, with five of those wins against really bad teams.  Sure, that squad has the reigning ROY in Hinton, and some good players in Pigge, Barbour and Batties, but they look flat. Still, that talented core will be a tough out on most nights.

3) Cornell.  Still 3rd with the computers and will host the ILT.  See the rest of this forum for details.

4) Princeton.  If the Crimson have underwhelmed, the Tigers have seriously disappointed.  Xaivian Lee took the money (rumored to be $5 Million+) and ran to Florida.  Caden Pierce is taking the year off to graduate and chase his bag o' money next year. **Not a criticism, I'd avoid Princeton grads for free, let alone for a lot of cash.**  Dalen Davis has been hurt.  Princeton is 3-11 and has lost 8 straight.  They have really struggled on offense as this is the worst shooting Princeton team I can remember.  Otherwise, they look like your standard issue Princeton team; they play slow and hold teams to one shot.  I've watched enough Ivy hoops that I'm not counting out the Tigers until they are formally eliminated -- no team plays the role of a cliched horror movie villain better -- but this looks like a lost season for the Tigers.  Now watch them rise from their grave again.

5) Dartmouth.  The Big Green finished a surprising 3rd last year, but team leader Ryan Cornish is gone (graduated and starting at USC). Brandon Mitchell-Day returns after being second team All-Ivy, along with two other senior starters, but whatever magic they had last year looks gone. The Big Green are 5-6 and coming off a terrible 22 point loss to Sacred Heart. Yeah, I didn't see Dartmouth making a run last year, but a repeat performance would stun me.  Sure, Cornell may lose in Hanover, that's a Big Red tradition in all sports, but I don't see a repeat ILT appearance for a team that is sixth on both offense and defense according to the computers.

6. Brown.  Keno Lilly and Aaron Cooley are gone, both of whom did the crazy thing of playing four years at the same school and graduating.  Landon Lewis was hurt to start the season and has not yet gotten his game into gear.  As a result, the Bears showcase the worst offense in the league and bottom 50 nationally.  Mike Martin is a good coach, and his teams normally play great D, but that's too much to ask of any team.  They are currently 5-7 and those wins are against teams that would finish last in the Ivies.  Brown will, as always, win their share of rock fights and be a tough out every night.  They also have one of the better freshman in starting freshman Isaiah Langham.

7. Penn.  The Quakers are winning for new coach Fran McCaffery, but I'm still trying to figure what to make of them.  They are 6-5 and playing exactly like a team that is on the fringe of the top 200. They are top 20 in three point shooting and bottom 40 in two point shooting.  Most annoying is that they have a freshman center in Dalton Scantlebury who has looked pretty good.

8. Columbia.  The league's surprise with a 9-3 record under new coach Kevin Hovde.  Some of you may be thinking: "wait didn't they do that last year?"  And you would be right.  The Lions started 11-1, before finishing 1-13 in the league and firing Jim Engles.  Like last year, the schedule this year has been bad.  Shoot, last year they won at 'nova by 10, which is far more impressive win that this year's best, which is beating Hofstra at home by 2. (Not to say the Hofstra win wasn't a good one).  But honestly, Cornell would be no worse than 8-4 against the Lions' schedule.  Maybe things will be different with the new coach, or maybe we are seeing the same crappy schedule mirage.  We will start to know January 5th when Columbia comes to Ithaca.  Last year, Cornell opened up an early 17 point lead at Columbia and, despite some garbage time issues, cruised to a win. Then the wheels came off in NYC.

tl/dr -- Yale will make the ILT, 2-8 will be a logjam, and if Cornell can make the top 4, someone will have beat then in Newman to make the NCAA.  And the Ivy's have one top 100 win so far -- Yale over Akron.

Quote from: chimpfood on December 18, 2025, 01:07:46 AMI truly think that John Smith is the best coach at this school, even over Buczek and Derraugh. The way he has turned this program around from the punching bag of the Ivy League to a consistent national presence is so impressive. I have no idea what his contract situation looks like but I really hope Moore and the athletic department can keep him here for a long time, it seems like he really is special, in terms of both X's and O's coaching as well as recruiting.

Strong words!  I think most of us have forgotten how terrible our women's hockey team was before Doug.  But fully agree that John Smith is outstanding at his job.

Quote from: ugarte on December 14, 2025, 10:58:35 AMAt 150, Tyler Traves won 6-1 (SV) to take 7th place. Traves was the 6 seed. He isn't on the Big Board, but outperformed Michael Turi (36) in the same bracket. Turi is a fellow Cornell recruit graduating this Spring and lost in R12.

Could be an interesting battle in the room for the next few seasons.

That too.  The issue is, from looking at the numbers, we aren't generating enough turnovers off the double-teams.  The last couple of Brian Earl teams were really good at forcing turnovers, though Manon and Gray were a big reason why.

Yeah, that was a bad loss against a mediocre opponent.  All in all, a very disappointing trip.

The rest of the non-conference schedule is: a d3 gimme, a very winnable game at Albany who still has not beaten a D1 opponent and the paycheck game at Michigan State.

This team's D is brutal.  Rim protection is an issue, but we are also getting beaten off the dribble way too often. 

I know most of us have moved on, but this year's mens' final 4 is:  15 Seed NC State, 16 Furman, Washington and St. Louis.  And, of course, Vermont won last year.

If we can maintain our current level of success, which is easy for me to say, a deep run in soccer is possible.

Bottom line on this one was the Patriots had too much height and got to the rim far too easily.  George Mason could win the A-10, so this was always a longshot.

Sepp has taken a beating in this forum, but IMHO there are two starters who have been worse so far this year.  At least this team has depth and can bring Fiegen and Baldwin (especially Fiegen) off the bench for quality minutes.

The game I am curious about is Wednesday night.  Towson is the opposite of Cornell.  They play very slowly, don't go that deep, have a ton of height, don't shoot well, but rebound very well.  It will be interesting to see how the guys adapt.  I only wish it wasn't the night after another game.

Quote from: scoop85 on November 30, 2025, 04:59:08 PMTidy 29 point win over an injury depleted Bucknell team that isn't great to begin with. Amazing we can win games without an effective player over 6'5"

Not to insult a solid performance, but your first sentence kind of answers your second -- at least for Sunday.  Still, good to see the guys take care of business.

Press Release

Tonight should be a good test.  Much better Patriot League team than the guys have played so far.  KenPom says Cornell is a 2pt favorite, though Vegas seems to say the Big Red by 4.5.  You have to think the Raiders will try to exploit the Big Red's interior and Jon has only had one practice to prepare.

Cornell is not going to win often when they shoot 6-31 from behind the arc.

Still, two competitive games against good opponents and without a key player.  Hope Fiegen is back this week and makes a difference.  He should.

Lafayette and Army are games the Big Red should win.