ELynah Forum

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.

Good call on Rafiq, I completely forgot about him!  He was the first frosh to play in game 1.  Thought he looked good, but so hard to tell against a D3 opponent.

24/7 lists Nix as the best prospectCornell landed in 20 years.  Better than anyone on the 2010 crew, Matt Morgan, Shonn Miller, anyone.  That should mean something, but if you look at the rest of their top 10, it probably doesn't.  FYI next year recruit Ryan Burbach is 4th on their list.

At worst, the guys will play entertaining, if occasionally frustrating, ball and be around .500.  If Jon hits on a couple of recruits, it could be better.  If he doesn't, next year could be tough.  But I will worry about that later.

With the season starting this weekend, why not drop a quick summary of the men's team.

I thought Jon Jaques did a really nice job in his first season as coach last year.  Cornell was the clear second best team in the league, unfortunately Yale was even more clearly the best.  Two of the losses to the Elis were close, but they won all three.  Now, Jon has go without his three best players.

But, there is still some talent.  That talent is mainly in the back court.  Senior Cooper Noard toyed with the transfer portal, but returned.  He's a skilled shooter and the computer models have him as the likely leading scorer this season.  Jake Fiegan, who reclassified so this is his last year with Cornell (ugh), would be my pick as the best all around player; he's efficient with the ball and a good defender.  I'm going to be glass half-full and be thankful he didn't enter the portal this past off season.  Junior Jacob Beccles is electric with the ball and more of a true point than the other two guards.  I'm a fan, but the first game notes don't list him as a "potential starter" for whatever that's worth.  Instead it lists senior Adam Hinton.  Adam started to earn more PT last year and was solid, but my money says Jacob gets more minutes over the course of the season.  Sophomores Anthony Nimani and Gioacchino Panzini got the most minutes as frosh last year, and flashed some skill, but did not play enough to really know.  Last year's freshman weren't much of a factor.  Senior Josh Baldwin is a wild card.  I've liked him when he's played, but he cannot stay healthy.  There is also Juco transfer DaMaryon Fishburn.

The issue, as everyone on this board has noted, is the front court.  Gone are Ragland and Okereke.  The games notes list senior DJ Nix and Junior transfer Kaspar Sepp as the starting forwards.  Nix was a highly-regarded recruit who has not developed as I had hoped.  He's athletic, but has struggled with his shot and Jacques barely used him in last year's ILT.  But if he puts it together, he could have a huge year.  Sepp is a transfer from Valpo.  He started two years there, averaging 4 points and 5 rebounds.  The Big Red will be leaning on him to save us on the glass.  Maybe the WSU transfer AJ LeBeau asserts himself, but he was relegated to the deep bench last year. I can see a lot of four and five guard sets in our future, but three years ago did anyone see Okereke exploding?  Put your hand down, you did not.  I have no idea what to expect with the freshman, but none are coming in with Shonn Miller like reviews.

The league is in flux, really good players departed all over the place.  Yale is a heavy favorite, then basically who knows? Cornell was picked third by the official poll; Kenpom says Cornell and Brown tie for third at 7-7; Bart Torvik says third in a tie with Brown and Princeton.  All of them have Harvard second.  As you will hear a ton, the ILT is at Newman so the guys have have to finish 4th.  I don't think Cornell has the firepower to beat Yale over a 14 game stretch.  But they can win two home games.

This weekend is a pair of challenging midwest road games @ Kent St and @Illinois St.  A split would be fantastic.  Then five winnable games to close out November.  We will know a lot more after Thanksgiving.

Sorry for going on so long.  Hope this helps.

Quote from: ugarte on November 04, 2025, 04:22:31 PM

Quote from: scoop85 on November 04, 2025, 02:00:22 PMThanks as always for your informative summary. If Shapiro is fully healthy, do you think he can win it all or is AA now his ceiling?

he can absolutely win it all. he has to stop bouncing his head off of the mat in funky positions.

ugarte doesn't need my support when it comes to wrestling, but I will second his opinion.  A healthy Shapiro is national champion quality. I can absolutely see him making a Nahshon or Vito like run through nationals telling the field: "This is my title, have fun competing for second."  Yes, I know Nahshon's win in the championship was 7-6, but it was the most lopsided 7-6 win in wrestling history.

The preseason poll has Cornell picked 3rd, just behind Harvard.  Yale is the unanimous pick to win, and Columbia is a distant 8th.

That's correct.  And before Jeff, you really need the Wayback Machine.

Four games against teams in the bottom 40 of RPI is a heavy anchor.  And Western Michigan was supposed to be much better.  Though the Broncos could close strong.

Quote from: RichH

Quote from: chimpfoodI'm less confident, I just hope we can sneak our way into Ivy madness after losing so many key pieces. Noard isn't a guy that I see being able to take on most of the volume scoring that we're losing from Naz, AK, etc so I think we're gonna need to see some other guys step it up. If Beccles can become a bona fide point guard or Hinton can become a 10/5/5 guy with good defense I love our odds though.

Didn't know about the Michigan state game, that's exciting.

We're really falling into the "ivy madness" marketing, eh?  The ILT does seem all that, but what do I know?

I hope not.  There is no need to give a small conference post-season tournament, which are as common as crabgrass, a cute brand.  And I like Ivy hoops!

The cupboard isn't bare, but the losses from last year are pretty significant. I agree that a top four finish is doable and since the tournament is at Newman, who knows? But we're talking a 15-11 kind of season, not 20 wins, unless the newcomers are really good.

Quote from: ugarteNot making a new thread for this but Chris Mañon had a very good summer league and was signed to a two-way deal by the Lakers. He'll probably wind up in the G but that's still cool.

Also, the NBA spells his name with a tilde which I don't think Cornell ever did.

Vandy did too.  I think Chris made the switch last year.  I remember watching a Vandy game, maybe in the NCAAs, and the announcers were pronouncing his name slightly differently.

It seems early to start a generic hoops thread, so more thread drift here.

Princeton's Caden Pierce, the 23-24 POY, is sitting out this upcoming season so he can take grad year somewhere else and get some sweet NIL money.

That's good news for Cornell's chances of making the ILT in its host year.  Yale is lock to make the ILT, as they always are, Columbia is mess until proven otherwise, and everyone else is in the hopper with a chance to make the ILT (Penn fans have anointed their Quakers as clear #2, your mileage may vary).

Watching St. Mary's/Vandy and I had to confirm that the Cornell pronunciation guide from last year said it was Chris MANN-in.  It's his name, and Chris would hardly be the first to ask for a change, but I had to double check that I wasn't getting wrong for four years.

Quote from: scoop85

Quote from: nycredMañon got paid in the mid-six figures to play at Vandy this year, I imagine AK could probably get something similar if maybe a little less.

I think Okereke has become a better player than Manon and should fetch at least as good an NIL package.

Hate that AK's Cornell career may be (probably is) over, but I can't fault a family for stopping tuition payments after three years.  Have to think AK will be in heavy demand as a grad transfer.  I'd pick him over Manon, and I liked Chris a lot, every time.

Quote from: ugarte

Quote from: ugarte

Quote from: scoop85

Quote from: Mr. Nissdisappointing that the Ivy runner up was not seen to merit a bid to the NIT this year ... we pretty well outranked a handful of teams that made the NIT on KenPom

Agreed, I wanted to see these guys get at least one more game together.

In the first round, Samford (who we beat) is playing at George Mason (who beat us.)

Looking at KenPom, there are four teams ranked below us who made the NIT:

San Jose State (15-19) is in ... because they said yes. Mountain West had an autobid for the top team not in the NCAAs; UNLV, Nevada and Boise State (going to the Crown) all declined.

Kent State is in as the MAC autobid.

UC Riverside? Big West only gets one autobid and Irvine and Northridge are also in the field.

Furman?!? The SoCon doesn't even get an automatic bid, and Chattanooga and Samford are also in the field.

We may have been left out for geographical reasons. They try to keep travel light; Riverside is playing at Santa Clara and Furman (Greenville, SC) is heading to North Texas (Austin). St. Bonaventure is hosting a midwest autobid (Kent State) and any other geographically sensible opponent is hosting someone ranked ahead of us.

Cornell was probably in the band of possibles, but only because so many teams bagged. Looks like tOSU, Penn St., WVU, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, Pitt, Kansas State, Rutgers (what a disappointing year they had), Minnesota, Florida State, Virginia, and UNLV all called it a season.  I was hoping that would open up a spot of our guys, but travel probably played a big role.  If PSU had agreed to go, we might have have been their opponent (another reason to dislike the Nits).

Cornell almost certainly could have gone to the CBI, they couldn't even fill their 16 team bracket and their best team is probably Ill. St.  But I imagine the school thought there were better uses for what that would have cost.

At least Princeton wasn't picked over Cornell.

Quote from: arugulaThat's a shame. Great coach. Never should've left here. Could've been a Shaferesque institution. Went for the lottery ticket.

Hate to hear it, but you knew he wasn't surviving this season.  

It packs less of an emotional punch, but Engles is out at Columbia.

Cain is the 11th man in Cornell's 10 man rotation.  Most games Chris gets 3-4 quiet minutes at the end of the first half, or for a possession before a media timeout, to keep Ragland from picking up an extra foul; he's fine in that role.  Kiachian has been a pleasant surprise this year considering his prior Cornell career, and he has helped immensely as a rebounder.  Sure, Ragland is a better player, but Ryan's a useful option off the bench.

Ragland is actually seeing career highs in minutes, about 10% more time on the court than under Earl.  Of course, it is his first year as a starter and Jon rides his starters more heavily than Brian did. His issue is that he can get in foul trouble.  Not like Chris Manon, but enough that Jon has to regulate the minutes so that he has Guy available at the end.

Yale is physical and as a result they are elite on the glass while Cornell, well, isn't.  For the Big Red to win, they can't afford to have one of those games with they are giving up double digit offensive rebounds.  Keep Yale honest on the boards, and this one is highly winnable.