American 65 Men's B-Ball 63

[RichH]

Yes, nearly lost, in my mind. A close battle sometimes turns on an event not near the end. Cornell led early, we kept it close in much of the second half, and it wasn't until the closing minutes that Kentucky pulled away. Had Cornell not gone cold on three-pointers, we would have advanced. The Kentucky breakaway baskets were spectacular but still only worth two points. As the years go by, we're going to remember Ryan Wittman having an off night of his own doing and forgetting whether it was a Kentucky defense that forced imperfect shots and created turnovers.

Rick Pitino should be coach of the year because he basically has to recruit an entire team each year. Courtney only has to recruit 25% each year.

I guess enough years have already gone by for you to remember that we played a team coached by Rick Pitino, and not John Calipari.  Eh, it's an election year...it's trendy to change all the facts to match whatever narrative you'd like. Hey, remember when we had Antoine Walker and Jamal Mashburn on the ropes in the Elite 8? They were only up by double our score at halftime.  Adolf Rupp was so nervous to be in such a perilous predicament!

Burns:     Honestly, Smithers, I don't know why Harvard even bothers to
           show up.  They barely even won.

Smithers:  Their cheating was even more rampant than last year, sir.

[billhoward]

Yep: Wrong UMass guy. Want the ex-UMass coach, Calipari, not the ex-player, Pitino. But they like each other so much, the two are almost interchangeable. Thanks.

[scoop85]

This was not a close game. It was never a close game. Cornell started with a 10-2 lead because they hit a few shots. Then Kentucky went on a 30-6 run to close the half. THAT was what the real difference in talent was. Wittman wasn't missing shots because he was off - Witmann was missing shots because Kentucky decided to play defense. The second half was cruise control for Kentucky. Anything that looked like a comeback for Cornell was quickly stopped by Kentucky applying something called "effort."

Temple and Wisconsin were precisely the kinds of BCS teams that Cornell could beat: low-scoring, relatively plodding teams that win with defense. Kentucky was a much more talented version of the matchup problems that Cornell faced in Stanford and Missouri the previous two years. The Kentucky game was never a contest even if, for 5 minutes, we could dare to dream.

It does no favors to the memory of the best team Cornell has ever had - and may ever have - to pretend that they were on the same level as Kentucky (even given the near-miracle against Kansas).

As for the loss against American - disappointing result, but the late charge is encouraging. This is probably a lost year given Harvard's likely dominance anyway, so I like the idea of letting the team build to another run at the Ivy title and maybe, just maybe, the stars can align again to take another NCAA tournament game.

Spot-on analysis.  We never had the horses to really play with them.

[phillysportsfan]

American loss doesnt look so bad today, American has won its last 6 against relatively weak competition but tonight beat a top 100 St Joes team that has been playing very well

[semsox]

American loss doesnt look so bad today, American has won its last 6 against relatively weak competition but tonight beat a top 100 St Joes team that has been playing very well

Not to mention our own top 100 team that we beat this weekend, which was coming off of 6 straight wins, the last 5 by double digits.

[Willy '06]

Looks like Harvard just cracked the top 25.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

[Chris '03]

While we're drifting, Harvard cracked the top 25 this week. The AP notes:

Harvard is the first Ivy League school to be ranked since Princeton cracked the top 10 late in the 1997-98 season.

I coulda sworn there was an Ivy team ranked in 2010. ::uhoh::

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/05/sports/ncaabasketball/AP-BKC-T25-College-Bkb-Poll.html?_r=1&ref=sports

ETA: Though perhaps I, like Bill, have a bad memory and didn't remember that Cornell only cracked the Coaches poll T25. ::stupid::

[Swampy]

While we're drifting, Harvard cracked the top 25 this week. The AP notes:

Harvard is the first Ivy League school to be ranked since Princeton cracked the top 10 late in the 1997-98 season.

I coulda sworn there was an Ivy team ranked in 2010. ::uhoh::

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/05/sports/ncaabasketball/AP-BKC-T25-College-Bkb-Poll.html?_r=1&ref=sports

ETA: Though perhaps I, like Bill, have a bad memory and didn't remember that Cornell only cracked the Coaches poll T25. ::stupid::

I remember we were 17th at the end of the season. Does the AP poll not continue through the Sweet 16, or was there such a large disparity between the two polls?

[phillysportsfan]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings/_/year/2010
That last poll was the Coaches poll. It only matters where you are ranked at the end of the season.

[phillysportsfan]

American loss doesnt look so bad today, American has won its last 6 against relatively weak competition but tonight beat a top 100 St Joes team that has been playing very well

Not to mention our own top 100 team that we beat this weekend, which was coming off of 6 straight wins, the last 5 by double digits.

Yeah who would have thought Miles and Gray would carry us to a win over a top 100 team???

[mountainred]

American loss doesnt look so bad today, American has won its last 6 against relatively weak competition but tonight beat a top 100 St Joes team that has been playing very well

Not to mention our own top 100 team that we beat this weekend, which was coming off of 6 straight wins, the last 5 by double digits.

Yeah who would have thought Miles and Gray would carry us to a win over a top 100 team???

I'll admit I didn't think it was possible.  And I'm glad they proved me wrong.

[Al DeFlorio]

Looks like Harvard just cracked the top 25.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

Can "scout" Harvard vs. UConn tonight at 7 EST on ESPN2.