2013-2014 Basketball

[CAS]

Andy, your silence is deafening.

[phillysportsfan]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1137865

Hard not to laugh when reading this article, Courtney sure said all the right things to get hired:

"He said 'The Sweet 16 was great; why not Elite Eight?' " Wroblewski said. "He could tell there was talent left."

"When I got to George Mason with Jim Larranaga, we had to teach guys how to win and perform and behave like winners," said Courtney, who was an assistant with the Patriots from 1997-2005. "These guys understand that already. You can spend more time X'ing and O'ing."

[mountainred]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1137865

Hard not to laugh when reading this article, Courtney sure said all the right things to get hired:

"He said 'The Sweet 16 was great; why not Elite Eight?' " Wroblewski said. "He could tell there was talent left."

"When I got to George Mason with Jim Larranaga, we had to teach guys how to win and perform and behave like winners," said Courtney, who was an assistant with the Patriots from 1997-2005. "These guys understand that already. You can spend more time X'ing and O'ing."

The X'ing and O'ing has to start soon, right?

[Ken711]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1137865

Hard not to laugh when reading this article, Courtney sure said all the right things to get hired:

"He said 'The Sweet 16 was great; why not Elite Eight?' " Wroblewski said. "He could tell there was talent left."

"When I got to George Mason with Jim Larranaga, we had to teach guys how to win and perform and behave like winners," said Courtney, who was an assistant with the Patriots from 1997-2005. "These guys understand that already. You can spend more time X'ing and O'ing."

The X'ing and O'ing has to start soon, right?

"NCAA Elite Eight"?  LOL, I think meant Ancient Eight is in the Ivy League....

[mountainred]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1137865

Hard not to laugh when reading this article, Courtney sure said all the right things to get hired:

"He said 'The Sweet 16 was great; why not Elite Eight?' " Wroblewski said. "He could tell there was talent left."

"When I got to George Mason with Jim Larranaga, we had to teach guys how to win and perform and behave like winners," said Courtney, who was an assistant with the Patriots from 1997-2005. "These guys understand that already. You can spend more time X'ing and O'ing."

The X'ing and O'ing has to start soon, right?

"NCAA Elite Eight"?  LOL, I think meant Ancient Eight is in the Ivy League....

Also from the article: "Unlike a handful of coaches taking over a program, Courtney doesn't need to turn a losing culture into a winning one."

Unfortunatley, his successor will.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1137865

Hard not to laugh when reading this article, Courtney sure said all the right things to get hired:

"He said 'The Sweet 16 was great; why not Elite Eight?' " Wroblewski said. "He could tell there was talent left."

"When I got to George Mason with Jim Larranaga, we had to teach guys how to win and perform and behave like winners," said Courtney, who was an assistant with the Patriots from 1997-2005. "These guys understand that already. You can spend more time X'ing and O'ing."

The X'ing and O'ing has to start soon, right?

"NCAA Elite Eight"?  LOL, I think meant Ancient Eight is in the Ivy League....

Also from the article: "Unlike a handful of coaches taking over a program, Courtney doesn't need to turn a losing culture into a winning one."

Seems he did just the opposite.

[Josh '99]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1137865

Hard not to laugh when reading this article, Courtney sure said all the right things to get hired:

"He said 'The Sweet 16 was great; why not Elite Eight?' " Wroblewski said. "He could tell there was talent left."

"When I got to George Mason with Jim Larranaga, we had to teach guys how to win and perform and behave like winners," said Courtney, who was an assistant with the Patriots from 1997-2005. "These guys understand that already. You can spend more time X'ing and O'ing."

The X'ing and O'ing has to start soon, right?

"NCAA Elite Eight"?  LOL, I think meant Ancient Eight is in the Ivy League....

Also from the article: "Unlike a handful of coaches taking over a program, Courtney doesn't need to turn a losing culture into a winning one."

Seems he did just the opposite.

I don't buy this.  Cornell basketball never had a "winning culture".  Cornell lacrosse has a winning culture, which is why the program continues to be solid this year without Pannell and DeLuca and all the other departures.  Cornell basketball is a historically mediocre-to-bad program that had one really awesome three-year run.

[CAS]

Cornell basketball had a winning Ivy record for each of Donahue's last 6 years. There is no reason
Cornell can't produce a competitive program. Look at the recent success of some of the other Ivies,
who certainly haven't had a winning tradition.

[Josh '99]

Cornell basketball had a winning Ivy record for each of Donahue's last 6 years. There is no reason
Cornell can't produce a competitive program. Look at the recent success of some of the other Ivies,
who certainly haven't had a winning tradition.

No, that's true.  There's no fundamental reason Cornell can't produce a competitive program, certainly not at the Ivy level.  But that's different from acting like they've historically been a successful program.

[phillysportsfan]

The X'ing and O'ing has to start soon, right?

Now they dont have the time.


http://www.thedp.com/article/2014/03/penn-student-arrested-for-one-of-eight-burglaries-in-quad

Penn is giving Cornell a good fight for which basketball team is at a lower point, one of their players was just arrested for burglary

[mountainred]

Cornell basketball had a winning Ivy record for each of Donahue's last 6 years. There is no reason
Cornell can't produce a competitive program. Look at the recent success of some of the other Ivies,
who certainly haven't had a winning tradition.

No, that's true.  There's no fundamental reason Cornell can't produce a competitive program, certainly not at the Ivy level.  But that's different from acting like they've historically been a successful program.

The team Courtney inherited knew only Ivy titles; now there isn't a player left who remembers an Ivy winning record.  Harvard's basketball history was even worse than ours until Tommy decided the AI was more of a suggestion than a rule.  Harvard now has a culture of winning and they expect to win every Ivy game they play.  Team cultures have four year lifespans.

Once upon a time, I would have been very happy to have a program like Penn in basketball.  Now that we may have it, I don't want it.

[ugarte]

Team cultures have four year lifespans.

Thank you for this. Without glossing over how full the collapse has been, can we at least acknowledge that Donohue left Cornell just as the best senior class in Cornell history was graduating? There were some good players left on the team, and they had a history of success, but that success was due mostly to people who were no longer going to be playing basketball for Cornell. There was no team culture of winning. There were better players, so the team won.

[Swampy]

Team cultures have four year lifespans.

Thank you for this. Without glossing over how full the collapse has been, can we at least acknowledge that Donohue left Cornell just as the best senior class in Cornell history was graduating? There were some good players left on the team, and they had a history of success, but that success was due mostly to people who were no longer going to be playing basketball for Cornell. There was no team culture of winning. There were better players, so the team won.

Materialist!

[mountainred]

Team cultures have four year lifespans.

Thank you for this. Without glossing over how full the collapse has been, can we at least acknowledge that Donohue left Cornell just as the best senior class in Cornell history was graduating? There were some good players left on the team, and they had a history of success, but that success was due mostly to people who were no longer going to be playing basketball for Cornell. There was no team culture of winning. There were better players, so the team won.

We are probably way past the beating a dead horse stage, but is anyone not acknowledging that the Class of 2010 was the best senior class in Cornell basketball history?  There's a pretty good argument that three of the five best players in school history were in that class.

I completely agree that the team culture when Courtney took over as built by guys who were about to graduate.  Still, guys like 'ski, Wire and Peck expected to win and there was the opportunity to maintain some of that.  But, team cultures are fragile and can turnover quickly.  Our has and the next Cornell basketball coach will have to start from scratch at instilling a winning attitude.