Just out......#25 in basketball

[David Harding]

A the moment Ken Pomeroy's B-T calculation puts Cornell at #21.  His own system has Cornell at #44.

John Wobus has us at 20 in his KRACH (B-T) ratings as of 2/2/10.http://www.vaporia.com/sports/collegebasketballkrach.html

As you noted, the Wobus ratings are only through 2/2 (3505 games), while the Pomeroy number I quoted includes games through 2/5 (3654 games).  Another, less important, difference is that Wobus includes a phantom tie between each team and a team with a rating of 100.  Pomeroy includes that same phantom tie, but decreases its weight as the season progresses, with it currently standing at 0.00001.

[phillysportsfan]

In furtherance of the "enjoy it while we can" moment, I'll mention that the score tracker at the bottom of the Lakers Nuggets game on ESPN has NCAAM in the rotation with one dot, shows the Cornell over Yale score, then moves onto the next category.  Yes, I take pleasure in the simple things. :-)

Yeah, and at halftime during today's Georgetown - Villanova game on ESPN the announcers were running down the Big East teams and their changes of getting to the Dance. When the got to Syracuse, they asked what was its best non-conference win. After rattling off a list including California, North Carolina, Florida,and Memphis, they agreed that the win over Cornell was the best. ::wow::

Boy, is this great or what?::banana::

Yeah they were also discussing this on the Cuse forum http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=185&f=2825&t=5583569

[kingpin248]

The "Pomeroy" B-T calculation is actually not by Pomeroy - it's by me. I am simply using his data set and tipping my hat to him, just as JTW credits the USCHO CHN composite schedule. It is not a coincidence that my B-T tables look very similar to the KRACH; I mention on the main page the impetus for me to start calculating these.

Cornell was #16 after last Saturday and at 20 heading into last night's play. The one spot drop, despite the win, can be attributed in part to Princeton beating Harvard (dropped the Crimson from the mid-70s to 92). After the Tigers (146), the rest of the league is in the bottom 20% of D-I: Columbia 276, Yale 306, Brown 327, Dartmouth 328, Penn 331.

[ugarte]

In furtherance of the "enjoy it while we can" moment, I'll mention that the score tracker at the bottom of the Lakers Nuggets game on ESPN has NCAAM in the rotation with one dot, shows the Cornell over Yale score, then moves onto the next category.  Yes, I take pleasure in the simple things. :-)

Yeah, and at halftime during today's Georgetown - Villanova game on ESPN the announcers were running down the Big East teams and their changes of getting to the Dance. When the got to Syracuse, they asked what was its best non-conference win. After rattling off a list including California, North Carolina, Florida,and Memphis, they agreed that the win over Cornell was the best. ::wow::

Boy, is this great or what?::banana::

It is great but... I'm not sure I buy it. I love how well this season is going and I hope the ride continues to the Sweet 16 and beyond but the press is going overboard enjoying a really good run by an Ivy League team that isn't Penn/Princeton.

By most ranking systems, Cornell's best win this year is Alabama, a borderline NIT team. By others, it is Harvard (or it was until they lost to Princeton). Yes, Cornell should get credit for the close loss to Kansas but only so much. The loss to Seton Hall at home no longer looks very good and the loss to Syracuse was not as close as people are making it out to be. They are also coasting on "name" midmajor wins that aren't very impressive this year: UMass, Bucknell, Davidson and Vermont aren't very good - and both Davidson and Bucknell were OT games.

Tonight, Cornell beat a not-good Brown team by 14 after leading by only 2 with 7 and change to go. I hope that they aren't reading too much of their own press.

[phillysportsfan]

The good thing about the game tonight is that it was a chance to get a bad game out of the way before we go on the road for the next 2 weekends. I am sure Donahue will use this game as motivation that if they dont play tough defensively they can lose to any team in the Ivy league on the right night. Assuming both Cornell and Princeton win Friday night, Saturday night becomes a huge game Cornell @ Princeton between 2 undefeated Ivy teams. They better be ready because Princeton beat us 61-41 last year @ Princeton. I think Princeton is more vulnerable to a loss to a bad Ivy team than we are but Princeton is sure playing with a lot of confidence especially after winning @ Harvard.

[Jim Hyla]

In furtherance of the "enjoy it while we can" moment, I'll mention that the score tracker at the bottom of the Lakers Nuggets game on ESPN has NCAAM in the rotation with one dot, shows the Cornell over Yale score, then moves onto the next category.  Yes, I take pleasure in the simple things. :-)

Yeah, and at halftime during today's Georgetown - Villanova game on ESPN the announcers were running down the Big East teams and their changes of getting to the Dance. When the got to Syracuse, they asked what was its best non-conference win. After rattling off a list including California, North Carolina, Florida,and Memphis, they agreed that the win over Cornell was the best. ::wow::

Boy, is this great or what?::banana::

It is great but... I'm not sure I buy it. I love how well this season is going and I hope the ride continues to the Sweet 16 and beyond but the press is going overboard enjoying a really good run by an Ivy League team that isn't Penn/Princeton.

By most ranking systems, Cornell's best win this year is Alabama, a borderline NIT team. By others, it is Harvard (or it was until they lost to Princeton). Yes, Cornell should get credit for the close loss to Kansas but only so much. The loss to Seton Hall at home no longer looks very good and the loss to Syracuse was not as close as people are making it out to be. They are also coasting on "name" midmajor wins that aren't very impressive this year: UMass, Bucknell, Davidson and Vermont aren't very good - and both Davidson and Bucknell were OT games.

Tonight, Cornell beat a not-good Brown team by 14 after leading by only 2 with 7 and change to go. I hope that they aren't reading too much of their own press.

They were asking what was SU's best nc win. The choices are Cal, NC, Fla, Memphis (how do you abrev. them?) or CU. So they said our loss was their best. I agree. Who else would you pick? Having us be the best for a number 3 team is great. Now can we compete with the big boys, that's a different question.

[MannHermit]

No, I totally believe that Cornell was Syracuse's best non-conf win.  First of all, as time went by, it was revealed that North Caroina and Florida really did suck this year.  Secondly, 15 points was the closest anyone had come by the time Cornell played them.  Lastly, Cornell lost the game in about a 5 minute stretch when they switched up a strategy to play from the interior and, well, it didn't work.  Syracuse's lead ballooned to 20 in those five minutes and although Cornell composed itself afterwards to stop the bleeding, it couldn't significantly change the gap.  Other than those few minutes, they played well.  The lead went back and forth in the first half (the 6 point Sryacuse half-time lead was mostly thanks to a 3 at the buzzer).  Overall, Cornell impressed -- so much so that the Syracuse Post wrote a story about Chris Wroblewski, and coach Boeheim praised him by name (as he has continued to do since).  

I honestly think the Brown game was complacency and fatigue.  I have watched almost every game online but shrugged off Brown because what was to be excited about? The 3PT statistic looks awful, though -- 28%, lowest of the season.  Could the problem with Brown simply have been complacency and a bad night from 3, not "we're not as good as we think we are and should stop buying our own press"?

[YankeeLobo]

I have a feeling the ranking and the press is getting to this team's head, or at least it did in the game vs Brown.  Brown,for those not well versed in Ivy League basketball is barely ahead of Dartmouth and Penn this year for worst team in the league, and their RPI is 268.  The game should not have been that close.  I get the feeling that after the 2 blowout wins over Columbia and the emotional statement game vs Harvard that the team is losing a little momentum.  Next Friday night vs Penn should be an easy win, but the following night vs. Princeton should be treated like a de facto Ivy League championship game.  The place is going to be one of the toughest road environments this team has encounted this year (after the Phog at Kansas).  If we lose that game, we're playing for the right to a one-game playoff when Princeton comes to our place.  Not a good situation to be in when all season we've been talking about how high a seed Cornell will get in the tourney.  Things could change very quickly...

[David Harding]

Sorry, Matt, my mistake.  I bookmarked the page a while back and when I went to reference it with attribution, Ken's was the only name on the page and I didn't trace back far enough.  I have fixed my post.

[semsox]

I have a feeling the ranking and the press is getting to this team's head, or at least it did in the game vs Brown.  Brown,for those not well versed in Ivy League basketball is barely ahead of Dartmouth and Penn this year for worst team in the league, and their RPI is 268.  The game should not have been that close.  I get the feeling that after the 2 blowout wins over Columbia and the emotional statement game vs Harvard that the team is losing a little momentum.  Next Friday night vs Penn should be an easy win, but the following night vs. Princeton should be treated like a de facto Ivy League championship game.  The place is going to be one of the toughest road environments this team has encounted this year (after the Phog at Kansas).  If we lose that game, we're playing for the right to a one-game playoff when Princeton comes to our place.  Not a good situation to be in when all season we've been talking about how high a seed Cornell will get in the tourney.  Things could change very quickly...

I'm sorry but I really disagree with a lot of this.  First of all, Brown had a legitimate win taken from them by a terrible call against Penn.  Now I suppose one could say that a team shouldn't have been that close to Penn in the first place, but the point still stands.  Saying they're barely better than Dartmouth and Penn is doing them a great disservice.  They're on par with Yale and probably a little bit below Columbia as a middle tier Ivy team.  The fact of the matter is we had a cold shooting night on a Saturday night Ivy game.  It happens.  If we shoot our typical ~40% from 3, all of a sudden the lead is 23, not 14.  

I also don't understand how one can say that we got complacent and overlooked Brown and then in the same post say that "Friday night vs Penn should be an easy win".  The fact of the matter is that every Ivy League game is going to provide a challenge if the team isn't focused.  I think the team was focused vs. Brown but shots just didn't fall.  The team knows exactly what it has to do this year to reach their ultimate goal of winning a tourney game or two.  They haven't so far and will continue not to look past anyone.

[phillysportsfan]

Up to #22 in the coaches poll, still #27 in the AP poll but more than doubled our votes in the coaches poll and almost tripled our votes in the ap poll

[YankeeLobo]

Did either of the games sell out last weekend?  One of the attendance figures listed on ESPN was for Fri/Sat night was lower than the other, so I'm assuming no, which is too bad.  Got a #22 ranked team in Ithaca and peeps aren't packing that place.  Maybe wouldve beat Brown by more than 14 if it was louder!

[phillysportsfan]

I think the student section sold out for both nights. Attendance was over 4000 both nights so they were practically sold out. Hard to believe that the Yale attendance was 200 higher since the Brown game appeared to be have higher attendance, maybe they dont count people that walk up and buy a ticket???

Also I dont think that extra attendance between 4000+ and a sellout makes a big difference on the noise since the townies side barely makes any noise and almost all of the cheers come from the first 4 rows in the center of the student section. The other students join in sometimes but never really start the cheers

[ugarte]

Helpful day for us: St. John's smoked Louisville and Seton Hall beat Notre Dame.

[jhib]

Also I dont think that extra attendance between 4000+ and a sellout makes a big difference on the noise since the townies side barely makes any noise and almost all of the cheers come from the first 4 rows in the center of the student section. The other students join in sometimes but never really start the cheers

I disagree about townies side barely making any noise.  They make a good portion of the noise that is reacting to plays on the court, which is the majority of the noise in basketball games.  

Regarding cheers, if the students want others to join in, they have to finally figure out that they need to keep a steady pace with the cheer rather than immediately speeding up. It's frustrating to hear "DE--FENSE..DE--DEFENSE..DE-FENSE.DE-FENSE.DEFENSE.DEFENSEDEFENSEDEFENSE.."silence.  Ditto with the "Let's Go Red" chant.  There's no time to build the cheer up, and I'm sure most on the townies' side don't bother because they know it will be too fast and dying down by the time they join in anyway.