Cornell - Kentucky hoops postgame

[billhoward]

I put hoops in the subject line in case someone thought they had maybe a lax team also.

It was worth the $160 roll of the dice (Thurs-Sat ticket package) to see Cornell come tantalizingly close to upsetting Kentucky. I decided to go because what are the odds I'll hae the chance again. Lacrosse and hockey getting 2 wins into the NCAA tournament, that'll likely happen again.

Kentucky was the better team. But a beatable team.

Kentucky was quicker and that led to too many steals. Our defense was awesome. Kentucky could not hit form outside (2x16) We had toubble hitting threes and I think half the trouble was Kentucky kept Ryan Wittman from getting open and half was the shots just didn't fall, especially the in around and out trey that would have cut it to 7 at the end.

jeff Foote did well on defense but Kentucky held him in check on offense. I think that's putting it politely.

Holding Kentucky to under 20 points for 15 minutes (or was it 15?) adn then 30 for the entire second half was an amazing feat.

If Kentucky now runs the table so we can say the only late season loss was to the eventual national champ. And then wait for Kentucky - Calipari's Kentucky - to vacate anothe final four appearance.

I know this is catty and probably racists, but you knew it was over when in the final minute Kentucky put in a bunch of white guys, of which it was in pretty short supply.

I think I'd like to marry all the Kentucky cheerleaders. The women. (The men look like the siuze of the Kentucky football team.) A woman near me said, "The biggest one is a size 2." And they have one cheer at the end, stacked 2 high and rotating, that looks like A Space Odyssey. They should turn pro, too, Maybe Circue du Soleil.

[Greenberg '97]

I'd like to add that all the UK fans that I spoke to after the game were pretty classy.  Message board posts aside, I think there was a lot of mutual respect in the Dome.  But how do you not respect fans that, given almost impossible odds, fill 70% or more of the seats?

[Robb]

I'd like to add that all the UK fans that I spoke to after the game were pretty classy.  Message board posts aside, I think there was a lot of mutual respect in the Dome.  But how do you not respect fans that, given almost impossible odds, fill 70% or more of the seats?

Was it really 70% Cornell fans, or was it 30% Cornell fans and 40% people cheering for the underdog, against UK, etc?  It was hard to tell from TV, but there was quite a lot of Red.

[Greenberg '97]

If it's wasn't 70%, it was damn close.

[billhoward]

I'd like to add that all the UK fans that I spoke to after the game were pretty classy.  Message board posts aside, I think there was a lot of mutual respect in the Dome.  But how do you not respect fans that, given almost impossible odds, fill 70% or more of the seats?

Was it really 70% Cornell fans, or was it 30% Cornell fans and 40% people cheering for the underdog, against UK, etc?  It was hard to tell from TV, but there was quite a lot of Red.

The majority wore Red, cheered Red, and seemed to know by the second cheer that the second syllable of the GO C, A, T, S responsive reading was "sucks." That hockey-side training pays off.

We sat behind the end zone that Cornell attacked first half and were in the section that was the Mason Dixon line. Literally 2 seats over the Kentucky section started, not even split by the aisle.

As we left I walked thrugh the Ky half and it seemed as if the amount of food wrappers on the floor doubled. Maybe they drove straight through and didn't stop. Or something. But noboby yelled at us or tried to pee on us from the balcony.

[Jim Hyla]

I'd like to add that all the UK fans that I spoke to after the game were pretty classy.  Message board posts aside, I think there was a lot of mutual respect in the Dome.  But how do you not respect fans that, given almost impossible odds, fill 70% or more of the seats?

Was it really 70% Cornell fans, or was it 30% Cornell fans and 40% people cheering for the underdog, against UK, etc?  It was hard to tell from TV, but there was quite a lot of Red.

The Syracuse paper put it closer to 50% which I think is close. And it was certainly Cornell fans, and not just cheerers. We sat in a section that CU must have purchased from Wash. The CU corner was full, and we had more than half of the Wash corner. Some were in WV section and even the UK corner was not sold out to UK fans. Maybe a quarter were mixed CU and others.

So we had a great presence. That became clear when it was taking some of our fans an hour to hour and a half to get thru the will call line. The nicest thing was how our fans bonded into one. It was fun talking to some that I'd never seen and probably won't again. We at least impressed the rest of the crowd.

If we worry about winning team-losing team cheer, we only have to hear UK singing "Good-by" to us at the end. My best moment was when they started calling Coury a bum,... When I yelled "Why because he wanted to go to a better school?", no further comments. Hard to make that a highpoint, however. As I said to some UK fans next to me, at least we have a hockey game to go to.

[Greenberg '97]

I think you may have been near me... I was one of the many that wandered into the Washington area after their fans left.  I ended up just right of center court, on the side of the floor opposite the benches, about 3 or 4 rows behind the chairs.

[ugarte]

I know this is catty and probably racists, but you knew it was over when in the final minute Kentucky put in a bunch of white guys, of which it was in pretty short supply.

You knew it was over BEFORE those guys came in, since they only played the last minute.

It is mostly true, though, that Kentucky's white guys are end of the bench filler. The one exception is freshman Jon Hood, who was considered a blue-chip PG recruit ... until Calipari got John Wall to bail on Memphis and come with him to Kentucky. He'll get his playing time next year, especially if Bledsoe jumps to the NBA also.

[French Rage]

That one male cheerleader of ours they showed during that timeout is my new hero.

[Robb]

That one male cheerleader of ours they showed during that timeout is my new hero.

I really, really hope that sequence ends up on YouTube...  He was awesome.  Awesomely awful!

[French Rage]

That one male cheerleader of ours they showed during that timeout is my new hero.

I really, really hope that sequence ends up on YouTube...  He was awesome.  Awesomely awful!

Not awful, just really really into it.  All I know is he had the whole crowd where I was watching cheering.

[ugarte]

That one male cheerleader of ours they showed during that timeout is my new hero.

I really, really hope that sequence ends up on YouTube...  He was awesome.  Awesomely awful!

While we are talking about cheer-leaders, did anyone catch the KSU Wildcat mascot? It is just a cat-head. No body, just a head. The primary Kansas university doesn't have half a mascot. Why does KSU?

[YankeeLobo]

I agree that this team was beatable, but they were only beatable because for most of the game they played us like we were Cornell, not Wake Forest, Tennessee or any other high major.  The way they opened the 2nd half showed they didn't take us very seriously, every possession of theirs for the first 10-12 minutes of the half when Cornell went on the run, was a bad possession.  Calipari pointed that out during his press conference, saying "we gave them a chance to clip us" and a better team that UK will see later in the tournament will almost certainly take advantage of that.  

On the defensive end, for the most part, they didn't give us many chances.  Howwver, throughout the 2nd half and late in the game (last 5 minutes when we got it within 6), there were some openings that we couldn't take advantage of.  Owe it to UK, even playing at 50% it seemed, just being the far superior team.  Wittman needed to have a big game, score 20+ like he did in the previous 2 games, for Cornell to even have a chance, but he was a helluva player the entire season so I can't complain. He's just not an NBA talent and it showed last night.  

Overall, a great season for the team.  It will probably not be repeated by Cornell, or any other team from the Ivy League conference, for a very long time.

[phillysportsfan]

Yeah Wittman definitely showed that he does not have the ability to create his own shot, he just seemed frustrated. Dale on the other hand had a great game, fouled out but led all scorers with 17, 6-13 from the field, 2-6 from the 3. Dale showed yet again he can create his own shot even against superior talent. You got to give Dale a lot of credit, he was terrible the last 2 NCAA tournament and played just ok for most of the year but he has really played great for all 3 tournament games. With these last 3 tournament games he probably really increased his opportunities to play in Europe

[nyc94]

We may "win" this game yet.  NCAA is investigating the recruiting of former Kentucky guard Eric Bledsoe.  Bledsoe, a freshman, was a starter in the Cornell game and had 12 points.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/sports/ncaabasketball/29recruit.html