Men's Basketball (2016-17)

[mountainred]

With the win, and Princeton's win over Dartmouth, the Big Red finish tied with Brown and the Green for 6th at 4-10 in the league.

Call it what it is:  Last place.

Which I did on Friday.  But at least it's along in the cellar.

[Ken711]

The team closes the season with a 92-78 win at Brown.  The story was basically the guys couldn't miss as they shot nearly 60% for the game.

With the win, and Princeton's win over Dartmouth, the Big Red finish tied with Brown and the Green for 6th at 4-10 in the league.

One bright-ish angle on the season is that next year isn't the complete rebuild I expected.  Coming into the season, it looked like 50-60% of the minutes were going to come from seniors with three senior starters returning.  But Onuorah only played 20 minutes in the opener and Smith never clicked with the new regime.  By the end of the season, neither was still on the roster.  Fallas started for a while, but by the end was a 10-15 minute reserve.  Only Robert Hatter was still starting.  Hatter finishes his career as the #10 all-time scorer for the Big Red, but his graduation may not be the end of the world because he was never a terribly efficient player.

The offense was improved and averaged almost a point a possession; the best mark since 2011.  The passing was better and more than half the baskets were assisted for the first time since 'ski graduated.  Offensive rebounding remained an issue (Warren helped) but the guys love the three ball too much.  Cornell was 31st in percentage of shots taken that were threes, but #247 in three point shooting.  That's not a good combination.

The defense still needs work.  The BR didn't give up nearly as many offensive rebounds, but those gains were matched by not forcing any turnovers.  

I'm mildly disappointed in the season, but the transition from Courtney to Earl was pretty significant.  And the team "looked" better. The bottom line will be recruiting.  The sophomores are solid, but our freshman class of one is a problem.  Warren is a fine player, but he's the entire class and this year's Ivy freshman class was loaded.

Please try and bring in some size in the front court!

[mountainred]

Congratulations to Matt Morgan for being named 2nd team All-Ivy!

[billhoward]

Congratulations to Matt Morgan for being named 2nd team All-Ivy!

Good for Matt. Not good for Cornell when that's the story headline rather the secondary title.

[ugarte]

Princeton pulled away at the end of a close semi against Penn. They'll face Yale who led wire-to-wire (but close throughout) and knocked off Harvard in the other semi.

Final is tomorrow at noon.

[mountainred]

Yes, there's no chance Cornell sneaks in this year.  Just like them to finish with a few more wins and hope that Earl can concentrate the recruiting on bringing in some size on the front court.

Frontcourt help for Gettings and Warren is important, and doesn't look like it is coming in this class.  The two tallest recruits are both 6-5.  But the team also needs a true PG and a couple of dependable three-point shooters.  Gettings is great at running the offense from the high post, but your post player shouldn't be the team's top threat in assists and three-point shooting. A Chris Wroblewski type would help a lot.

Why can't Earl try and bring in some transfers or Jr. College recruits to bridge the gap until he finds some HS front court players?

He certainly could.  Cornell has had some recent success with that:  Drew Ferry (JUCO), Jon Gray (transfer), and Mark Coury (transfer).  And Jeff Foote worked out okay too.  What I don't know is if that is a route Earl is comfortable following; he learned at Princeton which has normally not used JUCOs or transfers.

Add a JUCO:  Chukuka Emili, a 6' 6" forward.  Emili played for New Mexico Military Institute last season and averaged a little more than 5 rebounds a game.  Has to help.

[Trotsky]

Chukuka Emili from JUCO New Mexico Military Institute sounds like Key and Peele.

[billhoward]

Chukuka Emili from JUCO New Mexico Military Institute sounds like Key and Peele.

Next year we'll go from a single All-Ivy second time to the nationwide all-name team.

[mountainred]

And another JUCO:  Steven Julian is a 6'6" 200 pound forward who was all-Region (whatever that means, but it sounds good) at Kaskaskia College in Illinois. He averaged 10.5 points and 8.7 rebounds a game.

Coach Earl is trying to build up the front court.

[scoop85]

And another JUCO:  Steven Julian is a 6'6" 200 pound forward who was all-Region (whatever that means, but it sounds good) at Kaskaskia College in Illinois. He averaged 10.5 points and 8.7 rebounds a game.

Coach Earl is trying to build up the front court.

Makes a lot of sense. I get the feeling that Earl knows exactly how to build a team that can win in the Ivy League, something Courtney never was able to figure out. Now whether Earl gets enough of the right kids is where the rubber will meet the road.

[Ken711]

I was hoping Earl might look to JC players to get some instant talent while he builds up his recruiting classes.

[David Harding]

And another JUCO:  Steven Julian is a 6'6" 200 pound forward who was all-Region (whatever that means, but it sounds good) at Kaskaskia College in Illinois. He averaged 10.5 points and 8.7 rebounds a game.

Coach Earl is trying to build up the front court.

From the Kaskasia web site:
http://www.kaskaskiaathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/releases/20170315q5fvw0
http://www.kaskaskiaathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/schedule

[Cop at Lynah]

Interesting quote from Martha Pollack the new President of CU:

We both love music, especially classical and jazz, so we hope to attend the Cornell Concert Series and some of the student performances, and we're basketball fans, so look for us at some of the men's and women's basketball games.

[Trotsky]

Interesting quote from Martha Pollack the new President of CU:

We both love music, especially classical and jazz, so we hope to attend the Cornell Concert Series and some of the student performances, and we're basketball fans, so look for us at some of the men's and women's basketball games.

Hockey or GTFO.

[mountainred]

Yes, there's no chance Cornell sneaks in this year.  Just like them to finish with a few more wins and hope that Earl can concentrate the recruiting on bringing in some size on the front court.

Frontcourt help for Gettings and Warren is important, and doesn't look like it is coming in this class.  The two tallest recruits are both 6-5.  But the team also needs a true PG and a couple of dependable three-point shooters.  Gettings is great at running the offense from the high post, but your post player shouldn't be the team's top threat in assists and three-point shooting. A Chris Wroblewski type would help a lot.

Why can't Earl try and bring in some transfers or Jr. College recruits to bridge the gap until he finds some HS front court players?

He certainly could.  Cornell has had some recent success with that:  Drew Ferry (JUCO), Jon Gray (transfer), and Mark Coury (transfer).  And Jeff Foote worked out okay too.  What I don't know is if that is a route Earl is comfortable following; he learned at Princeton which has normally not used JUCOs or transfers.

Add a JUCO:  Chukuka Emili, a 6' 6" forward.  Emili played for New Mexico Military Institute last season and averaged a little more than 5 rebounds a game.  Has to help.

And before we learned to spell Chukuka Emili, he's apparently reopened his recruiting and is gone.