Men's Basketball (2017-2018)

[ugarte]

With an 80-71 win over Lafayette, the Big Red is over .500 after 9 games.

Meanwhile Princeton went to LA and beat USC.

[mountainred]

With an 80-71 win over Lafayette, the Big Red is over .500 after 9 games.

Meanwhile Princeton went to LA and beat USC.

When you say it like that, beating the Leopards loses its appeal.

[mountainred]

Entertaining, but disappointing, loss to Niagara 89-86.  Morgan and Gettings both had 30, but Matt's three ball at the end went in and out.

The Big Red were a bit under-manned.  Whiteside is still out.  Bathurst missed his third straight game.  McBride missed today with an injury.  And Davis left the game briefly when he rolled an ankle.  Cornell could have used the defense (McBride especially) and scoring (Wil).

[ugarte]

Entertaining, but disappointing, loss to Niagara 89-86.  Morgan and Gettings both had 30, but Matt's three ball at the end went in and out.

The Big Red were a bit under-manned.  Whiteside is still out.  Bathurst missed his third straight game.  McBride missed today with an injury.  And Davis left the game briefly when he rolled an ankle.  Cornell could have used the defense (McBride especially) and scoring (Wil).

Disappointing loss but I'll take the progress of this almost-comeback instead of the second half fade we saw in a lot of other games.

[scoop85]

Entertaining, but disappointing, loss to Niagara 89-86.  Morgan and Gettings both had 30, but Matt's three ball at the end went in and out.

The Big Red were a bit under-manned.  Whiteside is still out.  Bathurst missed his third straight game.  McBride missed today with an injury.  And Davis left the game briefly when he rolled an ankle.  Cornell could have used the defense (McBride especially) and scoring (Wil).

Disappointing loss but I'll take the progress of this almost-comeback instead of the second half fade we saw in a lot of other games.

Terrifically entertaining, frenetic game. Niagara plays about the softest defense I've ever seen a D1 school play, but they have a couple of terrific scorers, who were essentially matched by Morgan and Gettings. We had plenty of chances to tie or take the lead, but it wasn't to be.

It looks like we're heading in the right direction, and out Junior class is terrific. I'll be disappointed if we don't finish at least .500 in the league, and next year we should be able to contend.  Nice to see some of the freshmen contribute this year, but of course we'll need to see if Earl can bring in guys as good as Morgan and Gettings to replenish the roster.  I think Earl can coach, especially offensive basketball, which is encouraging.

[mountainred]

It looks like we're heading in the right direction, and out Junior class is terrific. I'll be disappointed if we don't finish at least .500 in the league, and next year we should be able to contend.  Nice to see some of the freshmen contribute this year, but of course we'll need to see if Earl can bring in guys as good as Morgan and Gettings to replenish the roster.  I think Earl can coach, especially offensive basketball, which is encouraging.

Earl can coach an offense, but our defense remains an issue.  Niagara is the real deal on offense, so give the guys a pass for yesterday; still, KenPom says the Big Red has the 2nd worst D in the league, just barely ahead of Dartmouth and way below the teams that will (likely) play in the ILT. One issue is that you have to play Gettings because of what he does on offense, but his defense remains a work in progress.

I'd love to see the guys contend for the Ivy title next year, but basically no one graduates across the entire league.  From a quick count, there are only 8 seniors getting much PT this season, and two of those guys start for Dartmouth.  Princeton loses their PG, but they have three freshmen in their rotation.  Harvard has no seniors and only one junior in their rotation.  Yale loses Mason, who is insanely good, but he hasn't played this year.  Right now they start one senior and two freshmen.  Penn, Columbia, and Brown have one senior starter apiece, and he's not the best player on any of those teams.  Seriously, every single team in the league may be as good as they are this year, if not better.

And I'm not ready to think about this team without the Junior class because they really are terrific.  Morgan may be the most effective scorer we've ever had at Cornell -- although Bajusz could have scored 25 a night under current conditions.

[mountainred]

There is one encouraging sign on the team's D when you dig into the numbers a bit.  The guys are holding opponents to 47.6% shooting from 2 pt. range.  That's a really good number and the best in the league (Penn is next at 50%).  From outside the arc, they are the worst in the league with teams hitting 38.5% of their 3s.  What I've read on the subject indicates that two point defense is a repeatable defensive skill, while 3 point defense is largely statistical noise.  So, there is some reason to think that the guys will continue to hold teams to poor shooting from inside the arc while the three point shooting will regress to the mean.

[Trotsky]

There is one encouraging sign on the team's D when you dig into the numbers a bit.  The guys are holding opponents to 47.6% shooting from 2 pt. range.  That's a really good number and the best in the league (Penn is next at 50%).  From outside the arc, they are the worst in the league with teams hitting 38.5% of their 3s.  What I've read on the subject indicates that two point defense is a repeatable defensive skill, while 3 point defense is largely statistical noise.  So, there is some reason to think that the guys will continue to hold teams to poor shooting from inside the arc while the three point shooting will regress to the mean.

That is good news and a good observation.  Thanks.

[billhoward]

I've read that three-point shooting has improved overall, so that stats-savvy teams work to increase their use of three-point attempts. Have we learned to refight the last war defensing twos?

[mountainred]

Another entertaining, yet ultimately disappointing, loss.  In OT, Delaware wins 97-96.  Cornell had a 13 point lead with about 8 minutes to go, but struggled getting late stops. (EDIT:  UD scored on 10 of their last 11 possessions in regulation.  Ugh.)  One thing I didn't like, the last three possessions of regulation were Morgan by himself and they netted no points.  No one respects Morgan's ability more than I do, but the offense works better when everyone is involved.

Gettings with a career high 39.  Morgan had 34 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists.

{annoyed grunting}

[semsox]

This is the Cornell basketball team I remember from the past few years!

[mountainred]

Over the weekend, the guys dropped a 98-77 decision at Auburn that was never in doubt; the Tigers led by 39 at one point.  Freshman Jake Kuhn hit 4 three-pointers in garbage time.  Perhaps he sees an uptick in PT, perhaps not.  The effectively ends the out of league play for the season, though there is a glorified scrimmage against a non-NCAA, non-NAIA opponent.

I would be stunned if the ILT wasn't comprised of Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale (in some order).  Princeton is probably the best of the four, but not by a ton.  The Ivy regular season is basically little more than a way to determine who wears what uniform for the only three games that matter.  Yay progress!

Cornell, Columbia and Brown should fight for 5th.  Columbia has been disappointing (2-10) and Brown has been surprisingly feisty thanks to Freshman Desmond Cambridge (they took Providence to OT and played Northwestern even for 30 minutes).  Dartmouth looks like a good bet for the cellar.

[mountainred]

You know it is little more than an exhibition when they don't pull out half the bleachers. Cornell beats Central Penn College (formerly Central Penn Business School) 93-69 in a game that closer for longer than it should have been.  16 turnovers; 16 offensive rebounds surrendered. At least some guys on the deep bench got to play.

[billhoward]

You know it is little more than an exhibition when they don't pull out half the bleachers. Cornell beats Central Penn College (formerly Central Penn Business School) 93-69 in a game that closer for longer than it should have been.  16 turnovers; 16 offensive rebounds surrendered. At least some guys on the deep bench got to play.

Wharton undergrad b-school has a new name and its own teams? The old one had a lot of famous leaders.

[mountainred]

You know it is little more than an exhibition when they don't pull out half the bleachers. Cornell beats Central Penn College (formerly Central Penn Business School) 93-69 in a game that closer for longer than it should have been.  16 turnovers; 16 offensive rebounds surrendered. At least some guys on the deep bench got to play.

Wharton undergrad b-school has a new name and its own teams? The old one had a lot of famous leaders.

Wouldn't Wharton be "Eastern Penn Business School?" I may start calling it that.

Barry kept calling the Knights D2, which is technically true but the implication is wrong.  Central Penn isn't NCAA D2, but a United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division 2 team.  To be fair, they are ranked 3rd in that division and actively schedule D1 games, as they have played 6 this season.  But the division is a collection of community colleges, small branch campuses of larger schools, tech and trade schools (including the Culinary Institute of America), and the like.  The Knights played hard throughout and I respect their coach for scheduling up; I just don't see the value in playing a team that many levels of competitiveness below D1.  Seriously, the guys looked awful and won by 24.