Women's Basketball 22-23

[dbilmes]

In Dayna Smith's 18 years, Cornell has finished in the top four in the Ivies five times. After watching some of Cornell's games this season, and then watching Princeton, which hasn't lost an Ivy game in 3 seasons, nearly upset UConn on the road last night, there is no comparison of our program and Princeton's. Talent-wise, we're not anywhere near the same level. Princeton hired former UConn player Carla Berube as their coach, after she had been a successful coach at Tufts. And she will probably have her choice of higher D-I jobs over the next few years if she chooses to go that route, although I'm sure Princeton is paying her pretty well. So I guess what qualifies as a successful tenure at Cornell is relative compared to some other schools (we could probably say the same for football).

At Cornell
Smith was named the seventh head women's basketball coach at Cornell University on June 19, 2002 and became the first Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball when the position was endowed in the fall of 2003.

In her 18 seasons at the helm of the Big Red program, Smith has led Cornell to unprecedented success. The winningest coach in the history of the program, and the second-longest tenured active women's basketball coach in the Ivy League, she has raised the bar for the Big Red, making success an expectation among its players, alumni and fans.
 
During her head coaching tenure, Smith's players have earned 31 All-Ivy honors, including one Ivy League Player of the Year award and one All-America selection (Jeomi Maduka '09).
         
A coach that also stresses excellence in the classroom, Smith's players have been named Academic All-Ivy on 11 occasions, while four student-athletes have earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, including Allyson DiMagno '14, who was a three-time first-team honoree, and Laura Bagwell-Katalinich '20, who received first-team accolades in 2018 and 2019. DiMagno '14 and Bagwell-Katalinich '20 were also named candidates for the Senior CLASS Award in collegiate women's basketball.
 
Smith Notables
• Smith has coached six of Cornell's 15 1,000-point scorers, including Samantha Widmann '20, while her former players have set the school records in career points, career rebounds, career assists, career blocked shots, career steals, career 3-point field goal percentage, career free throws made, career free throw percentage, career offensive rebounds, and career defensive rebounds.
• Smith has also coached Cornell's single season record holders in field goals made, free throws made, free throw percentage, 3-point field goal percentage, rebounds, defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds, and assists.
• With five top-four Ivy League finishes, Smith has surpassed the number of top-half finishes achieved by Cornell in the 20 years prior to her arrival.
• Cornell, chosen to finish eighth in the 2018-19 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, placed fourth in the conference to advance to the Ivy Tournament for the first time in the three-year history of the league's postseason play.
• With its 7-5 record in non-conference games during the 2019-20 campaign, the Big Red secured a winning non-conference record for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. The team recorded a winning non-conference slate for five-straight seasons from 2012-13 to 2016-17, the longest streak in program history.
• The 2016-17 squad also matched the school record for the most non-conference wins in program history (9), set twice before, both during Smith's tenure (2007-08, 2014-15).
• In total, the Cornell women's basketball program has posted eight or more non-conference wins 10 times, more than half (6) have come during Smith's time on the bench.
• Led the 2007-08 team to the most successful season in program history, as the Big Red closed out the year with a school record for wins (20), as well as setting records for most conference wins (11), points scored (1,889), 3-pointers made (200) and assists (436) in a season.
• After winning its first-ever Ivy League title in 2007-08, the Big Red earned its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.
• The Big Red faced No. 1 Connecticut in the first round of the 2007-08 NCAA tournament. Cornell fell to the Huskies, 89-47, but managed to score more points against UConn than 12 schools during the regular season, including postseason participants Hartford, Old Dominion, Rutgers, South Carolina, Villanova and Virginia.
• Led the Big Red to its only undefeated conference home slate in school history in 2007-08.

[scoop85]

In Dayna Smith's 18 years, Cornell has finished in the top four in the Ivies five times. After watching some of Cornell's games this season, and then watching Princeton, which hasn't lost an Ivy game in 3 seasons, nearly upset UConn on the road last night, there is no comparison of our program and Princeton's. Talent-wise, we're not anywhere near the same level. Princeton hired former UConn player Carla Berube as their coach, after she had been a successful coach at Tufts. And she will probably have her choice of higher D-I jobs over the next few years if she chooses to go that route, although I'm sure Princeton is paying her pretty well. So I guess what qualifies as a successful tenure at Cornell is relative compared to some other schools (we could probably say the same for football).

At Cornell
Smith was named the seventh head women's basketball coach at Cornell University on June 19, 2002 and became the first Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball when the position was endowed in the fall of 2003.

In her 18 seasons at the helm of the Big Red program, Smith has led Cornell to unprecedented success. The winningest coach in the history of the program, and the second-longest tenured active women's basketball coach in the Ivy League, she has raised the bar for the Big Red, making success an expectation among its players, alumni and fans.
 
During her head coaching tenure, Smith's players have earned 31 All-Ivy honors, including one Ivy League Player of the Year award and one All-America selection (Jeomi Maduka '09).
         
A coach that also stresses excellence in the classroom, Smith's players have been named Academic All-Ivy on 11 occasions, while four student-athletes have earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, including Allyson DiMagno '14, who was a three-time first-team honoree, and Laura Bagwell-Katalinich '20, who received first-team accolades in 2018 and 2019. DiMagno '14 and Bagwell-Katalinich '20 were also named candidates for the Senior CLASS Award in collegiate women's basketball.
 
Smith Notables
• Smith has coached six of Cornell's 15 1,000-point scorers, including Samantha Widmann '20, while her former players have set the school records in career points, career rebounds, career assists, career blocked shots, career steals, career 3-point field goal percentage, career free throws made, career free throw percentage, career offensive rebounds, and career defensive rebounds.
• Smith has also coached Cornell's single season record holders in field goals made, free throws made, free throw percentage, 3-point field goal percentage, rebounds, defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds, and assists.
• With five top-four Ivy League finishes, Smith has surpassed the number of top-half finishes achieved by Cornell in the 20 years prior to her arrival.
• Cornell, chosen to finish eighth in the 2018-19 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, placed fourth in the conference to advance to the Ivy Tournament for the first time in the three-year history of the league's postseason play.
• With its 7-5 record in non-conference games during the 2019-20 campaign, the Big Red secured a winning non-conference record for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. The team recorded a winning non-conference slate for five-straight seasons from 2012-13 to 2016-17, the longest streak in program history.
• The 2016-17 squad also matched the school record for the most non-conference wins in program history (9), set twice before, both during Smith's tenure (2007-08, 2014-15).
• In total, the Cornell women's basketball program has posted eight or more non-conference wins 10 times, more than half (6) have come during Smith's time on the bench.
• Led the 2007-08 team to the most successful season in program history, as the Big Red closed out the year with a school record for wins (20), as well as setting records for most conference wins (11), points scored (1,889), 3-pointers made (200) and assists (436) in a season.
• After winning its first-ever Ivy League title in 2007-08, the Big Red earned its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.
• The Big Red faced No. 1 Connecticut in the first round of the 2007-08 NCAA tournament. Cornell fell to the Huskies, 89-47, but managed to score more points against UConn than 12 schools during the regular season, including postseason participants Hartford, Old Dominion, Rutgers, South Carolina, Villanova and Virginia.
• Led the Big Red to its only undefeated conference home slate in school history in 2007-08.

Bottom line: without Meduka there's very little success in 20 years.

[billhoward]

In Dayna Smith's 18 years, Cornell has finished in the top four in the Ivies five times.

Thinking of Ivy League success disparities, one reason Brown tried to dump 10 sports, more men's than women's, was if I read the numbers right, Brown won 2.8% of Ivy League championships. The odds should be closer to 12.5%.

[Trotsky]

Brown tried to dump 10 sports

Who stopped then?

[ugarte]

Brown tried to dump 10 sports

Who stopped then?

Title IX. Despite attempting to drop mostly men's sports, the athletic department is still so imbalanced* it pretty much violated Title IX if they cut ANY women's sports, IIRC.

* football, natch, but also probably budget disparities for sports like hockey and basketball too

[billhoward]

Brown tried to dump 10 sports

Who stopped then?

Among the sports that were defunded were men's track, field (separate sport) and cross-country. Brown adminstration was attacked for defunding sports that drew a strong Black constituency, thus Brown was deemed insensitive, and so Brown reinstated them. Some sports remained reduced to club status, which is a big fall from varsity. Brown appears to be the school that really doesn't do much in sports. It did have that amazing run to the men's lacrosse final four in 2016, then Tewaarton winner Dylan Molloy got hurt.

[Trotsky]

Brown tried to dump 10 sports

Who stopped then?

Title IX. Despite attempting to drop mostly men's sports, the athletic department is still so imbalanced* it pretty much violated Title IX if they cut ANY women's sports, IIRC.

* football, natch, but also probably budget disparities for sports like hockey and basketball too

I thought the factory schools got football a carve out of Title IX, and that the ratios were determined from all other sports?

[billhoward]

I thought the factory schools got football a carve out of Title IX, and that the ratios were determined from all other sports?

That has been the fond hope of many college football fans because there's nothing on the women's side to offset football. The majority of FBS (Alabama class) do not make money but it's unclear if half don't or 90% don't. If all did, it would help the argument for a carve-out. There is no carve-out for football (that says: equal funding for men and women, except leave football out of the equation).

[Trotsky]

I thought the factory schools got football a carve out of Title IX, and that the ratios were determined from all other sports?

That has been the fond hope of many college football fans because there's nothing on the women's side to offset football. The majority of FBS (Alabama class) do not make money but it's unclear if half don't or 90% don't. If all did, it would help the argument for a carve-out. There is no carve-out for football (that says: equal funding for men and women, except leave football out of the equation).

I meant number of athletes, not budget.

[Weder]

I thought the factory schools got football a carve out of Title IX, and that the ratios were determined from all other sports?

That has been the fond hope of many college football fans because there's nothing on the women's side to offset football. The majority of FBS (Alabama class) do not make money but it's unclear if half don't or 90% don't. If all did, it would help the argument for a carve-out. There is no carve-out for football (that says: equal funding for men and women, except leave football out of the equation).

I meant number of athletes, not budget.

Under Title IX there are no sport exclusions or exceptions, so football is included under the law. Individual participation opportunities (numbers of athletes participating rather than number of sports) in all men's sports and all women's sports are counted in determining whether a school meets the Title IX participation standard.

https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/advocacy/what-is-title-ix/

Also, Title IX does not require equal total funding for men's and women's sports. It requires proportional spending on scholarships.

[mountainred]

In her 18 seasons at the helm of the Big Red program, Smith has led Cornell to unprecedented success.

Bottom line: without Meduka there's very little success in 20 years.

I guess coaching the only league winner in school history makes that statement technically true.  But it really is more of an indictment of the program than praise for Smith.