Men's Basketball March 2025

rss77 · March 17, 2025, 09:03:10 AM

Looking at Kenpom criteria the top 12 conferences get an automatic bid. Ivies finished at 13 just out of the running for an auto bid. Would have to have seen one more game from this crew. Will comment it has amazing watching Okereke improve over the course of his time wearing the Red. Would hurt to lose him.

chimpfood · March 17, 2025, 11:52:45 AM

Quote from: nycredOops, accidentally posted the previous message twice

Yeah, unfortunately the decision between getting an Ivy degree, starting a masters, and maybe getting paid to play at a power 5 school and paying 100k to come back to Cornell for another year and not being able to start a masters isn't a very hard one. Hoping for the best but we can't count on him being here next season.

ugarte · March 17, 2025, 12:52:04 PM

Quote from: ugarte
Quote from: scoop85
Quote from: Mr. Nissdisappointing that the Ivy runner up was not seen to merit a bid to the NIT this year ... we pretty well outranked a handful of teams that made the NIT on KenPom

Agreed, I wanted to see these guys get at least one more game together.
In the first round, Samford (who we beat) is playing at George Mason (who beat us.)

Looking at KenPom, there are four teams ranked below us who made the NIT:

San Jose State (15-19) is in ... because they said yes. Mountain West had an autobid for the top team not in the NCAAs; UNLV, Nevada and Boise State (going to the Crown) all declined.

Kent State is in as the MAC autobid.

UC Riverside? Big West only gets one autobid and Irvine and Northridge are also in the field.

Furman?!? The SoCon doesn't even get an automatic bid, and Chattanooga and Samford are also in the field.

We may have been left out for geographical reasons. They try to keep travel light; Riverside is playing at Santa Clara and Furman (Greenville, SC) is heading to North Texas (Austin). St. Bonaventure is hosting a midwest autobid (Kent State) and any other geographically sensible opponent is hosting someone ranked ahead of us.

scoop85 · March 17, 2025, 12:53:25 PM

Quote from: chimpfood
Quote from: nycredOops, accidentally posted the previous message twice
Yeah, unfortunately the decision between getting an Ivy degree, starting a masters, and maybe getting paid to play at a power 5 school and paying 100k to come back to Cornell for another year and not being able to start a masters isn't a very hard one. Hoping for the best but we can't count on him being here next season.

Certainly based on the criteria you've listed it's hard to imagine him sticking around. IMO he can play at pretty much any power conference school, and be a key player at that level. He was phenomenal this year.

nycred · March 17, 2025, 01:01:04 PM

Mañon got paid in the mid-six figures to play at Vandy this year, I imagine AK could probably get something similar if maybe a little less.

scoop85 · March 17, 2025, 01:16:35 PM

Quote from: nycredMañon got paid in the mid-six figures to play at Vandy this year, I imagine AK could probably get something similar if maybe a little less.

I think Okereke has become a better player than Manon and should fetch at least as good an NIL package.

mountainred · March 17, 2025, 02:45:15 PM

Quote from: ugarte
Quote from: ugarte
Quote from: scoop85
Quote from: Mr. Nissdisappointing that the Ivy runner up was not seen to merit a bid to the NIT this year ... we pretty well outranked a handful of teams that made the NIT on KenPom

Agreed, I wanted to see these guys get at least one more game together.
In the first round, Samford (who we beat) is playing at George Mason (who beat us.)
Looking at KenPom, there are four teams ranked below us who made the NIT:

San Jose State (15-19) is in ... because they said yes. Mountain West had an autobid for the top team not in the NCAAs; UNLV, Nevada and Boise State (going to the Crown) all declined.

Kent State is in as the MAC autobid.

UC Riverside? Big West only gets one autobid and Irvine and Northridge are also in the field.

Furman?!? The SoCon doesn't even get an automatic bid, and Chattanooga and Samford are also in the field.

We may have been left out for geographical reasons. They try to keep travel light; Riverside is playing at Santa Clara and Furman (Greenville, SC) is heading to North Texas (Austin). St. Bonaventure is hosting a midwest autobid (Kent State) and any other geographically sensible opponent is hosting someone ranked ahead of us.

Cornell was probably in the band of possibles, but only because so many teams bagged. Looks like tOSU, Penn St., WVU, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, Pitt, Kansas State, Rutgers (what a disappointing year they had), Minnesota, Florida State, Virginia, and UNLV all called it a season. I was hoping that would open up a spot of our guys, but travel probably played a big role. If PSU had agreed to go, we might have have been their opponent (another reason to dislike the Nits).

Cornell almost certainly could have gone to the CBI, they couldn't even fill their 16 team bracket and their best team is probably Ill. St. But I imagine the school thought there were better uses for what that would have cost.

At least Princeton wasn't picked over Cornell.

mountainred · March 17, 2025, 02:48:27 PM

Quote from: scoop85
Quote from: nycredMañon got paid in the mid-six figures to play at Vandy this year, I imagine AK could probably get something similar if maybe a little less.

I think Okereke has become a better player than Manon and should fetch at least as good an NIL package.

Hate that AK's Cornell career may be (probably is) over, but I can't fault a family for stopping tuition payments after three years. Have to think AK will be in heavy demand as a grad transfer. I'd pick him over Manon, and I liked Chris a lot, every time.

ugarte · March 17, 2025, 04:54:11 PM

Quote from: mountainred
Quote from: scoop85
Quote from: nycredMañon got paid in the mid-six figures to play at Vandy this year, I imagine AK could probably get something similar if maybe a little less.

I think Okereke has become a better player than Manon and should fetch at least as good an NIL package.

Hate that AK's Cornell career may be (probably is) over, but I can't fault a family for stopping tuition payments after three years. Have to think AK will be in heavy demand as a grad transfer. I'd pick him over Manon, and I liked Chris a lot, every time.

Do you know how annoying it is to lose a player because they are TOO GOOD AT SCHOOL!?

Tcl123 · March 20, 2025, 05:55:58 PM

Does Yale cover +7? I gave the points. Think they get blown out.

chimpfood · March 20, 2025, 06:15:46 PM

Quote from: toddloseDoes Yale cover +7? I gave the points. Think they get blown out.

I like the moneyline. SEC is overrated IMO and this Yale team has been really good since conference play started.

chimpfood · March 21, 2025, 01:58:18 PM

Opponent from this year RMU is hanging with Bama with 15 to go

mountainred · March 21, 2025, 05:26:37 PM

Watching St. Mary's/Vandy and I had to confirm that the Cornell pronunciation guide from last year said it was Chris MANN-in. It's his name, and Chris would hardly be the first to ask for a change, but I had to double check that I wasn't getting wrong for four years.

scoop85 · March 21, 2025, 05:34:04 PM

Quote from: mountainredWatching St. Mary's/Vandy and I had to confirm that the Cornell pronunciation guide from last year said it was Chris MANN-in. It's his name, and Chris would hardly be the first to ask for a change, but I had to double check that I wasn't getting wrong for four years.

Well his Vandy uniform does have the Tilde over the "n" in his name

Weder · March 23, 2025, 12:03:19 PM

Cornell is selling Final Four tickets from its allotment. (At least it says it is. The details are for last year's Final Four in Phoenix; this year's is in San Antonio.) Price is $650, so I think they might be somewhat decent seats given that tickets on the secondary market can be had for much less.

https://www.bigredtix.com/checkout/6712764cae3f5957dda65d0c?boxOnly=true