Men's Basketball 21-22

upprdeck
i guess we find out tonight. Best chance tonight is that VT does not score much so perhaps a faster pace game plays to cornells strength. cant shoot 25% like the PSU game to have a chance.

The challenge against the athleticism of a Power 5 team is it's harder for us to get clean looks and we're more apt to turn the ball over. But there's more parity than ever in college basketball, so I'm looking to see how our guys handle this test.

upprdeck
i guess we find out tonight. Best chance tonight is that VT does not score much so perhaps a faster pace game plays to cornells strength. cant shoot 25% like the PSU game to have a chance.

Any reason for hope tonight? I'm thinking the ceiling for this team is a non NCAA postseason tournament, which would actually be quite nice.

Turnovers hurting early.

VaTech up by 16 at the half.

Hokies put together a 20-3 run late in the first half as the guys went like 1 for 10 from behind the arc + a handful of turnovers.

Can still cover with an even second half.

As I anticipated VT’s athleticism is giving us fits getting open looks. Doesn’t help our cause that the Hokies are shooting 56.7% from the field.

Will be tough to stay within shouting distance of that team. They certainly look superior to Penn State.

djk26
I'm thinking the ceiling for this team is a non NCAA postseason tournament, which would actually be quite nice.

I think that's a very reasonable goal, but thanks to the Ivy Tournament, the NCAA is completely out of reach. Just have to finish in the top four and get hot for one March weekend. Not likely, but more likely than having to win the regular season title.

Wanted this to be closer, but the Fighting Gobblers are on a different level than any Ivy team. Still, never thought these guys would be 8-2 heading into exam break.

Meanwhile the Penn board is in full "Fire Steve" mode.

mountainred
Wanted this to be closer, but the Fighting Gobblers are on a different level than any Ivy team. Still, never thought these guys would be 8-2 heading into exam break.

Meanwhile the Penn board is in full "Fire Steve" mode.

We needed VT to have an off shooting night to keep it close, and they rudely refused to do so.

best shooting night of the year for VT. cornell had an off night.. too much size on the boards. complete opp for VT on how they played vs Wake..

Cornell         31  29  -- 60
Virginia Tech   47  46  -- 93

Cornell shot .385, 3-pointers .308
Va Tech shot .540, 3-pointers .522

Sheesh, 52% on three-pointers for the hosts.

upprdeck
best shooting night of the year for VT. cornell had an off night.. too much size on the boards. complete opp for VT on how they played vs Wake..

I was concerned that VT's loss to WF would be bad news for us. The Hokies came out focused and seemed to hit everything.

cornell beat Laf
Laf Beat rutgers
Rutgers beat Purdue

so cornell #1..

Is there a similar path for Keuka or Wells to make the claim?

Not even in D3.

Syracuse just postponed the Cornell game.

Al DeFlorio
Syracuse just postponed the Cornell game.

they're scared

Cornell picked up a commitment from a 6'7" SG/SF today. Offers from Appalachian State, Boston College and Washington State.

[twitter.com]

Ken711
Cornell picked up a commitment from a 6'7" SG/SF today. Offers from Appalachian State, Boston College and Washington State.

[twitter.com]

Seems like a good get. Has a 3 star rating from 247 and Rivals, and is among the top 75 small forwards in his class. Per Rivals he also had offers from Wichita State and Charleston. We don’t often get commits with offers from major conference schools.

scoop85

Ken711
Cornell picked up a commitment from a 6'7" SG/SF today. Offers from Appalachian State, Boston College and Washington State.

[twitter.com]

Seems like a good get. Has a 3 star rating from 247 and Rivals, and is among the top 75 small forwards in his class. Per Rivals he also had offers from Wichita State and Charleston. We don’t often get commits with offers from major conference schools.

Per this article from April, "He holds offers from Wichita State, Washington State, Boston College, Appalachian State, Auburn, and a few more smaller schools"

[pittsburghsportsnow.com]

Article also mentions his father Derrick Nix, played at UNC Greensboro. (And put up over 1200 points or something per another article I saw). Nice pedigree

abmarks

scoop85

Ken711
Cornell picked up a commitment from a 6'7" SG/SF today. Offers from Appalachian State, Boston College and Washington State.

[twitter.com]

Seems like a good get. Has a 3 star rating from 247 and Rivals, and is among the top 75 small forwards in his class. Per Rivals he also had offers from Wichita State and Charleston. We don’t often get commits with offers from major conference schools.

Per this article from April, "He holds offers from Wichita State, Washington State, Boston College, Appalachian State, Auburn, and a few more smaller schools"

[pittsburghsportsnow.com]

Article also mentions his father Derrick Nix, played at UNC Greensboro. (And put up over 1200 points or something per another article I saw). Nice pedigree

That's the best list of offers for a hoops recruit since....well...I'm not sure how long. I'm remember Shonn Miller having an impressive list, but I can't find it.

mountainred

abmarks

scoop85

Ken711
Cornell picked up a commitment from a 6'7" SG/SF today. Offers from Appalachian State, Boston College and Washington State.

[twitter.com]

Seems like a good get. Has a 3 star rating from 247 and Rivals, and is among the top 75 small forwards in his class. Per Rivals he also had offers from Wichita State and Charleston. We don’t often get commits with offers from major conference schools.

Per this article from April, "He holds offers from Wichita State, Washington State, Boston College, Appalachian State, Auburn, and a few more smaller schools"

[pittsburghsportsnow.com]

Article also mentions his father Derrick Nix, played at UNC Greensboro. (And put up over 1200 points or something per another article I saw). Nice pedigree

That's the best list of offers for a hoops recruit since....well...I'm not sure how long. I'm remember Shonn Miller having an impressive list, but I can't find it.

Erick Peck also had some nice offers (I recall him being offered by Butler, for one)

Wasn’t there a transfer from USC under Courtney too?

underskill
Wasn’t there a transfer from USC under Courtney too?

I had forgotten about Collin Robinson, who Steve brought in. He played a ton in the non-conference portion of the 2008 season, and then quits right before league play.

mountainred

I had forgotten about Collin Robinson, who Steve brought in. He played a ton in the non-conference portion of the 2008 season, and then quits right before league play.

Robinson never graduated.

mountainred

underskill
Wasn’t there a transfer from USC under Courtney too?

I had forgotten about Collin Robinson, who Steve brought in. He played a ton in the non-conference portion of the 2008 season, and then quits right before league play.

Didn't he transfer back to USC?

Mark Coury transferred from Kentucky to play at Cornell (& study business).

No idea what happened to Collin. Those teams had some amazing guard depth (Dale, Reeves, 'ski, Gore), but Collin would have played some big minutes.

Coury let me tell folks the Big Red had a guy coming off the bench who started at Kentucky! For some reason, Billy Gillispie would start Mark each half, pull him at the first TV timeout, then not play him for the rest of the half. i think Gillispie said he like his effort in practice (Mark did work hard on the court). There is a reason Gillispie did not last in Kentucky.

Circling back, DJ Nix looks like a great recruit for Cornell.

mountainred
No idea what happened to Collin. Those teams had some amazing guard depth (Dale, Reeves, 'ski, Gore), but Collin would have played some big minutes.

Coury let me tell folks the Big Red had a guy coming off the bench who started at Kentucky! For some reason, Billy Gillispie would start Mark each half, pull him at the first TV timeout, then not play him for the rest of the half. i think Gillispie said he like his effort in practice (Mark did work hard on the court). There is a reason Gillispie did not last in Kentucky.

Circling back, DJ Nix looks like a great recruit for Cornell.

Looks like he stopped playing after he left Cornell.
[www.sports-reference.com]

According to his LinkedIn, he is now a PhD student at Oregon.

Max Groebe was a transfer from UMass

A couple of more basketball recruits:

Cornell University Class of 2026❤️🤍 Extraordinarily blessed, honored and proud to announce that I have been offered and have committed to the admission process to continue my pursuit of education and athletic career at Cornell University! #GoBigRed #YellCornell #COMMITTED pic.twitter.com/F49esiijRi

— Adam Tsang Hinton (@adam_hinton) November 21, 2021

[twitter.com]

More on Adam:

VerbalCommits

Year2022 (HS SR)

Position SG

Height 6-5

Weight 195

Hometown Studio City, CA

High School Phillips Exeter Academy

Due to COVID-19 concerns and safety protocols within the Clarion women's and Hartford men's programs, the Big Red basketball doubleheader on Dec. 28 has been canceled. Both Cornell teams are actively looking for replacement games. #YellCornell

— Cornell Big Red (@CornellSports) December 22, 2021

Syracuse Will Face Cornell on December 29th Instead of Georgia Tech.

Syracuse basketball's game against Georgia Tech was postponed from Wednesday, December 29th, but the Orange has already found a replacement opponent for that day. Syracuse will face Cornell, which was originally scheduled for December 21st. That game was postponed with both teams facing a COVID-19 outbreak within their respective programs, Now, with the Yellow Jackets in COVID protocols, the date became available for the Orange and the Big Red.

cool

Glad they rescheduled; otherwise, it would have been over three weeks between games heading into league play. Dartmouth has played 4 times since Cornell's last game. All losses, but narrow losses at Cal and Stanford, plus a narrow loss to Cal St. Bakersfield (who knew there was such an animal).

Ken711

Syracuse Will Face Cornell on December 29th Instead of Georgia Tech.

Syracuse basketball's game against Georgia Tech was postponed from Wednesday, December 29th, but the Orange has already found a replacement opponent for that day. Syracuse will face Cornell, which was originally scheduled for December 21st. That game was postponed with both teams facing a COVID-19 outbreak within their respective programs, Now, with the Yellow Jackets in COVID protocols, the date became available for the Orange and the Big Red.

Game is on NESN+ at 7 pm for those in this area.

Al DeFlorio

Ken711

Syracuse Will Face Cornell on December 29th Instead of Georgia Tech.

Syracuse basketball's game against Georgia Tech was postponed from Wednesday, December 29th, but the Orange has already found a replacement opponent for that day. Syracuse will face Cornell, which was originally scheduled for December 21st. That game was postponed with both teams facing a COVID-19 outbreak within their respective programs, Now, with the Yellow Jackets in COVID protocols, the date became available for the Orange and the Big Red.

Game is on NESN+ at 7 pm for those in this area.

Also on YES

scoop85

Al DeFlorio

Ken711

Syracuse Will Face Cornell on December 29th Instead of Georgia Tech.

Syracuse basketball's game against Georgia Tech was postponed from Wednesday, December 29th, but the Orange has already found a replacement opponent for that day. Syracuse will face Cornell, which was originally scheduled for December 21st. That game was postponed with both teams facing a COVID-19 outbreak within their respective programs, Now, with the Yellow Jackets in COVID protocols, the date became available for the Orange and the Big Red.

Game is on NESN+ at 7 pm for those in this area.

Also on YES

Thank you.

I've wondered for years why NESN's monetization was such that Time Warner and now Spectrum subscriptions didn't have an option to add this channel in one of the sports tiers. (Is this still true?) All moot now because cable seems to be following newspapers down a death spiral path.

I'd likely ditch cable if it weren't for their DVR. We're down to one (my wife) or two (me) network shows that are recorded on the DVR.

scoop85

Al DeFlorio

Ken711

Syracuse Will Face Cornell on December 29th Instead of Georgia Tech.

Syracuse basketball's game against Georgia Tech was postponed from Wednesday, December 29th, but the Orange has already found a replacement opponent for that day. Syracuse will face Cornell, which was originally scheduled for December 21st. That game was postponed with both teams facing a COVID-19 outbreak within their respective programs, Now, with the Yellow Jackets in COVID protocols, the date became available for the Orange and the Big Red.

Game is on NESN+ at 7 pm for those in this area.

Also on YES

It's on the ACC Network, so the game will be on several regional sports networks (MASN in the DC area). You should also be able to get ACCN on some of the streaming services.

Cornell loses, 80-68. Not embarassing; at least it was closer than against VT?

much better job of taking 3s this game. 15-46. its what they need to do to hang with the bigger/better teams..

the difference was that VT made so many 3s and SU missed most of theirs..

upprdeck

the difference was that VT made so many 3s and SU missed most of theirs..

That, and the Hokies are probably a better team than the Orange this year. They did everything else a little bit better than SU.

If you missed it, Syracuse beat Brown 93-62 on Monday thanks to a very one-sided second half. Sports aren't transitive, but that is encouraging.

League play begins Sunday (Omicron notwithstanding), so here is a quick synopsis of the competition for those who haven't really been following.

Princeton -- The Tigers (10-3) have had the most impressive non-conference season. They have two power 5 wins (though Oregon State is dreadful), a 2OT loss to 10-1 Minnesota, and no bad losses. They start 3 seniors and 2 juniors, shoot the 3 well (34th best in the nation), and have a classic Princeton post player who is playing well (the improbably named Tosan Evbuomwan). The Tigers look like a lock for the ILT.
Harvard -- Tommy Amaker again has the best talent in the league, but their non-conference play has been so-so. Unless he's thinking about maximizing an NCAA seed, Amaker generally doesn't sweat out-of-conference games, he uses them to experiment. So far, Harvard (8-4) has an OT loss to a very good Iona team (now with more Pitino), a WTF loss to Siena, and three D3 wins. Their best win was in OT v. Colgate and needed a Raider brain fart at the end of regulation. Still, the post-season tournament is on a rotation, and this year it is in Cambridge, so all Harvard has to do is finish in the top 4 (and they really should) to have a great shot at the league's NCAA bid.
Brown -- Other than our guys, the Bears (8-6) have had the most surprising opening to the season. They've won almost all of the games they could reasonably expect to win (one blip with Bryant), have a nice win versus Bradley, and took UNC and Colorado to the final horn. They have an outstanding freshman Guard in Kino Lilly, Jr., a terrific coach in Martin, and have been playing great defense, at least until the second half of the SU game (they are only the league team that is giving up less than a point per possession). They are going to win some ugly games and be a factor.
Yale -- The Bulldogs (6-8) were the pre-season favorites, have a stud in senior guard Azar Swain, but its been pretty blah in New Haven since a mid-November drubbing of UMass. Seton Hall, Auburn and St. Mary's are all very good, but Yale lost them all by 20+ points and the four teams they have beaten since UMass are a combined 13-32. IMHO Jones is the league's best coach and he always gets Yale into the top half of the league, but they have not looked the part of a pre-season favorite so far.
Penn -- It's fun watching Quaker fans lose their minds over Penn's 3-10 start, but the Quakers over-scheduled again. Only the two point loss at LaSalle is a head-scratcher. They have a legit center in Michael Wang and Sophomore guard Jordan Dingle will score 20 a game. The Quakers will be fine come league play and should be around .500.
Dartmouth -- The Big Green (3-8) have maybe the league's best win (at Georgetown), dropped a pair of heart-breakers in the Bay area to Stanford and Cal and start 4 seniors. One of those seniors is outstanding shooter Brendan Barry who returns for a fifth season after transferring back from Temple (he was the Owl's best player last season). This is not the Ivy League I once knew. Still, Dartmouth is winless in December and has lost 7 straight. The Green are dangerous and the Ivy opener with them on Sunday will be telling for both teams.
Columbia -- The Lions (3-10) are frankly a mess. They are 2-4 against teams in the nation's bottom 100 (their other win was a D3 game) and aren't favored to win again this year. Sure, their best player, forward Ike Nweke, has been injured but now is back, so there is some upside, but this is the only league team that can safely plan to miss the Ivy Tourney. They'll win a game or two, and the difference between making the ILT and missing it could come down who gets upset by the Lions.

The Big Red could fall just about anywhere between 2nd (can't see them passing both Princeton and Harvard) and 7th (finishing below Columbia would be a disaster). FWIW, both computer projections have the Big Red finishing 7-7 and tied with Penn for 5th -- one game out of the ILT -- with the 8-6 being good for 3rd and 6-8 getting 7th place.

mountainred
League play begins Sunday (Omicron notwithstanding), so here is a quick synopsis of the competition for those who haven't really been following.

Princeton -- The Tigers (10-3) have had the most impressive non-conference season. They have two power 5 wins (though Oregon State is dreadful), a 2OT loss to 10-1 Minnesota, and no bad losses. They start 3 seniors and 2 juniors, shoot the 3 well (34th best in the nation), and have a classic Princeton post player who is playing well (the improbably named Tosan Evbuomwan). The Tigers look like a lock for the ILT.
Harvard -- Tommy Amaker again has the best talent in the league, but their non-conference play has been so-so. Unless he's thinking about maximizing an NCAA seed, Amaker generally doesn't sweat out-of-conference games, he uses them to experiment. So far, Harvard (8-4) has an OT loss to a very good Iona team (now with more Pitino), a WTF loss to Siena, and three D3 wins. Their best win was in OT v. Colgate and needed a Raider brain fart at the end of regulation. Still, the post-season tournament is on a rotation, and this year it is in Cambridge, so all Harvard has to do is finish in the top 4 (and they really should) to have a great shot at the league's NCAA bid.
Brown -- Other than our guys, the Bears (8-6) have had the most surprising opening to the season. They've won almost all of the games they could reasonably expect to win (one blip with Bryant), have a nice win versus Bradley, and took UNC and Colorado to the final horn. They have an outstanding freshman Guard in Kino Lilly, Jr., a terrific coach in Martin, and have been playing great defense, at least until the second half of the SU game (they are only the league team that is giving up less than a point per possession). They are going to win some ugly games and be a factor.
Yale -- The Bulldogs (6-8) were the pre-season favorites, have a stud in senior guard Azar Swain, but its been pretty blah in New Haven since a mid-November drubbing of UMass. Seton Hall, Auburn and St. Mary's are all very good, but Yale lost them all by 20+ points and the four teams they have beaten since UMass are a combined 13-32. IMHO Jones is the league's best coach and he always gets Yale into the top half of the league, but they have not looked the part of a pre-season favorite so far.
Penn -- It's fun watching Quaker fans lose their minds over Penn's 3-10 start, but the Quakers over-scheduled again. Only the two point loss at LaSalle is a head-scratcher. They have a legit center in Michael Wang and Sophomore guard Jordan Dingle will score 20 a game. The Quakers will be fine come league play and should be around .500.
Dartmouth -- The Big Green (3-8) have maybe the league's best win (at Georgetown), dropped a pair of heart-breakers in the Bay area to Stanford and Cal and start 4 seniors. One of those seniors is outstanding shooter Brendan Barry who returns for a fifth season after transferring back from Temple (he was the Owl's best player last season). This is not the Ivy League I once knew. Still, Dartmouth is winless in December and has lost 7 straight. The Green are dangerous and the Ivy opener with them on Sunday will be telling for both teams.
Columbia -- The Lions (3-10) are frankly a mess. They are 2-4 against teams in the nation's bottom 100 (their other win was a D3 game) and aren't favored to win again this year. Sure, their best player, forward Ike Nweke, has been injured but now is back, so there is some upside, but this is the only league team that can safely plan to miss the Ivy Tourney. They'll win a game or two, and the difference between making the ILT and missing it could come down who gets upset by the Lions.

The Big Red could fall just about anywhere between 2nd (can't see them passing both Princeton and Harvard) and 7th (finishing below Columbia would be a disaster). FWIW, both computer projections have the Big Red finishing 7-7 and tied with Penn for 5th -- one game out of the ILT -- with the 8-6 being good for 3rd and 6-8 getting 7th place.

Excellent summary. I think our up tempo style will give our Ivy brethren—-who, except perhaps for Princeton and Harvard don’t have many Power 6 type athletes—fits. But if we’re not hitting 3’s we’ll be vulnerable against anyone.

Thanks Scoop. The pessimist in me worries that what we've seen so far is a mirage fueled by a cupcake schedule, but I do think we're pretty good. Not win the league good, but win a bunch of games and legitimately contend for the Ivy Tourney good. Sunday will tell a lot about us and Dartmouth.

Boothby can't keep shooting 60% from behind the arc, can he?

djk26
Cornell loses, 80-68. Not embarassing; at least it was closer than against VT?

Moral victory. Take away J Boeheim's points, it might've been a tossup.

brown on tv vs maryland today as the ivies get close to ramping up league play.

upprdeck
brown on tv vs maryland today as the ivies get close to ramping up league play.

Trying to think of any Brown vs. Maryland sport where the Bruins have or had a shot, beyond that golden era of Tewaaraton winner Dylan Molloy and coach Lars Tiffany ending in 2016.

BTW, from Molloy's bio on the Brown lax sports site. Makes you realize Chris Berman is pretty much the 21st century poet laureate of Brown.

Pass, fail, pass, fail, pass
Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail

Brown up 4 at the half.

upprdeck
Brown up 4 at the half.

Lost by 14.

Cornell is supposed to open the season tomorrow versus Dartmouth. I say supposed to because Princeton/Harvard and Columbia/Yale have already been postponed. Still, Dartmouth must be on the road by now, if not already in Ithaca.

It's hard to say the first league game is a must win, but this is close to one if the Big Red want to make the ILT. Losing at home to the team projected to finish seventh would put the guys in a substantial hole to start the season.

While both teams love to shoot threes (both teams take nearly half of all their shots behind the arc), otherwise there are very few similarities. Cornell plays as fast as anyone in the country and uses an eleven man rotation (or twelve if you count Max Samberg). Dartmouth plays a lot slower, they average 10 fewer possessions per game, and rely on basically a 6 man rotation.

still selling tickets for the game. i think at this point if you can play a game you need too since the next few weeks are gonna be a crap shoot all over.

Who knows how it will go with COVID but at least the Ivies are trying to play. The way I see it Cornell possesses serious depth over the other Ivies. As we have seen with the Power 5 games it is overall lack of height that is the weak spot. Penn, Brown, Princeton and Harvard (If they get their big men healthy) might pose problems. Have to say that I amazed with the 3 point shooting on the team. Boothby has that high arc on his outside shots which given law of physics increases their chances of going in. Amongst the 1st Years Ragsdale and Williams are impressive. Brian Earl has a young team and strong kudos to him for his recruitment and development plus willingness to adapt a new offensive philosophy.

the key is keeping the pace high enough that the slight drop from the 7-8-9-10 guys has a chance to work on other teams depth guys in the ivies. keeping high pace also limits the damage the big guys can cause hopefully.

Fortunately, there really isn't a dominant big in this year's league. Brown has Gainey and the Bears are very physical. Harvard has some studs in the 6-7 range (Ledlum, Kirkwood, and Forbes if he gets healthy) but they are more athletic wings than true bigs. Princeton has their usual post player, but he beats you by finding the open cutter, not grabbing 10+ rebounds and blocking shots. And Penn has been waiting for Michael Wang (6-10) to put it together for years; I guess he still could.

This is a 3 point league this season. Cornell is close to the nation's top in percentage of shots taken that are 3's, but Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton are top 30-ish, Harvard and Yale are top 100. If there is a year where a lack of size won't kill you in the league, this is it.

It will be very interesting to see who wins the tempo battle today between the league's fastest playing team (us) and the slowest (them) for the reason you give upperdeck.

For as long as I can remember, Cornell opened its Ivy season against Columbia, playing one weekend in NY and one weekend in Ithaca. Is this the first year that the schedule has changed?

dbilmes
For as long as I can remember, Cornell opened its Ivy season against Columbia, playing one weekend in NY and one weekend in Ithaca. Is this the first year that the schedule has changed?

Yes, though it was supposed to start last season. The goal was to reduce the number of back-to-back games.

[ivyleague.com]

dbilmes
For as long as I can remember, Cornell opened its Ivy season against Columbia, playing one weekend in NY and one weekend in Ithaca. Is this the first year that the schedule has changed?

I'm glad you said this. As little as I follow hoops this is basically the only thing I know about us, and now it's gone with the Penn final football game.

Time to disband and put all our efforts into hockey and lax.

Weder

dbilmes
For as long as I can remember, Cornell opened its Ivy season against Columbia, playing one weekend in NY and one weekend in Ithaca. Is this the first year that the schedule has changed?

Yes, though it was supposed to start last season. The goal was to reduce the number of back-to-back games.

[ivyleague.com]

Part of the issue had to be that every other league starts in-league play around New Years, so the Ivies were struggling to find teams to play in early January. Now we are starting right after the holidays, stretching the league season to 10 weeks, and no more scheduling problem. Columbia is the normal start, but we did begin league play at the P's as recently as 2018.

mountainred

Weder

dbilmes
For as long as I can remember, Cornell opened its Ivy season against Columbia, playing one weekend in NY and one weekend in Ithaca. Is this the first year that the schedule has changed?

Yes, though it was supposed to start last season. The goal was to reduce the number of back-to-back games.

[ivyleague.com]

Part of the issue had to be that every other league starts in-league play around New Years, so the Ivies were struggling to find teams to play in early January. Now we are starting right after the holidays, stretching the league season to 10 weeks, and no more scheduling problem. Columbia is the normal start, but we did begin league play at the P's as recently as 2018.

Wasn’t it also an issue that Princeton until recently had its fall finals at the beginning of January?

Weder

mountainred

Weder

dbilmes
For as long as I can remember, Cornell opened its Ivy season against Columbia, playing one weekend in NY and one weekend in Ithaca. Is this the first year that the schedule has changed?

Yes, though it was supposed to start last season. The goal was to reduce the number of back-to-back games.

[ivyleague.com]

Part of the issue had to be that every other league starts in-league play around New Years, so the Ivies were struggling to find teams to play in early January. Now we are starting right after the holidays, stretching the league season to 10 weeks, and no more scheduling problem. Columbia is the normal start, but we did begin league play at the P's as recently as 2018.

Wasn’t it also an issue that Princeton until recently had its fall finals at the beginning of January?

Yep. Princeton joining the 20th Century with post holiday exams was a hold-up.

Poor half. Dartmouth leads 34-33. Cornell without Jones and N. Williams, but Dartmouth down two starters, so that can't be an excuse.

Cornell led by 9, but the offense has really stagnated.

mountainred
Poor half. Dartmouth leads 34-33. Cornell without Jones and N. Williams, but Dartmouth down two starters, so that can't be an excuse.

Cornell led by 9, but the offense has really stagnated.

Too many three attempts. Early success came from taking it to the hoop.

Guys gut out a 79-71 win. Dean Noll really stepped up late: 20 points with some great drives, plus 7 rebounds. Shout out to Evan Williams (the player not the drink). He played some key minutes and looked really good on defense and on the glass, plus had two clutch free throws.

For about an hour, Cornell is alone in first place in the Ivy League.

3pt shows lept Dart in the game.. made 45% and shot a bunch. had multiple chances to get the game strected out but never really had a run of shots go in to do it.. good game though. Penn will be tough next week

Cornell has a bad habit of overpursuing on defense, which leads to good looks on threes if you are willing to be patient. Dartmouth did a great job of keeping the ball moving until someone was open. 14 assists on 25 made shots for them.

Penn has been leading Brown by 10 most of the game.

Cornell's first 26 second half points came on eleven layups and four free throws on fouls drawn by layups. Five three-point tries in the second half vs. twelve in the first.

I know these things are mostly ridiculous, but it looks like someone or some computer is noticing. The most recent Bracketology for Hoops:

[www.espn.com]

being in first place gets the AQ right now. Beat Penn and then make it thru the first half of the games before starting to think about it.. even then its probably a bid league still have to win that season ender but if you can get into that there is always a shot.

Yeah, in a one bid league like the Ivy, they just plug in the first place team and move on. We get the tie-break because of our record.

Still, fun to see.

Cornell trails Penn at the half 38-36. Still no Jones. Game is being played at Cornell's pace, but Penn is winning the game near the rim. Or at least hitting more of their shots there. Cornell is shooting just 6-22 from inside the arc, which is woof.

EDIT: At the half, Columbia leads Princeton by a dozen because why not?

mountainred
Cornell trails Penn at the half 38-36. Still no Jones. Game is being played at Cornell's pace, but Penn is winning the game near the rim. Or at least hitting more of their shots there. Cornell is shooting just 6-22 from inside the arc, which is woof.

EDIT: At the half, Columbia leads Princeton by a dozen because why not?

Some of the bricks they throw up from inside five feet just defy belief.

Cornell loses to Penn 79-65. The FG shooting % says it all. 34% for Cornell vs 51% for Penn.

Penn wins 79-65 as the game gets away late. Quakers could do what they wanted to near the rim, and Cornell couldn't hit enough 3's to stay in it. It may be a while before see any more bracketology stories with Cornell's name.

Princeton next and they destroyed Columbia in the second half. Maybe Cornell's depth will play a role tomorrow night.

Ken711
Cornell loses to Penn 79-65. The FG shooting % says it all. 34% for Cornell vs 51% for Penn.

Cornell shot 12 for 37 from inside the arc. That's brutal. The threes helped their shooting percentage.

Chris Manon does some good things. He's a strong rebounder and an intense defender. But 2 for 12 shooting is hard to watch.

they just missed to many within 3-5 ft.. at the beginning the refs swallowed the whistle then they called everything then they went back again.. the key play I thought was the blatant flop the penn kid took on the 3 around 5 min to go and then the charge he got called right after that..

more than enough chances.. 3s got the lead and they missed a ton of open looks down the stretch. but we have to finish around the basket better.

upprdeck
but we have to finish around the basket better.

Bart Torvik's website breaks down 2 point shots as "at the rim" or "mid-range" (or dunks, but there aren't enough of those to matter). Cornell was 8-22 at the rim, Penn was 20-28. There is your difference. The Quakers also shot 17 more FTs, which I'd love to be more ticked off about, but we did get very 3-ball heavy.

Good first half in New Jersey: Cornell 39 Princeton 25. The Tigers are without their best player, injured last night, but Jones is still out for Cornell.
Cornell's pace looks like it is throwing off the Tigers, especially down their PG. But the Tigers trailed at the half last night and won going away.

Without commenting on any other aspect of the game, I will say, the officiating down the stretch of this one has left something to be desired.

Cornell blows an 18 point lead and Princeton hits a circus three at the horn to win 72-70. I didn't expect to win at Princeton, but this loss is galling.

mountainred
Cornell blows an 18 point lead and Princeton hits a circus three at the horn to win 72-70. I didn't expect to win at Princeton, but this loss is galling.

the layup by noll was clean and the defense on the last possession was so good. forcing a 25 footer only to have it drop. i have no comment on anything else because i left for dinner with about an 8 point lead.

Dean going the length of the floor after the missed FT was nice (the play before with Manon dribbling into trouble and turning it over on the other hand). And they harassed Princeton perfectly on their last desperate attack. You want them to take that shot. Kid just made an insane 3.

It never should have come down to that though. Cornell led by 18 with 16 minutes to go. Princeton switched to a 1-3-1 and the Big Red were lost on offense. The Tigers just slowly crept back into it from there.

Getting swept at the P's happens all the time. But the letting Tigers crawl back from down 18, and without their best player, is so frustrating. Columbia beat Penn and Dartmouth beat Brown last night, so we're looking at a logjam in the middle for the ILT. This would have been a nice win to get.

ugarte

mountainred
Cornell blows an 18 point lead and Princeton hits a circus three at the horn to win 72-70. I didn't expect to win at Princeton, but this loss is galling.

the layup by noll was clean and the defense on the last possession was so good. forcing a 25 footer only to have it drop. i have no comment on anything else because i left for dinner with about an 8 point lead.

So. It was you.

Assuming the game goes forward, the Big Red travel to Yale for a single-ish game this Saturday. Yale was the pre-season favorite, are very well coached, and have a couple outstanding guards (Swain, Cotton), but they don't have their usual dominant bigs (now watch a youngster break out). Because of the holidays and Covid, they haven't played since 12/28 (a one-side loss at a really good St. Mary's team). But they haven't looked that impressive all season; they haven't won since 12/7, and arguably have beaten just one good team (UMass over two months ago). Of course, an Eli fan could say the same about Cornell's wins (Colgate is just 6-10, but at least they've started winning again). Yale has won the last 15 meetings, which is staggering. Sure they've been good, but damn! This would be a great one to steal on the road to balance out the Princeton collapse.

There is a Monday matinee against Columbia. The Lions have been brutal for most of the season, but they got their best player back and just knocked off Penn at the Palestra. Winning this one is pretty much mandatory to maintain realistic hopes of making the ILT.

hard to see the Columbia game given the forecast.. anywhere from 10-20 inches expected sun-mon around here, gonna be a tough travel day by bus for monday game.

6 of 16 free throws. Dreadful.

They've hit their last four from the line, so that's something right?

Ugly first half. Tons of fouls, horrid shooting and, of course, they are making Yale's bigs look good. No Jones and no Dolan, which is not helping, but it does not look good.

44-33 at the half.

mountainred
They've hit their last four from the line, so that's something right?

Ugly first half. Tons of fouls, horrid shooting and, of course, they are making Yale's bigs look good. No Jones and no Dolan, which is not helping, but it does not look good.

44-33 at the half.

Starting to think that start of the season was a mix of weak teams and luck. I don't see Cornell doing very well this season with such a young team and no impactful bigs.

It's 80-55 -- someone else can watch the last 8 minutes.

6 of 26 on threes. Take it to the hoop and play basketball.

upprdeck
hard to see the Columbia game given the forecast.. anywhere from 10-20 inches expected sun-mon around here, gonna be a tough travel day by bus for monday game.

Called it. Team is off until Saturday when they play Harvard.

Harvard comes to town fresh off a one point win at Dartmouth. Two Harvard forwards have missed time; Chris Ledlum has missed the last two games and Mason Forbes has only played in one game. If they remain out, Harvard has a very short bench. They basically relied on 6 guys at Dartmouth, but one of those guys is Noah Kirkwood and he'll be easily the best player on the floor Saturday. The computers call this one pretty even, maybe even a small advantage to Cornell, but the computers haven't watched the last game and half. Half to hope that being at home will help and the Big Red's depth can play a role.

The men's hoops team played maybe their best half of the year, taking a 5 point halftime deficit and turning it into a 76-61 win over Harvard. Jordan Jones was back and led the team with 18 points. Other than being way too sloppy with the ball, and some of that is Harvard's quickness and length, the offense looked really good. They took open threes, but tried to work the ball inside and had 20 assists on 27 made FGs. Harvard was largely reduced to chucking up 3s; they took 34.

Really nice win.

mountainred
The men's hoops team played maybe their best half of the year, taking a 5 point halftime deficit and turning it into a 76-61 win over Harvard. Jordan Jones was back and led the team with 18 points. Other than being way too sloppy with the ball, and some of that is Harvard's quickness and length, the offense looked really good. They took open threes, but tried to work the ball inside and had 20 assists on 27 made FGs. Harvard was largely reduced to chucking up 3s; they took 34.

Really nice win.

I watched a lot of this between the Harvard and Brown wrestling matches. Really fun to watch them hitting their shots.

So for those of us who are casual basketball fans, is the team on pace to make the Ivy tourney? i.e. did we lose any “earmarked wins” or Vice versa that would likely lead to a top 4 finish?

its gonna be tough an go.. losing the princ game hurts. Harvard we can catch. Dart/col we need to sweep. So if you take out Brown 4th is in the cards.

upprdeck
its gonna be tough an go.. losing the princ game hurts. Harvard we can catch. Dart/col we need to sweep. So if you take out Brown 4th is in the cards.

While we have a shot, losing the Princeton game on that desperation buzzer beater makes the road much harder. We probably will need to go 6-1 at home and 2-5 on the road to get there. As upperdeck said sweeping Col and Dar are likely musts, and it will be tough to do.

upprdeck
its gonna be tough an go.. losing the princ game hurts. Harvard we can catch. Dart/col we need to sweep. So if you take out Brown 4th is in the cards.

and to be clear, the princeton game wasn't an earmarked win until we carried a huge lead into the second half before falling apart... and then still retaking the lead past the buzzer... but a shot was still in the air.