Men's Basketball January 2025

The hoops thread is too long, especially on mobile, so I'm starting a new thread. Columbia is still in the old thread but don't be shy about posting here. Same goes for Penn State-Schuykill, I guesss? Basketball moved away from the all-back-to-back weekend programming so the upcoming games are

1/18 @Penn (0-1 L 73-70 v. Dartmouth)
1/20 Brown (0-1 L 79-58 v. Yale)
1/25 @Princeton (W 68-64 v. Harvard)

Let's go Red. Plenty of room on the bandwagon.

Current KenPom rankings:

 75 Yale
115 Princeton
132 Cornell
187 Columbia
207 Brown
260 Harvard
292 Dartmouth
310 Penn

OOC opponent rankings (wins in bold):

86 George Mason
102 Samford
112 Syracuse
122 Cal
148 Ill. St.
169 La Salle
238 Colgate
239 Robert Morris
261 Lafayette
276 Iona
280 Siena
297 Army

Duke basketball thread gets too long after a week.

After the 2014 disaster, I'm happy to see this is as a problem.

There really is no way to put lipstick on that Siena loss.

It is probably not a surprise to learn that a team wins more when they score more, but the Big Red's record:

When they score 80 or more -- 9-0
When they score under 80 -- 0-5.

Showdown today at 2pm against Penn at THE Palestra.

Penn is having a miserable season, close to being in the bottom 50 in kenpom at 307. 3 of their 4 wins are against bottom 50 teams in the country(!)

Ethan Roberts and Nick Spinoso are still legitimate scoring threats, but with the lack of depth this team has, expect an easy win for the Big Red.

No easy wins in the Ivy League and no easy wins for Cornell this year, just look at the Siena game. I would expect Penn to finish bottom of the league but we’re still going to have to shoot and play decently well to come out with a win.

Our Sweet 16 team lost its only league game at the Palestera to another Penn team having a miserable season, so I’m not taking anything for granted.

Nice weekend for those of us around Philadelphia with hockey yesterday and Princeton and now basketball at the Palestra today

I know the Palestra is legendary but, for those who have been there, is it fun to see a game there? It looks amazing in photos.

Trotsky
I know the Palestra is legendary but, for those who have been there, is it fun to see a game there? It looks amazing in photos.

The hallways remind me of those of an old public high school in NYC but there are cool exhibits around showing great NCAA coaches of the present and past (Boeheim, Pitino, etc.), of the Penn/Princeton rivalry, and some other notables. The actual arena is a nice place to watch a basketball game and has many of the modern fixings. Usually, the Penn band and cheerleaders are there, too, although still lots of canned music.

Trotsky
I know the Palestra is legendary but, for those who have been there, is it fun to see a game there? It looks amazing in photos.

Absolutely worth seeing at least once. It’s like a trip back in time. Lots of history and exhibits on the Big Five. There’s no center scoreboard, which is a delight in this day and age. Clear sight lines all the way around. Even parking isn’t bad for an urban environment.

ESPN plus doesn’t even have the stream going

really aggravating

I thought I heard a story that half the team had the flu that night.

[sorry I was replying to the post about the loss to Penn in the Sweet 16 year and forgot to quote it]

Is the stream still not working for anyone else?

Yep, nothing on my end

ESPN+ thinks game hasn't started at 2:10. Penn up 14-8 shooting 63% to our 27%.

many of the espn 2pm games don't work now

Radio is available via Penn athletics website.

ESPN chat gave me this link and it appears to work

[www.espn.com]

Mr. Niss
ESPN chat gave me this link and it appears to work

[www.espn.com]

strike that, that's the ladies

ESPN's people apparently are incompetent

Stream is working now

Mr. Niss

Mr. Niss
ESPN chat gave me this link and it appears to work

[www.espn.com]

strike that, that's the ladies

ESPN's people apparently are incompetent

Maybe the webcast is produced by the stable geniuses at Wharton.

Announcers are pretty funny and they’re right, those passes to cutters are getting infuriating

Offense playing out of control lately. Letting Penn back in the game.

Al DeFlorio
Offense playing out of control lately. Letting Penn back in the game.

Thankfully so is Penn's offense. This game wouldn't be close if Cornell had a more spotless game

Two double digit wins to start the Ivy League is big, quick turnaround to brown on Monday and I’m looking forward to that one.

after a slow start, we ran away with it. every time penn made a run we punched back with a little run of our own. comfortable win even with a rocky afternoon from deep. i really like beccles.

Not the guys' best effort, but 10 offensive rebounds to Penn's 1. That was huge.

And any win at the Palestra is satisfying; the Sweet Sixteen team laid their biggest egg of that season there.

Big game Monday. Win and Cornell is three games clear of Brown and probably Columbia. Great position for making the ILT.

just want to pile on with how pleased I am with this team opening with two double-digit wins on the road after two disappointing losses to teams they should have beaten

and watching Princeton and Yale eke out wins today against weak teams makes me optimistic

Also want to throw a shout out to Jon Jacques, whose modest tweaks to Brian Earl's game plans seem solid -- in particular, I like that we don't press as much as we did in the past, our press seemed incredibly easy to beat and we'd give up too many easy points

much more pleased than I am with the cretins who apparently operate the Ivy League streams on ESPN+, where we already missed the first period and part of the second period of the Quinnipiac game ... somehow it's 1-1 but ESPN keeps telling me that the game hasn't started

no time to rest on our laurels. right back at it against brown tomorrow at 2 eastern.

You have to think Brown will be desperate today. They really played poorly in hosting Harvard on Saturday.

nasty day to head out and drive home later.

lets hope they just want to get out of there.

Not thrilled with the play of #8. He seems to get more time on the floor than he merits.

Shot 80% from the field and have a six point lead. Not great, Bob. Here's to shooting 90% in the second half.

Cornell is up by 4 with 8 minutes left. Hinton commits some real silly fouls but has been knocking down shots and disrupting passing lanes.

Meanwhile, the Cornell crowd is heckling Brown's leading scorer because he's getting blanked. Kind of wild that he's being shut out and Brown is still in the game so the hecklers may want to chill out.

oh man bullshit offensive foul on ak okereke on a killer spin move

Bad turnover by Ragland, losing focus after a rebound and getting stripped. Brown scores, cuts the Cornell lead to 1 with 3:59 left.

The officiating in this game has been atrocious.

As, unfortunately, has our free throw shooting.

Mr. Niss
The officiating in this game has been atrocious.

As, unfortunately, has our free throw shooting.

fortunately their free throw shooting has also been bad! 82-82 with 1:02 left and Cornell has the ball and 24 seconds on the shot clock coming out of a time out.

goddamit. Brown goes 1-2 from the line to take a one point lead with 10 seconds left. Williams dribbled into traffic and was left with an awful shot that was deflected out of bounds with .5 left. Cornell got the ball in to Ragland, who had a decent enough look from 3, but he clanged it at the buzzer. 83-82 loss.

Got outhustled and outmuscled today. Brown's 2nd chances on shots were the difference. Cornell has had a tough time getting stops on defense this year. Pm

Cornell was 7-for-16 from the foul line in a one-point loss. That says it all.

rss77
Got outhustled and outmuscled today. Brown's 2nd chances on shots were the difference. Cornell has had a tough time getting stops on defense this year. Pm

Aaron Cooley looked all-world out there.

Terrible coaching at the end there, Jacques NEEDS to call a timeout the second that naz crossed half after that missed free throw but he just let him go. Not to mention how after that naz was trapped under the hoop and we still didn’t call a timeout. And then the last shot being a fadeaway from our big man was icing on the cake. Terrible finish, this loss could come back to hurt us. I want everyone on the team shooting 100 free throws every morning for the next week.

I didn't see the game, but that's a tough one to swallow. Strange that after being almost unbeatable at home the past few years, this season we're struggling at Newman and doing great on the road.

dbilmes
Cornell was 7-for-16 from the foul line in a one-point loss. That says it all.

Strange turnaround compared to Saturday when seemingly no one could miss a free throw

hard to lose a game when you shoot 65%

Iceberg

dbilmes
Cornell was 7-for-16 from the foul line in a one-point loss. That says it all.

Strange turnaround compared to Saturday when seemingly no one could miss a free throw

If we're missing shots, it must be the coaching!

chimpfood
Terrible coaching at the end there, Jacques NEEDS to call a timeout the second that naz crossed half after that missed free throw but he just let him go. Not to mention how after that naz was trapped under the hoop and we still didn’t call a timeout. And then the last shot being a fadeaway from our big man was icing on the cake. Terrible finish, this loss could come back to hurt us. I want everyone on the team shooting 100 free throws every morning for the next week.

A more experienced coach would probably be ready to take a TO once Nazir got in trouble under the basket, but new coaches make mistakes. The good ones learn. My guess is most coaches would have let their senior playmaker, who is normally tremendous in the open court, try to take advantage of a chaotic situation and not taken a TO. This team is generally more dangerous playing full court, rather than half. I had no issues with that decision other than it didn't work this time.

And the playbook for "you have less than a second to get a shot off" is pretty limited. You take what you can get.

This game was lost because Cornell played horrible defense as opposed to merely poor defense. And they still likely win if they hit free throws at their usual rate.

That was the late coach Bobby Knight's philosophy not to call a time out. He felt you got a better shot if you played it out. Agreed one would want it in Nazir's hands but Brown knew and to their credit they converged on him altering his shot. When one looks at the box score-Brown had 12 second chance points and Cornell had just 1 which reflects that Brown had 9 offensive rebounds and Cornell had just 4.

Yep as I have cooled down and gotten less pissy with time after the game I agree that not calling a timeout immediately was the right play, especially given the trouble we’ve had inbounding the ball this year. That said, Jacques needs to be ready to call one the second that naz gets stuck under the cup but he didn’t and we probably lost a second or two because of that.

P scores last 5 for 37-36 lead at half.

Al DeFlorio
P scores last 5 for 37-36 lead at half.

I checked in while still recording a podcast and Cornell was up by 1 about halfway through the second half and the next time i got to check in, Cornell had run away with it. Final: 85-76 good guys.

Great win in Princeton's house!

48% field goal
40.7 three point

Massive win. It’s cool being road warriors but let’s sweep at home next weekend and we’re in a fantastic spot.

mike1960
Great win in Princeton's house!

48% field goal
40.7 three point

That's a great finish, because for the first 1/4 of the game they barely could hit a shot and were fortunate that Princeton was in the same boat.

Huge, huge win, as everybody has said. Shot brilliantly from the line, so whatever was going on against Brown seems to have passed.

Tied with Princeton for second in the league, and with the tie-breaker over them, and 3 road wins. First place Yale has only on road win. Gotta hold serve next weekend at home and Dartmouth is a lot more dangerous than in recent years. But the team is in a great place.

While not on a back-to-back, this is the 1st time we’ve beaten Penn and Princeton on the road in the same season since we went 14-0 in the league in 2007-2008. I forgot how bad Princeton was that season until I looked at the box score.

Now we just need to regain our mojo at home that has been strangely lacking this year.

scoop85
While not on a back-to-back, this is the 1st time we’ve beaten Penn and Princeton on the road in the same season since we went 14-0 in the league in 2007-2008. I forgot how bad Princeton was that season until I looked at the box score.

Great catch! Man, it really doesn't feel the same this way.

Playing around with KenPom, Cornell is the #1 team in nation for both 2 point FG percentage and effective FG percentage (all shots with a 50% bonus for 3 pointers).

Great win. Makes that home loss to Brown even more annoying.

KenPom as of 1/29:

Current KenPom rankings:

-75 Yale
125 Cornell
138 Princeton
203 Columbia
222 Brown
270 Harvard
271 Penn
275 Dartmouth

Yale is 4-0 in conference; we are tied with Princeton at 3-1. Penn and Dartmouth are tied for the 4th spot in the ILT at 2-2. After starting the year 10-1, Columbia has dropped five in a row and is 0-4 in conference.

OOC opponent rankings (wins in bold):

-69 George Mason
-99 Samford
117 Syracuse
115 Cal
143 Ill. St.
183 La Salle
214 Colgate
206 Robert Morris
297 Lafayette
264 Iona
244 Siena
302 Army

Big weekend here, chance to get to 5-1 with two weak teams coming to town. Watch out for Dartmouth on Friday, they are making a strong bid for the ugliest starting 5 of all time.

For your viewing pleasure, Luke Benz runs a ton of simulationson the Ivy season. (Go to the Ivy League tab). Basically, Yale, Princeton and the Big Red are in great shape for the ILT, and the last team in is a crap shoot. He's a little more bullish on Dartmouth than I am, but it makes an interesting follow.

It is hard to think of Dartmouth basketball as a juggernaut. No winning season since the late 1990s, last year 6-21, 2-12 Ivy last year. Their glory days were two NCAA finals in the early 1940s.

It is still pleasantly surprising at the season midpoint to see Cornell basketball has won two-thirds of its games.

billhoward
It is hard to think of Dartmouth basketball as a juggernaut. No winning season since the late 1990s, last year 6-21, 2-12 Ivy last year. Their glory days were two NCAA finals in the early 1940s.

34-8 in the Ivy during the Rudy LaRusso era.

21-14 midway through the first half as the offensive rebounding has been solid and the 3s are starting to fall.

Big Red continues to dominate the boards and they are up 35-24 at the half.

Looking really good as the clock ticks down.

Dartmouth 61, Good Guys 73

Edit: Final Score

Dartmouth 64, Cornell 76

Another nice win!

Final Cornell 76 Dartmouth 64

Ken711
Final Cornell 76 Dartmouth 64

Dartmouth couldn't shoot and a lot of that was because of much improved defense. Good 40 minutes.

ugarte

Ken711
Final Cornell 76 Dartmouth 64

Dartmouth couldn't shoot and a lot of that was because of much improved defense. Good 40 minutes.

Yes, defense was tight.

ugarte
XXX Red continues to dominate the boards and they are up 35-24 at the half.

Sorry, WHO is dominating the boards?

Solid game, always sweet to be at 4-1. Harvard up tomorrow who is coming off a win as well. Columbia after starting 11-2 has gone 0-5 in the Ivy League.

stereax

ugarte
XXX Red continues to dominate the boards and they are up 35-24 at the half.

Sorry, WHO is dominating the boards?

YIKES I'll edit it if you will

ugarte

stereax

ugarte
XXX Red continues to dominate the boards and they are up 35-24 at the half.

Sorry, WHO is dominating the boards?

YIKES I'll edit it if you will

Deal HAHAHAH! I'm sure it was a typo but a terrible one to make :')

Cornell trailed Harvard at the half 32-20. Cornell now leads 61-45 with 7:37 left.

Ken711
Cornell trailed Harvard at the half 32-20. Cornell now leads 61-45 with 7:37 left.

32-30 H at half

NM, I didn’t read right

Al DeFlorio

Ken711
Cornell trailed Harvard at the half 32-20. Cornell now leads 61-45 with 7:37 left.

32-30 H at half

Yep typo. Final Cornell 75 - Harvard 60
Cornell shot 57.1% on 28-49 to Harvard's 41.8% 23-55

Good play tonight. We’re gonna have to play better than we did on either night this weekend to beat Yale but I think we can do it. I’m already pumped for that game, a lot of people see Yale as the clear cut 1 seed already but I’m not so sold.

I guess with the way this ILT works, we're hoping for Princeton to fall to the 4 (assuming of course that we don't sweep Yale, which of course we will)?

Mr. Niss
I guess with the way this ILT works, we're hoping for Princeton to fall to the 4 (assuming of course that we don't sweep Yale, which of course we will)?

Yeah we definitely want to avoid Princeton/yale in the first round and but if brown makes it I think that their home court advantage would make them as tough of a matchup as P. Speaking of the tourney, anyone else planning to go this year? I had as much fun as you could (given Cornell’s poor performance) at the ILT last year. I’m going to make reservations the second they clinch this one, no ourbus straight from Ithaca makes it a little more annoying to get to though.

I don't know if I can commit to an overnight stay or a 3.5 hour drive each way but if we make the final it's going to be awfully tempting. If we make the final and it's against anyone but Yale I don't know how I'll stop myself.

Cornell defense is nothing to write home about but like the energy the freshman Anthony Nimani is bringing on defense. Looking forward to the matchhup this Saturday. Go Red!

rss77
Cornell defense is nothing to write home about but like the energy the freshman Anthony Nimani is bringing on defense. Looking forward to the matchhup this Saturday. Go Red!

I think their defense is much improved from the last couple of years. They don't give up nearly as many uncontested/easy shots, primarily because they don't press as much in an attempt to ratchet up the pace. The funny thing about a big comeback win at home against Yale a few years ago was that they made up something like a 17-point deficit in the last half of the second half because they *stopped* pressing, if I recall correctly.

Massive game coming on Saturday vs Yale. One thing I would like to see is Ragland pulling some more minutes. He has been get short shifted for a while now and kiachan and Cain are honestly dreadful to watch out there, producing little on offense and rarely having the physicality to guard the opposing big man on defense. Ragland is really solid in comparison and I want to see as many minutes as possible from him.

chimpfood
Massive game coming on Saturday vs Yale. One thing I would like to see is Ragland pulling some more minutes. He has been get short shifted for a while now and kiachan and Cain are honestly dreadful to watch out there, producing little on offense and rarely having the physicality to guard the opposing big man on defense. Ragland is really solid in comparison and I want to see as many minutes as possible from him.

I'm not as down on Kiachian as you - nice little hook shot, very good rebounder and his length is useful even though he is not a banger. Imo the main reason Ragland sees fewer minutes than he might in another system is pace of play. The rotation is so deep to keep everyone fresh and we still sometimes have trouble in the closing minutes. Ragland has also hit the bench after early fouls in a few games.

That said, give him the minutes if he can handle them. We were maybe too hard on him in the past but it feels like he's a leader out there now. We are really going to miss our seniors so I'm enjoying it while they're here.

I also like the change of pace Cain and Kiachian bring. This year's Yale edition like so many of Jones's teams in the past are extremely physical and they like knocking people around especially Townson and Molloy. If you collapse on them that leaves Poulakidas open outside. They have not suffered that much losing Wolf to Michigan and IMO Aletan is coming along nicely at the Center position. The Red have to hit a high % of three pointers IMO.

I think Kiachian and to a lesser extent Cain have done fine out there to spell Ragland. Our quality depth is one of our strengths. But no doubt Ragland has improved significantly over his career and he’ll need to come up big tomorrow.

Cain is the 11th man in Cornell's 10 man rotation. Most games Chris gets 3-4 quiet minutes at the end of the first half, or for a possession before a media timeout, to keep Ragland from picking up an extra foul; he's fine in that role. Kiachian has been a pleasant surprise this year considering his prior Cornell career, and he has helped immensely as a rebounder. Sure, Ragland is a better player, but Ryan's a useful option off the bench.

Ragland is actually seeing career highs in minutes, about 10% more time on the court than under Earl. Of course, it is his first year as a starter and Jon rides his starters more heavily than Brian did. His issue is that he can get in foul trouble. Not like Chris Manon, but enough that Jon has to regulate the minutes so that he has Guy available at the end.

Yale is physical and as a result they are elite on the glass while Cornell, well, isn't. For the Big Red to win, they can't afford to have one of those games with they are giving up double digit offensive rebounds. Keep Yale honest on the boards, and this one is highly winnable.

I’m keeping my eye on mbeng for Yale. Even though he is only their third leading scorer he’s probably their best player but he coughs the ball up quite a bit. If we can get force 3-4 turnover from him and maybe get him into foul trouble early to limit what he can do on defense we’ll be in a good spot.

counting on all of you to keep me informed on progress while i'm watching the end of the cornell/princeton dual meet which will probably decide the ivy wrestling title.

I'd love to understand what these refs are looking at. Poulakidas threw a check to set a pick, should have been an offensive foul, no call, he then hits two threes and our guy gets clubbed with no call leading to another easy two. Very frustrating.

ugarte
counting on all of you to keep me informed on progress while i'm watching the end of the cornell/princeton dual meet which will probably decide the ivy wrestling title.

Oof. Turn on the game right before the half to see Cornell down 8 and Yale takes a time out to set up a final shot with 7 seconds left.

Dubious foul on Hinton but Yale hits both. Cornell is down 10 at the half.

EDIT: Oh damn, 14-0 run for Yale to close the half. Rough.

Getting uglier. Not our day. Down 18 with 13:05 left.

Gonna lose most games where you let up 100 points. Pretty infuriating that after I say I think Ragland needs more pt he plays 5 minutes in the first half which was the only time the game was close. Three of yales guys just completely had their way with us. Mbeng had a triple double and 5 steals, poulakidis was knocking down everything, and Townsend bodied his way to the cup every time. I honestly don’t know how to fix that but we need to figure it out because we play them again in 2 weeks.

Poulikidas reminds me of the UPenn star Matt Maloney from back in the day. Don't see how they could have defended him any better. Townsend is impressive but he does push the envelope with the way he engages contact with opposing players-not a fan. 5-17 3 point shooting in 2nd half did not help either Cornell either.

ugarte
Getting uglier. Not our day. Down 18 with 13:05 left.

And then it became a race to see if Cornell got to 80 before Yale to 100. In this likely prop bet, it was Cornell FTW. Man, in the blink of an eye it went from Cornell up 5 in the second part of the first half to down 20 in the second. Admittedly, the Yale runup seemed more solid than our early lead. For this game.

Ivy Tournament strategy: maintain a 2-3 seed, avoid Yale 'til the finale, hope for a really good game, make the dance, see if we can be the 15-seed that takes down a 2-seed.

Long as we can finally win an Ivy tourney game I’ll be happy tbh. Of course winning would be electric but I’d be satisfied with the season if we just make the final.