March 19, 2009
Bad memories: Cornell reached the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in 20 years — and exited meekly with a 77-53 loss to Stanford.
The Big Red say they learned some valuable lessons — particularly about how to handle the 13-day gap between their Ivy finale and NCAA opener.
“That week we had off last year was like a circus,” coach Steve Donahue said. “I sense we got caught up in it. We had young kids who had no idea what hit them. This year, we were very excited but it was more like, ‘Job’s not done.’ We had tremendous practices the past two weeks.”
The players say they got distracted by the NCAA hype. Junior forward Ryan Wittman, a two-time All-Ivy first-teamer, was 2-for-11 in that game. Junior guard Louis Dale, the 2008 Ivy League Player of the Year, was 4-for-16.
“I think my first shot almost broke the backboard,” Wittman said. “Going into this game, we’re not going to be quite as amped up.”
But they will play like they have something to prove.
“For our team’s sake, our fans’ sake, our alumni’s sake and our league’s sake, we want to prove that there is good basketball at the Ivy League level,” Donahue said. “That’s a great motivating factor.”
Hello, again: Missouri coach Mike Anderson recruited Cornell junior guard Louis Dale when both were in Birmingham, Ala. Anderson was the coach at UAB; Dale played high school basketball there.
Anderson offered Dale a chance to walk on, but he chose Cornell instead.
Dale was the 2008 Ivy League Player of the Year and a 2009 All-Ivy first-teamer. He averages 13.5 points and 3.6 assists per game.
“He’s a real sharp kid, a real character kid,” Anderson said. “He’s a tremendous player.”
Rough start: Cornell played much of its non-conference schedule without returning starting guards Louis Dale and Adam Gore. Dale was out for the first 10 games; Gore was out for 18 games.
During that time, freshman Chris Wroblewski stepped up and was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year. The injuries hurt the Big Red because they lost all of their marquee non-conference games, but they helped them create depth.
“I thought (Wroblewski) was tremendous from the start,” coach Steve Donahue said. “… He’s as good as we can have out there against Missouri. It seems like nothing really bothers him poise wise.”
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