Preseason Rankings and Bracket Projections

Above, Cornell's Jeff Foote denies Harvard's Jeremy Lin. Below, a summary of some preseason rankings.

MidMajorMadness.com (MMM) is counting down and ranking the nation's 344 Division I teams for the 2009-2010 season. Thus far, MMM has ranked teams Nos. 344 to 284. Potential Cornell opponents on the 2009-2010 schedule already ranked include: the University of Toledo (a potential Cornell opponent in the Legends Classic) at No. 330, Dartmouth at No. 329, Bryant (will visit Cornell this season) No. 308, Brown No. 307 and Columbia No. 291. Additionally, Anthony Gatlin's former team, Centenary is ranked at No. 294.

MMM writes:

330. Toledo: The loss of guard/forward, Tyrone Kent along with two other starters from the 2008-09 season is going to make a big impact on Toldeo’s overall performance. Tyrone averaged 15.1 points along with 5.2 rebounds per game. On the upside, the Rockets have 6’ 9", Justin Anyijong to help make up for Kent’s absence. Anyijong’s defensive presence might be able to help make up for the loss of athleticism that the 2008-09 senior class brought to the team.

329. Dartmouth: The Big Green lose their weapon, Alex Barnett who averaged a team high of 19.4 points along with 5.6 rebounds per game. If that is not hard enough to deal with, they will also lose Kurt Graeber who was a big threat on the defensive end of the court. Head coach Terry Dunn is going to have to rely heavily on his underclassmen to make up for the loss of the two starters.

308. Bryant: The only way Tim O’Shea can improve upon his Bears’ 8-21 record from the 2008-09 season is if they can figure out a way to create some offensive production. The team is set to lose Peter Lambert who finished third on the team in scoring last year. This will set the team back a bit but should not be too harmful. The Bears must continue to play great defense as well as create more scoring opportunities.

307. Brown: The Bears will look forward to see the standout forward, Matt Mullery return for his final year under head coach Jesse Agel. Mullery put up all-star quality stat lines, averaging 16.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.1 bloacks per game. The downside to the Bears is that they are losing two role players in Chris Skrelja and Scott Friske. The two will leave a major hole in the Bears defense that Mullery might not be able to fill by himself.

294. Centenary: The Centenary Gentlemen really struggled down the home stretch of the 2008-09 season winning only 1 of their last 10 games. Greg Gary is set to lose top-scorer Nick Stallings who averaged 15.3 points a game. The upside for Gary is that he has a very promising guard in Chase Adams that is capable of immediately taking over Stallings role. Adams has proven that he can be a threat on offense by averaging 14.6 points per game during the 2008-09 season. It is just unclear if Adams has the aggressiveness that is necessary to be feared on the defensive end.

291. Columbia: The loss of Jason Miller is going to be difficult to overcome. Miller was a talented inside-man that pulled in 6.6 rebounds to go along with 9.8 points per game. The sophmore guard Noruwa Agho should do a sufficient job making up for Miller on offense but Agho is more of a perimeter player so the post play will still be down. The only solution to the post game is if head coach Joe Jones can get Asenso Ampim to perform well on a consistent basis. Ampim has the size and strength to be an inside presence however he seems to lack the aggressiveness.

In other rankings, CollegeHoopsNet.com has begun its similar ranking of the nation's top 144 in 144 days

In bracket projections, BloggingTheBracket.com projects Cornell as a No. 14 seed in the 2010 NCAAs.

Meanwhile, In his June 17, 2009 edition of Bracketology, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects Cornell as a No. 13 seed in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Lunardi previously projected Cornell as a No. 12 seed back on April 13, 2009.