Recruiting News: With Recent Success, Cornell is Becoming an "Easier Sell" to Recruits

In recruiting news, Cornell and other Ivy coaches are still in the midst of this 10-day NCAA regulated recruiting period. Reports suggest that Cornell could be hauling in a tremendous recruiting class this season, which would likely continue to involve both freshmen and impact transfers.

From the names we have read and heard, the program is certainly recruiting players at a very high level, albeit under the radars of the national media which is the way Cornell prefers to operate. But more importantly, the Cornell Big Red coaching staff certainly has plenty of academic and basketball aspects to market to these potential recruits.

Outside of the classroom, Cornell is riding upon two consecutive Ivy League Basketball Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. Throw in the attractive and challenging schedules, Cornell's state-of the-art facilities- which are unmatched elsewhere in the conference, and the increasingly exciting atmosphere of Newman Arena and Newman Nation and it certainly could be argued that Cornell is presently offering high schoolers the best academic-basketball balance in the Ivy League.

In terms of academics, Cornell is currently ranked No. 14 in U.S. News & World Report's Top Universities and No. 15 in the world according to Britain's HE-QS World University Rankings. According to U.S. News & World Report and other notable rankings, Cornell also boasts the nation's No. 1 academic departments in multiple fields including Engineering Physics, Architecture & Planning, Hotel Administration, Industrial & Labor Relations, and Agricultural & Veterinarian Sciences. In fact, according to the latest ranking of the National Research Council, Cornell ranks sixth nationally in the number of academic programs ranked in the top 10 of their fields.

BusinessWeek's Rankings of the Top Undergraduate Schools of Business places Cornell No. 8 nationally. Among Ivies, only Cornell and Penn offer business programs for their undergraduates.

Newsweek also ranked Cornell as the "Hottest Ivy League School."

Because Cornell is returning a rather small roster for the 2010-2011 season, on the recruiting circuit Cornell is offering immediate playing time to high school members of the class of 2010, especially players in the frontcourt positions. The Big Red are also offering yet another impressive non-conference schedule in 2010-2011 which is expected to include games against Syracuse and Seton Hall.

In specific recruiting news, NJHoops.com is reporting that Cornell is showing interest in 6'7" Thomas Noonan from the Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. He is also hearing from Princeton, Yale, Amherst, Hamilton College, Rochester Tech, Williams College, and Bowdoin College. Noonan already visited Cornell.

Meanwhile, Dave Dudzinski, a 6'9" forward from Kaneland HS in Illinois claims offers from Cornell, Brown and Princeton. He told the Dekalb Daily Chronicle that seven of the eight Ivy League schools are actively recruiting him. Dudzinki hails from a farming community northwest of Aurora and is a perfect fit for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Cornell Basketball's needs in the frontcourt.

The Examiner.com has a story on Dwight Powell's likely commitment to Stanford over Harvard and others. Harvard has set their sights on other elite prospects such as 6'8" Rod Odom (Middlesex School, MA), 6'2" Pe'Shon Howard (Oak Hill Academy, VA), 6'5" Keala King (Dominguez HS, Compton, CA). But each of these targets have opportunities to attend schools with far superior basketball programs than Harvard and very comparable levels of education. For example, Odom has a scholarship offer to play basketball in the SEC and attend a Top 25 ranked US News & World Report school in Vanderbilt. It would be simply shocking to see these recruits pass up some of the scholarships they have been offered to play basketball at the Ivy League's least successful program (Harvard has never won an Ivy League title and last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1946).

In the event top recruits do enroll at Harvard or elsewhere in the Ivy League, the increasing talent in the conference only helps raise the Ivy League's overall profile.

According to the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Laurent Rivard has college offers coming in from Davidson, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Elon, Vermont, Penn, Columbia, and Princeton. He is a 6'5" small forward. Rivard is a good fit for the Ivy League, wherever he lands.

From Toms River, NJ and Monsignor Donovan HS, NJHoops.com notes that 6'1" Sean Grennan is getting attention from Princeton, Michigan, Davidson, Notre Dame, St Johns, Seton Hall, Fordham and Cincinnati. He is a member of the class of 2o11.

Corwin Austin, a 6'0" guard from Thomas Jefferson HS in New York is getting interest from New Hampshire and Columbia. He has already visited Columbia.