Unlimited Dekstop Wallpaper: The Case for Cornell Basketball

Below, an outline of some highlights of the Cornell Basketball program.

Cornell Dominates Ivy League Basketball-The Big Red have made two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament and won two consecutive Ivy League titles with a 25-3 mark over the last two seasons in the conference. No Ivy team has finished within three games of Cornell in the last two years. Last season, Cornell beat Ivy opponents by an average of 12.9 points per game.

Mid Major Power-Cornell is a mainstay in the Mid Major Top 25 Poll as voted upon on CollegeInsider.com. During the last two seasons, Cornell was the only Ivy League team to receive recognition in the final voting results. In both seasons, Cornell finished ranked among the top thirty mid major programs in the country. During 2007-2008, Cornell finished the season ranked No. 18. Last season, Cornell finished 2008-2009 ranked in the 29th position with 27 votes received.

More than Just a Conference and Mid Major Power, Cornell Highly Ranked in Major National Rankings-Cornell finished 2007-2008 with a final RPI rank of No. 65 and a No. 33 national ranking (in terms of votes received) in the Final Associated Press (A.P.) Top 25 Poll. The Big Red are expected to be highly ranked during the preseason heading into 2009-2010.

Big Time "High Major" Schedule-Playing big time college basketball means playing the best teams in America, anytime, anywhere. Cornell plays a big time Division I schedule. For example, this season Cornell will face Kansas, Alabama, Syracuse, Seton Hall, UMass, St. Joseph's, La Salle, Davidson and potentially St. John's. The Seton Hall and St. Joseph's games will be played in Cornell's Newman Arena. Cornell's schedule also includes participation in the Legends Classic and back-to-back games in Madison Square Garden in the Holiday Festival. No other Ivy League program can offer this level of challenge or national exposure in a schedule. In the last three years, Cornell also faced teams such as Duke, Indiana, and Minnesota.

Big Time Players Join Cornell-Players from big time Division I programs regularly transfer to join the Cornell Basketball program. In the last three years, the Big Red welcomed several transfers from the SEC, Big 12, Pac 10, and A-10. The current Cornell roster includes Division I transfers from the University of Kentucky, the University of Colorado, UMass, St. Bonaventure and Centenary College. Cornell has also welcomed transfers in the last few years from USC, the University of Utah, Air Force, Bradley and Wofford.

Stable Cornell Big Red Coaching Staff-Cornell's coaching staff is the hallmark of stability within the Ivy League. The entire coaching staff has deep rooted connections to Cornell, the Ivy League and the Ithaca area. Steve Donahue, The Robert E. Gallagher '44 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Basketball has coached basketball in the Ivy League for two decades, longer than any other coach in the conference. During 2007-2008, Coach Donahue was the NABC and USBWA District Coach of the Year, a Hugh Durham National Mid-Major Coach of the Year finalist and a U.S.A. Basketball Court Coach (Under-18 National Team). Cornell has coaching connections throughout the NCAA.

Stellar Retention of Players in the Program-Cornell's retention rate leads the Ivy League. This means the players are satisfied with their experience in the program. Virtually every member of Cornell's last three recruiting classes of 2010, 2011, and 2012 (the current seniors, juniors, and sophomores) stayed with the Cornell basketball program and either graduated or are on track to graduate on time.

Successful Alumni from the Basketball Program-Following graduation, alumni of the Cornell Basketball program have established very successful career paths. Some are playing basketball professionally, while others have moved onto professions away from the basketball court. Two recent Cornell alums played in the NBA's Development League. Cornell also has several alums currently serving as executives in NBA front offices . And over the years, there were Cornell players who actually made it onto NBA rosters.

Media Attention and Publicity- In Central New York, Cornell Basketball is The Basketball Show and its players are The Stars. Cornell is the only Division I (or professional) basketball program within a 50 mile radius of its campus. The Big Red therefore receive substantial tv media attention in the region from the major network channels- WBNG-Binghamton (CBS News), WETM-Elmira (NBC News), WSYR (ABC News), and Time Warner News. The Big Red are also covered extensively in the print media such as the Ithaca Journal and New York Times. No other Ivy League school receives comparable media attention.

Cornell's Newman Arena: "Home of Newman Nation"- Leads Ivy League in Attendance-With the highest average attendance in the Ivy League, Cornell's Newman Arena has become the best environment to play and watch college basketball in the conference. At the close of 2008-2009, the Big Red had won 21 consecutive home games at Newman, the third longest active streak in the country. Additionally, Cornell is currently riding a 15 straight home court winning streak against Ivy League teams. Teams from the Big East and A-10 will visit Newman Arena this season.

Cornell Dominates All-Ivy League and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Award-Cornell newcomers have won four of the last seven Ivy League Rookie of the Year awards, including three of the last four. Cornell also placed two players on the All-Ivy League First Team and at least a third player on the Second Team in each of the last two years. In fact, four Cornellians were named All-Ivy League during 2007-2008, while the Big Red's Louis Dale captured the Ivy League Player of the Year Award and Honorable Mention All-American honors. Teammate Ryan Wittman has been named to virtually every Mid Major All-American team.

Cornell Best Balance of Academics and Athletics in Ivy League-In its most recent ranking, Stack Magazine's Elite 50 ranks Cornell 45th in the country (and No. 1 in the Ivy League) in overall athletics-academics balance. Cornell was 39th the prior year and was the only ranked Ivy League school. Taking academics out of the equation and examining solely the Cornell Athletic Department's overall level of success, Cornell University finished No. 59 in the final Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings out of 271 Division I programs. Three Cornell men's athletic teams finished in the Top 10 nationally. Cornell men's lacrosse was the national championship runner-up and finished with a No. 7 national rank, men's hockey made it to the NCAA Tournament Elite 8 and finished with a No. 9 national rank, and the wrestling team finished 5th nationally.

The Hottest Ivy League School-Virtually every major news and education publication ranks Cornell in the top handful of Universities in the country and the world. For example, US News & World Report asked guidance counselors from America's Best High Schools to tell the magazine which national universities they think offered the best education to their students. They rated the universities on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being the top score) or marked "don't know" if they were unfamiliar with that particular college. Cornell was ranked 5th in the United States. Newsweek Magazine ranked Cornell as the "Hottest Ivy League School." In addition, The Princeton Review reported that Cornell ranked ninth as a "dream college" for high school students and their parents. Washington Monthly ranks Cornell No. 7 in the nation (and top in the Ivy League) it is latest rankings, while Cornell was ranked No. 15 in U.S. News & World Report's Top Universities for 2010. In terms of just its "Peer Assessment-Academic Reputation Rank Score"-- Cornell has consistently been ranked among the nation's top 10 in the U.S. News rankings and is current ranked. 9th. Globally, Cornell is No. 15 in the world according to Britain's HE-QS World University Rankings and No. 12 in the world according to "Academic Ranking of World Universities" of the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Cornell also boasts the nation's No. 1 academic departments in multiple fields including Engineering Physics, Architecture & Planning, Hotel Administration, Industrial & Labor Relations (sports management), and Agricultural & Veterinarian /Animal Sciences. 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. Not surprisingly, Cornell produces more graduates that go on to become doctors than any other university in the USA.

Business Week magazine's rankings of the Top Undergraduate Schools of Business places Cornell No. 8 nationally, while U.S. News ranks the program No. 10. Among Ivies, only Cornell and Penn offer business programs for their undergraduates. Cornell's engineering program was also ranked No. 9 nationally by U.S. News, the only Ivy program ranked.

Cornell's academic offering and options are simply not rivaled by any school in the Ivy League or in the world. The University offers more more majors and more courses than any other school with virtually every academic program among the top ranked in its field. In short, students at other Ivies have far fewer choices than Cornell in the diversity of college majors and courses.

Big Time Campus & College Town-Widely considered one of the most beautiful if not the most beautiful college campuses in America, Cornell is situated in Ithaca, New York, which was ranked by Outside Magazine as one of the top 15 best college towns in the country. Ithaca was also ranked as America's best collegetown by the American Institute for American Research. Cornell and Ithaca look like what an All-American college campus and college town should look like.

Other Ivies have campus atmospheres comparable to a Division III school. They are mostly small urban or suburban campuses with minimal college town atmosphere. Cornell and Ithaca give give off the feeling of a big time Big 10, Big 12, ACC or Pac 10 school. The Cornell student body is the largest in the Ivy League and consists of over 20,000 students. It is also by far the Ivy League's largest campus, consisting of more than 4,000 acres. By way of comparison, Cornell's campus is more than four times the size of the second largest Ivy League school. In fact, Cornell is larger than most schools in the Big 10, Big 12, ACC or Pac 10 .