News and Notes: Around the Ivy League

Below, some references to Cornell Basketball in the news media and some notes from around the Ivy League.

• CBS42 provides a preview of the Patriot League and writes, "The new face on the bench at West Point is first-year head coach Zach Spiker who spent the past five seasons as an assistant at Cornell. Spiker, who is just 33 years old, does have the luxury of bringing back as many as four starters from last year's group..."

• Blogging the Bracket notes with respect to Toledo, "The schedule doesn't help the Rockets much, as they'll play at Michigan State as part of the Legends Classic, with a visit to Philadelphia to face Cornell, Drexel, and Vermont in one of that event's "subregionals" to follow."

• Ron Chimelis, the UMass beat writer for The Republican writes, "How can UMass get its fans, especially student fans, excited again? The 2009-10 schedule won't make it easy, at least at the outset. The non-conference home schedule is less than inspiring. Grambling, St. Francis, Cornell, Arkansas-Fort-Smith ... you get the idea."

• Dime Magazine takes a jab at Harvard's Tommy Amaker in the magazine's preseason Top 25. Dime writes:

14. Michigan
Tommy Amaker enters his ninth season as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines and this could be his best team to date. Oh wait, that’s right, Amaker was fired three seasons ago after his Houdini routine of convincing everyone that he was actually a good coach. Seriously how much must he hate John Beilein? Not only does Beilein take his job, but he also takes the mess that he made and turns it around the entire program in the matter of a year. Now Tommy is roaming the sidelines of perennial powerhouse Harvard. How do you like them apples?