Below, Brian Delaney's latest entry in his "Around the Rim" blog.For Cornell, let's call this "Taking care of business week: Part II." CU has two winnable, but difficult, games before its two-week break for finals. Wednesday's game at Bucknell, and Sunday's 2 p.m. home game with St. Joseph's (which, with the students still on campus, should be a great crowd). Bucknell is always tough to play at Sojka Pavilion (Donahue has never won there), and St. Joe's has three quality wins (by an Ivy standard) over Drexel in OT, Patriot League favorite Holy Cross and ACC member Boston College. The Hawks are also considered a bottom-of-the-rung team in the A-10 this year, so who knows.
A small breakdown of the non-league schedule is below. RPI ratings and the like aren't really trust-worthy yet, so stay patient until January when we can really start seeing which wins were good or bad, etc. Cornell had to have been happy with Alabama's win over Michigan over the weekend, but Michigan may end up floundering.
Reviewing the Legends Classic in Philly with random garblings:
*When Jeff Foote gets on a heater (poker term for hot streak; you'll get that a lot from me), he transforms into an almost unstoppable player. His 15 points in 20 minutes against Drexel were huge, and partially carried Cornell during that second-half stretch when Drexel was trying to come back. They eventually did, but if not for Foote the Dragons probably would have taken the lead in the 6-8 minute range, instead of 2:05. Foote had two of his best games last year against Bucknell and La Salle, two upcoming opponents. (Although La Salle has a 6-10 freshman named Aaric Murray who should give Foote a GREAT test.)
*Lou Dale played very good defense despite inconsistent offense. He's got 16 steals in seven games, and he along with Reeves and Wroblewski give Cornell three above-average defenders. Dale is shooting .296 from beyond the arc, which needs to improve. His mid-range game is flourishing, however.
*Mark Coury's contributions against Drexel were immeasurable. He challenges the glass with an SEC toughness and a little more length than Alex Tyler, and he's got terrific instincts defensively. There was one stint in the Drexel second half where he tipped a missed shot to a teammate for a defensive rebound, then stole a pass at the other end.
*Drexel's guards had a little more bounce in Day 3 than Cornell's. In that second half, they got to the basket often. The change of direction moves were the ones that really seemed to catch the Red a step slow. That's not a sign of bad defense - just slightly fatigued legs.
*Steve Donahue has said this so many times in the last two years, it's often become his mantra: Cornell has to play well to beat anybody. Well, that's not really true right now. How often has Cornell played well for 40 minutes? Probably just Alabama, right? Because at no time in Philly did I say to myself, man they've been really sharp this whole time. There were some poor stretches of execution mixed in there, and they still went 3-0. Says a lot.
*Why the inconsistency? Well, first the schedule. By its design, it's a grind. First four games against teams who all could beat Cornell on any given day, followed by a three games-in-three-days format, is not conducive to steady improvement. It's more of a do-whatever-it-takes mentality to get the W. Second, remember how thin this team was last year? Look at the Bucknell box, as an example. Donahue essentially played seven guys: five starters, Wroblewski and Wire. Now add Peck, Groebe and Coury to the rotation, switch Wroblewski and Reeves' roles and you've got some fairly significant differences. Not surprising that this team hasn't played crisply right off the bat. Also not surprising that their senior savvy is the biggest difference they are 5-2 instead of 3-4.
*It took some real chutzpah for Wroblewski to hit that big 3 against Drexel, which allowed Donahue to reiterate that the 6-foot sophomore is as good a player as he has on the roster. Believing that yet? After SHU, SYR and Drexel, it's been tough to argue.
*I would like to see Wire be a touch more assertive in trying to score. There was a sequence against Drexel where the ball was swung to him in the right corner, he caught it in rhythm, pump faked an open shot and then looked to get one of CU's scorers the ball. That was probably the smart play, but I think Wire can hit that 12-15 footer. He should at least attempt it to keep teams honest. Vermont coach Mike Lonergan said they weren't even guarding Wire when they could help it, and that's what opened him up to those 13 rebounds. (A little brash, but probably partially true. I thought Longeran overlooked that Wire essentially outworked every player on his team.)
That's probably enough for now. I'll check back in Wednesday from Sojka Pavilion, although I probably won't do live updates again until the St. Joe's game.
SKED BREAKDOWN
Alabama (4-2), Massachusetts (2-4), Seton Hall (5-0) and Syracuse (7-0). Total record: 18-6
Key wins: Michigan, Cal, North Carolina.
Toledo (0-6), Vermont (3-4), Drexel (3-4). Total record: 6-14.
Future non-league opponents (thru Monday's games)
Bucknell (4-3): Def. Bryant, Delaware, St. Francis (Pa.) and Wagner. Best loss: Providence.
St. Joseph's (3-3): Def. Drexel, Holy Cross and Boston College. Best loss: No. 4/6 Purdue.
Davidson (1-5): Def. Fredonia State. Best loss(es): at No. 23/20 Butler, South Florida.
St. John's (5-0): Def. Long Island, St. Bonaventure, Brown, Siena and Temple.
or
Hofstra (4-3): Def. Yale, Elon, Fairfield and Farmingdale State. Best loss: No. 1/1 Kansas.
La Salle (3-2): Def. Hampton, Davidson and Tulane. Best loss: No. 3/3 Villanova.
DIV. III - Penn State Behrend (2-1): Def. Fredonia, Franciscan. Lost to Medaille.
Bryant (0-6): Best loss: Providence.
No. 1/1 Kansas (5-0): Def. Hofstra, Memphis, Central Arkansas, Oakland and Tennessee Tech.
University of South Dakota (4-3): Def. Texas A&M-CC, Mayville State, Dana, Midland Lutheran. Best loss(es): Marquette, Oregon State, Texas Tech.
DIV. III - Clarkson (3-1): Def. Cazenovia, SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam. Lost to SUNY Plattsburgh.
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