News and Notes

Below, some news and note for the afternoon...

• The Bleacher Report writes, "the [Kansas] Jayhawks will have to host Ivy League co-favorite Cornell [on January 6], a team that won't be a pushover."

• Barry Leonard's Redcast halftime interviews during the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival will feature Senator Bill Bradley on Sunday and then on Monday night, former Syracuse guard and current assistant, Gerry McNamara.

• In national stats, out of 347 teams, Cornell is presently 39th in 3-point shooting percentage and14th in free throw percentage. KenPom.com ranks Cornell's non-conference schedule 73rd in the nation, while the RPI ranks Cornell's schedule played-to-date at No. 41.

• We were told by a confidential source that Penn was working on an eventual buy-out of Glen Miller's contract as early as two weeks ago. Still, the midseason termination was a bit of a surprise to us.
  

• We previously posted that on the Twittersphere, ESPN's Dick Vitale commented, "Penn just fired Coach Miller- this NBA mentality is absurd in colleege hoops-no place for mid -season firings!" Since Vitale's tweet, more national journalists have criticized Penn's decision. CNNSI's Seth Davis tweets, "Can it be an Ivy League school fired its coach mid-season purely because of a poor W-L record? Somewhere Ben Franklin is sighing deeply." Meanwhile, FoxSports' Jeff Goodman writes, "Penn made mistake with mid-season firing."
  

• An added twist, CoachingRumors.com tweets, "more ivy news. keep an eye on dartmouth too." We previously posted our projections of coaches on the hot seat back in October.
  

• Jon Tannenwald of Philly.com quotes Jerome Allen as saying, "I had the opportunity to play for Dan Dougherty, Larry Brown and Fran Dunphy, Fran O'Hanlon, Gil Jackson and Steve Donahue..."