After hosting Seton Hall of the Big East Conference on November 20, the Cornell Big Red will once again host another "name recognition" opponent in Newman Arena. On Sunday, December 6 (2 pm tip-off), Saint Joseph's of the Atlantic 10 Conference visits Cornell.
While the Hawks are best known for their 2004 team, which produced two of the NBA's best guards in Jameer Nelson and Delonte West and was recently named one of the decade's best college basketball teams by YahooSports, the Hawks enter this Sunday's contest with a solid 3-3 record and an RPI ranking of No. 77. Their resume this season is bolstered by an impressive 84-80 victory over Boston College. They also claim wins over a physical Drexel team (in overtime) and Patriot League preseason favorite, Holy Cross. The defeats were at the hands of a dangerous Rider team (which already knocked off Mississippi State) as all as from BCS teams, DePaul and Purdue.
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Even after Cornell defeated Alabama and UMass and fell to Seton Hall and Syracuse, the balance of Cornell's nonconference schedule is still loaded full of quality opponents.
Following the St. Joseph's game in Ithaca on December 6, the Big Red participate on the world's biggest stage on December 20 -21 in the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival. Two Cornell games in the tournament will be nationally broadcast on MSG Network and Fox Sports Net Atlantic. Cornell opens the tournament against Davidson and plays the following day against either St. John's or Hofstra.
On December 29, Cornell faces its third A-10 opponent of the season when the Big Red travel to LaSalle.
Finally, the team's toughest contest of the season falls on January 6, when Cornell visits No. 1 ranked Kansas. The Cornell-Kansas game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN's Full Court Network, which is available via DirecTV.
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