Cornell Basketball in the News

Some references to Cornell Basketball in the news today...

From CollegeSportingNews.com:

...Most folks see their March brackets and see a bunch of schools they don’t usually see any other time of year. But many of them either played, or currently play, football at the FCS level. Let’s take a look at the teams in the tournament, and their parallel football history...

Cornell
Football/Basketball Conference: Ivy League
Basketball: No. 14 seed, lost to No. 3 seed Missouri

The Big Red, two time Ivy League regular season basketball champions, long for their football team to share the same sort of dominance in Ivy League football that they’ve enjoyed recently in basketball.

While the Big Red’s impressive 3-0 start in football in 2008 - including a thrilling last-second touchdown pass from quarterback Nathan Ford to wide receiver Jesse Baker for a 25-24 win over Lehigh - made some think of Cornell as a dark horse for the Ivy League championship, the aftermath unfortunately proved to be more typical for Cornell football in recent years - a 1-6 finish, with their only win coming against hapless Dartmouth 37-14.

While the Big Red has a long and stored football history - winning the newspaper poll championships of 1915 and 1921, and producing legendary players like running back Ed Marinaro - more recently Cornell’s football legacy has left something to be desired. With their last co-Ivy League championship occurring in 1990 and a legacy of hovering around .500 for the last ten years, they’ll hope this year to buck that trend and outduel Harvard, Yale and Princeton for an outright Ivy League title. Hope ever springs eternal in upstate New York.

From CollegeHoopsNet.com's NYC Metro Rankings:

12. Yale (13-15)

James Jones' Bulldogs held out hope for an Ivy League crown until late in the season, but they had too much ground to make up in catching eventual champion Cornell. Unfortunately for Yale, the frontcourt tandem of Ross Morin and Travis Pinick is set to graduate this year, leaving a rather substantial hole in the frontcourt. For the second consecutive season the duo was named Second Team All-Ivy, and junior guard Alex Zampier was named Honorable Mention All-Ivy. He'll be back, as will forward Garrett Fiddler, who becomes the bell cow up front next season. Jordan Gibson and Porter Braswell will also need to step up if the Bulldogs are to have any chance of improving upon their third place finish, but those two up front will be tough to replace. Stock: down.

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16. Princeton (13-14)

Sydney Johnson's young Tigers went into the final weekend of the regular season with a chance to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. But they fell on the road to Columbia, nixing any chance of a showdown the following night at Cornell for the automatic berth. But with a talented (and young) backcourt led by Douglas Davis and sophomore Dan Mavraides, expect Princeton to be in the running again next season. The Tigers improved their conference record by five games this season, an accomplishment that resulted in collegeinsider.com naming Coach Johnson their pick for Ivy League Coach of the Year. Pawel Buczak played well inside this season, and help is on the way with Ian Hummer and Will Barrett making up a solid recruiting class that is heavy with interior talent. The NCAA Tournament is a distinct possibility for Princeton next season. Stock: up.