Dagger's "The Hunt" -- Cornell is No. 52

The Dagger is a sports blog of YahooSports.com. The Dagger selected Cornell as the No. 52 team in its "Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World."

The Dagger explains the hunt as follows:

The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World (which we're going to have to abbreviate after this, aren't we?) is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Everyone does this, but ours is a tad different: Instead of merely counting down who we think will be the best 64 teams in the country, we're counting down the most interesting. Talent and possible success are factors, but neither shall trump amusement in our complicated and arbitrary calculus. Make sense? Get it? Good. Now don't send me complaints asking why your team isn't ranked. Because your team is obviously boring.

Below is the Dagger's full profile of Cornell. We note a couple factual errors in Dagger's article. First, it refers to Ryan Wittman by his father's name, Randy. Additionally, Ryan did not win the 2009 Ivy League Player Year of the Award. It was won by Alex Barnett of Dartmouth.

The Hunt: No. 52, Cornell
By Chris Chase, The Dagger

The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 21-10

2009-2010's toughest games: vs. Seton Hall, at Syracuse, at Kansas

Primary attraction: Led by the last two Ivy League Players of the Year (Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale), can the Big Red earn its third straight Ivy League title and earn the school's first NCAA tournament victory?

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. Serious hardware -- This Cornell team features the 2009 Ivy League POY (Randy Wittman), the 2008 Ivy League POY (Louis Dale), the 2009 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year (Jeff Foote) and the 2009 Ivy League Rookie of the Year (Chris Wroblewski). All five starters return from last year's title team, three of which made Rivals' all-Ivy first team. The returning talent has led some to speculate that this could be the best Ivy team of the decade.

2. Room for error -- The best part about the Ivy League is that because there is no conference tournament, the best team in the league always advance to the NCAAs. This is unlike in every other one-bid conference where a fluky three-day stretch in the conference tourneys and can get mediocre teams into the field at the expense of the best team. (This doesn't matter as much in the major conferences, of course, since the best teams get at-large bids.) Thus, Cornell can slip up a few times during the year and still play in March. In fact, they're a near lock to win the league and earn the school's sixth bid to the NCAA tournament. Don't be surprised if they pull out a W as well, particularly if they draw a younger, undisciplined big-time school.

3. The Cornell Basketball Blog -- Sometimes I have trouble coming up with blog topics and I write for The Dagger, Shutdown Corner, Busted Racquet and Fourth-Place Medal, covering anything and everything about four sports. The guys at the Cornell Basketball Blog posted about Big Red basketball 119 times in August. AUGUST! Nothing happens in August. They hit 329 posts in March of this year, and I'm not even sure the prolific Skeets gets that many in at our NBA blog Ball Don't Lie. I'm impressed. It's a good site too. Check it out.

And, introducing, Andy Bernard:

(originally published 10.14.09)