By Brian Delaney
The Ithaca Journal
November 18, 2009
Bobby Gonzalez always looks forward to games in the Upstate New York area, where family and friends who know and follow the 1981 Binghamton North High School graduate can watch his teams play live.
In recent years, those trips have been to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for a Big East men's basketball matchup between Jim Boeheim's Orange and Gonzalez's Seton Hall Pirates.
Gonzalez's journey this week will be different in every way imaginable, the least of which will not be the added apprehension of a major conference team playing a road game at a school from a low to mid-major league -- especially one without athletic scholarships.
In this case, Cornell. And rest assured -- Friday night's 7 p.m. tip-off at Newman Arena will be a unique occurrence.
"It's probably the worst scheduled game in the history of college basketball," semi-joked Gonzalez during a phone interview Wednesday. He later added: "I'm probably nuts for playing the game, but hey, we're going to do it."
Gonzalez has valid reasons to be concerned.
Cornell opened Saturday with a 71-67 victory at Southeastern Conference member Alabama, and will play Friday night having won 21 straight games at Newman Arena. Last year, the Big Red won all 13 of its home games, by a margin of 18.9 points. They shot 52 percent from the floor and 47 percent from three-point range.
Numbers aside, Cornell is an experienced, senior-laden team with two trips to the NCAA tournament in the rearview mirror. Gonzalez's Pirates, although talented, are in the early stages of blending a returning cast of four starters with transfers Keon Lawrence (Missouri), Herb Pope (New Mexico State) and Jeff Robinson (Memphis). They finished last season with a 17-15 record.
Lawrence is suspended indefinitely after being charged for DWI in a recent traffic accident, and Robinson won't be eligible until the spring semester due to NCAA transfer guidelines.
"I think right now we're still trying to find ourselves," Gonzalez said. "Some people might say, you have four starters and two seniors, but we're not experienced like a team like Cornell. That's what I'm concerned about.
"You can go on the road and beat a team like Alabama when you have veterans and poise and guys who've been together. And that's what Cornell has. So my biggest concern is it's this early in the season. ... I think if we play them 10 games from now, it might be a little better for us."
Typically, major conference programs, like Seton Hall, pay low-tier or mid-major programs a portion of the gate to play at its home arena, and enjoy the spoils in the win column.
This year, Seton Hall was in need of financially viable home-and-home agreements with a road game for this season -- financially viable as in no airfare costs, and no fee for the visitor on the return trip, Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. Cornell's anticipated top-100 ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index would also prove beneficial to Seton Hall, should the Pirates win.
"I think this was our athletic directors more than anything else," Donahue said. "I think there are so many things that go into scheduling. A lot of it is economics."
After Friday, the Pirates (2-0) play their next nine games at home, including Big East contests against West Virginia and Syracuse in late December.
Not since 2003 has a major program visited Newman Arena, when Georgia Tech dealt Cornell a 90-69 loss in front of a sold-out crowd. But the challenge facing Seton Hall on Friday is far greater than the one the Yellowjackets faced on Nov. 23, 2003.
And Gonzalez knows it.
"I don't think people understand how good Cornell is nationally," he said.
"It's kind of a no-win situation for us because if we go up there and win, we did what we're supposed to do," he added. "If we go up there and lose, everyone says it's a bad loss, which in essence, that's not true."
In recent years, those trips have been to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for a Big East men's basketball matchup between Jim Boeheim's Orange and Gonzalez's Seton Hall Pirates.
Gonzalez's journey this week will be different in every way imaginable, the least of which will not be the added apprehension of a major conference team playing a road game at a school from a low to mid-major league -- especially one without athletic scholarships.
In this case, Cornell. And rest assured -- Friday night's 7 p.m. tip-off at Newman Arena will be a unique occurrence.
"It's probably the worst scheduled game in the history of college basketball," semi-joked Gonzalez during a phone interview Wednesday. He later added: "I'm probably nuts for playing the game, but hey, we're going to do it."
Gonzalez has valid reasons to be concerned.
Cornell opened Saturday with a 71-67 victory at Southeastern Conference member Alabama, and will play Friday night having won 21 straight games at Newman Arena. Last year, the Big Red won all 13 of its home games, by a margin of 18.9 points. They shot 52 percent from the floor and 47 percent from three-point range.
Numbers aside, Cornell is an experienced, senior-laden team with two trips to the NCAA tournament in the rearview mirror. Gonzalez's Pirates, although talented, are in the early stages of blending a returning cast of four starters with transfers Keon Lawrence (Missouri), Herb Pope (New Mexico State) and Jeff Robinson (Memphis). They finished last season with a 17-15 record.
Lawrence is suspended indefinitely after being charged for DWI in a recent traffic accident, and Robinson won't be eligible until the spring semester due to NCAA transfer guidelines.
"I think right now we're still trying to find ourselves," Gonzalez said. "Some people might say, you have four starters and two seniors, but we're not experienced like a team like Cornell. That's what I'm concerned about.
"You can go on the road and beat a team like Alabama when you have veterans and poise and guys who've been together. And that's what Cornell has. So my biggest concern is it's this early in the season. ... I think if we play them 10 games from now, it might be a little better for us."
Typically, major conference programs, like Seton Hall, pay low-tier or mid-major programs a portion of the gate to play at its home arena, and enjoy the spoils in the win column.
This year, Seton Hall was in need of financially viable home-and-home agreements with a road game for this season -- financially viable as in no airfare costs, and no fee for the visitor on the return trip, Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. Cornell's anticipated top-100 ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index would also prove beneficial to Seton Hall, should the Pirates win.
"I think this was our athletic directors more than anything else," Donahue said. "I think there are so many things that go into scheduling. A lot of it is economics."
After Friday, the Pirates (2-0) play their next nine games at home, including Big East contests against West Virginia and Syracuse in late December.
Not since 2003 has a major program visited Newman Arena, when Georgia Tech dealt Cornell a 90-69 loss in front of a sold-out crowd. But the challenge facing Seton Hall on Friday is far greater than the one the Yellowjackets faced on Nov. 23, 2003.
And Gonzalez knows it.
"I don't think people understand how good Cornell is nationally," he said.
"It's kind of a no-win situation for us because if we go up there and win, we did what we're supposed to do," he added. "If we go up there and lose, everyone says it's a bad loss, which in essence, that's not true."
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