News and Notes

Below, some news and notes. Above, Cornell's Louis Dale penetrates during action on Friday night against Seton Hall.

• From ESPN's Andy Katz:

I completely understand the new format of these tournaments that start on campus and then head to a neutral site. The Gazelle Group has it right by locking in the finalists, regardless of what happens on campus. It's somewhat of a bowl-like scenario for the organizer... With that said, Gazelle misfired on the Legends Classic matchups. In order to ensure Michigan State played Florida, the game was set up as a semifinal Friday in Atlantic City, N.J. The other matchup is between Massachusetts and Rutgers, two teams that are struggling right now, losing home games to Cornell and Vermont, respectively. That's great to get MSU-Florida. But don't call this a tournament with a championship trophy. Whoever wins the MSU-Florida game should be handed the trophy, not who then goes on to beat UMass or Rutgers. There is no way either of those teams should be playing in a title game. In this instance, it's simply a round-robin tournament that shouldn't have a true champion.

• SNY TV writes, "[Seton Hall's Herb] Pope, in particular, is well-suited to the Big East game. He's a smoother version of Jerome Williams, and is the biggest reason why Seton Hall bested a Cornell team that would, believe it or not, win a fair number of Big East games."

• The Bleacher Report notes several of the SEC's bad losses. The site writes, "Cornell 71, Alabama 67: The Crimson Tide can't stop the big Red. Alabama has a new coach and there is going to be a learning process here, but you cannot lose games like this. Alabama has won two straight since this loss. BAD LOSS"

• The following comes from NewJerseyNewsroom.com:

Seton Hall’s gamble pays off with victory over Cornell

MID-DAY MONDAY REWIND

This is the first of what should be a weekly thing, the Mid-day Monday Rewind. The name says it all. Every Monday, around the middle of the day, we'll take a look back at the weekend that was for Rutgers and Seton Hall basketball, other New Jersey teams and around the Big East.

This week we start with a look at Seton Hall's overlooked but underappreciated win, Rutgers topsy-turvy weekend, Rider's wake-up call and a suddenly revised Big East power poll.

Win of the weekend: This one belongs to the Pirates. Bobby Gonzalez took a chance going up to Ithaca, N.Y. to play a Cornell team that is certainly among the top 50 in the country. This was not a calculated risk on the part of The Hall, it was a Catch-22, as Gonzalez pointed out after the game. As good as the Big Red may be, and they are good, wins over Ivy League teams don't win you any style points in the eyes of the public. Losses to Ivy League teams can mar an entire out of conference slate.

So considering all that, Seton Hall's win holds extra weight because now they have a win over a likely NCAA Tournament team on the resume if they are on the bubble come March. There is a chance this win looks better if Cornell can pull another upset with the games still left on their schedule: at Syracuse (unlikely but not unprecedented), St. Joseph's, and at Kansas (no way but a good performance could help just as much).

Almost as important as the win itself was that Jeremy Hazell seemed to right himself. He struggled shooting the ball in his first two games but showed no signs of that Friday. At one point he scored 11 straight points for SHU and finished with 33 points on 12-25 shooting and five three-pointers. Cornell coach Steve Donahue said it best afterward, sometimes Hazell can shoot his team out of games and Donahue was hoping for a 7-25 night, but when Hazell has it going the Pirates are tough to top.