SB Nation - Cornell Big Red

Triche Stratus: Freshman Score 21 As No. 9 Syracuse Outlasts Cornell 88-73

Sean Keeley — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:09:48 -0000

More photos » by Kevin Rivoli - AP

16 days ago: Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim talks with Brandon Triche during the second half against Cornell in an NCAA college basketball game in Syracuse, N.Y., Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Syracuse won 88-73. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)

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For a half there, all of the fears that Syracuse fans know well were bubbling up to the surface. Cornell was hitting shots. The Orange looked a little sluggish. The little guys were hanging with us. It was the recipe for a 2nd-half disaster.

But that was how some previous incarnation of Syracuse basketball would have handled it. This squad buckled down, remembered some of that smothering defense that worked so well for them in previous games and slowly but surely pulled away for a 88-73 victory to move to 5-0.

Brandon Triche ended with 21 points and Andy Rautins hit five three-pointers on his way to an 18-point night, helping No. 10 Syracuse to an 88-73 victory over Cornell at the Carrier Dome.

Wes Johnson filled the stat sheet with 15 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks, while Kris Joseph chipped in 13 points for Syracuse, which went from unranked to No. 10 in the nation after impressive wins over California and North Carolina last week.

"We couldn't win two big games and come here and lose to Cornell," Joseph said. "We couldn't let that happen. That was on our mind as well, just coming out and staying focused."

Noted, KrisJo. But all due respect to the Big Red, they certainly got our attention. It was Chris Wroblewski, not Ryan Wittman, who took control early in the game. He hit five 3's in the first half en route to 20 points on the night. Overall, Cornell took 19 shots from the 3-point line, making nine. Unlike Cal, The Big Red made their three's all night and put on the best shooting performance the Orange have faced all season. That SU won by 15 speaks volumes to that.

The Orange have made a habit in this young season of coming out in the 2nd half and putting the clamp down on opponents. Whatever was working for Cornell in the first half...well, it ceased to exist once the 2nd half started.

Once the second half began, Syracuse had enough of their neighbors from the south in Ithaca making a game of this. The defense got a lot tighter and SU went on a 21-6 run to open the half. Cornell went from a "fire burning on the dance floor" to the Elaine Benis Dance. The Big Red made only 4 of its 18 attempts from 3-point range the rest of the game.

Taking a cue from his football counterpart, Jim Boeheim was pleased with the 2nd half effort:

"I think our guys did a tremendous job, particularly the start of the second half adjusting defensively," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. "We got to their shooters the first eight or 10 minutes."

The star of the night was freshman Brandon Triche. The youngster showed some of that budding leadership quality we're expecting from him, as well as a nice shooting touch.

Triche had the best game of his collegiate career in No. 10 Syracuse's 88-73 win over Cornell Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome. The freshman from Jamesville scored a career- and team-high 21 points in 31 minutes of action. Triche is now averaging 12.2 points per game.

"Every game I try to get better and better," Triche said. "Doing that is definitely going to help my confidence, and I know my ability and my coaches know my ability, so them talking to me a lot and giving my positive motivation."

Nice evening by Wes Johnson who, at least for one night, went from star player to stat sheet filler. Maybe he's both at the same time?

How about your star turned glue guy. Hello Wes Johnson, you got that right? Wes’ 10 boards, 4 assists, 3 blocks were indicative of his all-around effort which is quite contagious.

The major subplot of the evening occurred towards the end of the 2nd half when Mookie Jones suddenly and angrily stormed off the bench and headed into the locker room. Axe has the play-by-play:

With about five minutes left, Jim Boeheim was bending down and talking to Mookie Jones on the bench. Boeheim walked away. Suddenly, Mookie threw his headband and stormed off to the locker room. SU director of player development Lazarus Sims and SU trainer Brad Pike went into the locker room after him. Mookie did return to the bench, but did not stick around for hand shakes with Cornell and was nowhere to be seen in the locker room after the game.

When Jim Boeheim was asked about what happened with Mookie, he responded "Nothing" and ended his press conference (to be fair, he did say "anything else?", but clearly the thing was over at that point).

Oh boy...raise your hand if you had Mookie Jones in the First-Player-To-Transfer Pool. Chances are, this is one of those "handled internally" situations and we'll probably never know what happened. Is it playing time? If so, hopefully Mookie can look big picture and see just how much time he has ahead of him. If it's Boeheim's surly demeanor, well, you knew all about that when you signed up. Though it didn't really seem like Jimmy was digging into Mookie before he walked off.

As Axe says, don't be surprised if Rautins and the rest of the upperclassmen haven't already sorted young Mookie out.

There were some issues (what was up with AO?) but for the most part it was a solid win this early in the season. The Orange actually shot 82% from the line and only committed 11 turnovers. Not too shabby. Syracuse gets a couple days off now before Columbia comes to the Dome on Friday. Then it's Colgate on Monday to complete the New York State Trifecta.

And a special Mazel Tov to Jim Boeheim who won game #804, tying him for 7th all-time with Eddie Sutton. Bobby Knight, here he comes...

Cornellbservations...Cuse Country

Cornell at Syracuse Recap...Cuse Confidential

Syracuse - Cornell Observations...Three Idiots on Sports

#804 for Boeheim behind Balanced Scoring...OrangeHoops

Syracuse defeats Cornell 88-73 in the Carrier Dome. Freshman Brandon Triche adds a career best 21.

Jimmy B talks SU-Cornell

Syracuse vs. Cornell basketball: Coach Jim Boeheim

Syracuse University basketball players Kris Joseph, Brandon Triche and Wes Johnson talk about the team beating Cornell

Syracuse vs. Cornell basketball: Players Joseph, Triche and Johnson.

Cornell head coach Steve Donahue and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim talk to reporters after Tuesday's 88-73 SU victory at the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse Doesn't Want To Fall Into The Corn-hole

Sean Keeley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:34:24 -0000

Arinze, KrisJo, Andy, Wes & Brandon talk about the week that was and tonight's Cornell game.

The Syracuse Basketball Team

Arinze Onuaku is EXCITED about Syracuse basketball!!! Can you feel it? Though obviously this is the best part of the video:

Loving this whole Andy The Leader thing. "I'd rather be unranked." Mr. Senior is not buying into his own hype...good stuff. And hopefully the rest of the team is feeling the same way as Cornell comes to town this evening.

The name of the game will be shutting down Cornell's outside shooters, specifically senior Ryan Wittman. Wittman's 33 against the Orange last year were the most any player scored against SU in regulation. But Wittman isn't the only weapon in the Big Red arsenal, they've got a whole bunch of talented players:

Point guard Louis Dale, a two-time first team All-Ivy performer and 2007-08 Ivy player of the year, returns to Cornell for his final season. Ryan Wittman, the sweet shooting wing player, joins Dale as a two-time first-team All-Ivy honoree. Foote, the 7-foot center, is the reigning All-Ivy defensive player of the year. Dale, Wittman, Foote and fellow seniors Alex Tyler and Geoff Reeves form the nucleus of a mid-major team seeking major college basketball respect.

What Cornell lacks in athleticism or talent they make up for in chemistry and senior leadership. Ask Wittman and he'll tell you "This is the best (team) I’ve been on here. We’ve got loads of experience and a ton of depth. We’re really familiar with each other and really excited for this year." So...you know.

Cornell coach Steve Donahue praises what he's seen from the Orange so far, saying this year's squad "plays together better than any team, offensively and defensively, that (Boeheim's) ever had since I've been here." He doles out the big praise especially for Wes Johnson, who gets the ultimate Cuse comparison:

"Wes Johnson, to me, looks like a lottery pick type of kid," Donahue said. "I think he's someone that gives Syracuse something that Carmelo Anthony gave them, an inside-outside guy. Can he be as good as Carmelo Anthony? Well, he's older and he's long and athletic and he really shoots it."

Last year the Big Red gave the Orange a game. SU had to rally from 16 points down in order to win. If the Orange let Wittman and his pals shoot lights out again, they could find themselves in the same hole. The target is officially on Syracuse's back now, let's see how they play when they're expected to win.

Your Requisite Andy Bernard/Cornell Post

Sean Keeley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:33:32 -0000

Cornell - It's the Highest Rank in the Ivy League sound bite The Office sound bites

Dwight and Andy Conduct a Cornell Interview sound bite The Office sound bites

Big Red History sound bite The Office sound bites

You Think You Can Get Into Cornell? sound bite The Office sound bites

Cornell Colors are Sacred sound bite The Office sound bites

Cornell called they think you suck sound bite The Office sound bites

Cornell's Impact on Modern Cabbage sound bite The Office sound bites

RPI WATCH: 11/23/09

BracketCat — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:00:13 -0000

Well, it's officially basketball season here at BOTC, so I'm going to try and get some basketball-related stuff on here on a more consistent basis. Big 12 Outlook will return after New Year's, but in the meantime, I need to resume the Big 12 previews and shift them into overdrive a little in order to make up for lost time.

The other thing I want to do is update you on all of our opponents on a daily basis. I'll look at how they performed in yesterday's games and maybe track the RPIs a little, too. The idea is to get a general picture, on a day-to-day basis, of how strong our non-conference schedule is, because I've seen some concern from various corners of late.

For a more detailed discussion, hit the jump. But here's a short preview: We did ourselves a lot of good in Puerto Rico.

Here's how our opponents have performed to date, in order to provide a baseline comparison and bring everyone up to speed. (After all, not everyone has been paying attention to hoops like I have, given our North-contending football team and what have you.)

Kansas State RPI = 28

Great Wins (RPI 1-50) = Dayton

Good Wins (RPI 51-100) = Loyola

Bad Losses (RPI 100 or greater) = none

Loyola (2-1) | RPI = 64: Loss at Kansas State (92-54), Win over Canisius (89-69), Win at Holy Cross (76-73)
Western Illinois (2-2) | RPI = 112: Loss at Arizona State (87-35), Loss at Kansas State (82-50), Win over Truman State (71-59), Win at Central Arkansas (56-46)
Boston (1-4) | RPI = 141: Loss at Iona (82-73), Loss to George Washington (69-59), Loss to Kansas State (80-70), Win over Indiana (71-67), Loss to No. 21 Georgia Tech (85-67)
Ole Miss (4-1) | RPI = 76: Win over UALR (92-64), Win over Alabama State (90-53), Win over Indiana (89-71), Win over Kansas State (86-74), Loss to No. 5 Villanova (79-67)
No. 18 Dayton (2-2) | RPI = 32: Win over Creighton (90-80), Win over No. 21 Georgia Tech (63-59), Loss to No. 5 Villanova (71-65), Loss to Kansas State (83-75)
IUPUI (4-1) | RPI = 75: Win at Drake (88-82), Win at Eastern Illinois (69-66), Win over Austin Peay (77-63), Loss at Auburn (80-65), Win over Georgia State (67-56)
Fort Hays State (2-0) | RPI = N/A (D-II): Win over Friends (82-46), Win over Central Christian College (85-66)
Washington State (3-0) | RPI = 140: Win over MVSU (94-66), Win over Eastern Washington (67-61), Win over IPFW (89-70)
Xavier (3-0) | RPI = 79: Win over Youngstown State (83-57), Win over Bowling Green (101-57), Win over Sacred Heart (105-65)
UNLV (3-0) | RPI = 1: Win over Pittsburg State (91-52), Win over Nevada (88-75), Win over Southern Illinois (78-69)
Alabama (2-1) | RPI = 186: Loss to Cornell (71-67), Win over Jackson State (86-69), Win over Providence (84-75)
UAPB (0-3) | RPI = 166: Loss at Colorado (88-72), Loss at Denver (75-56), Loss at UTEP (70-52)
Cleveland State (3-1) | RPI = 260: Loss at St. Bonaventure (72-62), Win over Wilmington (99-74), Win over Florida A&M (78-64), Win over Sam Houston State (80-65)
South Dakota (2-2) | RPI = N/A (D-I transition): Loss at Texas Tech (88-49), Loss to Oregon State (62-47), Win over TAMUCC (76-73), Win over Mayville State (99-67)
Missouri (2-0) | RPI = 280: Win over UT Martin (83-68), Win over UTPA (100-64)
Texas A&M (3-0) | RPI = 135: Win over Angelo State (88-69), Win at SMU (80-68), Win over Samford (68-49)
Colorado (3-0) | RPI = 128: Win over UAPB (88-72), Win over Coppin State (82-58), Win over Texas Southern (88-77)
No. 3 Texas (2-0) | RPI = 17: Win over UC Irvine (89-42), Win over Western Carolina (73-41)
Oklahoma State (3-0) | RPI = 21: Win over Seattle (86-64), Win over Southern (93-61), Win over North Texas (82-68)
Baylor (4-0) | RPI = 60: Win over Norfolk State (86-58), Win over Hartford (71-69), Win over Southern (61-45), Win over Hardin-Simmons (106-45)
No. 1 Kansas (3-0) | RPI = 46: Win over Hofstra (101-65), Win over Memphis (57-55), Win over Central Arkansas (94-44)
Nebraska (2-1) | RPI = 134: Win over SCUU (76-49), Loss at Saint Louis (69-55), Win over TCU (90-77)
Iowa State (4-0) | RPI = 188: Win over Idaho State (88-68), Win over Chicago State (72-50), Win at Drake (90-70), Win over MVSU (96-55)
No. 17 Oklahoma (2-1) | RPI = 65: Win over Mount St. Mary's (95-71), Win over UL Monroe (72-61), Loss at VCU (82-69)
Texas Tech (5-0) | RPI = 86: Win over South Dakota (88-49), Win over TAMUCC (66-59), Win over Oregon State (64-60), Win over Northwestern State (94-75), Win over Lamar (77-54)

My plan is to update this daily with the games are played the previous day, and I'll probably start looking at RPIs some time after Thanksgiving (they're pretty meaningless before that point due to the disparity in scheduling).

Update: Got bored and added the RPIs around midnight. I'll save the analysis for tomorrow's edition.

Beware The Big Red Machine

Sean Keeley — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:08:30 -0000

via cornellbasketball.blogspot.com

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To paraphrase Chris Rock, before this week, nobody was callin' our ass. Then the 2K Sports Classic got a hold of us, cleaned us up, wiped the crust out of our eyes, gave us a tic-tac...now everybody wants to f*** us.

The praise is far and wide for Syracuse basketball this week. Everyone's doing their best to make up for all those previous weeks when they didn't really bother to notice. The Orange even move all the way up the Coaches Poll to No. 10 and make their debut in the AP at No. 9, receiving one first-place vote in the process (anyone want to fess up?).

But of course, with any kind of meteoric rise comes trouble. Andy Katz pens what I imagine is many folks' opinion, which is "It's November, let's chill the F out."Even Boeheim agrees.

"There are a lot of good teams," Boeheim said. "We're trying to be one of them. It's just impossible in college basketball right now to tell. There are so many teams we just don't know about yet."

The other part of all this that the Orange are now a known quantity. Stories about them and their players are all over the place. The SU zone from last week has been analyzed and broken down all weekend. The secret is out. And that makes us vulnerable. Especially when facing off against a team like pesky Cornell like they will tomorrow night.

The Big Red might have lost to Seton Hall on Friday but don't take them for another cupcake. The Big Red are coming off an NCAA Tournament season and went down to Alabama and beat the Tide.

Just like the Cal game, Cornell brings the threat of good outside shooting. SU already knows well what F Ryan Wittman is capable of:

Cornell boasts a bevy of top-notch shooters, especially forward Ryan Wittman. The 6-foot-4 senior torched Syracuse for 33 points in last year’s meeting. He made nine out of 19 shots from 3-point range, while Cornell shot 13-for-29 (45 percent) as a team from beyond the arc.

In four games, Syracuse has yet to allow an opponent to shoot better than 40 percent from the field or 30 percent from 3-point range.

Wittman is currently averaging 17 points and shooting 41 percent from 3-point range. Donna Ditota went into enemy territory to track down Wittman and find out more about his shooting ability:

Cornell Senior Forward Ryan Whittman

Make sure you swing by the indefatigable Cornell Basketball Blog where you can find everything you could possibly want to know about Big Red basketball and then some. You don't want to be unprepared.

So Much For Easing Into The Season

Sean Keeley — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:34:27 -0000

via media.syracuse.com

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You'll have to excuse the lazy sportswriters who said before this season began that Syracuse was returning to it's old ways of scheduling soft. Clearly, they didn't stop to think about the mini-gauntlet the Orange are about to run.

Thursday - No. 13 Cal (2-0)

Friday - No. 5 North Carolina (2-0) or No. 15 Ohio State (2-0)

Tuesday - Cornell (1-0)

The first two games are givens for being tough but the Big Red have already proved they're still an opponent to be reckoned with after their 71-67 win at Alabama.

While the Orange still don't know who they'll be facing off against on Friday, the two opponents they do know both offer major challenges to the 2-3 Zone...the dreaded lights-out shooter.

Cal and Cornell are two of the nation's best 3-point shooting teams. Last year, Cal led the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at 42.7 percent. Cornell was fourth at 41.1.

Both teams expect to equal or better those numbers this season. The Bears are shooting 41.4 percent (12-of-29) from that distance in their two wins this year. Cornell made 56 percent of its threes (10-of-18) in its season-opening win at Alabama.

Commence boot-shaking, Orange fans. Nothing breaks down the zone (or any defense, I suppose) like strong outside shooters. While the Orange looked good against Albany and Robert Morris, those were just warm-ups compared to the next week's games. SU doesn't need to win all of them but things could go south in a hurry if the Orange don't step up their game and keep the momentum.

The Big Red play at UMass on Wednesday and host Seton Hall on Friday. SU fans would be wise to keep an eye on the them.

I suppose it could be worse, we could have overscheduled like North Carolina:

North Carolina are about to embark on a portion of their schedule in which they will face five ranked teams in an 8-game span. The Tar Heels' schedule includes Ohio State, either Cal or Syracuse, Michigan State, Kentucky and Texas.

BtB 2009-10 Ivy League Preview

Chris Dobbertean — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:19 -0000

It was a relatively quiet offseason in the Ivy League, the lone Division I conference that forgoes a postseason tournament and sends its regular season winner to the NCAA Tournament. Cornell begins this season in great position to cement itself as the league's new dynasty. (Well, as cemented as any team with five senior starters can be.) The Big Red have their third straight league crown firmly in their sights, and a non-conference schedule that could help them win their first tournament contest in that span.

Meanwhile, former league bullies Penn and Princeton look to be in position to challenge. The Tigers return all five of their starters from a team that finished last season in a second place tie with Yale. The Bulldogs' eternal rivals, Tommy Amaker-led Harvard, are looking for a breakthrough. Meanwhile, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and the aforementioned Elis appear to be in various stages of rebuilding.

I'll go into more specifics for each Ivy team after the jump.

Let's first take a look at last season's Ivy League standings.

Ivy League Standings

(updated 3.11.2009 at 4:11 AM EDT)

	Conf		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Cornell Big Red	11	3	21	9
Princeton Tigers	8	6	13	14
Yale Bulldogs	8	6	13	15
Columbia Lions	7	7	12	16
Dartmouth Big Green	7	7	9	19
Harvard Crimson	6	8	14	14
Penn Quakers	6	8	10	18
Brown Bears	3	11	9	19

Now, here are my picks for the 2009-10 Ivy League season, presented in reverse order.

Dartmouth (last NCAA: 1959) The Big Green have to begin life without Alex Barnett, last year's ivy League Player of the Year, who averaged almost 20 points per game. With him, Dartmouth only managed a .500 mark in the league and won only two games outside of the league. Without him, the team could struggle mightily. While Jerry Dunn returns a boatload of players, led by PG Jabari Trotter, offense and rebounding are issues. Trotter is the leading returning scorer, and he only averaged 7 points per contest.

Brown (last NCAA: 1986) The Bears return three double-figure scorers from the team that earned the Ivy League's Wooden Spoon last season, senior F Matt Mullery (16.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg), junior F Peter Sullivan (14.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg), and junior G Adrian Williams (11 ppg). Despite this, the Bears offense was more inept than you'd expect a team with three double-digit scorers to be last season, averaging 57.5 ppg in Ivy League contests. That's probably because Jesse Agel's team lacked an established point guard, a situation that hasn't been addressed.

Columbia (last NCAA: 1968) The Lions get two transfers to replace the graduated Jason Miller and Joe Bova in froutcourt, 7-foot C Max Craig from Loyola Marymount and 6-7 F Brian Grimes from LaSalle. Grimes actually would have been eligible last season, but a knee injury cost him the year. who sat out last year with a knee injury. Columbia's backcourt has plenty of experience, as Patrick Foley (10.9 ppg, 2.5 apg), who battled injuries last year, Kevin Bulger (5.3 ppg, 2.1 apg), and Noruwa Agho (9.1 ppg) all return. If the new frontcourt can pack a punch, expect to see the Lions higher in the standings.

Yale (last NCAA: 1962) The Bulldogs will be hard-pressed to repeat their first division finish this season, as they lost three starters: Ross Morin, who averaged 13-plus points and nearly 6 boards a contest, Travis Pinick (10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg), and PG Chris Andrews (3.1 ppg, 2.8 apg). The good news for the Elis is that SG Alex Zampier and his 13.2 ppg is back. The Bulldogs have a good stable of frontcourt players, including Jordan Gibson, Greg Mangano, Paul Nelson, and Michael Sands. However, none of them averaged more than 4.1 ppg in 2008-09. The Bulldogs could face UConn in the second round of the North Region of the NIT, but they'd have to get by Hofstra in round one first.

Pennsylvania (last NCAA: 2006) Being relatively close to Philly, I made the trip to the Palestra to see a couple of Penn games last season, and I can tell you that Quaker fans weren't happy with Glen Miller in the middle of the season. They can't be any happier after Penn finished with its first losing Ivy record since 1990-91. If the Quakers can stay healthy, they should be improved this season. Miller has a solid backcourt featuring sophomore PG Zack Rosen and junior SG Tyler Bernardini, that should be even better with the return of senior as SG Darren Smith from a knee injury. However, the Quakers biggest health issues last year were in the frontcourt Jack Eggleston (9.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg) should receive significant support from Swede Andreas Schreiber (2 ppg, 1 rpg in 08-09, 5.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg in 07-08), who missed all but two games last year with a shoulder injury, along with Larry Loughery (who featured in only seven contests), and Justin Reilly (who played in 11).

Harvard (last NCAA: 1946) Tommy Amaker's team seems to be good for one good non-league win a season (Michigan in '07-'08 and Boston College in '08-'09); however, translating those wins into consistent Ivy success is a different story, as the 6 wins recorded last year will attest. Guard Jeremy Lin (17.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg) can do a little bit of everything, and the Crimson will need him to after losing Drew Housman (9.6 ppg, 2.8 apg) and Andrew Pusar (6.4 ppg) from backcourt. Lin should get valuable help from sophomore guard Oliver McNally, who averaged 5.9 points a contest last year and looks to be ready to take on a bigger role this time around. Harvard's frontcourt could be a difference maker as 6-7 Pat Magnarelli and 6-10 Andrew Van Nest return after injuries. They'll join two players who performed admirably last season in their absence, 6-8 Keith Wright (8 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and 6-7 Doug Miller (6.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 70.4% from the field).

Princeton (last NCAA: 2004) The Tigers finished second last year (even if it was three games behind Cornell) and look to be back after some lean years. Head coach Sydney Johnson loses no starters from last year's squad. The Tigers will trot out a backcourt featuring the Ivy's highest scoring freshman, Douglas Davis (12.3 ppg), three-point sharpshooter Dan Mavraides (10.3 ppg, 42.6 from outside), and reliable PG Marcus Schroeder (4.9 ppg, 3 rpg, 3 apg). The Princeton frontcourt, meanwhile, returns starting center Pawel Buczak (7.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg) and forward Kareem Maddox (5 ppg, 3.5 rpg), along with two key reserves, 6-9 C Zach Finley (4.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg) and swingman Pat Saunders (5.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg)

Cornell (last NCAA: 2009) Like the team that should be their closest rivals, Steve Donahue's Big Red also features five returning starters, all seniors. Ryan Wittman (18.5 ppg, 2.8 apg) and Louis Dale (13 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.6 apg) form a truly formidable starting backcourt, made even moreso by the presence of Chris Wroblewski who average 6.7 ppg off bench, while shooting 44.1% from beyond the arc. The frontcourt is equally strong, as seven-footer Jeff Foote (11.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg), F Alex Tyler (6.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg), G/F Geoff Reeves (9 ppg) are all back. Donahue even has newly eligible transfers Mark Coury, a F/C who started at Kentucky, and G Max Groebe (from Massachusetts) at his disposal. The Big Red will need the help in the non-conference part of the schedule, which features road trips to Syracuse, Massachusetts, and Kansas and a home game against Seton Hall.

So, heading into the season, I am picking the Big Red to take their third straight Ivy League crown. You'll see them in my 2009-10 Final Preseason Bracket on November 9. Now, to wrap up this preview, here is my preseason All-Ivy League team, featuring the best returning players from last season.

Preseason All-Ivy League Team

Player of the Year: Ryan Wittman, 6-6 F, Sr. (Cornell)

Remainder of the Team
Louis Dale, 5-11 G, Sr. (Cornell)
Jeff Foote, 7-0 C, Sr. (Cornell)
Jeremy Lin, 6-3 G, Sr. (Harvard)
Matt Mullery, 6-8 F, Sr. (Brown)

Poll

Which team do you pick to win the Ivy League this season?

Brown

3 votes

Columbia

1 votes

Cornell

10 votes

Dartmouth

0 votes

Harvard

2 votes

Penn

2 votes

Princeton

31 votes

Yale

0 votes

49 votes | Poll has closed

Mizzou-Cornell: Statistical Round of 32!

Bill C. — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:00:12 -0000

Yeah, no way am I not patting myself on the back for this one. Nailed it...for once. Poor shooting and paranoid offense (doing whatever it took to avoid a turnover) kept the first half slow and close. In the second half...not so much. Mizzou once again methodically wore their opponent down and pulled away.

NCAA Basketball Stats

	Mizzou	Big Red
Points Per Minute	1.95	1.48
Points Per Possession (PPP)	1.26	0.95
Points Per Shot (PPS)	1.32	0.92
2-PT FG%	59.0%	39.5%
3-PT FG%	25.0%	28.6%
FT%	89.5%	58.3%
True Shooting %	57.9%	42.6%

	Mizzou	Big Red
Assists	19	11
Steals	4	1
Turnovers	4	9
Ball Control Index (Assists + Steals) / TO	5.75	1.33

	Mizzou	Big Red
Expected Offensive Rebounds	11	15
Offensive Rebounds	9	17
Difference	-2	+2

While Mizzou's BCI was thrown out of whack in the first half because of only one turnover, check out CU's:

First Half BCI: Cornell 2.00 (6 assists, 3 turnovers)
Second Half BCI: Cornell 1.00 (5 assists, 1 steal, 6 turnovers)
If there's a concern to take from this game, it's simply that Cornell rebounded well. A 4-board margin based on expected rebounds is pretty hefty, and while CU's actually bigger than Marquette, they're not that much bigger. Mizzou will simply have to rebound better on Sunday.

Player Stats

NCAA Basketball Stats

Player	AdjGS*	GmSc/Min	Line
Leo Lyons	23.27	0.80	23 Pts, 10 Reb (4 Off), 2 Ast, 0 TO
DeMarre Carroll	18.46	0.60	13 Pts, 7 Reb, 5 Ast, 2 Stl, 0 TO
Kim English	13.11	1.19	13 Pts, 2 Reb
J.T. Tiller	9.72	0.34	11 Pts, 6 Reb, 6 Ast
Zaire Taylor	5.68	0.17	8 Pts
Keith Ramsey	4.48	0.32	4 Pts
Justin Safford	1.86	0.37	0 Pts, 3 Reb
Steve Moore	1.42	1.42	2 Pts
Michael Anderson Jr.	0.33	0.33
Jarrett Sutton	0.00	0.00
Marcus Denmon	-0.22	-0.01	2 Pts, 2 Reb, 2 Ast
Matt Lawrence	-0.33	-0.01	2 Pts (on 7 shots), 2 Stl
Miguel Paul	-0.44	-0.09

* AdjGS = a take-off of the Game Score metric (definition here) accepted by a lot of basketball stat nerds. It does the same thing my previous measure of choice did (it takes points, assists, rebounds (offensive & defensive), steals, blocks, turnovers and fouls into account to determine an individual's "score" for a given game), only the formula is more used and accepted. The "adjustment" in Adjusted Game Score is simply matching the total game scores to the total points scored in the game, thereby redistributing the game's points scored to those who had the biggest impact on the game itself, instead of just how many balls a player put through a basket.

I think it's safe to say that anytime DeMarre and Leo combine for 7 assists and 0 turnovers, Mizzou's going to win the game. Combined with 13-for-23 shooting (9-for-9 from the FT line), 4 offensive rebounds (all from Leo), 13 defensive rebounds, 2 steals and a block (from DeMarre), and...yeah, Mizzou's senior bigs came through in a major, major way.
Kim English in the last two games: 5-for-8 from 3-point range, 5-for-5 from the FT line, 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover. It appears he's (however momentarily) plowed back through the freshman wall. Which is a good thing because...well, Goose was bad today. Really bad.
JT Tiller did have three of MU's four turnovers, but otherwise he had a Tiller-esque game: 11 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists...and Ryan Wittman went 2-for-7 from 3-point land.
So um...Laurence Bowers?

Keys to the Game Revisited

(From Monday's Preview)

The 3-pointer. Take Kim English out of the picture, and Mizzou shot 2-for-16 from 3-point land. That could have killed Mizzou against a better team, but luckily Cornell was pretty miserable too, going just 6-for-21. Harvard needed to go about 11-for-21 to have a chance.
The offensive glass. Cause for concern. Cornell grabbed too many of them, and Mizzou didn't grab enough.
Turnovers. Cornell only had 9 turnovers (4 from Mizzou steals), but according to Mike Anderson, they were so focused on holding onto the ball that they were quite distracted from actually running their offense, so...in a roundabout way this was still a winner for MU.

Marquette-Utah State

So while we eagerly await ghtd36's next Better Know an Opponent piece, let's check out what we can glean from Marquette beyond this week's earlier preview.

NCAA Basketball Stats

	Marquette	USU
Points Per Minute	1.45	1.43
Points Per Possession (PPP)	1.01	0.99
Points Per Shot (PPS)	1.23	1.08
2-PT FG%	42.9%	50.0%
3-PT FG%	26.3%	30.4%
FT%	82.6%	75.0%
True Shooting %	50.8%	50.4%

	Marquette	USU
Assists	7	11
Steals	4	2
Turnovers	9	9
Ball Control Index (Assists + Steals) / TO	1.22	1.44

	Marquette	USU
Expected Offensive Rebounds	11	11
Offensive Rebounds	10	7
Difference	-1	-4

The Golden Eagles held a very strong offensive rebounding team to an extremely poor showing on the boards--if Utah State had just grabbed an average number of offensive boards, they'd have probably won the game. This could be a strength against Mizzou, especially if the Tigers are shooting poorly again.
Marquette managed only 7 assists in 17 FGs, and against a defense that allows a pretty high BCI, they had a pretty poor one.
Maurice Acker (Dominic James' replacement): 24 minutes, 5 points, 2 assists. Meanwhile, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews shot 6-for-26 (1-for-9 frmo 3-point range) and had 3 assists and 7 turnovers. Almost no way do they play that poorly again on Sunday, but the turnovers are an encouraging sign, to be sure.
The game was played very much at USU's pace (62 possessions), and if Marquette's that susceptible to Mizzou's pace, this thin team (they played 7 guys against USU) will be dead tired with 10 minutes left.

Sunday prediction (since I clearly know what I'm talking about, ahem): Mizzou shoots poorly enough and Marquette rebounds well enough to take a lead into halftime, but (get this) Mizzou wears the Eagles down in the second half and moves on with a 78-69 win.

Dayton does it, Pittsburgh prevails (phew!)

SFBE.MP — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:43:06 -0000

#16 East Tennessee State - #1 Pittsburgh: Ah, Panthers? Anyone? Are you there? When this game was projected onto my television screen I moaned about how disinterested I would be. Not so fast, as ETSU stuck around for the entire game, and never trailed by more than the final score of 62-52. They only shot 30 percent from the field, so it's not like shots were dropping from all over the court for the Bucs. They did not back down and stayed tough, evidence in their 20 offensive rebounds and 18 turnovers forced. Dejaun Blair carried the Panthers (oooh Dejuan you so sexii) with 27 and 16. Questions are now raised as to just how healthy Levance Fields is, and if he can be effective the rest of the way. OK St. - Pitt on Sunday just got a little more enticing to watch.
#14 Cornell - #3 Missouri: Ho-hum Missouri advances. After a bit of back and forth for the first 18 minutes, the Tigers took the lead with 2:27 remaining in the first half and never looked back; pacing the Big Red 78-59 out in Boise. Leo Lyons gets 23, and will probably forget who their first round opponent even was next weekend when they're in the Elite 8 and looking for their first ever Final Four berth.
#11 Temple - Arizona State: No one seemed to be chirping about the possibility of Dionte Christmas and Temple knocking off the Sun Devils-- now we know why. Arizona State put it down on a "In Christmas we trust" Temple team, 66-57. Two minutes into the game Arizona took the lead and never forfeited it back to the Owls. Arizona State survived despite a poor outing for standout James Harden, getting 22 from Jeff Pendergraph and Derek Glasser. Arizona State will now square up against the Syracuse Orange in Miami on Sunday.
#11 Dayton - #6 West Virginia: The Big East had been rolling through the tournament unscathed until the Dayton Flyers put the clamps down on the Mountaineers of West Virginia. Dayton carved up the heart of the WVU defense, driving to the tin at will. The Flyers shot ten percentage points better than the higher seeded Mountaineers and lodged the 68-60 victory. During despiration time the Mountaineers from Morgantown could only lock in on 5 of their 19 attempts from behind the triple line. Dayton was led by Chris Wright's career high of 27 points and has reserved a dance spot opposite the Kansas Jayhawks. It's the first time in their last four trips to the dance that WVU won't advance to the Sweet 16.

Friday Afternoon MMOD and Open Thread

Peter Bean — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:45:07 -0000

Afternoon Madness... Click the link below to launch the CBS Interactive MMOD in-game player.

Watch the game LIVE

Friday live blog at SFBE.

1:45 p.m CDT

(6) Arizona State
(11) Temple

Vegas: ASU -5.5

KenPom:ASU 63-58

1:55 p.m. CDT

(1) Pittsburgh
(16) East Tennessee State

Vegas: Pitt -20

KenPom: Pitt 86-68

2:00 p.m. CDT

(3) Missouri
(14) Cornell

Vegas: MU -12.5

KenPom: Missouri 81-67

2:00 p.m. CDT

(6) West Virginia
(11) Dayton

Vegas: WVU -9

KenPom: WVU 69-57