The Philadelphia Daily News’ Dick Jerardi writes a piece about the upcoming Dunphy-Donahue reunion.
“I was totally shocked,” [Cornell coach] Donahue said. “Everybody is jumping up and down. I couldn’t even get off my seat. I was, ‘Oh bleep.’ “
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Also read about the Cornell-Temple matchup in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Jon Tannenwald of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweeted yesterday that Fran Dunphy had never lost to any of his assistants, but discovered today that he was wrong: on January 27, 1997, Fran O’Hanlon defeated Fran Dunphy 83-79. “It doesn’t change my mind, though,” he adds.
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The New York Post thinks Cornell is primed to play Cinderella.
… This year in the East Regional, we have No. 12 Cornell, those brainiacs from the Ivy League just sitting in front of their computers figuring out how to save the world and eliminate No. 5 Temple.
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Brian Delaney of the Ithaca Journal has no problem with the Cornell-Temple matchup.
I think both teams match up fairly well against each other. I don’t think it’s a terrible matchup for Cornell by any means, and I’ve seen Temple about 3-4 times this year on TV. They are an oustanding defensive team. I envision a high 50’s, low 60’s grinder with a thrilling finish that could go either way. As for the other game, I think Wisconsin has its hands full. I’ve liked Wofford quite a bit for a few weeks now, and think maybe they could pull that one off.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer writes:
Couldn’t this sub-regional be played at Ridley High instead of in Jacksonville?
Delaware County may have produced more coaches in this tournament than any county in the nation. It so happens, however, that only one of them will reach the Sweet 16, since Temple plays Cornell and the winner probably will see Wisconsin in the second round. Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan is a Chester native who grew up in Aston, Temple’s Fran Dunphy is from Drexel Hill, and Cornell’s Steve Donahue is from Springfield.
A tough little grouping?
Really tough. Temple, Cornell, and Wisconsin all probably deserved to be at least one seed higher, which makes it a tough selection for all of them.
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The Boston Globe believes Cornell will make it to the Sweet 16 before eventually falling to Kentucky:
Cornell isn’t your normal Ivy League team that is happy to make a tournament cameo. The Big Red gave Kansas problems in Lawrence. They will give Temple problems in the opener, although Owls coach Fran Dunphy is familiar with Cornell from his days at Penn. Cornell and Wisconsin will be the ultimate grind game, but Cornell should win. And playing for higher stakes at the Carrier Dome could have the feel of a home game for the Big Red, whose campus is a mere hour-plus away….
Big East vs. Big East and SEC vs. Ivy makes for an intriguing semifinal weekend at the Carrier Dome. Cornell will be the sentimental favorite, but Kentucky is too athletic for the Big Red.
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Basketball Prospectus thinks the NCAA committee paired too many non-BCS schools:
Dear Non-BCS Schools: $!#@ You. Love, NCAA
The committee did it again, matching up non-BCS schools aggressively and keeping them away from BCS schools. UNLV/Northern Iowa. Butler/UTEP. Temple/Cornell. Richmond/Saint Mary’s. The committee is taking one of the best things about the tournament–that the big guys have to play the little guys on a neutral floor–and destroying it, aggressively so. Defenders of the bracket and the committee will always point out that this isn’t intentional, but after it happens year-in, year-out, I simply don’t believe them. You can’t keep playing off the non-BCS schools one another every year and pretend it’s not a strategy. It very clearly is one, and it’s designed to prevent the possibility of the schools from smaller conferences showing that the main difference between them and the middle of the BCS leagues is home games. The committee and the NCAA should be embarrassed.
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The St. Louis Dispatch somewhat agrees:
The selection committee gave the so-called mid-majors a mixed message. On the positive side, eight at-large bids went to non-BCS conference teams, the highest number since 2006. The committee gave major props to the Mountain West Conference (three at-large invitations, four teams overall). On the down side, Temple was probably underseeded at No. 5. And as usual, the committee tried to keep the mid-majors away from BCS schools. First-round matchups include Northern Iowa vs. UNLV, Butler vs. UTEP, Temple vs. Cornell, Richmond vs. St. Mary’s. It’s gotten to the point where these folks don’t even attempt to conceal the effort to make CBS happy (for ratings) by preventing mid-majors from knocking off the big boys in the first round.
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The Times Herald of Norristown and Montgomery County PA reports that Temple coach Fran Dunphy had other ideas about his NCAA seeding:
Temple got its highest NCAA Tournament seed in 10 years.
But a fifth seed in the East Region is not what all of the Owls had in mind, although they said the right things Sunday fresh off their third straight Atlantic 10 Conference tournament championship.
From the outside looking in, the NCAA Tournament committee minimized the Owls’ 10-game winning streak, their 29-5 record and even the 75-65 win over Villanova, which got the No. 2 seed in the South.
Owls coach Fran Dunphy suspects the committee was intent on matching him with Cornell (27-4) because it’s coached by Steve Donahue, one of his assistants during his tour at Penn. Dunphy and frequent texting buddy Donahue square off Friday in Jacksonville, Fla.
“I think this was a planned endeavor by the committee,” Dunphy said at the Liacouris Center. “I think this was a planned matchup. If you had said to me who do you not want to play, I would say Cornell. Steve and I are good friends. There’s just a no-win situation in that.”
Dunphy also said he felt the Owls’ seed “was going to be 4 or 5.
“I thought if we could win today it was going to be 4,” he said.
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Tom Keegan of KUSports.com offers this advice for drawing up your brackets:
Put Kansas and Baylor in the Final Four in all your pools and try different combinations with them: Cornell and Kansas State in one, Kentucky and Syracuse in another, with K-State losing to Brigham Young in the second round.
Cornell? A No. 12 seed, the Ivy League champ is smart, experienced, big, physical and blessed with a great shooter (Ryan Wittman). The Big Red could frustrate Kentucky, the nation’s most talented team, all the way into a mega upset.
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The Patriot News writes,
Injustice: Most outrageous mis-seeding was Temple’s 5-seed and match-up against live 12-seed Cornell. Sometimes committee can’t help such jury-rigging. This isn’t one of those cases. Owls easily could have been swapped with 4-seed Wisconsin with both getting more just treatment.
Somethin’s gotta give: Both Temple and Cornell have gone one-and-done in each of the past two NCAAs. And Cornell was blown out on both occasions. Big Red is full of juniors and seniors who endured both beatings. Another reason Fran Dunphy can’t be happy.
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NESN.com reviews the East region and writes,
– There are several lower seeds that can shoot the 3 well enough to pull off an upset or two: Cornell, Wofford and Montana.
– Cornell is the best double-digit seed in this region.
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The Bleacher Report ponders the most likely 5-12 upset. UTEP-Butler is picked over Cornell-Temple:
Temple and Cornell is a very intriguing game, and it should be great, but I don’t think it has the best possibility of being an upset. But, it could indeed hold one of the best first round games we see in the first two days of the tournament.
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David Jones of PennLive.com believes the Owls got hosed in the NCAA brackets:
Two entire regionals were revealed before the placard labeled TEMPLE appeared. And then the reactions came in quick succession. There was the brief excitement of seeing the school’s name on the big projection screen melded, no doubt, with squeals of recognition for the site – Florida and maybe some sun.
Then followed some disgruntled murmurs. A 5 seed? It was an insult to a 29-win champion of both the regular season and tournament of a league graded as one of the seven or eight best in the country.
Then, came the “Ohhhhhhhh!” when the Owls’ opponent was revealed seconds later: CORNELL. The three-peat Ivy League champions with a profile something like Temple’s – one-and-done in the last two NCAAs, coached by a former Penn guy. That would be Owl coach Fran Dunphy’s former understudy Steve Donahue. That’s no fun.
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Paul Zeise of the Pittsburg Post-Gazette picks Cornell as a potential upset:
Upset special: No. 12 Cornell (27-4) over No. 5 Temple (29-5) — To be honest, this wouldn’t really be much of an upset because the Big Red is an excellent team with victories against St. John’s, Vermont and Alabama, and Cornell played tough against Syracuse and Kansas. The Big Red is one of the best Ivy League teams in recent memory.
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer also thinks there’s an upset brewing:
Join the crowd on this upset special, but the consensus is that Ivy League champ Cornell was underseeded at No. 12 and has a reasonable Sweet Sixteen chance with No. 5 Temple and No. 4 Wisconsin in the way.
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Mike DeCourcy of SportingNews picks Temple over Cornell:
The Big Red don’t get the hoped-for advantage of playing a poorly coached team in their opener. Not with Temple’s Fran Dunphy on the opposite bench. In fact, Cornell coach Steve Donahue once worked for Dunphy, so not much about the Ivy champs will be a huge secret. However, the teams in Cornell’s pod at least are decent matchups. It wouldn’t be stunning to see the Big Red in the Sweet 16.
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The Tampa Tribune also sounds an upset alert:
UPSET SPECIAL: No. 12 Cornell over No. 5 Temple. Cornell, with the most wins (27) by an Ivy League team since 1997-98 Princeton, probably is seeded a bit low. The Big Red have a very legitimate team, led by 7-footer Jeff Foote and guard Ryan Wittman, a three-time first-team all-conference selection. He fills it up from the outside, just like his father, Randy Wittman, the former NBA player who was a key performer on Indiana University’s 1981 NCAA championship team. And that’s bad news for Temple coach Fran Dunphy, who has lost nine consecutive NCAA first-round games (seven with Penn, which was Cornell’s old Ivy nemesis).
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The Omaha World Herald doesn’t see Cornell pulling a George Mason.
There are enough mid-majors playing to pick a George Mason type in the Final Four. Utah State? Cornell? Siena? New Mexico? I don’t see it this time. The heavyweights look too good. Won’t be an upset, but I am leaning toward Huggy Bear and the Mountain Men over Kentucky.
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Dick Weiss of NY Daily News thinks Cornell-Temple will be the best first round game:
BEST FIRST ROUND GAME: Temple (5) vs. Cornell (12) at Jacksonville. Fran Dunphy’s defensive-minded Owls captured the Atlantic 10 Tournament for a third straight year and enter on a 10-game winning streak. Big Red coach Steve Donahue was Dunphy’s assistant when both were winning Ivy titles at Penn, and has led Cornell to three straight NCAA bids. Both teams appear under-seeded.
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Intro by Bill Bradley.