Lexington Herald Leader: Cornell’s Coury calls playing ex-UK teammates “extra special”
“It will be a great battle,” Coury said. “I think it’s going to be a great game. I can’t wait.”
Coury, a walk-on from West Bloomfield, Mich., played for UK in 2006-07 and 2007-08 before transferring to Cornell.
Another Cornell player, senior Ryan Wittman, has a tenuous tie to UK.
He might play his last college game against UK just like his father did. Or, he might not.
Ryan’s father, Randy Wittman, played for Indiana, which lost to UK in the 1983 Sweet 16 game — the same game Ryan is playing against UK this year. Kentucky won that game 64-59.
Ryan was asked if that provided extra motivation or revenge for him against Kentucky.
“He really hasn’t said too much about that,” Ryan said of his father. “He kind of lets me enjoy my own experience.
“I don’t know how much extra motivation you need in the Sweet 16, with the chance to go to the Elite Eight,” he said.
“If you are not motivated already, you shouldn’t be here.”
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Ithaca Journal: A year later, Cornell’s Dale makes his mark
Louis Dale isn’t the type of person to talk publicly about being disappointed in his play on the basketball court.
After games in his career in which he’s struggled, it’s been almost impossible to discern if the affable, smile-a-mile-wide point guard has been bothered by any off-night he’s endured.
His teammates, however, saw that two sub-par showings in past NCAA tournaments ate away at him during the last calendar year; pushed him to expand his conditioning levels in New York City last summer to a new level.
They were not, then, surprised at Dale’s brilliant two-game stint here last Friday and Sunday. Dale scored 26 points in the second-round 87-69 victory over Wisconsin, played a leading role in dispatching Temple on Friday and boarded a plane back to Ithaca having thoroughly exorcized his NCAA demons.
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New York Times: One for the Books
The N.C.A.A. men’s tournament’s Round of 16 doesn’t start till Thursday, but one game has captured the country’s imagination. Kentucky vs. Cornell has taken on deep philosophical undertones, far beyond the usual Goliath vs. David cliché. Yes, Kentucky has seven national championships and Cornell has a grand total of two N.C.A.A. tournament victories (both last weekend), and yes, Kentucky’s famous sons include legends like Adolph Rupp, Dan Issel and Sam Bowie, while Cornell would rather point out that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an alumna, although we hear she does have a mean crossover move.
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Wall Street Journal: Kentucky vs. Cornell, The One Game You Can’t Miss
There hasn’t been a college basketball matchup in some time that better defines this sport’s extremes. Or, for that matter, one that will render so many verdicts on its future.
Given all their differences, these two teams are hardly even playing the same sport.
Kentucky, the East Region’s No. 1 seed, is college basketball’s winningest program all-time. They own seven NCAA titles. The men’s basketball program pulled in $14.8 million in revenue in fiscal year 2008-09, according to government data.
Cornell, the East’s No. 12 seed, is the lowest remaining seed in the tournament. While it has some experienced, surprisingly skilled players—particularly the sweet-shooting senior forward Ryan Wittman—this is still a team that, by Ivy League rules, isn’t allowed to give out athletic scholarships. Moreover, the team, which had never won an NCAA tournament game until this season, took in less than $1 million in 2008-09.
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FoxSports: Myth of Experience Exposed by Kentucky
[Cornell] starts four seniors.
Wow. Isn’t that great?
That’s the problem with nonsense; you hear it long enough, you start to believe it. Four seniors? As Derrick Coleman once said, whoop-de-damn do. Nice story, but nothing to bet on. Sure, everybody likes to see hard-working upperclassmen beat a team of one-and-dones. But while experience might help at the so-called mid-majors, it’s also the single biggest ruse come tournament time.
In March — especially, in March — talent trumps everything. And as college ball is presently constituted, “senior” has become shorthand for “not good enough.” Show me a senior, I’ll show you a guy who couldn’t go pro.
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Pat Forde, ESPN.com: Tourney’s Early Winners and Losers
Winner: Kentucky. The Wildcats now have the tournament laid at their feet. Kansas is gone. So are East Regional seeds 3 through 10. Just concluded are games against a No. 16 seed (East Tennessee State) and a faux No. 9 (Fake Wake Forest). Up next for a team with four first-round NBA draft picks is a date with a No. 12 seed that doesn’t give athletic scholarships (Cornell). Following that could be a regional final with the No. 11 seed (Washington). The last time a team made a Final Four without facing a single opponent seeded in the top half of the tournament? Michigan State, 2001.
Winner: Offense. Teams won in the second round by putting the ball in the basket and pushing the tempo. Fourteen of 16 winners scored at least 65 points. Ten of 16 scored 75 or more. Seven scored 80 or more. And nobody’s offense was more devastatingly productive than Cornell’s. The Big Red blitzed the normally sound defenses of Temple and Wisconsin for 82.5 points per game, including an astounding 1.45 points per possession against the Badgers.
Loser: Flukes. If you can toss seeding aside, there really aren’t any still playing. There isn’t a single team in the Sweet 16 with double-digit losses, and the average win total is 28.7. The lowest-rated remaining team in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings is Cornell at No. 45, and the other 15 all are in the top 35. The lowest-rated team in Jeff Sagarin’s ratings is Cornell at No. 28. And the lowest-rated remaining team via RPI is Cornell at No. 46.
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Basketball Prospectus: Kentucky on a roll
(12) Cornell vs. (1) Kentucky (Syracuse: Thursday, 9:57)
After a regular season in which they won games with superior defense, Kentucky fired a shot heard around the hoops-analysis world this weekend by scoring 90 points in 68 possessions against a pretty good ACC defense, one replete with relatively large high-major-type people. This explosion represented something new and undeniably impressive, even for a team that’s already a one-seed sporting a 34-2 record.
So the case for Kentucky, in this game or indeed in this tournament, can be stated pretty succinctly. They already defend. Between DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, and Daniel Orton, they already tell you to forget about making twos. And they already make their own twos (Cousins and Patterson) while absolutely dominating their offensive glass (Cousins). If the Wake Forest explosion is repeatable and John Calipari starts to get dependably accurate shooting from John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, well, good luck rest of the field.
Cornell has been known to score a point or two in their own right these past few days, and for those wondering if they can do so against the “longer, quicker” Wildcats I would offer a reminder. Temple and Wisconsin might not be your cup of visual tea on offense, but there is no denying that those two teams know how to play some D. True, Kentucky’s past record and the laws of hoops gravity unite to suggest that the Big Red can’t possibly venture north of 1.40 points per trip again. Not to mention I conservatively estimate that Cornell big man Jeff Foote will have his shot blocked 175 times by this UK front line. But Foote will also draw some fouls, and Cornell’s been in every game they’ve played in calendar 2010, save one. (At Penn. No, I don’t pretend to understand it.)
A close game will of course be said in real time to favor Cornell (”The longer they hang around,” etc.), but I’m not so sure. That’s exactly what was being said on January 6 when the Big Red played at Kansas, and goodness knows Steve Donahue’s team “hung around” for the full 40 in Allen Fieldhouse that night. Then in crunch time Sherron Collins did his thing. Time after time in the final minutes of that game Collins hurtled into the lane and flung himself into the nearest red uniform, a course of action which, wonder of wonders, was invariably interpreted as a violation on the part of the defense. (Scroll to the bottom of this play-by-play. I still remember the exasperated expression on Geoff Reeves’ face after one such call.)
I can envision Wall doing that too. The likelihood is that he won’t have to, but it’s something to keep in mind if it comes to that.
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CNNSI: Breaking Down the Sweet 16
12. CORNELL
How they got here: Beat Temple 78-65, beat Wisconsin 87-69.
Selling points: The Big Red had the most impressive weekend of any team in the field, eviscerating two of the nation’s top 20 defenses (essentially a pair of Ohio-vs.-Georgetown-level explosions). They are extremely experienced and confident, coming off this weekend and having played well at Kansas and Syracuse earlier in the season. They’re the nation’s best three-point shooting team and now get to play less than an hour from their campus in a building they played in in December.
Warning signs: The Big Red get a whole different animal now in Kentucky, a team with NBA-level talent, size and athleticism that poses an extreme threat on the offensive end that’s nothing like what Temple or Wisconsin could offer. As good as Cornell is, there’s a limit to their ability that Kentucky will sorely test.
Final Four-cast: Raining (jumpers), with a possible violent storm on the horizon.
If Cornell can execute offensively as well as it did in the first two rounds, and frustrate Kentucky enough with a zone to keep them from running wild, the upset is not impossible. Of course, things could go the other way and be an easy UK win. Even if Cornell does the unthinkable, the Big Red might then have to do it again against an extremely physical West Virginia squad. If Cornell navigates this to make it to Indy, it’s probably the greatest Final Four run of the modern era.
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CNNSI: Simply put, Kentucky is better than the rest
Both teams dominated the opposition in their first two NCAA tournament games — but you pretty much expected that from Kentucky. The Big Red, on the other hand, you had to see to believe. This team isn’t some fluky mid-major. Cornell posted the highest shooting percentage (61.1) of any Wisconsin opponent in nine years and outrebounded the fourth-seeded Badgers 27-20.
Still, the Big Red be considerable underdogs against the Wildcats, and understandably so. Their first two opponents were slow-down defensive teams with limited options offensively. Wall and Cousins are two of the most athletic scorers in the country. Cornell is more experienced (four senior starters), but the Wildcats’ reliance on freshmen hasn’t slowed them down to date.
But what makes the matchup so intriguing, so historic (Cornell is the first Ivy school to make it this far since 1979), is that the two teams represent such diametrically opposite facets of the college sports environment. John Calipari’s uber-talented team is, to put it bluntly, a band of mercenaries. It’s no secret Wall, Cousins and fellow freshman Eric Bledsoe are simply passing through Lexington on their way to the NBA. Cornell is a rare bastion for the sport’s few remaining purists, a talented team whose members aren’t even on athletic scholarships, and most of whom “will go pro in something other than sports,” as those NCAA ads like to espouse.
Is it still possible in 2010 for an old-fashioned team of “student athletes” to compete with a more standard team of “athletes who moonlight as students?” We’re about to find out.
HOME COOKING: Cornell
The Big Red won’t have to travel far — their campus is only about an hour from Syracuse — but that doesn’t necessarily mean the crowd will be in its favor. Kentucky fans caravan like no other school’s, and while only the most crazily optimistic Cornell fans saw this Sweet 16 trip coming, Wildcats followers likely bought up their tickets as soon as the bracket was announced.
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Intro by Bill Bradley.