Ivy League Basketball News

Matt Mullery’s team, Landstede Zwolle, played its first exhibition game on Saturday, but no box score can be found. Zwolle lost 80-93 to Dutch rivals ZZ Leiden. The Brown alum arrived in the Netherlands on August 15.

Princeton’s Marcus Schroeder attended D-League tryouts on Saturday in Oakland, one stop of many on his journey to land a pro contract. Princetonbasketball.com writes,

Yesterday he was in Oakland.

Tonight he’s in Seattle.

Tomorrow he’ll land in China.

Marcus Schroeder will go wherever he has the best chance to continue his basketball career.

“I’m trying to play next year. Overseas, anywhere – it doesn’t really matter,” Schroeder said from a hotel in the Emerald City. “I do not have an agent. I’ve been trying to represent myself, using different contacts that I’ve developed throughout my college career.”

Cornell alum Louis Dale played his second game with German team Gottingen, scoring 10 points in a win against UBC Tigers Hannover, a German Pro-A team.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Several European sites suggest that Brown’s Matt Mullery might’ve signed with a Dutch team last week.  Mullery is listed on the Lanstede Zwolle team roster at Eurobasket.com.  A Google translation of the site de Basketballsite van nederland states,

Landstede knows a new season but also a few familiar names. Besides three American players, the club namely former player Nikki Hulzebos contracted to a year is going neighborhoods in Nijmegen.

The American players who are playing in Zwolle Matt Mullery, Harry Marshall and Lawrence Borha. The 2.04-meter Mullery comes from Brown University and was the last two years at the All Star team from the Ivy-league choice.

A Google translation of the Dutch paper deStentor says,

Three new Americans and two lost sons are on the list of players Landsted Basketball, that negotiations for next season has almost been completed.

Technical manager Adriaan van Bergen is also the commitment of three Americans. De nieuwe center is Matt Mullery, 23 jaar en afkomstig van Brown Athletics. The new center Matt Mullery, and 23 years from Brown Athletics.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Cornell remains at #29 spot in CHN’s national top 50*. It remains at #10 in CHN’s Non-BCS Top 25.

*Earlier today, this site reported that from #29 to #30, despite its weekend sweep. This was the case at the time this post was created; the CHN site indicates that the rankings, which were first published last night, were updated later in the morning.

…

Read about Columbia’s loss to Yale and win over Brown in the Columbia Spectator.  After the win at Brown:

“Overall, the season on the whole, obviously it wasn’t what we expected from ourselves,” [Columbia head coach Joe]Jones said. “We expected a lot coming to the year and I felt like for whatever reason we just struggled to come together. But tonight was great for us because I thought it showed for the future that we have some good pieces here.”

…

Prior to the Columbia-Brown game, the Columbia Spectator profiled Brown’s Matt Mullery.

Brown’s senior Matt Mullery is the basketball equivalent of the Renaissance man. The 6-foot-8 forward leads his team in nearly every statistical category, from points to blocked shots. It’s safe to say that Mullery is the backbone of the Bears.

…

The Brown Daily Herald reviews Brown’s senior weekend losses to Cornell and Columbia.

Regardless, the Pizzitola crowd gave Mullery a standing ovation as he left the court for the final time with 6.2 seconds to go, a fitting end for his memorable career spent manning the paint for Brown.

…

Read about Cornell’s weekend victories over Brown and Yale in the Cornell Daily Sun.

…

Read about Dartmouth’s weekend losses to Princeton and Penn in The Dartmouth.  Dartmouth ends the season with a 1-13 W-L record.

“It has been a tough season and we did not win many games, but this team fought its heart out right to the very end,” interim head coach Mark Graupe said.

…

Read about Harvard’s loss to Princeton in the Harvard Crimson. A second Crimson article also reviews the game. Jeremy Lin scored 8 points on 1 of 8 shooting while Kyle Casey scored 5 points on 2 of 6 shooting and fouled out with 3:37 to play.

The Harvard men’s basketball team has proven its ability to win when co-captain Jeremy Lin isn’t on his game. But when its second option is also struggling, the Crimson’s chances for victory drop dramatically, especially on the road.

Such was the case Saturday night at Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium, where the top two stars for both teams had off nights.

…

The Harvard Crimson also published a second article about Harvard’s win at Penn.

…

Read about Princeton’s weekend wins over Dartmouth and Harvard in the Daily Princetonian.

…

The Bleacher Report discusses potential basketball coaching changes, including options for Dartmouth and Penn:

Dartmouth

Not much public interest thus far. 50 years without a title will do that. Expect Dartmouth to look at a candidate pool that will include regional and other Ivy League assistants (Nat Graham – Cornell assist) or lower division coaches with success in the area (Mike Maker – Williams College coach, Bob Walsh – Rhode Island College coach, Larry Anderson – MIT coach).

Penn

Jerome Allen – Interim coach, Andy Toole (Robert Morris assistant), Fran O’Hanlon (Lafayette head coach), Steve Donahue (Cornell head coach, former Penn assistant).

…

NESN.com wonders if the Ivy League is right to send its regular season champ Cornell dancing.

Cornell is an exception. The regular-season champion is not always head-and-shoulders better than the rest of the league. In most cases, the regular-season champion is a few wins better than the second- and third-place teams. That may mean they are more deserving of a trip to the Big Dance, but it doesn’t mean they have the best chance of winning a game. For the mid-major conferences, that’s what it is all about.

…

The Saratogian reviews Kathy Orton’s book, “Outside the Limelight: Basketball in the Ivy League”.

…

Dick Jerardi of the Philadelphia Daily News writes about about Penn’s win over Dartmouth:

Penn wins home finale

It definitely will not show in the final record, but Penn is far better in March than it was in December and January. Offensively, this is now a team that gets good shots and makes them.

The Quakers (6-21, 5-8 Ivy League) beat Dartmouth, 78-68, at the Palestra. Penn will finish its season tomorrow at Princeton. Penn shot 52.1 percent against Dartmouth after shooting 61 percent in Friday’s loss to Harvard.

Jack Eggleston had 25 points and 11 rebounds against Dartmouth. Zack Rosen had 18 points and six assists.

He also has Cornell back in his Top 15 after a week away:

15. Cornell (27-4): Crushed Yale, 79-59. Shot an amazing 32-for-51 from the arc in two weekend wins. Everything has been geared to getting an NCAA win this time. The draw will be critical.

…

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The Ithaca Journal discusses Cornell’s Andre Wilkins Senior Night start.

The only senior who had never started at Cornell, the 6-foot-3 Wilkins was inserted into the opening lineup by coach Steve Donahue on Senior Night. The subsequent 4 minutes, 26 seconds were a virtual highlight reel of plays by the Toronto native.

It’s probably a tape the coaching staff should get to him before he graduates.

…

MyCentralJersey.com profiles Penn’s Zack Rosen.

Playing high school basketball at places like Colonia and St. Benedict’s prepared Zack Rosen for the rigors of the next level, with one glaring exception.

He wasn’t ready for the losing.

…

The Daily Pennsylvnian’s Ivy Hoops Notebook discusses the Princeton @ Cornell game and Academic-All Americans Patrick Foley (Columbia) and Matt Mullery (Brown).

…

The Philadelphia Inquirer thinks Penn has lost some momentum and surveys Penn’s week ahead, including Senior Night.

…This year’s Quakers gained some momentum from splitting each of their first four Ivy weekends this season. That streak came to an end Saturday as the Quakers were routed at Cornell after losing in the final seconds Friday at Columbia.

…

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Columbia’s Patrick Foley is on the first team while Brown’s Matt Mullery is on the third.

See the full list on ESPN’s College Basketball Nation blog.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The Providence Journal profiles Brown’s Matt Mullery, who hopes to continue playing basketball after he graduates this spring.

…

The Brown Daily Herald reviews Brown’s weekend split with Dartmouth and Harvard.  Peter Sullivan ‘11 was the team leading scorer with 23 points in the win over Dartmouth and 21 points in the loss to Harvard.

“He played like a man all weekend,” said Brown Head Coach Jesse Agel. “He was really tremendous.”

…

The Dartmouth reviews Dartmouth’s weekend losses to Brown and Yale.  On their loss of a half-time lead at Yale:

“I think it’s difficult anytime you go into anyone else’s gym,” Rufful said. “Second half, we had a good lead and we gave it away. We just have to focus more.”

…

Storming the Floor presents Covering the Ivy, Part V.  They think Penn’s Jack Eggleston is now a POY contender, and they also review the games of the week:

Penn beats Cornell, 79-64 – Cornell falls out of first place in the Ivy League…

Cornell beats Princeton, 48-45 – …for about a day.

Harvard beats Yale, 82-79 (OT) – The Crimson stays alive.

…

The Columbia Spectator reviews Columbia’s weekend splits at Princeton and Penn. At Princeton, Columbia lost its halftime lead and ultimately lost the game; at Penn, Columbia lost the halftime lead but battled it out for a close win.

Talking about the difference between [Saturday's] win and Friday’s defeat, Jones explained, “We made some timely baskets [against Penn], and ultimately we made the plays in the Penn game that we didn’t make in the Princeton game.”

…

Cornell falls to #33 in CollegeHoops.net nationwide top 50.   Cornell was ranked #25 last week.  Cornell drops one spot from #8 to #9 in the Non-BCS Top 25.

…

Mike DeCourcy of SportingNews.com writes,

Cornell is still alive. After Friday’s embarrassment, the Big Red recovered to steal a road win and knock Princeton out of first in the Ivy League. Cornell needs the automatic bid; it does not want to be chasing an at-large with a loss to Penn on the resume.

…

ESPN’s Andy Katz called Penn’s win over Cornell the upset of the year:

Penn over Cornell: Hard to dispute it after the Quakers had only three wins (against teams that were a combined 15-55) before upsetting the Big Red. Cornell’s win at Princeton the next day should be the indicator that the Big Red will still win the Ivy, but the sting of the Penn loss will haunt Cornell in seeding.

He also lists the Cornell-Harvard game as a place to be this week:

Cambridge, Mass., Friday: Cornell got a must-win against Princeton but is still tied in the loss column. Lose at Harvard and suddenly the Tigers are up again in the standings.

…

The Cleveland Plain Dealer writes about the pressure experienced by mid-major conference leaders Cornell, Siena, Northern Iowa, and Kent State this week, as they all experienced weekend losses.

For all but Northern Iowa, those road losses may have popped the bubble on their collective NCAA Tournament at-large chances for 2010.

…

Cornell dropped out of the top 25 ballots of Fox’s Jeff Goodman and the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Elton Alexander, and the Ronoake Times’ Mark Berman.

Says Mark Berman:

I kicked out Cornell after its stunning loss at Penn. Big Red bounced back with important win over Princeton, but that Penn loss tells me they don’t deserve to be on my ballot any longer after many weeks on there. (Not that Cornell was in the AP Top 25 anyway, although it was in the coaches poll)

Says FoxSports:

The two teams that fell out this week are No. 17 Georgia Tech, which lost a pair of road games at Miami and Wake Forest, and Cornell — which lost its first Ivy League contest of the season on the road against a Penn team that had won just three games all season.

…

Rush the Court writes:

Ever think that Penn/Cornell would be right up there with Rutgers/Georgetown and Louisville/Syracuse in the Monday morning water-cooler discussion of big weekend upsets in college hoops?  Yeah, we didn’t either.  We’ve been digging all of the Ivy League love this season, and it’s not slowing down yet.  After the stunner on Friday, Cornell bounced back to hand Princeton their first conference loss of the year on Saturday, and in doing so regained the Ivy League lead.  They’re not a shoe-in for the Big Dance, though; the three teams atop the standings still have a round of games against each other, starting this Friday with a very important Cornell road trip to Harvard.

…

The Cornell Daily Sun writes an expanded review of Cornell’s upset loss at Penn.

…

The Cornell Daily Sun also writes an expanded review of Cornell’s weekend win at Princeton.

…

The Daily Princetonian reviews Princeton’s loss to Cornell.  The loss might have been disappointing, but the team appreciated the supportive crowd of over 5,700.

“We want to win badly. We are about winning, but to see that environment, and to have these guys — and they put themselves in that position, to have a big game like that, so they ought to take a lot of pride from that,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said. “The next step is to win a game like that. Terrific atmosphere — the wrong team won; that’s all it is.”

…

The Philadelphia Inquirer insists that there are no down years in the Penn-Princeton rivalry as the two prepare to face off Tuesday night.

“In the southeast corner of the Palestra, there is only one team with whom there’s a running tally of the wins and losses. And that’s Princeton,” Penn junior forward Jack Eggleston said. “There’s an entire board dedicated to the Penn-Princeton rivalry.

…

The Yale Daily News reviews Yale’s weekend loss to Harvard.

…

The Yale Daily News’ Michael Graetz calls the Harvard-Yale game a true classic.

…

Randy Rosetta, sports writer for Louisiana’s 2TheAdvocate.com, writes,

Is it possible the Ivy League could get as many teams in the NCAA tournament as the Pac-10? Harvard and Cornell have legitimate claims to be invited.

…

The Bleacher Report writes,

Ivy League Mayhem

After Cornell defeated Harvard by 36 two weekends ago, it looked pretty clear Cornell should dominate the Ivy League.

No one told Pennsylvania that.

Yes, the same Quaker team that had won one, count it one, non-conference game. The same Penn team that fired its coach seven games into the season. And finally, the same Quaker squad that lost to Duke by 59.

Yet Pennsylvania hosted Cornell Friday night and defeated the Big Red.

By 15.

Not only did Cornell leave Philadelphia with a terrible cheesesteak experience , but the Big Red also left in a terrible position.

The next night, Cornell had to head up I-95 to Princeton, who entering the night remained undefeated. A Tigers victory and the Big Red would fall behind the Tigers by two full games. No longer would the Ivy League’s best team in almost 10 years control its own destiny.

Princeton controlled the tempo and both squads played ferocious defense, but after 40 minutes, the Big Red left the Garden State with a 48-45 victory and took control of the Ancient Eight once again.

…

The Bleacher Report also discusses mid-major bubble trouble:

Siena and Cornell are in a similar situation after losing conference games to teams with less than impressive records.

Luckily for teams like Northern Iowa and Siena, Bracket buster match-ups give them an opportunity to recoup the loss with a quality win-something they would be unable to do in conference play.

…

The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Buzz Blog reviews multimedia coverage of Penn’s hoops weekend games against Cornell and Columbia.

…

The Daily Pennsylvanian says Cornell was “ranked and spanked.”

…

The Daily Pennsylvanian also notes that Columbia got the last laugh.

…

The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Ari Seifter insists that Jerome Allen’s interim label be removed.

…

The Daily Pennsylvanian also describes the student celebration after the upset of Cornell.

…

Dick Jerardi writes:

Could not sustain

Penn was brilliant in the upset of the season Friday over Cornell. The Quakers (4-16, 3-3 Ivy League) did a lot of good things Saturday against Columbia, but got too far behind and could not finish in a 66-62 loss.

Penn trailed 31-16 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half. It made a big charge to take the lead late in the second, but …

Penn shot a terrific 51.2 percent and had four players in double figures, but the Lions (9-13, 3-5) made more plays at the end.

Who dat

Columbia senior Niko Scott has never averaged double figures. He picked this game to go off, shooting 10-for-14 overall and 7-for-9 from the arc for 29 points.

The Ivy story

Even after getting blown away by Penn on Friday, Cornell (7-1) is still in control. The Big Red had to hold on at Princeton (5-1), as a potential tying three just missed at the buzzer in a 48-45 win. The Big Red is at Harvard (6-2) on Friday. Princeton is at Penn (3-3) tomorrow.

Interestingly, Cornell got crushed at Princeton last year on the Friday of the Princeton-Penn weekend. The Big Red survived that and won the Ivy.

Jerardi also keeps Cornell in his top 15:

13. Cornell (21-4): Got back on track with tense, 48-45 win at Princeton. Trailed for just 20 seconds, but never comfortable.

…

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

An ESPN production crew will be filming the Cornell team during practice today, reports Brian Delaney of the Ithaca Journal.

A production crew from ESPN will be at Thursday’s Cornell practice to tape a spot for Saturday’s college basketball game day show. Cornell SID Jeremy Hartigan said Steve Donahue will be mic’d up during practice.

…

Brian Delaney also reports this little factoid about Cornell’s Louis Dale:

Did You Know? (Cause I Didn’t).

Louis Dale is the first Cornell player with 1,200 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 100 steals in a career.

The more you know.

…

Brown’s Matt Mullery is the Brown Daily Herald’s Athlete of the Week.  Mullery on taking on Cornell last Saturday:

Herald: What was going through your head when you guys were ahead against Cornell last weekend?

Mullery: I mean, they took the lead about five minutes into the second half, but it was really a close game throughout. It would have been great to pull it out, but they’re so deep that they just keep bringing guys in and out. They’ve got fresh legs, and I think that had a lot to do with it as the game went into the second half. But we were all — you know, you get a little excited inside at that point, when you’re beating a team that’s ranked, on the road.

…

The Columbia Spectator surveys the Ivy League and previews this weekend’s games.

…

The Harvard Crimson writes about the changing crowd atmosphere surrounding Harvard basketball and the efforts of some students to engage the student body and increase turnout.

For perhaps the first time in its history, the basketball team was legitimately good—and the student body had begun to take notice. With yet another win at Boston College and a six-point loss to then-No. 13 UConn, the Crimson had turned heads both inside and outside of Cambridge. Having a pro prospect in co-captain Jeremy Lin, who has been featured in ESPN and Sports Illustrated, didn’t hurt its profile either.

…

Former Brown coach and current Oregon St. coach Craig Robinson spoke about Cornell during a recent interview for the Register Guard:

No Pac-10 team received a single vote in the national polls for the second straight week, but Cornell, of the Ivy League, was ranked 22nd in the ESPN/USA Today poll, and finished just shy of the AP top 25.

As a former two-time Ivy League player of the year at Princeton, and head coach for two years at Brown University, Robinson was happy to see his old conference get some national attention.

“I think it’s really exciting to see a team other than Penn or Princeton get ranked,” he said. “I know (Cornell coach) Steve Donahue. I think he’s a good coach and I’m so tickled for him that he has a chance to get some notoriety for the team and school.”

Robinson went on to add that if Cornell gets into the NCAA Tournament, and he believes it will, the Big Red will have some success.

“I would be surprised if they don’t win a game in the (NCAA) tournament,” he said. “I coached against that team and they are very good.”

…

A slightly off-topic but interesting read is a Wall Street Journal article on “Locker Room Nerds”.  It focuses mainly on how foreign-born NBA players are ardent readers, but also touches on how books used to be more common on NBA road trips in the past, and briefly mentions former Ivy players Bill Bradley of Princeton and Chris Dudley of Yale.

…

The Bleacher Report discusses the upcoming Cornell-Princeton matchup.

…

The Bleacher Report also looks back at pre-season rankings and discusses how things have changed.  It mentions Cornell’s rise into the rankings:

No. 22 Cornell- The best of the Ivy League can compete, that’s for sure.

…

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The Columbia Spectator previews this weekend’s matchups with Brown and Yale.

…

The Columbia Spectator profiles Yale’s Alex Zampier.  Zampier leads the league in scoring and has twice been named player of the week.

…

The Cornell Daily Sun previews this weekend’s matchups with Brown and Yale.

…

The Ithaca Journal previews Cornell’s Friday game against Yale, and notes that Yale’s coach Jones doesn’t plan on chasing Cornell’s shooters, as other teams have done, leaving Foote to wreak havoc inside.  Yale has two 6′10″ men who might “lay on (Foote) pretty hard,” says Cornell coach Donahue.

…

The Ithaca Journal scouts Yale and concludes:

Say this for Yale: a James Jones-coached team won’t allow itself to be physically manhandled like Harvard was Saturday night. The Bulldogs will push back, and they have the big-bodied personnel to do so.

Still, provided Cornell doesn’t let its new top-25 ranking negatively affect its play, it’s difficult to see Yale pulling off an upset in Ithaca. If Cornell continues to defend like it has in recent weeks, the Bulldogs will be unable to keep pace.

…

The Columbia Spectator asks what it would take for other Ivies to root for Cornell.

…

The Daily Princetonian previews Princeton’s Friday game against Harvard.

…

The Harvard Crimson reviews the conference games so far, delcaring Cornell as the league’s Qdoba,  Harvard and Princeton as the Chiplote’s,  Brown, Columbia, and Yale as the Felipe’s,  and Dartmouth and Penn as the 7-Eleven’s.  They also provide some weekend picks.

…

The Yale Daily News previews Yale’s weekend games @ Cornell and Columbia.

…

The Daily Pennsylvanian previews this weekends Penn @ Dartmouth game.  They notethe extensive similarities between the two teams:

The Big Green (4-14, 0-4 Ivy) have not won consecutive games this season either, and the similarities between Penn and Dartmouth don’t end there.

Both lost their head coaches midway through the season — Dartmouth’s Terry Dunn stepped down in early January — and are without last year’s leading scorers.

While forward Tyler Bernardini red-shirted this season due to injury, the Big Green lost forward Alex Barnett and his 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game to graduation.

And not unlike the injury depleted Quakers’ bench, the Big Green played with just nine available bodies against Columbia last week

…

Four Ivy League athletes (Brown’s Matt Mullery, Columbia’s Patrick Foley, and Cornell’s Geoff Reeves and Chris Wroblewski) were named to ESPN the Magazine’s Academic All-District Team.  Read the releases at Brownbears.com, GoColumbiaLions.com, and CornellBigRed.com.

…

The Bleacher Report mentions Cornell among this weekend’s previews:

Cornell has two more home games against two of the worst Ivy League teams, Yale and Brown. Should the Big Red win (as they should convincingly), Steve Donahue’s team would move to 20-3 and 6-0 in the Ivy League. Cornell has moved up to 37th in Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency rankings. The Big Red’s recent improvement on the defensive end of the floor has spurred their jump from the mid 70s to the 30s.

…

ESPN’s Jay Bilas thinks Cornell could pull a George Mason (i.e., make it to the final four):

The Big Red have experience, really good guards in Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman, and a very good big man in Jeff Foote. People forget this, but the reason that George Mason reached the Final Four is because it could guard and score in the post with wide-body Jai Lewis and lefty Will Thomas. Most mid-majors get hurt because they are unable to guard in the post. Cornell can do that.

…

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Brown’s Matt Mullery was a key part in bringing around 100 Special Olympians to Brown’s Pizzitola Gym on Wednesday for a special basketball clinic.

The Providence Journal describes how Mullery’s close relationship with his brother, who was born with Downs Syndrome, has also created the bond between Mullery and others with special needs.

PROVIDENCE — He was 9 years old when his brother Christopher was born with Down syndrome, a chromosome disorder that often includes developmental difficulties.

Not that he understood the ramifications of it then.

That would come a few years later, when he began to understand how his brother’s reality affected everything, his family, himself, everything. By then he knew his brother had challenges other kids didn’t have, and that was just the way it was, and always would be.

“I always saw myself as my brother’s keeper,” he says. “That’s my responsibility.”

He also began to see how other people viewed his brother, how they would look at him and know he was different, how they wanted to know why.

“I think it made me more sensitive to other people,” he says.

Matt Mullery went on to be a high school basketball star in Millstone, N.J. He was All-State and the all-time leading scorer at his high school. And his brother always went to his games. Just as he did to Matt’s AAU games, going here, there and everywhere. Christopher is 13 now and loves sports, both playing them and traveling with his parents all over the Northeast to attend his brother’s games.

“Christopher’s really into it,” he says. “He knows what’s going on, and he wants us to win.”

Matt Mullery has become one of the best players in the Ivy League, a 6-foot-8 inside player who can score with his back to the basket with either hand, no small thing in a college basketball world where most big guys want to face the basket and shoot jump shots. Last season, he was first-team All-Ivy, All-Region, and was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches for excellence on both the court and in the classroom. All that, and he tutors classmates in math and calculus, too. Brown coach Jesse Agel calls him the “ultimate student-athlete.” (More … )

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post