Archive for the ‘ncaa 2010’ tag
News — Monday March 29, 2010
Harvard Crimson — Amaker not going anywhere
“I’m not looking for anything,” said Amaker, who was listed by one media outlet as a potential candidate for the St. Johns coaching job. “We’re completely happy with what we’re doing here and where we are—and we’re hopeful that the powers that be are happy with me.”
Daily Pennsylvanian’s Neil Fanaroff — Patience is a virtue in selection
While some Penn fans have grown frustrated that interim coach Jerome Allen has not yet been officially hired, the Penn job demands a thorough search, and all options need to be explored before a decision is announced.
Other articles
News — Saturday March 27, 2010
Daily Pennsylvanian — Bilsky sheds light on coaching search
According to Athletic Director Steve Bilsky, the men’s basketball coaching search is in its “final stages.” There are nine candidates right now: six D-I head coaches, one D-I assistant, and two from the NBA.
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New York Times — It’s all about the journey, Cornell didn’t lose
After Thursday’s loss, Cornell’s players and coaches said the first of many goodbyes, but this one was the most visceral. They experienced something Wall and Cousins probably never will: the tears of joy and sadness that come from the depth of having grown up and played with someone else for four years.
“It’s hard to explain how great these guys are in this day and age, it’s like they’re from the 1950s,” Donahue said. “They’re a throwback. They’re corny and goofy and fun-loving, yet they compete like animals when they’re on the court. It’s the best as a coach.”
Unless something unexpected happens, Wall and Cousins will not experience the sense of journey, of progressing from the uncertainty of a freshman year to the ownership of being a senior.
There is a lesson here: There is nothing tragic about attempting a great leap and falling short. The tragedy is not even trying.
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CornellBigRed.com — Steve Donahue named finalist for Clair Bee award
After lifting Cornell men’s basketball to unprecedented heights, head coach Steve Donahue has been named one of four finalists for the Clair Bee Award.
The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award honors a Division I men’s basketball coach who through his actions on and off the court makes an outstanding contribution to the sport of college basketball. The criteria for this award include a coach’s ability to inspire, motivate, coach, and educate his team to achieve its fullest potential awhile insisting upon and demonstrating outstanding character and academic success. Missouri’s Mike Anderson was the 2009 recipient of the award.
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New York Post — Chalk teams will reach Elite Eight
It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic Cornell has orchestrated this month. In many ways, the Big Red epitomize what makes the Tournament so special, right? Seniors, who have played their entire careers waiting for one shining moment. A high seed from a small conference showing the nation it belongs. Pick your March Madness definition, they fit it.
But — George Mason in 2007 notwithstanding — we are in a chalk world when it comes to college basketball. These Cinderella stories are great, make no mistake. They keep people interested. They have a human touch.
But when it’s all said and done, the most athletic, most skilled, most ready-to-go-to-the-NBA players usually get it done. And no team in the Tournament has more of those types than Kentucky.
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New York Post — In Cornell loss, ex-Citigroup boss Weill suffers another setback
It used to be that everything Sandy Weill touched turned to gold. Lately, not so much.
The 77-year-old billionaire mastermind of the Citigroup banking behemoth has not only seen the financial supermarket he created get crushed by the credit crisis and need a $45 billion bailout in order to stay afloat, he traveled to Syracuse only to suffer another indignity, watching his alma mater, Cornell, get spanked last night by the No. 1 seed Kentucky in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA basketball tournament.
“I graduated 55 years ago from Cornell, so I’ve waited a long time to see them do this well,” Weill said in an interview with Bloomberg News before the game started.
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Ithaca Journal — A very special Cornell team exits with a lot of class
There were signs as early as four seasons ago that a run like this was possible.
In their first college game, Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman led Cornell to an upset of Big Ten Conference member Northwestern. Later they challenged Ibby Jaaber and three-time champion Penn at the Palestra, and the whispers started. Donahue had something special building.
The breakthrough came in 2007-08. Cornell beat a loaded Siena team at a near empty Newman Arena (a Siena team that went on to upset Vanderbilt in the NCAA tournament) and stayed poised and competitive with Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. An improbable 14-0 Ivy League record ensued. The 20-year Penn-Princeton stranglehold on the Ivy League was broken.
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Afternoon News Update — Friday March 26, 2010
New York Times: Stung by defeat, Cornell savors its season
The Cornell basketball team’s charmed N.C.A.A. tournament run ended here on Thursday night. What began with a vibrant roar of optimism after leaping ahead, 10-2, ended with the sobering reality that it lost to a more physical and more talented team.
So, after the 62-45 defeat, Cornell Coach Steve Donahue gathered his team for the final time. He tried in vain to hold back tears, as he told the group how proud he was of them.
“He cried a little but, but he was holding it back,” Alex Tyler, a senior, said. “A lot of us were.”
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New York Times: Among Kentucky’s stars, respect for Cornell
Kentucky point guard John Wall said the team practiced relentlessly in preparation for Cornell’s backdoor cuts and ball screens.
“We went over that for like four straight days — that’s all we did,” Wall said. “We knew that was the key to their offense. We pressured them full court and got them out of their flow.”
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Bloomberg: Big Red loss to Kentucky ends party at Manhattan Club
Big Red fans at the Cornell Club in Manhattan spoke with pride about their men’s basketball team after it failed to pull off the biggest upset in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.
“It’s a little bittersweet,” 1982 graduate Jeffrey Raff, a stock broker at Gilford Securities Inc., said last night, with the Big Red down 16 points at halftime against Kentucky and his $150 wager on the team about to become a loser. “But being here and watching our team in the Sweet 16, it’s a great night.”
Cornell graduates include former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno; Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, and Sanford Weill, the 77-year-old former chairman at Citigroup Inc., who yesterday said in a telephone interview that the NCAA tournament run was a “wake-up call for pride in our institution.”
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Bloomberg: Cornell’s career scoring leader no-show in game of a lifetime
Ryan Wittman ends his college career with a long list of accolades. His last game in a Cornell University basketball uniform is one he’d rather forget.
The senior forward was held to 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting in a 62-45 loss to the University of Kentucky in the third round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament last night at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York.
“There were some pretty open ones out there where you had a lot of space to get it off,” Wittman said after the game. “Sometimes you have games like that where they don’t go down.”
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Morning News — March 26, 2010
New York Post — Hall eager for Big Red chat
Seton Hall officials continue to request and conduct interviews this week for the vacant head basketball coach position. But the big one appears as if it will happen next week.
The Big East school, The Post has learned, is waiting in anticipation for Cornell coach Steve Donahue to clear his schedule, so that an off-campus discussion can take place. The Big Red met Kentucky in the Sweet 16 last night in Syracuse, so that would most likely happen early next week. But Seton Hall, a source said, is ready, willing and able to request permission from Cornell to formally speak with Donahue, as soon as it’s possible — meaning, once the Big Red’s season is over.
With the St. John’s position still open, Donahue may play a role there, too.
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NPR — Kentucky outplay Cornell in NCAA tourney
Kentucky Scrapes By
Finally there was Thursday’s most intriguing matchup: Kentucky and Cornell. First-year UK coach John Calipari puts an astonishing load of young talent on the floor, with at least three freshmen bound for NBA glory. But the Big Red of Cornell are one of the best shooting teams in the country from beyond the 3-point range and they’ve humbled two favored opponents rather easily in the first two rounds of the tournament (Temple and Wisconsin).
Cornell ran off to a 10-2 lead as Thursday’s game began, but Kentucky’s size and strength advantage became obvious as play continued. The Wildcats outscored Cornell 30-6 to close the first half, taking a 32-16 lead.
But Kentucky went cold in the second half and Cornell crept to within six points, 40-34, with about seven minutes left before Kentucky pulled away.
Kentucky will meet West Virginia Saturday for a chance at the Final Four.
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And Katz, ESPN.com: Kentucky defense derails Cornell
… During a 62-45 win against Cornell on Thursday night at the Carrier Dome, you couldn’t help but be romanced by UK’s defense for a 15-minute stretch that was as stifling as any team has put on another at this level.
“They saw blood,’’ Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. “Give them credit. We lost our poise and we lost the game.’’
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Philadelphia Inquirer — Cornell’s big dream comes to an end
It wasn’t an embarrassment.
It wasn’t close, but it wasn’t an embarrassment.
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Other articles
Noon news update — Thursday March 25, 2010
New York Times — Cornell and Kentucky, compare and contrast
The N.C.A.A. tournament is as much about perception as reality — until tipoff, then reality takes over with a vengeance.
On Thursday night in Syracuse, perception and reality will collide when Cornell plays Kentucky for the right to advance to the Round of Eight.
Of all the games being played over the next two days, this game perfectly frames the dichotomy of member institutions within the N.C.A.A. Division I universe. The perception is that Cornell and Kentucky represent two opposites of that universe.
The perception is that winning at men’s basketball means more to a place like Kentucky than it does to an Ivy League college like Cornell.
Is this reality?
Last year at this time, Kentucky hired Calipari away from Memphis and made him the highest paid coach in college basketball. Calipari signed an eight-year, $31.65 million deal that could reach $35 million with bonuses and incentives.
Donahue’s name has been linked to head coaching jobs outside the Ivy league. How much will Cornell be willing to pay to keep a Donahue in Ithaca? Each school must weigh the cost of its aspirations.
But Cornell and Kentucky will sink or swim on the strength of their talent, not on the number of McDonald’s all-Americans on the roster or because of Ivy League pedigree.
Harvard Coach Tommy Amaker, whose team was beaten twice by Cornell this season, said Cornell could really play.
“They’re good, they’ve got great experience and they’re basketball players,” he said. “The great equalizer in the game of basketball is the ability to shoot the 3-point shot. They do that as well as anybody. Maybe better than anybody.”
Amaker added: “I’m not surprised they’re in the position they are in. It would not surprise me to see them advance further. They’re that good. Cornell is confident. Nothing can take the place of confidence.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer — Khaliq Gant, Cornell’s catalyst and inspiration
It took a broken neck of a selfless man to get Cornell here.
Khaliq Gant dislocated two vertebrae when he dived for a loose ball during a basketball drill on Jan. 24, 2006. He awakened after 7 hours of surgery paralyzed from the neck down, bone from his hip having fused his spinal cord, a titanium plate stabilizing his neck, facing a possible lifetime in a wheelchair.
One dive, one collision with teammates, closed the door on Gant’s career.
That accident opened the door for Cornell’s greatest success, which continues tonight for the 12th-seeded Big Red in the Sweet 16 against No. 1 seed Kentucky.
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Carril: Donahue should look before he leaps Cornell
With the kind of success Cornell has enjoyed recently, the team’s coach, Steve Donahue, has begun to receive interest from other schools – including for the open St. John’s, Seton Hall and Fordham jobs. But Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril, who stayed at Princeton for 29 years instead of moving on to other opportunities, cautioned Donahue to be careful what he wishes for.
“I had a chance to leave Princeton myself several times, and I thought a lot about the word happiness,” he said. “You may get more money, you may get more prestige, you might be part of ESPN and all that, but, on the other hand, you’ve got an outstanding number of pressures that are hard to defend, and a system where the athletes aren’t a part of the regular student body.”
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Bloomberg: Cornell players’ title hops go beyond NCAA to Goldman analyst
For the Cornell University players who will try to upset No. 1 seed Kentucky tonight in the men’s national college basketball tournament, a loss would not be the end of their dreams.
Mark Coury, a backup forward who averages 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds for the Big Red, landed an internship in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. this summer, and may try to score a full-time job there after he completes his finance degree in 2011.
Coury won’t be the first Cornell basketball player to spend his summer in New York at Goldman Sachs. Current teammate Louis Dale and former teammates Khaliq Gant and Jason Battle also held internships at the investment bank. Battle now is a securities analyst at Goldman Sachs.
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Rush the Court — Sweet Sixteen game analysis: Thursday night
9:57 pm – #1 Kentucky vs. #12 Cornell (East Region)
The game plan for Kentucky will be simple: take advantage of every opportunity to run in transition and feed their two lottery picks in prime post position for easy baskets. The Wildcats employ an above-average tempo offense and rank sixth in the nation in two-point percentage. Cornell can throw their seven-foot center Jeff Foote at either Cousins or Patterson, but containing both will be nearly impossible for the Big Red frontline. Kentucky also ranks 144th in three-point percentage and has been woeful in that category in their two SEC defeats this season. Look for Cornell to try to bait John Wall, Eric Bledsoe and Darius Miller into outside jumpers. Even if the Wildcats guards have shot the ball efficiently from deep in the tournament, Cornell coach Steve Donahue will take his chances.
On the other side, Cornell will face their most daunting task yet. Not only is Kentucky superior athletically in every way imaginable, but they like to run and push. While Temple and Wisconsin are solid teams, their style of play didn’t necessarily take Cornell out of their game plan of halfcourt sets and freeing Ryan Wittman late in the shot clock for open jumpers. If Kentucky plays at their pace, this game will be a rout and the Cinderella dream will come to a crashing halt. If Cornell can slow the game, play in the 60s and keep the majority of possessions in the halfcourt, they can hang with the top seed remaining in the field. The key matchup should be Big Red senior point guard Louis Dale against Wildcats freshman point guard and future #1 pick John Wall. If Dale can frustrate Wall defensively into turnovers, that should result in forced Wall jumpers and less opportunities for Cousins and Patterson.
The Skinny: The key to this game will be pace and post play. If Jeff Foote gets into foul trouble or Wall speeds up the game, Cornell is in deep trouble. If Dale can keep his team at the same tempo as their first two tournament victories, the dream could very well remain alive. I see the former much more likely happening than the latter, meaning a fairly comfortable Kentucky victory.
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Chicago NOW — Will Cornell get its hollywood ending?
Any Given Thursday: Cornell Aims For Hollywood Ending
Thursday night when Cornell takes on Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, Hollywood better be watching.
Forget “Hoosiers,” the tale of the Big Red taking on Big Blue has enough intrigue to make Oliver Stone commission the screenplay for “Any Given Thursday.” Just look at the way the villain and underdog roles are already fleshed out.
A team that’s won seven NCAA Championships and a team that’s only appeared in seven NCAA Tournament games. A bunch of “one-and-done” freshmen taking on a group of “one last run” seniors. A coach who’s worked his way around the rules against a coach who’s worked his way up the ranks. Kids playing for the scholarship money and a chance at the NBA and kids playing for the love of the game and a chance to take a break from studying.
The screenwriter won’t need to create new characters, either; these Cornell heroes already boast dramatic Hollywood story lines…
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Danville Advocate — Wall insists Wildcats are not overlooking Cornell
Kentucky players insisted they are not looking past 12th-seeded Cornell tonight, even though the Wildcats now are the favorite to win the national championship.
“I think ever since the tournament started, we started taking practice more serious. It’s one game and you go home,” said Kentucky freshman guard John Wall. “Coach (John Calipari) told us anybody can lose. Everybody is coming to play. Most of these teams don’t want to go home.”
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St. Petersburg Times — NCAA’s underdogs embody the leaner American workplace
America’s teams, they’re often called, or Cinderellas wearing glass slippers, or overachieving underdogs within so much March Madness.
But all those sports entertainment cliches miss the more interesting, more instructive point: These teams are doing more with less.
That feels especially important right now.
Here in March 2010, as the country pulls out of the Great Recession and begins what is going to be a long, slow slog of an economic recovery, individual net worth is down, median household income is down, home values are down.
Cornell’s annual men’s basketball budget is $822,000. Wisconsin: $6 million. The difference between a chartered bus and a chartered jet.
Bigger, in this tournament, hasn’t always been better.
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Bloomberg: Kentucky conqueror says Cornell can win with 3-point shots
Cornell University can beat the top-seeded University of Kentucky tonight in college basketball’s national tournament, said a coach who dealt the Wildcats one of their two losses this season. It just needs to stick to its own style.
The 12th-seeded Big Red, nine-point underdogs to Kentucky for the game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, needs to make its long-distance shots and force Kentucky out of its up- tempo game, said University of South Carolina coach Darrin Horn.
“You have to make them play a complete game of basketball,” said Horn, whose Gamecocks beat Kentucky 68-62 on Jan. 26. “If you let them play on pure talent, and they get in transition where these great athletes can move and create, you are in trouble.”
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Other articles:
- Danville Advocate — Cornell’s Foote says UK’s Cousins will be a big challenge for him
- The State Journal — Cornell-Kentucky is more than Brains vs. Brawn
- The Faster Times — DeMarcus Cousins is not impressed with the Big Red’s geekiness
- Indianapolis Star — Randy Wittman’s son becomes a star with Cornell
- New York Post — Kentucky braces for Cornell’s best
- CNNSI.com — Cornell vs. Kentucky: contrasts are as different as blue and red
Intro by Bill Bradley.