SUPER BOWL 2012

Get all the information you need about the Big Red's home opener on Monday, November 14, 2011, against Binghamton with The Cornell Basketball Blog's Game Preview Center. Also, JOIN THE MESSAGE BOARD and discuss the game with your fellow fans. Below, news and notes for Monday...

• Tune into 1160ESPN.com at 4 pm to hear Bill Courtney recap the game at St. Bonaventure on Friday night and to discuss tonight's home opener against Binghamton.

• Below, our Tweets of the Day from the world of Cornell Basketball on the twittersphere.
  

• The Erie Times News notes that former Cornell assistant coach and current head coach of the NBA D-League's Erie Bay Hawks, Jay Larranaga, had intended on using Jeff Foote ('10) as a practice player during the team's training camp. The Erie Times writes, "Larranaga hoped to use practice players in camp and had one in 7-footer Jeff Foote, but received a notice from the D-League that teams can’t use practice players in training camp. Larranaga knew Foote from when he was an assistant at Cornell."

• Former Cornell head coach Steve Donahue recalls for the Enterprise his recruitment of Boston College forward Dennis Clifford. “I saw him first when I was recruiting in the summer for Cornell and thought he might have a chance to help us there,’’ said Donahue. “Then I saw him in the spring here when I first got here [as head coach of Boston College] and he was so much better than I could ever imagine. That’s why we offered pretty quickly on him."

• Aaron Osgood ('11), finished with a double-double on November 12 in professional action in Denmark. See updates further below in this post on Cornell's alumni playing professionally overseas.

• Cornell RPI Watch: The RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is a measure of strength of schedule and how a team does against that schedule. It does not consider the margin of victory, but only whether or not a team won and where the game was played (home/away/neutral court). The formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). (See: CollegeRPI.com for a further explanation of the formula.) The RPI may be the most influential factor in NCAA Tournament seeding. Cornell's RPI rank as of November 14 is No. 251 out of 344 total Division I teams. While neither the Ken Pomeroy or Jeff Sagarin rankings are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, the KenPom.com site ranks Cornell No. 140 in the nation, while the USA Today Sagarin rankings have Cornell at No. 169. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.

• Here is a look at Ivy League results and upcoming games. A full Ivy composite schedule may viewed by clicking here.

• Check out The Cornell Basketball Blog's Season Preview Index for a complete listing of 2011-2012 Cornell and Ivy League basketball season previews.

• Cornell will have at least four games televised during the 2011-2012 season including at Stony Brook (Cablevision 118), at Maryland (ESPN3), at Illinois (ESPN3) and at Penn State (Big Ten Network). Time Warner Cable, VerizonFios1, and Comcast Sports are among other networks that may also pick up Cornell games against Ivy League opponents such as Columbia, Princeton and Penn.

• Check out The Cornell Basketball Blog's updated profiles of Cornell's four committed recruits from the classes of 2012 and 2013, Braxston Bunce (Kelowna Secondary School) Kelowna, BC, Canada, 6-11, Holt Harmon (Plano West HS), Plano, TX, 6-9, F; Nolan Cressler (Plum HS) Plum, PA, 6-4, G (class of 2012); and Tim Higgins (Paul VI HS) Fairfax, VA, 6-10, C (class of 2013). In addition, a listing of the Ivy League's committed recruits in the class of 2012 is available by clicking here. Above, new video highlights of Holt Harmon.
  

• If you have not had the opportunity to check it out yet, take a look at the exclusive Inside Tour of Cornell Basketball. The tour video was produced by the staff of Slope Media with background music performed by Cornell alumnus, Alex Kresovich. The background song, is the main theme song for the 2012 version of the video game, NBA2K. Also a must see-- check out the three-year combined highlight video package produced by Slope Media from the '08-'09, '09-'10 and '10-'11 Big Red seasons.

-Josh Wexler ('88)
-Steve Cobb ('05)
-Ryan Rourke ('06)
-Andrew Naeve ('07)
-Jason Canady ('08)
-Khaliq Gant ('09)
-Conor Mullen ('09)
-Brian Kreefer ('09)
-Ryan Wittman ('10)
-Pete Reynolds ('10)
-Jon Jaques ('10)
-Louis Dale ('10)
-Alex Tyler ('10)
-Geoff Reeves ('10)
-Jeff Foote ('10)
-Andre Wilkins ('10) (inactive)
-Aaron Osgood ('11)
-Adam Wire ('11)
-The Cornell Rebounders Club
-Max Groebe ()
-Andrew Ferry ()
-Peter McMillan ()
-Errick Peck ()
-Josh Figini ()
-Galal Cancer ()
-Ned Tomic ()
-Dominick Scelfo ()
-Jake Mathews ()
-Dwight Tarwater ()
-Manny Sahota ()
-Dave LaMore ()
-Shonn Miller ()
-Devin Cherry ()
-Nolan Cressler (committed recruit)
-Braxston Bunce (committed recruit)
-Holt Harmon (committed recruit)
-Tim Higgins (committed recruit)
-Assistant Coach Mike Blaine ()
-Assistant Coach Marlon Sears ()
-Assistant Coach Arlen Galloway ()
-Brian Delaney, WPIE/ESPN Radio Ithaca ()
-Ed Boulat, Ithaca Journal
-Cornell Daily Sun Sports ()
-Slope Sports ()
-WVBR Sports ()
-Former assistant coach, Jay Larranaga ()
-Former head coach, Steve Donahue ()
-Former assistant coach, Nat Graham ()
-Former assistant coach, Woody Kampmann ()
-Former Assistant Coach Ricky Yahn ()
-Former Intern Assistant Ryan Woerner ()

• Throughout the year we provide periodic updates on Cornell's alumni playing professionally. Below, some updates:
  

-Jeff Aubry ('99) (Halcones Rojos, LNBP Mexico premier league/Arecibo Capitanes, BSN Puerto Rico premier league)-As of November 14, Aubry is averaging 5.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Halcones is 16-4 (2nd place out of 14 teams in the Mexican LNBP). Aubry, a 6'11" center, splits his time in both the Mexican and Puerto Rican professional leagues. He is also a member of Puerto Rico's national team joining several NBA stars. A well traveled pro player, Aubry spent several seasons in the NBA D League in the early part of his career with the Fayetteville Patriots and Florida Flame and earned honorable mention all D-League in 2002. During his more than a decade of pro experience, Aubry has also played professionally in the ABA (Miami Tropics) and abroad in Puerto Rico (Arecibo, Leones de Ponce, and Santurce, BSN Puerto Rico), Spain (Tarragona, LEB Gold Spain 2nd Division), Mexico (Halcones Rojos and Chihuahua Dorados, LNBP Mexico premier league), Poland (Slask Wroclaw, PLK Poland premier league), Argentina (Libertad Sunchales, Liga A Argentina), Uruguay (Hebraica, LUB Uruguay )and Peru (Alas Peruanas, Peru).

-Cody Toppert ('05) (Ourense, LEB Silver Spain 3rd Division)-As of November 14, Toppert is averaging 7.8 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. Ourense is 4-1 (1st place out of 13 teams in the Spanish LEB Silver). During his pro career, Toppert has also played in England (Plymouth Raiders, British Basketball League), Italy (Forli, LegaDue Italy 2nd division), the CBA (Great Falls Explorers), as well as in Portugal (Barriernese, LCB Portugal premier league), Germany (Goettingen, BBK Bundesliga Germany premier league) and New Zealand (Taranaki Mountain Airs, NBL New Zealand premier league).

-Jason Hartford ('08) (Unsigned free agent)-As of November 14, Hartford is unsigned for the 2011-2012 season. He was cut during the week of October 17 by Cader Rocha, LUB Uruguay premier league and is now a free agent. He was averaging 12.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, second on the team in both categories. The 6'9" Hartford previously played professionally in Portugal (Ginasio, LCB Portugal premier league), Finland (Huima, Korisliiga Finland premier league) and Mozambique (Maxaquene, D1 Mozambique premier league).

-Louis Dale ('10) (Goettingen, BBK Bundesliga Germany premier league)-As of November 14, Dale is averaging 12.8 points, 2.3 assists, and 2.0 rebounds per game. Goettingen is 1-7 on the season (17th place out of 18 teams in the German BBK). On November 12, Dale finished with 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist as his struggling Goettingen club fell 92-60 to the Oliver Baskets. Dale is in his second professional season, both seasons in Germany with Goettingen.

-Ryan Wittman ('10) (Unsigned free agent)-As of November 14, Wittman is unsigned for the 2011-2012 season after he terminated his contract on September 26 with Zastal of the PLK Poland premier league. He played the 2010-2011 season in Italy (Forli, LegaDue Italy 2nd division) and in the United States (Fort Wayne Mad Ants, NBA D-League).

-Jeff Foote ('10) (Unsigned free agent)-As of November 14, Foote is unsigned for the 2011-2012 season after he terminated his contract on September 26 with Zastal of the PLK Poland premier league. He played the 2010-2011 season in Spain (Melilla, LEB Gold Spain 2nd division) while on loan from Euro League powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel.

-Adam Wire ('11) (Vaerlose, Denmark BBK premier league)-As of November 14, Wire is averaging 12.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Vaerlose is 4-7 (6th place out of 10 teams in the Danish BBK). On November 12, in a 74-62 win over Falcon, he finished with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. On November 4, 2011 he was named the Eurobasket Player of the Week for Denmark. The 2011-2012 season is his rookie year.

-Aaron Osgood ('11) (Vaerlose, Denmark BBK premier league)-As of November 14, Osgood is averaging 10.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Vaerlose is 4-7 (6th place out of 10 teams in the Danish BBK). On November 12, in a 74-62 win over Falcon, he finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The 2011-2012 season is his rookie year.

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Blueprint for Success, the yearbook commemorating Cornell's memorable 2009-2010 season is on sale. Visit the Cornell Athletics website to order your copy today! Or pick up a copy sold in the Cornell Store on campus.

Fans of the basketball program in the Ithaca area should not miss the opportunity to join the Cornell Rebounders Club.