SUPER BOWL 2012

• The Cornell Rebounders Club is set to begin their host-a-player dinners beginning January 4.
  

• Dates are now set for the next Cornell Elite Basketball Prospect Camp. The camp will run June 23-24, 2012 in Newman Arena.

• The Cornell Club of D.C. is planning on attending Cornell's January 3 game at the University of Maryland.
  

• Rush The Court writes, "With the ascension of Harvard from an also-ran into a borderline top 25 and the 2010 Sweet 16 run of Cornell it has become apparent that Ivy League is no longer the pushover it once was on the basketball court. For years, many have cited the conference’s rule against athletic scholarships as a reason for their poor performance against other schools in major sports, but it appears like the schools have found a way around that restriction by offering “substantially enhanced financial aid for all admitted students”. While this decision affects individuals coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds regardless of athletic ability and could lead to significant societal change down the road, the immediate impact is being felt in sports where Ivy League teams are less handicapped as they can offer financial aid packages that are not too far from what an athletic scholarship would offer. While some question what are felt to be reduced academic standards for admissions for many of these athletes, in theory the decision to allow for these increased financial aid package should be an effective one as long as athletic programs do not compromise too much on the basic mission of their schools."
  

• On Christmas Day, Jeff Foote (Cornell '10) finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds as his Springfield Armor fell to the Sioux Falls Skyforce in NBA D-League action. In recapping the game, the Ardus Leader of South Dakota writes, "The Armor (7-5) looked like world beaters in the first and fourth quarters, putting up 35 and 30 points. They have size (7-footer Jeff Foote), speed (NBA camper Jerry Smith) and shooting (former NBA call-up Jameson Curry)." Foote and the Armor return to action on December 29 and December 30 in back-to-back games at Austin. The Armor are scheduled for a big showcase game in front of numerous NBA scouts against the Los Angeles D-Fenders on January 9 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada. The game will be broadcast on the NBA Channel. The D-League announced this week that 88 former D-League players are active on NBA rosters. See more alumni news further down in this post.
  

• YahooSports and the SportsXchange have updated their team reports for the Ivy League. Below is an excerpt of the report with each of the references to Cornell.
  

  The [Harvard] Crimson extended its home winning streak at Lavietes Pavilion to 20 games with its 63-51 victory over Florida Atlantic on Feb. 22. It's the longest streak in school history, and Harvard hasn't lost at home since falling to Cornell on Feb. 19, 2010.
  ***
  Cornell freshman Shonn Miller made a big impact early this season, leading the Big Red in rebounding six times through the season's first 10 games.
  Cornell
  -David LaMore had four points, two rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes against Penn State on Dec. 21. He had played in just one game for the Big Red prior to that trip to State College, Pa.
  -The Cornell basketball playing alumni roster took a hit over the holiday break when Vaerlose made a round of cuts. The Danish squad chose to release a pair of former Big Red teammates in Adam Wire and Aaron Osgood, though they were the top two rebounders on the squad and ranked third and fourth in scoring.
  -Miles Asafo-Adjei missed the Penn State game with an illness, but was not expected to be sidelined for additional games.
  -Cornell nearly won at Penn State before falling 74-67, and the officials played a big role in that. The Big Red were called for 29 fouls in the contest, and the Nittany Lions just 13.
  

• Game Recaps-Below are links to our game recap sections from each of Cornell's games this season.

November 11, 2011 at St. Bonaventure L 58-79


November 14, 2011 vs. Binghamton W 76-61

November 16, 2011 at Buffalo L 59-68

November 20, 2011 vs. Boston University W 71-66

November 22, 2011 at Delaware L 68-76

November 27, 2011 vs. American L 63-65

December 3, 2011 vs. Lehigh W 81-79 (OT)

December 17, 2011 vs. Albany W 85-82 (OT)

December 19, 2011 at Illinois L 60-64

December 21, 2011 at Penn State L 67-74

• 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 December 27 is No. 216 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. 178 in the nation, while the USA Today Sagarin rankings have Cornell at No. 219. 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.

IVY LEAGUE COMPOSITE SCHEDULE

Friday, November 11
Johnson & Wales 66 Brown 86 (Box Score - Recap)
Columbia 57 Connecticut 70[ESPNU] (Box Score - Recap)
Cornell 58 St. Bonaventure 79 (Box Score - Recap)
MIT 49 Harvard 76 (Box Score - Recap)
Dartmouth 56 Rutgers 62 (Box Score - Recap)
Penn 59 Maryland-Baltimore County 45 (Box Score - Recap)
Yale 73 Central Connecticut State 69 (Box Score - Recap)

Saturday, November 12
Wagner 73 Princeton 57 (Box Score - Recap)

Monday, November 14
Albany 77 Brown 68 (NIT Tip-Off-1st Round@Syracuse, N.Y.)[ESPN3] (Box Score - Recap)
Temple 73 Penn 67 OT (Box Score - Recap)
Furman 58 Columbia 62 (Box Score - Recap)
Binghamton 61 Cornell 76 (Box Score - Recap)

Tuesday, November 15
Harvard 73 Holy Cross 64 (Box Score - Recap)
Yale 62 Quinnipiac 68 [SNY] (Box Score - Recap)
Brown 52 Manhattan 54 NIT Tip Consolation@Syracuse, N.Y. [ESPN3] (Box Score - Recap)

Wednesday, November 16
Cornell 59 Buffalo 68 (Box Score - Recap)
Vermont 65 Dartmouth 53 (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 58 North Carolina State 60 [ESPNU] (Box Score - Recap)

Thursday, November 17
Penn 78 Rider 72 OT (Box Score - Recap)
Lyndon State 37 Yale 101 (Box Score - Recap)

Saturday, November 19
Buffalo 53 Princeton 61 (Box Score - Recap)
Hartford 52 Brown 59 (Box Score - Recap)
American 66 Columbia 58 (Box Score - Recap)
Bryant 62 Dartmouth 66 (Box Score - Recap)
Robert Morris 60 Penn 66 (Box Score - Recap)
Harvard 77 Loyola Marymount 67 (Box Score - Recap)

Sunday, November 20
Boston University 66 Cornell 71 (Box Score - Recap)

Sunday, November 20
Boston University 66 Cornell 71 (Box Score - Recap)

Monday, November 21
Brown 48 George Mason 74 (NIT Consolation Fairfax, VA) (Box Score - Recap)

Tuesday, November 22
Brown 79 Monmouth 71 (NIT Consolation Fairfax, VA) (Box Score - Recap)
Columbia 53 Stony Brook 67 (Box Score - Recap)
Cornell 64 Delaware 72 (Box Score - Recap)
Wagner 71 Penn 65 (Box Score - Recap)
Elon 56 Princeton 55 (Box Score - Recap)
Yale 62 Seton Hall 73 (Box Score - Recap)

Thursday, November 24
Dartmouth 69 San Francisco 71 (Great Alaska Shootout) (Box Score - Recap)
Harvard 75 Utah 47 [HDNet] (Battle 4 Atlantis Bahamas) (Box Score - Recap)

Friday, November 25
Dartmouth 64 vs. Alaska-Anchorage 52(Great Alaska Shootout) (Box Score - Recap)
Harvard 46 Florida State 41 [VERSUS] (Battle 4 Atlantis Bahamas) (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 56 Bucknell 62 (Legends Classic, Lewisberg, PA) (Box Score - Recap)
Pittsburgh 78 Penn 58 [TCN] (Box Score - Recap)

Saturday, November 26
Yale 84 Army 75 (Box Score - Recap)
Columbia 59 Manhattan 41 (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 56 Morehead State 68 (Legends Classic, Lewisberg, PA) (Box Score - Recap)
James Madison 60 Penn 58 [TCN] (Philly Hoop Group Classic) (Box Score - Recap)
Dartmouth 48 Western Michigan 65 (Great Alaska Shootout) (Box Score - Recap)
Harvard 59 Central Florida 49 [VERSUS] (Battle 4 Atlantis Bahamas) (Box Score - Recap)

Sunday, November 27
Brown 64 Sacred Heart 77 (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 66 West Alabama 66 (Legends Classic, Lewisberg, PA) (Box Score - Recap)
American 65 Cornell 63 (Box Score - Recap)

Monday, November 28
Swarthmore 42 Columbia 104 (Box Score - Recap)

Tuesday, November 29
Manhattan 72 Penn 75 (Box Score - Recap)
Yale 74 Hartford 69 (Box Score - Recap)

Wednesday, November 30
Dartmouth 50 New Hampshire 53 (Box Score - Recap)
Lafayette 69 Princeton 54 (Box Score - Recap)
Rhode Island 56 Brown 65 [myRITV] (Box Score - Recap)

Thursday, December 1
Harvard 55 Vermont 48 (Box Score - Recap)

Friday, December 2
Columbia 69 Loyola Marymount 61 (LA Westside Centennial Classic) (Box Score - Recap)

Saturday, December 3
Vermont 52 Yale 68 (Box Score - Recap)
Brown 54 Iowa 75 (Box Score - Recap)
Lehigh 79 Cornell 81 (OT) (Box Score - Recap)
Penn 65 Villanova 73 [ESPN3] (Box Score - Recap)
Columbia 72 North Texas 57 (Box Score - Recap) (LA Westside Centennial Classic)

Sunday, December 4
Columbia 78 La Sierra 56 (Box Score - Recap) (LA Westside Centennial Classic)
Seattle 70 Harvard 80 (Box Score - Recap)

Monday, December 5
Brown 49 Providence 80 [ESPN3/SNY] (Box Score - Recap)
Yale 73 Sacred Heart 71 (Box Score - Recap)

Tuesday, December 6
Holy Cross 45 Columbia 46 (Box Score - Recap)

Wednesday, December 7
Delaware 60 Penn 69 (Box Score - Recap)
New Hampshire 69 Brown 56 (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 59 Rutgers 57 (Box Score - Recap)
Bryant 59 Yale 76 (Box Score - Recap)

Thursday, December 8
Harvard 53 Connecticut 67 [ESPN2] (Box Score - Recap)

Saturday, December 10
Central Connecticut State 80 Brown 90 (Box Score - Recap)
Long Island 53 Columbia 63 (Box Score - Recap)
Harvard 76 Boston University 52 (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 60 Drexel 64 (Box Score - Recap)
Penn 73 UCLA 77 [DirecTV] (Box Score - Recap)
Dartmouth 47 Notre Dame 65 [ESPN3] (Box Score - Recap)

Tuesday, December 13
Dartmouth 51 IPFW 56 (Box Score - Recap)

Wednesday, December 14
Princeton 72 Rider 71 OT (Box Score - Recap)

Saturday, December 17
Elon 54 Dartmouth 62 (Box Score - Recap)
Albany 82 Cornell 85 OT (Box Score - Recap)

Sunday, December 18
Princeton 71 Northeastern 62 (Box Score - Recap)
Yale 68 Rhode Island 65 [COX RI] (Box Score - Recap)

Monday, December 19
Cornell 60 Illinois 64 [ESPN3] (Box Score - Recap)
Dartmouth 55 Colgate 61 OT (Box Score - Recap)

Wednesday, December 21
Dartmouth 64 Army 67 (Box Score - Recap)
Cornell 67 Penn State 74[Big Ten Network] (Box Score - Recap)

Thursday, December 22
Florida Atlantic 51 Harvard 63 (Box Score - Recap)
Princeton 59 Siena 63 (Box Score - Recap)

Friday, December 23
Maine 71 Brown 58 (Box Score - Recap)
Dartmouth 74 Albany 82 (Box Score - Recap)
Marist 71 Penn 84 (Box Score - Recap)

Wednesday, December 28
Columbia at Marist, 7 pm
Cornell at Stony Brook, 7 pm [Cablevision]

Thursday, December 29
Brown at St. Francis (N.Y.), 7 pm
Harvard at Boston College, 7 pm [ESPN3]
Penn at Davidson, 7 pm
Yale at Wake Forest, 7 pm

Friday, December 30
Princeton at Florida State, 7 pm [ESPN3]
Lafayette at Columbia, 7 pm

Saturday, December 31
Cornell at Bucknell, 2 pm
Holy Cross at Dartmouth, 2 pm
Yale at Florida, 2 pm [ESPNU]
Saint Joseph’s at Harvard, 4 pm

Sunday, January 1
Princeton at Florida A&M, 3 pm
Penn at Duke, 5 pm [ESPNU]

• Take a look at the exclusive Inside Tour of Cornell Basketball video. 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 ()
-Chris Wroblewski ()
-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 December 27, Aubry is averaging 6.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Halcones is 28-6 (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 December 27, Toppert is averaging 5.9 points and 1.7 rebounds per game. Ourense is 7-3 (3rd place out of 13 teams in the Spanish LEB Silver). During his pro career, Toppert, a 6'4" wing forward, 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 December 27, 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 December 27, Dale is out for the season with a torn ACL. He was averaging 11.9 points, 2.2 assists, and 2.0 rebounds per game before the injury. Dale is in his second professional season, both seasons in Germany with Goettingen.

-Ryan Wittman ('10) (Unsigned free agent)-As of December 27, 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) (Springfield Armor, NBA D-League)-As of December 27, Foote is averaging 16.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game in the D-League. He participated in the Portland Trailblazers' 2011-2012 training camp. Springfield is 5-4 (2nd place out of 8 teams in the Eastern Conference). He played the 2011-2012 preseason with with Zastal of the PLK Poland premier league and the full 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) (Unsigned free agent)-As of December 27, Wire is an unsigned free agent. He was waived by Vaerlose, Denmark BBK premier league during December. He was averaging 11.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 1.9 assists per game. 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) (Unsigned free agent)-As of December 27, Osgood is an unsigned free agent. He was waived by Vaerlose, Denmark BBK premier league during December. He was averaging 11.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. The 2011-2012 season is his rookie year.