SUPER BOWL 2012

• The Washington Post writes of Maryland and its addition to the roster of 7'1" Alex Len, " [Maryland coach Mark] Turgeon said he had no way of predicting whether the next three nonconference games — against Albany (7-5), Samford on Saturday and Cornell on Jan. 3 — would offer enough time for the revamped Terrapins to take shape for their Jan. 8 ACC-opener at North Carolina State."

• NBA.com's weekly Prospect Watch writes of Jeff Foote (Cornell '10), "The former Cornell giant had a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) in his first game back with the Armor after attending Trail Blazer camp, then followed up with two so-so games. But Foote’s got a long history of defensive dominance, honored with two Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year nods while with the Big Red, and honed with years in Europe. Quality defensive big men are in demand right now, and Foote looks up to answering the call. "
  

• The Valley News notes of high school action last night and committed Cornell recruit, Nolan Cressler (Plum HS) Plum, PA, 6-4, G (class of 2012):

Plum 70, North Hills 46 — Senior guard Nolan Cressler scored a season-high 35 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lift Plum (5-2) over North Hills (3-5) in the first round of the Hampton Tournament. Cressler had 25 points in the first half; the entire North Hills team had 22. Anthony Garofalo added 15 points for Plum. Senior 6-foot-8 center Steve Hearty led North Hills with 16 points.

• Adam Finklestein of ESPN writes on Ivy League recruiting:

"The Ivy League may be the most underestimated conference in all of college basketball.

Few have given more public praise to the job that Tommy Amaker has done rebuilding the Harvard program than I have, especially on the recruiting trail, but when I hear statements like “this is the best team the Ivy League has ever seen” I have to shake my head.

Not because Amaker doesn’t deserve all the credit in the world for what he’s building at Harvard, but because it’s like calling LeBron James the best player in basketball history before he’s won an NBA championship. It not only minimizes the achievements of guys like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Michael Jordan, but also the PROCESS of becoming truly great.

Similarly, if Harvard’s success on the floor follows its success on the recruiting trail, the Crimson could very well write Ivy League history. But to put them in the conversation before they make the tournament is to discredit one of college basketball’s most improved leagues over the last five years.

The Ivy League finished the 2010-2011 season with the 15th best conference RPI in Division I basketball (there are 33 Division I conferences). This year the Ivy League currently sits at 16. Sydney Johnson’s Princeton club came within seconds of knocking off Kentucky in last year’s NCAA tournament and that was the second consecutive year that John Calipari got more than he bargained for from an Ivy League opponent in the month of March.

Two years ago it was Cornell, led by current Boston College head coach Steve Donahue, who claimed its third consecutive Ivy League title, cracked the national top 25, and advanced all the way to the Sweet 16 before giving Kentucky more of a game than the Wildcats could have anticipated.

It should come as no surprise that the quality of Ivy League recruiting is at an all time high right now. Yes, it all starts with Harvard as the Crimson are very clearly raising the bar, but others are following suit and the quality of Ivy League basketball will continue to rise as a result.

With that in mind, here’s a look at the conference’s top classes to date in 2012:

***

Cornell has an inside-out tandem of its own including Nolan Cressler (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) who was heavily recruited by a variety of high academic programs."

• 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 28 is No. 213 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. 176 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]