News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Above, a 1975 game program from Cornell's visit to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and LSU.  Below, some news and notes for Thursday...

• The New York Post writes that the Nets will "add at least one more [player to the roster]– could be Shelden Williams, [Damion] James, free agent Al Thornton, D-League hopeful Jeff Foote...They’ve already committed to more than $335 million (that’s $75 million more than Mikhail Prokhorov paid for the team two years ago). That $335 million contains about $82 million for the upcoming season, plopping them about $12 million over the luxury tax threshold. It’s good to have a billionaire owner. Or an oligarch. Or both."

• Foote's D-League coach, Bob MacKinnon received a contract extension. The Springfield Armor noted in their release, "The 2011-12 Armor had three players earn a total of four GATORADE NBA Call-Ups, including Dennis Horner (New Jersey Nets, twice), Jeff Foote (New Orleans Hornets) and Jerry Smith (New Jersey Nets)."

• Cornell Athletics announced via Twitter, "MBKB: Cornell will play Presbyterian in 1st game on final round of LLVI on Nov. 23. Will play either Longwood or Florida A&M on Nov. 24."

• Wisconsin released its full nonconference schedule and notes of the Cornell game, " Nov. 18 vs. Cornell (Kohl Center) First and second-round games of the 2012 Las Vegas Invitational are being held at the host institutions ... in the only previous meeting, the Big Red knocked UW from the 2010 NCAA tournament with a second-round win in Jacksonville, Fla."

• White and Blue Review writes of Creighton, " The Bluejays will have two games at home as a part of the Las Vegas Invitational before making the trip to Las Vegas. The rest of the field consists of Presbyterian, Cornell, Florida A&M and Longwood. Cornell has already released their non-conference schedule and will be playing Wisconsin and Arizona State leaving the other three teams as potential opponents for the Bluejays."

• The Ithaca Journal writes:

Bill Courtney's third year as Cornell men's basketball coach promises to be a challenging 2012-13 season with 10 of his 12 leading scorers from a year ago back. The Big Red finished 12-16 overall and 7-7 in the Ivy League last season.

A visit to famed Cameron Indoor Stadium and a six-day stint in “Sin City” highlight the Cornell University men’s basketball team’s 2012-13 schedule.

The school released the Big Red’s 31-game schedule — the most scheduled games in program history — on Wednesday.

Third-year coach Bill Courtney’s squad, which finished 12-16 and 7-7 in the Ivy League last season, will play 15 games against teams that participated in the postseason a year ago, including six against NCAA tournament teams.

Cornell will play 14 home games, including three in six days starting Nov. 10 against Western Michigan, reigning Atlantic 10 tournament champion St. Bonaventure and Saint Peter’s (N.J.) at Newman Arena. Two days after facing the Peacocks, the team will head west for the Las Vegas Invitational, where it will take on Sweet 16 participant Wisconsin and Arizona State.

Before heading home, the Big Red will play two more contests at Orleans Arena, off the Las Vegas strip, with potential opponents including Florida A&M, Longwood and Presbyerian.

After Las Vegas, Cornell goes another road trip, highlighted by a date with Duke on Dec. 19. The Blue Devils finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season before being shocked by No. 15 seed Lehigh of the Patriot League in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Two days before facing Duke, Cornell will visit defending Southeastern Conference tournament champion Vanderbilt.

Other marquee nonconference games include home contests against defending America East regular-season champion Stony Brook on Nov. 28 and Patriot League regular-season champion Bucknell on Jan. 2.

The Big Red’s Ivy League opener will be Jan. 19 at home against Columbia. Two-time defending league champion Harvard visits on Feb. 8, with Cornell visiting Cambridge, Mass., on March 9 in the regular-season finale.

Among the top expected returnees for Cornell are 2011-12 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Shonn Miller; all-Ivy guard Johnathan Gray, a senior who spent part of the summer with the U.S. Virgin Islands’ national team; and forward Errick Peck, the Big Red’s second-leading scorer in 2010-11, who missed last season due to a knee injury.