News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Thursday...


Above, Cornell's Shonn Miller in action in the Cleveland Summer Pro League ("the AmPro").  Miller plays for the team, Iggy Boys.

• Ryan Wittman (Cornell '10) is listed among prospective players that could be included in the new professional basketball league, The-BALL The Basketball Alumni Legends League).  "The Ball" will commence play during August 2013 and will feature eight teams, including a franchise in Syracuse which hopes to draw some players from the Cornell basketball program.

• The Ithaca Times updated its previously published story on Jeff Foote's (Cornell '10) participation in the NBA Summer League.  The Times writes:

Jeff Foote’s weeklong foray into the NBA Summer League has come to an end, but it seems like it’s been an overall success. Foote had two lackluster starts for the Brooklyn Nets summer squad following a solid start on Monday, July 8.

However, he bounced back Thursday night with nine points and a game-high seven rebounds and had his best game on Friday, playing 28 minutes and shooting 5-6 from the floor for a summer league high of 11 points with another summer league high of 11 rebounds and a steal. That kind of performance will get him a long look somewhere.

However, the dissolution of Dwight Howard trade talks hurts Foote’s chances with the Nets as they have signed Brooke Lopez and may want a more experienced center to back him up. Lopez is coming back from a major injury, so they may want to hedge their bets with a vet. Of course they may just add Foote on a 1-year deal and sign Howard as a free agent after next season, time can only tell. The good part is that a scout from each of the 30 NBA teams was at every one of the games. So every team should know what Foote is capable of. It’s just a matter of who thinks he can be a useful NBA player.

Jets camp is a little more than a week away and at least this Jets fan is excited. From what I hear, they’re expecting record attendance. That’s because there will be more exposure from the lack of a camp last year, the two years of experience prior to that, and of course, Tim Tebow.

Like him or hate him, Tebow will be coming to Cortland and people will be pushing to get a glimpse of him. I imagine all the local restaurants will be running Tebow-themed specials, and random people around Cortland will be caught “Tebowing.”

But there’ll be much more to do during the camp and the addition of Tebow kind of hides some of the key additions and losses from the team. Are the defensive woes from last year simply a lax attitude and focus on offense, or is it a key personnel issue?

And more importantly, is Darrelle Revis going to hold out again? I mean, I guess he doesn’t like Cortland, because he held out the last time they were, too. Restructuring a rookie contract is one thing, but restructuring the restructured contract you just agreed to two years ago is a little silly. The man deserves to be paid and this year he does seem more likely to show up for camp even with the disputed contract. I’ve always argued that he deserves to be paid the same as a top wide receiver because he essentially nullifies one from the opposing team.

There are deterrents in his current contract that could force him to attend camp from day 1. The first is a million dollar reporting bonus that he’d forfeit and the other is an automatic extension that kicks in if he holds out. In that case he’d be under contract past the 2014 year where the current contract ends, and instead be under contract up to and including the 2016 season. Talk is that the Jets are trying to make it through this season before rewarding him with a big contract next season, but we’ll see where the two teams end up at the end of July.

In the meantime, keep an ear out for locals who are taking part in area tournaments. Almost every sport has a summer program and if your team did well, I want to hear about so I note your achievements here in the column.