News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Below, news and notes for Tuesday...

• Today is the welcome back picnic for the Cornell Rebounders Club.  Cornell Athletics may possibly add some YouTube coverage of the event.

• The Boston Celtics have hired former Cornell assistant coach, Jay Larranaga.  Celtics Town writes:

The son of James Larranaga, who’s most known for taking George Mason to the Final Four, Jay spent the past two seasons coaching the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA D-League, leading them to a 60-40 record with two consecutive playoff appearances. According to Cornell head coach Bill Courtney, under whom Larranaga worked briefly as an assistant, Larranaga is known as a skill developer.

“You’ll see a lot of guys get better (under Larranaga),” Courtney said. “That’s his strength.”

• Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post Standard, the beat writer for the Syracuse Orange, thought this was big news.  He writes:

Syracuse and Cornell won't meet in 2012-13 college basketball season

Syracuse and Cornell have met on the hardwood 118 times in their history. The first meeting was on Feb. 16, 1901 in the first year Syracuse fielded an organized basketball team. Syracuse won the game 18-15.

But the two Upstate New York schools did not play each other last season and they won't meet again in 2012-13.

Syracuse University has released only select dates in its schedule, but Cornell's full schedule is on the school's website and there's no game between the Orange and the Big Red.

Cornell will face a daunting schedule. In addition to the Ivy League matchups, the Big Red will play road games at Wisconsin, Arizona State, Vanderbilt and Duke as part of its non-conference schedule. Key home games will include St. Bonaventure (Nov. 14), Stony Brook (Nov. 28), Colgate (Dec. 1) and Bucknell (Jan. 2).

Syracuse won the last meeting between the Orange and the Big Red, earning a 78-58 victory on Nov. 30, 2010.

• The Bleacher Report lists the best and worst players turned head coaches and includes Dave Bliss (Cornell '65).  The BR writes:

Dave Bliss was an All-Ivy League honoree at Cornell, posting a 12.8 points per game mark while also playing as a member of the Big Red baseball team. He received the Cornell Sun Athlete of the Year Award in 1965.

But it's apparent that Bliss wasn't cut out to coach, bouncing around seven programs in a forgettable career.

Bliss' teams posted a .421 winning percentage in Tourney action, and is further marred by the Baylor basketball scandal of 2003, where forward Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson. Subsequent investigations implemented Bliss in improper tuition coverage.

• BC Interruption writes, "While I am in agreement with the rest of the BCI bloggers that the retirement of Gene DeFilippo is a good thing for the athletic department as a whole, it's worth considering how it will impact basketball specifically. You could argue that GDF's most recent positive move was managing to snag head coach Steve Donahue from Cornell.