News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, news and notes for Thursday...

• Check out StatSheet.com's letter grades for Cornell's individual players from last night's game.

• Big Apple Buckets discusses a terrible Wednesday night in the Ivy League and writes:

The sky is not falling, the Ivy League isn’t terrible and the league champion isn’t heading to Dayton. Yes, going 1-3 on a night with the lone win being at home over Binghamton isn’t exactly special, but the league should be just fine in the long run.

The fact is that Cornell, Columbia and Princeton were all playing games that were essentially toss-ups tonight. Big Red fans might not want to admit it, but SBU with it’s stifling defense is actually a better team than Cornell right now. I don’t think they’d make any argument after the Seawolves came to Ithaca and dominated in a 23-point victory.

The 76-53 romp was keyed by the play of freshman Jameel Warney, who had 19 points and 11 boards. He’s proving to be a dynamic player that can change games. Once again though it was SBU’s defense that got the job done, allowing 53 points on 63 possessions. It’s just really hard to score on Stony Brook. All of that is why Pomeroy had Stony Brook as a slight favorite (52%) coming into the game, even on the road...

• Black Heart Gold Pants writes, "WISCONSIN (4-2). Wisconsin has feasted on cupcakes (Cornell and Presbyterian) but got rolled when they played Florida and Creighton."

• A Cornell Daily Sun columnist writes, "When the basketball team is playing, Bartels should be packed."

• The Pittsburgh Post Tribune writes, "Nolan Cressler, a true freshman on the Cornell University men’s basketball team, got his second career start against Longwood on Saturday at the Las Vegas Invitational, and he helped the Big Red to an 84-78 victory.  He scored 12 points and added four rebounds and three assists.  Cressler was 2 of 4 from 3-point range and was 2 of 2 from the free-throw line.  Cornell went 2-2 at the Las Vegas Invite, as the Big Red also beat Presbyterian College and suffered losses to both Wisconsin (73-40) and Arizona State (64-53).  Through seven games, Cornell went 3-4, and Cressler was second on the team in scoring at 9.9 points per game.  He came off the bench in his first collegiate game and scored 20 points to lead the Big Red to a season-opening victory over Western Michigan.  Cornell has several big games coming up, including a game at Vanderbilt on Dec. 17 and one against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Dec. 19. The games against the Commodores and Blue Devils are slated to air live on ESPN U."

• The Tennessean writes, "Suspended Vanderbilt shooting guard Dai-Jon Parker is expected to be eligible for his first action of the men’s basketball season on Dec. 17 when Cornell visits Memorial Gym."

• Duke Athletics is planning two special auctions for the game against Cornell.  Duke is also holding a holiday toy drive for the Cornell game.

Duke Basketball vs. Cornell Special Access #1 – 2:30 PM

Duke Basketball vs. Cornell Special Access #2 – 3:00 PM

• Below, links to our recap sections from each of Cornell's games during the 2012-2013 season.
  
  1. 11/10/12 vs. Western Michigan W 63-55
  2. 11/14/12 vs. St. Bonaventure L 68-72
  3. 11/16/12 vs. St. Peter's  L 64-68
  4. 11/18/12 at Wisconsin (Las Vegas Invitational) L 40-73 
  5. 11/20/12 at Arizona State (Las Vegas Invitational L 53-64
  6. 11/23/12 vs. Presbyterian (Las Vegas Invitational) at Las Vegas W 89-55
  7. 11/24/12 vs. Longwood (Las Vegas Invitational) at Las Vegas W 84-78
  8. 11/28/12 vs. Stony Brook L 53-76

• 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 November 29 is No. 229 out of 344 total Division I teams. While neither the Ken Pomeroy or the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, the KenPom.com site ranks Cornell No. 236 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 251. 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 9
MIT 54 Harvard 69 Box Score - Recap
UMBC 75 Penn 80  Box Score - Recap

Saturday, November 10
Western Michigan 55 Cornell 63 Box Score - Recap
Princeton 57 Buffalo 53 Box Score - Recap
Yale 82 Sacred Heart 85 (OT) [SNY] [Conn 6] Box Score - Recap  
Columbia 68 Furman 47 Box Score - Recap
Maine 54 Dartmouth 67  Box Score - Recap

Sunday, November 11
Brown 58 Binghamton 49 Box Score - Recap

Monday, November 12
Yale 35 Saint Joseph’s 61 (Coaches v. Cancer) Box Score - Recap
Penn 69 Delaware 84 (Preseason NIT) Box Score - Recap

Tuesday, November 13
Harvard 64 Massachusetts 67 (ESPN Tip Off Marathon) [ESPN] Box Score - Recap
Penn 53 Fairfield 62 (Preseason NIT) [ESPN3] Box Score - Recap
Northeastern 67 Princeton 66 Box Score - Recap
New Hampshire 72 Dartmouth 58 Box Score - Recap
Haverford 40 Columbia 74 Box Score - Recap

Wednesday, November 14
St. Bonaventure at Cornell [NBCSN] Box Score - Recap

Thursday, November 15
Brown 71 Central Connecticut State 86 Box Score - Recap

Friday, November 16
Saint Peter’s 68 Cornell 64 Box Score - Recap
Rutgers 58 Princeton 52 Box Score - Recap
Manhattan 45 Harvard 79 Box Score
Yale 56 Evansville 66 (Coaches v. Cancer) Box Score - Recap

Saturday, November 17
Drexel 61 Penn 59 Box Score - Recap
Yale 63 Buffalo 59 (Evansville, Ind.) (Coaches v. Cancer) Box Score
Brown 70 Maine 68 Box Score - Recap
Marist 67 Columbia 62 Box Score - Recap

Sunday. November 18
Yale 47 Western Illinois 59 (Oakland City, Ind.) Box Score - Recap
Cornell 40 Wisconsin 73 (Las Vegas Invitational) [ESPN3]  Box Score - Recap

Monday, November 19
Penn 68 Fordham 70 (Preseason NIT, Bethlehem PA) Box Score - Recap

Tuesday, November 20
Columbia 75 Villanova 57 [ESPN3] Box Score - Recap
Harvard 56 Saint Joseph’s 75 [NBCSN] Box Score - Recap
Penn 66 Lehigh 73 (Preseason NIT) Box Score - Recap
Cornell 53 Arizona State 64 (Las Vegas Invitational) [PAC-12 Sports Network] Box Score - Recap

Wednesday, November 21
Bryant 68 Brown 61 Box Score - Recap
Princeton 53 Syracuse 73 [TIME WARNER] Box Score - Recap
Yale 52 Vermont 65  Box Score - Recap

Friday, November 23
Cornell 89 Presbyterian 55 (Las Vegas Invitational at Las Vegas) Box Score - Recap
Columbia 75 Wayland Baptist 63 (SF Hilltop Classic) Box Score - Recap

Saturday, November 24
Saint Francis (N.Y.) 76 Brown72 (OT) Box Score - Recap
IPFW 70 Dartmouth 66 Box Score - Recap
Princeton 72 Lafayette53 Box Score - Recap
Army 83 Yale 86 (2OT)  Box Score - Recap
Cornell 84 Longwood 78 (Las Vegas Invitational at Las Vegas) Box Score - Recap
Columbia 59 San Francisco 79 (SF Hilltop Classic) Box Score - Recap

Tuesday, November 27
Dartmouth 49 Bucknell 62 Box Score - Recap
Vermont 85 Harvard 78 [NBCSN] Box Score - Recap

Wednesday, November 28
Columbia 61 LIU Brooklyn 70 Box Score - Recap
Stony Brook 53 Cornell 76 Box Score - Recap
Binghamton 54 Penn 65 Box Score - Recap
Princeton 42 Wagner 48 (OT) Box Score - Recap

Thursday, November 29
Sacred Heart at Brown, 7 pm
Hartford at Yale, 7 pm

Saturday, December 1
Brown at New Hampshire, 1 pm [WBIN/FCS]
Fordham at Harvard, 1 pm
Dartmouth at Longwood, 2 pm
Penn at Penn State, 2 pm [ESPN3]
Colgate at Cornell, 4 pm
Bucknell at Columbia, 7 pm
Princeton at Kent State, 7 pm