News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, news and notes for Thursday...

• Cornell is represented in the NCAA Tournament by former Cornell assistant coach, Steve Robinson, currently an assistant with North Carolina.  Robinson was a member of Cornell's 1988 Ivy League Championship team.

• The Badger Herald writes of Wisconsin, "...Then there was the loss in 2010 to Cornell, where Wisconsin once again saw its season end due to poor defense. Sure, the Big Red were feeling it, but plenty had to do with the fact the Badgers’ defense was non-existent, allowing their opponent to shoot 61 percent from the floor."

• Opposing Views writes that it takes a mid major team three years to finally succeed in the NCAAs:

The “Rule of Three” has been seen on five separate occasions in the last nine seasons. The first example was Manhattan in 2004, a 12 seed led by Luis Flores that beat 5 seed Florida in the first round in its third straight year in the tournament. Vermont was the next example in 2005, as they used a miraculous 30-foot jump shot to secure an upset win over Syracuse. In 2007, Winthrop became the next example of the “Rule of Three” by beating Notre Dame. In 2008, Davidson became the first team affected by the rule to win more than its first round game. Led by Stephen Curry, Davidson beat Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin to advance all the way to the Elite Eight as a 10 seed. Cornell also won multiple games, advancing to the Sweet 16 as a 12 seed in 2010. In all of these cases, the team was in their third consecutive year in the NCAA Tournament without a win in their first two tries, and always following a conference tournament title.

• The Pittsburgh Tribune recaps Nolan Cressler's season:

Nolan Cressler makes his mark in first season at Cornell 

Nolan Cressler didn't waste any time becoming a big factor on the Cornell University men's basketball team.

The Plum graduate and Big Red freshman came off the bench in his Cornell debut in November and scored a team-best 20 points — including six 3-pointers — to lead his team to a season-opening victory over Western Michigan.

He was a two-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week during the 2012-13 campaign, and he ranked fourth on the team in scoring (9.3 points per game), third in rebounding (3.7 per game) and first in 3-pointers made (54) and 3-point percentage (.403).

Cressler played in all 31 games and finished with 12 starts. He shot 42.7 percent from the floor and averaged 21.1 minutes per contest.

He averaged 11.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in Ivy League games.

Cressler scored in double figures 14 times, including five of Cornell's final six games.

He averaged 15 points over the final six games of the season, and he tallied a career-best 22 points in games against Penn and Brown.

Cressler scored 14 points and added seven rebounds at Dartmouth, and he added 12 points and nine rebounds at Ivy League champ and NCAA Tournament qualifier Harvard.

Cornell started 5-3 in Ivy League play, but the Big Red suffered losses in their final six conference games to end up 5-9 in the league and 13-18 overall.