News and Notes: Friday Edition

Above, A Date in Cornell Basketball History, the 2005-2006 Media Guide.  Below, news and notes for Friday...

• The Ivy League announced a new league-wide digital platform that will allow fans to watch all eight Ivy schools for one universal ticket price.  The Princeton Tiger Blog comments on the new platform.

• Jeff Foote (Cornell '10) and his Zalgiris team won the best of 3 semifinal playoff series winning both games against Neptunas in the Lithuanian LKL premier last night with a 90-73 win. Foote finished with 2 points, 1 rebound and 1 steal. He was 1/1 from the floor.

• Cornell may be close to securing its third and final BCS opponent for the 2013-2014 schedule.  Two of the three BCS opponents are projected Top 20 teams.

• HammerandRails.com, a Purdue blog, discusses Errick Peck as a possible transfer at length.  The site writes:

It's been a slow couple of days on the site, so to give you SOMETHING to read I've got a quick, albeit not significant update on potential fifth-year transfer Errick Peck.

It's been a week and a half since Anthony Johnson announced he was leaving the Purdue basketball team, days after Jacob Lawson and Sandi Marciusmade the same announcements. With three scholarships available for use next year, many have speculated Purdue would look to add a 5th-year player. Indianapolis native and Cornell grad Errick Peck seems, to me at least, the most likely to land at Purdue.

I have no sources on this one, it's just the only one I can see happening. I've reached out to Peck for a comment, but he (not surprisingly) hasn't gotten back to me.

As I wrote in this post, Peck played with former Boiler Kelsey Barlow at Cathedral in Indianapolis when they were in high school. SI.com's Andy Glockner calls Peck, "A one-year option for teams looking for a decent rotation guy who can score and rebound a bit. " How big of an impact he'd make on a rotation obviously varies by team.

Anyway, as for the promised "slight" update, here is the latest news I found, as of today, from a Cornell basketball blog:

"Schools which could end up as landing points for Errick Peck include (but are not limited to): Indiana, Butler, Purdue, Boston College, Creighton, Detroit, Duquesne, Evansville, Indiana State, Loyola-Chicago and North Texas."

Hey, I warned you it was a slight update.

The one thing I will point out about this is that suddenly Indiana is a contender for a transfer, after Maurice Creek and Remy Abell suddenly decided to transfer and leave one scholarship open for Tom Crean to use, making for a potential of seven newcomers in Bloomington next year.

IU, Purdue, Butler and Boston College would seem to be the biggest "names" in that group, with the first three being closest to his hometown of Indianapolis.

Another update that mentions IU as a potential destination for him is at KentSterling.com, though Sterling is basically an IU fanboy so I don't know how seriously to take him. He has Sandi Marcius as another potential IU transfer, which is against Big Ten rules, so I wouldn't take that one too seriously.

He does provide one interesting anecdote at least, which illustrates why Purdue might be interested in Peck:

"This is a vanity pick for me, as I love Errick Peck as a kid and player. The Indianapolis Cathedral product spent the last four years in the Ivy League, and scored 10 ppg over the last two seasons. He's athletic, smart, and very coachable. He looked me in the eye and did what I said during the rec game in which I coached him. If that doesn't make a kid coachable, I don't know what does."

Again, I'm not sure where Peck will land. I've heard Purdue is in as good of shape as anybody with him, but I can't even tell for sure if Painter has offeredhim, so take it with a grain of salt.

Keep in mind what Matt Painter said earlier this week about fifth-year transfer guys:

"They're probably the most over-recruited guys in college basketball just because you have them for a year and they already have a degree and they have four years of experience," Painter said. "There's been a couple guys who have been successful, (as fifth-year transfers) but there hasn't been a lot of them."

The immediately-eligible 5th-year mercenary guys are extremely in demand in this day and age, so landing one that can make an impact is tough. Remember, these guys are leaving their school for a reason. Usually it's because they want more playing time or they want to win, neither of which Purdue can guarantee.

In Peck's case, he's transferring because the Ivy League doesn't allow guys who have graduated to play a 5th year.

"We're in the position where if we can get the right fit with some guys who can shoot the basketball and have good experience, it really helps us," Painter said. "We have two seniors in our program and no juniors. It's exciting to talk to some of these guys because you're recruiting a 22-to-23 year old, and they can come in help you from a mature standout."

"I don't feel like we have to (get someone); I feel like we have to have the right guy," Painter said. "That's something we always try to do is to make sure we're choosing the right person who wants to come and get their education at Purdue, in this case, someone who is working towards getting their Master's. We want to make sure that is the case first and foremost ... then trying to get somebody who helps us out in some areas that we suffered attrition in."