News and Notes: Friday Edition

Get all the information you need about the Cornell Big Red's game at Louisville, Friday, November 15, 2013 (TV: WHAS/ESPN3.com) with The Cornell Basketball Blog's Game Preview Center.  Below, news and notes for Friday...

• Cardinal Sports Zone pokes humor at Cornell with some photos and also writes:

 Could Cornell be the most boring team of all time??

This is normally the part of the day where Justin, Jeremy, or myself will write a piece about the opposing school regarding trash talk or something outlandish they have done. Last night I sat down to do just that and I FOUND…………………………………..Nothing. That’s right, nothing! No trash talk, no wild pictures or crazy tweets; just a group of very nice respectful young men. So let’s take a look at what I did find:
First there is the headline picture: Pretty self explanatory
They have a kid with the last name Tarwater….thats right Tar Water.  Oh and TarWater is either not a very good at evaluating talent or a Genius...

Rick Pitino above speaks to the media about Cornell.

• YNN/Time Warner Cable published a video piece on tonight's Cornell at Louisville game.

• On tonight's Columbia at Michigan St. game, ISportsWeb writes:

The Columbia Lions are the Columbia you have heard of. Not because of athletics, though, but because they’re in the Ivy League. Yes, the Ivy League has had schools advance in the NCAA tournament a fair amount (Harvard won one game in 2013, Cornell advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2010), but Columbia is not one of those teams. Although they have made the Sweet 16 before, it was in 1968. That was also the last time Columbia made the NCAA tournament and the only time they have ever even won the Ivy League.

• Jay Bilas talks (via State Journal) about how predicted Cornell would multiple games in the 2010 NCAA Tournament:

Picking Cornell

Bilas ended his brief presser Tuesday with the Cornell story from the 2009-10 NCAA Tournament that concluded Calipari’s first season at Kentucky.

Kentucky’s run started in New Orleans, with wins over East Tennessee State and Wake Forest, and moved to Syracuse for a 62-45 win over Cornell and then a 73-66 loss to West Virginia in the Elite Eight.

Bilas was captivated with a Cornell team that was the surprise of the college basketball world that winter.

On ESPN’s Selection Sunday show, Bilas picked Cornell to reach the regional final and lose to West Virginia.

“I didn’t think about the ramifications of that,” Bilas said of his somewhat whimsical Cornell pick. “That meant that Cornell would have to beat Kentucky to get there. So my phone number got on some website, and it was ringing morning, noon and night with Big Blue Nation going, ‘You, you, YOU, blah, blah, blah ... so I couldn’t use my phone.”

Adding to Bilas’ woes, he joined CBS for the tournament and was placed in New Orleans with Kentucky for the first two rounds and then in Syracuse for the regional semifinals and final.

“So I’m doing the Kentucky games, and everywhere I went, to get a cup of coffee, Big Blue was, ‘You, you YOU so and so.’ When they (CBS officials) assigned the (regional) semifinal and final, I went to Syracuse ... go to get a sandwich, cup of coffee, and it was, ‘I CAN’T believe you...’”

Bilas provided perspective.

“Now, look,” he said. “If I knew who was going to win these games, I’d be in Vegas. I wouldn’t be in this job. I don’t know who’s going to win. You make an educated guess and all that, but that’s part of the job. They ask you to make picks like everybody else, and you do it.”

Bilas laughs about it now.

• One gambling site sets tonight's line at Louisville at 33 points.   And here is another and another stat-based preview site.

• The Pittsburgh Post Gazette writes:

In this week's "Where aer they now?," Post-Gazette writer Mike White checks in on former local standouts Nolan Cressler (Plum). 

"Nolan Cressler started his sophomore season with a bang for the Cornell University basketball team.
Cressler, a guard and a former star at Plum High School, scored 23 points and had 5 rebounds and 3 assists in an 82-60 loss to Syracuse in the season opener last Friday. He scored 22 points in the first half against the No. 7 team in the country and helped Cornell to a 38-32 halftime lead.
Two days after the Syracuse game, Cressler had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in a 93-89 overtime loss to Loyola, Md."

• The Louisville Courier Journal writes, "The current Cardinals are off to a good start, and they’ll have a chance to boost their eye-catching early-season numbers in a nonconference mismatch against Cornell at 7 tonight in the KFC Yum! Center."

• From a WSYR article:  "'I think our league [the ACC] is very unique in the sense that all the places are on campus as opposed to the Big East, where you go to Madison Square Garden and the Verizon Center, Wells Fargo,' said Steve Donahue, Boston College head coach and former Cornell coach."

• YNN/Time Warner Cable has a video piece on Binghamton's big comeback against Cornell.

• The Syracuse Post Standard spoke to Colgate head coach, Matt Langel about his team's upcoming game against Syracuse.  Here is an excerpt:

 Q: Were you encouraged by the way Cornell was able to make 3-pointers in the first half against Syracuse?
Langel: I was not encouraged, because we play Cornell coming up. It's early season. Our guys are super-excited to play in that game. I'm sure those Cornell guys were super-focused and locked into what their coaching staff wanted for the first game of the season. I'm sure they had a lot of time to prepare for the zone and try to have some concepts and ideas. They did a great job of getting those shots. It's hard to sustain. It would be great if we could get their attention as well.

•  Below, Jeff Foote (Cornell '10):

• 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 15, 2013 is No. 190 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. 299 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 263. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.