News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

 (Photos via Cornell Athletics)

Get all the information you need about the Cornell Big Red's game vs. Binghamton, Wednesday, November 13, 2013, with The Cornell Basketball Blog's Game Preview Center. Below, news and notes for Wednesday...

• YNN/Time Warner Cable has a video preview of tonight's game and writes, "The Big Red will host Binghamton in the third game of the season for both Central New York men's teams. Each side is looking for their first win of the season. Both have been beaten by Loyola Maryland. The Red also lost to the Orange, while Binghamton lost to Brown." 

• WNBF writes:

The Binghamton Bearcats men’s basketball team heads to Ithaca tomorrow to meet the Cornell Big Red in a 7 PM game.  Both teams are looking for their first win.  Cornell jumped out to a 14-point lead over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last week before falling to the Orange 82-60.  Then on Sunday, Loyola of Maryland went to overtime with the Big Red and came out with a 93-89 victory.  For the Bearcats they also suffered defeat at the hands of Loyola last Friday night at the Events Center.  Then the Brown Bears posted a 74-57 win over BU in Providence on Sunday.  Cornell has the edge in the series with a 6-2 record.  The Bearcats are 0-2 in Ithaca.  Last season the Big Red posted a 79-77 decision over the Bearcats at the Events Center.  Freshman Forward Nick Madray earned America East Rookie of the Week honors averaging 15.5 points in his first two Division I games. The Bearcats will face two hot hands for Cornell.  Freshman Robert Hatter scored 32 points versus Loyola while senior Dwight Tarwater scored a career-best 21 points and snared 11 rebounds in the Big Red loss to the Greyhounds.  The Bearcats return home to host Navy Saturday at 2 PM at the Events Center.  Airtime from Ithaca tomorrow night is 6:50 on News Radio 1290 WNBF.

• Nunes Magician writes, "A closer than anticipated win over Cornell had Jim Boeheim tempering everyone's expectations for the Orange."
  
  
• The A.P. writes, "No. 9 Syracuse 89, Fordham 74: C.J. Fair scored a career-high 26 points, Jerami Grant added 16 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 9 Syracuse beat Fordham.  Syracuse, which started the season with a so-so 82-60 win over Cornell on Friday night after trailing by 14 points late in the first half, left little doubt about the outcome of this one. The Orange had the game in hand by halftime, leading by 25 behind 15 points from Fair as the Syracuse defense clamped down from the opening tip."  The Syracuse Post Standard also recapped, "No drama at the Dome on this night.  After Cornell put a scare into Orange fans on Friday night, leading by 14 at one point, Syracuse controlled the action from start to finish."
  

• The Courier Journal notes, "The Louisville Cardinals will face Cornell Friday at 7 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center.  The Big Red (0-2) faces Binghamton tonight. Their losses have come against Syracuse, 82-60, and Loyola (MD) 93-89.The game will be televised on WHAS [and ESPN3]."

• Errick Peck (Cornell '13) talks to the media about his game winning shot for Purdue against Northern Kentucky.

• The Woodlands Villager notes that College Park High School has to "cope with the loss" of Desmond Fleming now at Cornell.

• 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 13, 2013 is No. 67 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. 253 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 246. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.