News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

Get all the information you need about the Cornell Big Red's game at Colgate, Wednesday, November 20, 2013, and vs. Siena, Friday, November 22, 2013 with The Cornell Basketball Blog's Game Preview Center.  Below, news and notes for Wednesday...

• The Buffalo News writes of Syracuse, "The Orange trailed Cornell by 14 in the opener at one point. They were down with two minutes to play Monday against St. Francis before escaping by six."

• After Siena's win over St. Bonaventure last night, former Cornell recruit, Bret Bisping told the Albany Times Union, "We're trying to get better every day. It's good to get a win, but we're looking forward to our next game at Cornell (Friday)."

• The Day writes:

During his offseason travels, Steve Donahue received an education about the UConn-Boston College rivalry.  Donahue spent 10 seasons coaching at Cornell in upstate New York before coming to Boston College in 2010, so he's admittedly not an expert about the history between the New England schools.

• Errick Peck (Cornell '13) talks to the Purdue media about the new foul rules.

• The Intelligencer of Pennsylvania writes:

Wood's Smith headed to Cornell

For Pat Smith remembers a few years ago when Cornell was one of the feel-good stories in the NCAA Tournament.After winning the Ivy League, the Big Red upset Temple and Wisconsin to reach the Sweet 16 of the 2010 Tournament, before falling to Kentucky.

“I remember watching them; it was pretty crazy,” Smith said. “I’ve always wanted to be a part of something like that.”
Smith, a senior and two-time first-team All-Philadelphia Catholic League selection at Archbishop Wood, will get his chance to be part of Cornell next fall when he enrolls in the Ithaca, N.Y., school as a freshman.
He said he visited schools last summer and made the decision to give Cornell a verbal commitment at the beginning of the school year. Unlike many future collegiate student-athletes, Ivy League schools don’t have national letter of intent signing days, but Smith said his commitment was solid.
“Being an Ivy (League school) played into it,” Smith said. “You can’t get that kind of education anywhere else. I visited a couple of schools and it stood out as the favorite.
“Just the coaching staff and the facilities, it is definitely one of the elite mid-majors.”
Under former coach Steve Donahue, Cornell won three straight Ivy League titles from 2008-10, making the NCAA Tournament and including the 2010 run. Donahue then left to take the head coaching job at Boston College.
They’ve been rebuilding the last couple of years under coach Bill Courtney and are 0-5 to start this season.
In the classroom, Smith said he was undecided on a major, although he’s interested in nutrition studies or business.
Meanwhile, he is preparing for his senior season at Wood. Smith averaged just under 17 points a game a year ago as the Vikings finished 14-10 and lost in the PCL quarterfinals to Roman Catholic.
This year with most of the team’s starting lineup returning, Wood starts with a new coach in former Neumann-Goretti assistant John Mosco.
“It’s really exciting,” Smith said. “It’s definitely an adjustment, but it’s a positive change. Coach Mosco’s a great coach and he brought in a good staff.
“We’re clicking and working hard in practice. It’s new, but everything is positive for us.”

• 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 20, 2013 is No. 214 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. 316 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 280. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.