News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Below, news and notes for Tuesday...

• CBS Sports writes:

For the first time since March 3, 2012, Grambling can add a notch to its win column.

The Tigers ended their 32-game losing streak on Monday night, beating NAIA program Central Baptist, 83-75.

It was their first victory since the final game of the 2012 season, when they beat Alabama A&M. Last season saw Joseph Price's team go 0-28.

Up next is a trip to TCU, where Grambling will try to extend its winning streak to two games. The Tigers last won back-to-back games in the 2011 SWAC tournament.

Cornell now owns the nation's longest losing streak, with the Big Red dropping 16 games in a row dating back to last season. They play at Stony Brook on Sunday.

• Early in the day on Monday, the Associated Press wrote:

UNRANKED UNBEATENS: At the start of the week, there were 14 Division I teams that had yet to lose a game, and all but three of them are ranked in the Top 25.
Pittsburgh (10-0), Toledo (9-0) and Saint Mary's, Calif. (8-0) are unranked.
Six of the unbeatens — Arizona, Syracuse, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Villanova and Connecticut — are ranked in the top 10.
The others are No. 11 Wichita State, No. 13 Oregon, No. 17 Iowa State, No. 22 Massachusetts and No. 23 Missouri.
On the other side of the win-loss ledger, three Division I teams have yet to a win a game: Cornell (0-10), Tennessee State (0-10) and Grambling State (0-4).

• City of Basketball Love gives its grades to the Ivies and writes:

Cornell Big Red (0-10)
The Good: The non-conference season is almost over. That’s about the only thing the Big Red have to look forward to right now, especially with teams like Stony Brook and St. Bonaventure still on the slate before league play opens up. They have the ability to turn everything around when it does, but they’ll need to prove they can get a win first, preferably someone other than D-II opponent Oberlin College.
The Bad: Not much good has come out of the Big Red’s season so far. A fairly tough non-conference slate so far, which has included Syracuse, Louisville and Notre Dame, has Cornell winless with four games left until Ivy League play begins. The problem with the Big Red; their defense is horrendous. They’re giving up an average of 85.7 points per game; only seven teams in the nation are giving up more. That, coupled with a low mark of 68 points per game on offense for Cornell, has been a recipe for disaster this season.
The Grade: D-

•  Cornell recruits, Pat Smith (Archbishop Wood HS) Warminster, PA, 6-5, F and Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (Gonzaga HS) Washington, D.C., 6-7, F are mentioned in the Philadelphia Daily News, Washington Post and the Aquilian.

• The Juice refers to Cornell as one of Syracuse's "non-power opponents."

• Below, the weekly Ivy Awards.  Here is a link to this week's award winners.  Cornell was ineligible with no games.
  

IVY LEAGUE AWARD WINNERS 2013-2014
 

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Wk 1 Nov 11-Tony Hicks, Penn/Justin Sears, Yale
Wk 2 Nov 18-Sean McGonagill, Brown/Javier Duren, Yale
Wk 3 Nov 25-Maodo Lo, Columbia
Wk 4 Dec 2- T.J. Bray, Princeton/Wes Saunders, Harvard
Wk 5 Dec 9-Wes Saunders, Harvard
Wk 6 Dec 16-T.J. Bray, Princeton (Cornell no games)

ROOKIES OF THE WEEK

Wk 1 Nov11-Robert Hatter, Cornell
Wk 2 Nov 18-Norman Hobbie, Brown
Wk 3 Nov 25-Leland King, Brown
Wk 4 Dec 2- Robert Hatter, Cornell
Wk 5 Dec 9-Spencer Weisz, Princeton
Wk 6 Dec 16- Spencer Weisz, Princeton (Cornell no games)

• 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 December 17, 2013 is No. 333 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. 339 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 342. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.

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