News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, news and notes for Thursday...

Harvard alum, Mike James recaps the Ivy season for Rush The Court and ranked Cornell last in the Ivy. He writes:

Cornell (2-26, 1-13) – The defense wasn’t just awful, it was consistently awful. The Big Red failed to hold any of its 27 Division I opponents to under a point per possession all season, en route to setting an Ivy record for the worst defensive efficiency rating by a whopping 10 points per 100 possessions. Shonn Miller returns next year to provide some help in that department, but the Big Red is more than just one player away from being remotely competent on that end.

The Ithaca Times' Steve Lawrence writes:

I am guessing that a coach would love to be able to say that when a program is in a groove, it is purely the result of his or her brains and savvy, and that luck has nothing to do with it. In 25 years of interviews, I have yet to encounter a coach who displayed that level of narcissism, and most are pleased to tell me how lucky they are. Steve Donahue, for example, had worked very hard to build Cornell’s basketball program, and in 2007, he had almost all the pieces of the puzzle. Then, as luck would have it, a guy named Jeff Foote, unhappy at St. Bonaventure, decided to transfer to Cornell. The fact that he was a local kid with a passion to improve made it a sweet story, but the fact Foote was a 7-footer who would become a dominant player was a Sweet 16 story.

ShakinInTheSouthland writes:

BC head coach Steve Donahue now faces a tough offseason on the hot seat. He was very successful at Cornell building up the program to its climax in his final year when they won 29 games. In his 4 seasons in Chestnut Hill, he has won 21, 9, 16, and 8 games. To make matters worse, he has no incoming commitments in the class of 2014 and there are rumors that star player, Olivier Hanlan may make the jump to the NBA. It's not a sure thing, but I wouldn't be completely shocked if he is gone within the week.

Cornell Athletics announced:

Cressler An Honorable Mention Pick On All-Ivy Basketball Squad

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell sophomore guard Nolan Cressler has been named honorable mention All-Ivy League it was announced Wednesday afternoon by the league office after a vote by the league's eight men's basketball coaches. It is Cressler's first conference honor.

Cressler led the team in scoring (16.8 ppg.), ranking fourth overall in the Ivy League. He also paced the team and ranked third in the Ancient Eight in 3-pointers made (2.4 per game) and was sixth in minutes played (32.6 mpg.). Cressler shot 41 percent from the floor and 36 percent from 3-point range while adding 4.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per contest. The 6-4 guard from Pittsburgh, Pa. reached fouble figures in scoring 22 times with eight 20-point games, including a career-high 34-point effort in an overtime loss to Brown.

In just two full seasons, Cressler has already accumulated 757 points, 234 rebounds and 122 3-point field goals made (17th all-time at Cornell). His 469 points this past season ranks 14th in a single season at Cornell, while his 68 3-pointers ranked 11th.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Wesley Saunders, Harvard (Jr., G/F - Los Angeles)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Spencer Weisz, Princeton (Fr., F - Florham Park, N.J.)

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Cedric Kuakumensah, Brown (So., F - Worcester, Mass.)

FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY
Sean McGonagill, Brown (Sr., G - Brookfield, Ill.)
Alex Rosenberg, Columbia (Jr., F - Short Hills, N.J.)
*Wesley Saunders, Harvard (Jr., G/F - Los Angeles)
*T.J. Bray, Princeton (Sr., G - New Berlin, Wis.)
Justin Sears, Yale (So., F - Plainfield, N.J.)

SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY
Maodo Lo, Columbia (So., G - Berlin)
Siyani Chambers, Harvard (So., G - Golden Valley, Minn.)
Steve Moundou-Missi, Harvard (Jr., F - Yaounde, Cameroon)
Laurent Rivard, Harvard (Sr., G - Saint-Bruno, Quebec, Canada)
Fran Dougherty, Penn (Sr., F - New Britain, Pa.)

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Cedric Kuakumensah, Brown (So., F - Worcester, Mass.)
Nolan Cressler, Cornell (So., G - Pittsburgh)
Brandyn Curry, Harvard (Sr., G - Huntersville, N.C.)
Kyle Casey, Harvard (Sr., F - Medway, Mass.)
Javier Duren, Yale (Jr., G - St. Louis)

*Unanimous Selection

Cressler will re-unite next season with 2013 First Team All Ivy Leaguer, Shonn Miller.

The Ivy League noted on the All Ivy awards that "[Cedric] Kuakumensah (Worcester, Mass.) picked up where he left off last year as the League's top defensive presence. He joins Cornell's Jeff Foote (2008-09 and 2009-10) as the only players to be named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons."

Cornell's incoming recruiting class next season includes four members: Riley Glassmann (Fremd HS) Palatine, IL, 6-5, G, William "Will" Bathurst (Olean HS) Olean, NY, 6-3, G, Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (Gonzaga HS) Washington, D.C., 6-7, F, and Pat Smith (Archbishop Wood HS) Warminster, PA, 6-5, F. Riley Glassmann found ways to contribute to yet another playoff win by Fremd over Chris Wroblewski's alma mater, Highland Park; see the Daily Herald. Varsity Insider previews the NYS Final Four which will involve Wil Bathurst.

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 March 13, 2014 is No. 334 out of 351 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. 342 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 332. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.

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