News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Below, news and notes for Tuesday...

• Cornell's game at Siena on December 23 will be televised on Time Warner Cable Sports. 

• The Ivy League announced its weekly awards and Shonn Miller was named to the honor roll.  The Ivy notes of Miller:

Shonn Miller, Cornell (Sr., F - Euclid, Ohio)  
18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals vs. Massachusetts-Lowell

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Week 1, 11/17/14-Shonn Miller, Cornell
Week 2, 11/24/14-Justin Sears, Yale
Week 3, 12/1/14-Wes Saunders, Harvard
Week 4, 12/8/14-Javier Duren, Yale

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK

Week 1, 11/17/14-Antonio Woods, Penn
Week 2, 11/24/14-Mike Auger, Penn
Week 3, 12/1/14-Amir Bell, Princeton
Week 4, 12/8/14-Darnell Foreman, Penn

• The West Virginia Gazette profiles former Cornell assistant, Zach Spiker.

• Barry Leonard gives his Cornell preview for the Rebounders Club. 

• NYC Buckets picks Cornell 4th in its Ivy power ratings and writes:

4. Cornell — The Big Red faced UMass Lowell in a showdown of two of the nation’s most surprising teams. Cornell won 71-60 at home, a result that would’ve also matched expectations before the season, when both teams were ranked about 60 spots lower nationally.

• Harvard grad and super fan, Michael James blogs on the Ivy League for Rush The Court and ranks Cornell 5th in his latest  power ratings and places Shonn Miller on the First Team All Ivy.  He writes in part:

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5. Cornell (4-4) – There is a pretty decent team locked inside this Big Red roster, but it’s unclear whether Bill Courtney will ever be able to crack the code to unleash its full potential. That’s not a knock on the fifth-year coach, but rather an acknowledgement that Cornell is a team predicated on tradeoffs. The Big Red’s athleticism clearly can bother every level of mid-major program and create dominant defensive efficiency outputs. Those results, though, haven’t been achieved by the core tenet of Courtney’s defensive philosophy, as Cornell is turning opponents over at the 318th-lowest rate nationally. That leaves too many possessions that end up as shots or trips to the free-throw line, and opponents will start converting a higher rate of those opportunities than they have thus far. Also, the Big Red isn’t incredibly deep in the frontcourt and aggressive block attempts can lead to fouls, meaning that Cornell’s defensive bread and butter (protecting the rim) is made more vulnerable as its inability to force turnovers increases.

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All Ivy League

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Shonn Miller, F, Cornell – Miller won’t make the First Team based on his offensive numbers alone, as the third-year forward has seen his shooting percentages and free throw rates decline after missing last season with a shoulder injury. He’s still a stops machine defensively, though, ranking 89th nationally in defensive rebounding rate and 190th in block rate.

• The Ithaca Journal adds a staff report recap of Saturday's victory:

Senior Shonn Miller and sophomore Robert Hatter scored 18 points apiece as Cornell won its third straight game, 71-60, over the River Hawks on Saturday afternoon at Newman Arena.
The Big Red heads into its 15-day exam break over the .500 mark (5-4) for the first time since late February 2013.
Marco Benegas-Flores matched Miller and Hatter with 18 points for UMass Lowell (6-3), which saw its six-game win streak end.
The 6-foot-7 Miller added five rebounds, three blocks and two steals while Hatter made a season-high five 3-pointers and added four rebounds. Hatter made 5 of 10 shots from beyond the arc to lead the Red, which shot 10-for-21 as a team, including 7-for-11 after halftime.
Senior guard Galal Cancer, who played just nine minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, played nearly the entire second half and finished with eight points, eight assists and seven rebounds. He was 6-for-6 from the line to lead the Red, which finished 13-for-13.
The Big Red shot 50 percent from the floor (24-for-48) and held a 31-26 edge on the backboards.
Chad Holley added 12 and Lance Crawford scored 10 for the River Hawks, who turned the ball over just 10 times, but shot 38.9 percent from the floor. Cornell is holding opponents to 37.4 percent shooting on the season.
The River Hawks held the lead three times in the first, the last time at 18-17 with 7:42 to go before the break. But the answered with six straight points on a pair of 3-pointers, and went into the locker room up, 27-25.
The River Hawks tied the score at 30 just two minutes into the second half, but Cornell answered with a 10-0 run, keyed by a pair of Hatter treys and a putback dunk of his own missed shot by Miller. UMass Lowell didn't get within points over the final 15 minutes.
The Big Red is off till Sunday, Dec. 21, when it travels to Radford for a 2 p.m. tip. After heading to Siena on Dec. 23, Cornell returns home five days later to face Saint Peter's University in a 4 p.m. start.

• Below is a list at the Cornell commits for 2015:

• Stone Gettings (Loyola HS) Los Angeles, CA, 6-8, F, Cornell
• Matt Morgan (Cox Mill HS) Concord, NC, 6-2 G, Cornell
• Troy Whiteside (Webb School) Knoxville, TN, 6-4, G, Cornell
• Joel Davis (Wayne Country Day School) Goldsboro, NC, 6-3, G, Cornell
• Donovan Wright (Blair Academy) Blairstown, NJ, 6-6, F, Cornell
• Joseph Ritter (Woodrow Wilson HS) Dallas, TX, 6-8, F, Cornell  

Checking in on Cornell's commits:  The Knoxville News notes Troy Whiteside had 22 points in a win on December 5.  Per the LA Times, Stone Gettings had 14 rebounds in a game on December 4.  Gettings also had 15 points in a game on November 30 in the same tournament per LA Times.   Per the Charlotte Observer, Matt Morgan went off for 31 points in a loss on December 2.  The Advocate mentions Joe Ritter's commitment.  Below, Troy Whiteside made his commitment official on December 8.