News and Notes: Monday Edition

Below, news and notes for Monday...

• Penn State's D.J. Newbill hit another game winner and NBC Sports remembers his shot against Cornell earlier in the season.

• The Daily Princetonian recapped the Tigers' win over Cornell on Friday:

In a thrilling weekend, the Princeton men’s basketball team swept opponents Cornell and Columbia in its final homestand of the season. Previously, they had split their games in the four-game road trip.

In the first game of the weekend, the Tigers (15-14 overall, 8-5 Ivy League) put in a strong defensive effort for the win. They held the Big Red to 37.5 percent shooting from the field and a paltry 19.0 percent from behind the arc. In addition to stopping Cornell from grabbing the board, Princeton also prevented the visiting squad from getting any second chances — they outrebounded Cornell 35-26 on the day.

All this is not to say that Cornell (13-17, 5-9) didn’t have its bright spots. Star forward Shonn Miller did not disappoint for the Big Red, putting up 25 points and 8 board on the day, with an efficient (relative to the rest of his team) 47.6 percent shooting performance. However, the Tigers’ defense would hold the two top guards in Cornell’s rotation, Galal Cancer and Robert Hatter, to 3-of-10 and 2-of-10 shooting, respectively.

A steady offensive performance for Princeton was paced by junior forward/center Hans Brase and senior guard Clay Wilson. After delivering only three points for his team in their last outing vs. Brown, Brase would put up 14 points on 80 percent shooting and 6 boards to go along with it. Wilson, for his part, would score 15 points on 50 percent shooting, including a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. The game was part of an upwards trend for Wilson, who had gotten into double-digit scoring in three of the four previous contests.

Princeton’s offensive improvement overall is a far cry from what they had when they faced Cornell in Ithaca. There, Princeton shot only 32.7 percent from the field and were themselves outrebounded by Cornell 36-29.

• The Cornell Daily Sun recaps the Big Red's unsuccessful weekend:

The Cornell men’s basketball team closed the 2014-15 season this weekend with road games against Princeton and Penn. The Red dropped both games to finish the season 13-17 overall and 5-9 in the Ivy League. After finishing last season, 2-26, the Red had one of the best turnaround seasons in recent history.
Despite the vast improvement from last season, the Red squad finished in disappointing fashion, going 1-3 in its last four games, granted, the one win was against perennial power Harvard. Against Princeton, the Red saw senior forward Shonn Miller put together another stellar performance with 25 points and eight rebounds. However, the rest of the squad did not do much to support its All-American candidate. As a from the Red in the end. The tables turned from the last matchup between the two teams, when Red went on a 22-0 run to pull away from the Tigers a month ago in Ithaca.
“We were unable to control the pace as we would’ve liked to. We hung around early but in the second half the tempo was not in our control and that hurt,” said head coach Bill Courtney.
The Red was able to keep its turnovers down, committing eight in the game, but it did not convert those possessions into positive trips on the offensive end. The following day’s game at Penn would be the final contest for the senior class and the Red wanted to ramp up the intensity and send them out on a win.
The squad came out with improved intensity and a drive to make positive runs in the game. Miller came out with another “Player of the Year” type performance, pouring in 23 points and grabbing eight rebounds. However, Penn came to play, eventually taking a 20-point lead in the second half.
“We played with a purpose, but let them make too many big plays throughout the game,” Courtney said.
The Red again kept its turnovers down, committing just six. However, the defense was unable to force the Quakers into turnovers and only snatched eight takeaways of its own.
Despite its disappointing defensive performance, the squad, behind Miller and freshman guard and forward Wil Bathurst, who had a career high 20 points and eight rebounds in just 21 minutes, mounted a late game comeback to cut the Quaker lead to just five. Eventually, time ran out in the game and on the Red’s season, and Penn won, 79-72.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to finish the regular season, but this team continued to fight for each other and that is worth so much,” Courtney said.
The Red finished the season with 11 more wins than last season, an improvement that most people outside of Ithaca did not think possible. It was a turnaround that should send the squad into the offseason with optimism and a drive to correct the shortcomings of this year’s campaign.
The squad still has a slim chance of being selected to a postseason tournament such as the CBI, however, it is likely that Saturday’s game was the last for this years team. The Red will finish the season in sixth place in the conference. The Ivy League championship and the NCAA Tournament berth that it carries will be decided in a playoff between Harvard and Yale this Saturday in Philadelphia.

• Penn has fired its coach Jerome Allen.  Per ESPN, former Cornell head coach, Steve Donahue, is a leading candidate for the position.  Donahue's former Cornell assistant, Nat Graham, is a current assistant at Penn.  Donahue came to Cornell from an assistant role at Penn.  Donahue was interviewed for the Penn job in 2006, but Penn hired Glenn Miller instead.  Donahue then turned the Penn job down in 2010 after Glenn Miller was fired.

Below, a look at the "Cornell Coaching Plantations"  -- the men's college basketball coaches with ties to Cornell University.

Kevin App-(Cornell Class of '07)-Head coach, Williams College. Played for Cornell under Steve Donahue. 

Zach Spiker-Head coach, Army. He served as an assistant coach at Cornell under Steve Donahue from 2004-2009. 

Joe Burke-Head coach, Skidmore College. He was an assistant coach at Cornell under Steve Donahue between 2001-2004. 

Mike Blaine-Head coach, Medaille College.  He served as an assistant coach at Cornell between 2011-2014 under Bill Courtney. 

Ricky Yahn-Head coach, Concordia College of Michigan. He was an assistant coach at Cornell during 2010-2011 under Bill Courtney.

Arlen Galloway-Head coach, Wentworth Institute of Technology.  He was an assistant coach at Cornell between 2011-2013 under Bill Courtney. 

Izzi Metz-Head coach, Wilkes University.  Former head coach Hobart College. He served as a Cornell assistant coach for five seasons between 2001-2006 under Steve Donahue and served as an assistant coach at Boston College under Donahue. 

Jon Jaques (Cornell Class of '10)-Assistant coach at at Cornell. Played for Cornell under Steve Donahue. 

Ryan Wittman (Cornell Class of '10)-Graduate student  assistant coach at Boston College.  Played for Cornell under Steve Donahue.

Jeff Foote (Cornell Class of '10)-Graduate student assistant coach at University of Miami.  Played for Steve Donahue.

Yanni Hufnagel (Cornell Class of '06)-Assistant coach at Cal. Served as student-manager at Cornell under Steve Donahue.

Nat Graham-Currently an assistant coach at Penn.  Former associate head coach (assistant) at Boston College under Steve Donahue. Served as an assistant coach under Donahue at Cornell from 2005-2010. 

Steve Robinson-Assistant coach at North Carolina under Roy Williams. He was an assistant coach for Mike Dement at Cornell for two seasons, including on the 1988 Ivy League Championship team.

Paul Fortier-Assistant coach at Cal Poly. He served as an assistant coach at Cornell during 2003-2005 under Steve Donahue.

Desmond Oliver-Assistant coach at Charlotte. He was an assistant coach at Cornell between 1998-2000 under Scott Thompson.

• Here is another look at Cornell's incoming 7-member frosh class for next season:

Stone Gettings (Loyola HS) Los Angeles, CA, 6-8, F
Matt Morgan (Cox Mill HS) Concord, NC, 6-2 G
Troy Whiteside (Webb School) Knoxville, TN, 6-4, G
Joel Davis (Wayne Country Day School) Goldsboro, NC, 6-3
Donovan Wright (Blair Academy) Blairstown, NJ, 6-6, F
Joseph Ritter (Woodrow Wilson HS) Dallas, TX, 6-8, F
Xavier Eaglin (Dayton HS) Raymond, TX, 6-7, F
Jack Gordon (St. Mark's School) Dallas, TX, 6-4, G

Checking in with Cornell's recruits: Per the OC Register, Stone Gettings had 18 points on March 3, but his team was bounced from the CIF-SS Division 1A semifinals.  Per MaxPreps, Gettings finished the season in a Division I loaded league averaging 15.0 points, 10.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, .9 blocks per game.  Per the Salisbury Post, Matt Morgan was named his conference (SPC) Player of the Year.  His team finished the season ranked 3rd in the region, but was bounced from the 3A playoffs after he scored 24 points.  Joel Davis was named all-state on the NCISAA 1A team.  Blair Academy and Donovan Wright won the MAPL Championship.  Xavier Eaglin was named Defensive Player of the Year for District 21-5A in Texas.  Below is a senior highlight video of Jack Gordon:

• Cornell alumni that have played professional basketball since 1995 include the following (with NBA or NBA D-League experience noted): Zeke Marshall ('95), Alex Compton ('97), John McCord ('97), Brent Fisher ('98), Jeff Aubry ('99) (NBA D-League), Ray Mercedes ('01), Jaques Vigneault ('03), Karon Barnes ('04), Stevan Marcetic ('04), Cody Toppert ('05) (NBA D-League), Eric Taylor ('05), Andrew Naeve ('07), Ryan Rourke ('07), Jason Hartford ('08), Louis Dale ('10), Jeff Foote ('10) (NBA and NBA D-League), Ryan Wittman ('10) (NBA D-League), Jon Jaques ('10), Alex Tyler ('10), Aaron Osgood ('11), Adam Wire ('11), Andrew Ferry ('12), Jonathan Gray ('13) and Alex Hill (Cornell 2008-2009).   Below, are the current alumni playing professionally: 

Drew Ferry ('12) (Albacete, Spain EBA)

Jonathan Gray ('13) (Albacete, Spain EBA)

Alex Hill (Cornell 2008-2009) (Piacentina, Italy, A2 Silver)