News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

Below, news and notes for Wednesday...

• Tonight's game notes from Purdue for the Purdue-Boston College game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, states, "Close Connection.  Errick Peck played under Boston College head coach  Steve Donahue  in the 2009-10 season. Donahue guided
  Cornell to the Sweet 16 that year, Peck’s freshman campaign, before taking the job at Boston College following  the season. Peck played in 31 games that year, averaging 3.3 points and 1.5 rebounds per game for the Big Red."

• The Sports Network writes, "The [Notre Dame] Irish overwhelmed Cornell in just about every aspect of the game earlier in the week."
  
  Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/12/03/2967018/irish-to-try-luck-against-23rd.html#storylink=cp"

• The Daily Princetonian published its Ivy power poll and writes:

8. Cornell (0-9): This season looks as bleak as an Ithaca winter for the Cornell Big Red. Cornell is worst in the Ivy League in, well, a lot of statistical categories. Hey, Nolan Cressler sure looks good, though — he’s averaging 18.1 points per game!

• One Bid Wonders' Martin Kessler, former beat writer for the Harvard Crimson, issues his weekly power poll.  He writes in part:

Nearly a month into the 2013-14 college basketball season, the Ivy League has impressed. Only two teams have losing records, and the conference sits at 30-25 overall. Some things have gone as expected: Harvard boasts the league’s top record (7-1) and Cornell its worst (0-9). But, in between, the rest of the league has rejected its script. Here’s how the league has shaken out thus far.

***

8. Cornell (0-9)
Results: L 83-70 at Western Michigan; L 101-67 at Notre Dame.
This week: Saturday vs. St Francis.

Cornell has played nine games and Cornell lost nine games. Cornell has lost to good teams (Louisville) and Cornell has lost to bad teams (Binghamton). This trend will likely continue unless Shonn Miller returns to the lineup soon. In the meantime, Big Red fans can watch Nolan Cressler and Robert Hatter vie for the overall and rookie scoring titles.

OBW Ivy League Fab Five
Wesley Saunders, Jr., F, Harvard
Steve Moundou-Missi, Jr., F, Harvard
Sean McGonagill, Sr., G, Brown
Justin Sears, So., F, Yale
Hans Brase, So., F, Princeton

OBW Ivy League Frosh Five
Robert Hatter, G, Cornell
Spencer Weisz, F, Princeton
Luke Petrasek, F, Columbia
Tavon Blackmon, G, Brown
Leland King, F, Brown

***

OBW Rookie of the Week:
Robert Hatter, G, Cornell:
Hatter averaged 18.3 points over three games for Cornell. The Big Red might not be very good, or have many scoring options, but Hatter’s performance was still darn impressive as the 6’2” guard shot over 50 percent from the floor for the week.

•  Cornell Athletics notes:

CORNELL ALUMNI AND FRIENDS WEEKEND:
-The Cornell men's basketball program will host Alumni and Friends Weekend from Dec. 6-8 in Ithaca.
-Included will be a Friday evening reception, Saturday's game against Saint Francis (Pa.) and a postgame reception, then Sunday's annual alumni game.
-Cornell will honor the 1953-54 and 2008-09 Big Red championship teams that weekend.

• 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 4, 2013 is No. 312 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. 331 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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