News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Above, A Date in Cornell Basketball History, Cornell's 30th anniversary of the 1984-1985 team which included 1985 Ivy League Player of the Year, Ken Bantum.  (Front Row (L-R): Jeff Trebac, Drew Martin, John Bajusz, Derek Williams, Rusty Cooper, Eric King. Second Row (L-R): Student manager Olric Francis, James Paul, Dean Kartsonas, Mike Millane, Cam Georges, Len Palmer, Sam Givens, student manager Mark Barnao. Third Row (L-R): Assistant coach Brad Nadborne, assistant coach Mike Dement, Wolfgang Florin, Ken Bantum, Greg Skoric, Scott Chernoff, Tom Murphy, Greg Gilda, head coach Tom Miller.)  Below, news and notes for Tuesday...

• West Valley Preps (Arizona) profiles former area athletes who are in Division I and writes:

Willow Canyon-Deion Giddens (basketball) — The 6-foot-9 big man stepped into the starting lineup as a junior at Cornell University before suffering a knee injury. He averaged 3.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 13 games for the Ivy League team.

• In the FIBA Centrobasket Tournament, Jonathan Gray (Cornell '13) scored 26 points in a win over El Salvador for his Virgin Islands National Team.  See the story in the Virgin Islands Daily.  USVI finished a respectable 2-2 in the Tournament.

• CSN Washington mentions Cornell's visit to George Mason.

• The Olean Times Herald blames St. Bonaventure's RPI struggles, at least in part, on Cornell and writes, "Sure, its non-conference RPI was down — that’s going to happen when you play two teams new to Division I, South Dakota and Cornell — but that number is only going to raise progressively with how good the Atlantic 10 has been."

• Grading the preseason tournaments, CBS Sports writes:

Gildan Charleston Classic
Held at TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina. The eight-team tourney will go from Nov. 20, 21 and 23. The Nov. 21 quadruple header starts with Akron-USC, then Drexel-Miami (FL), then Penn State-Charlotte, and finishes with Cornell-South Carolina.
Grade: C. Charleston's had better fields in the past five years, that's for sure. This is the "show me" bracket, of all the November tourneys we see. USC will try to become established in its second year under Andy Enfield. Will the Hurricanes be better? Penn State, Charlotte and South Carolina are all facing years where fans are expecting an uptick but nothing gargantuan.

• YahooSports is also not impressed and writes:

Least appealing tournament: Charleston Classic

You can be forgiven for finding better things to do with your time this November than watching this year's Charleston Classic. An event that has boasted its share of marquee teams in years past lacks much name recognition this season. On one side of the draw is Akron-USC and Drexel-Miami — and believe it or not that's clearly the more compelling half of the bracket. The other side features Penn State-Charlotte and South Carolina-Cornell. Miami ought to be the class of this tournament thanks to the arrival of transfers Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan. USC's freshman class should help it take a step forward and Charlotte actually came out of nowhere to win the Puerto Rico Tip-Off last November. Still, this is a field that suggests there may be a few too many preseason tournaments these days because the quality is getting a bit watered down.

• summarizes the Charleston Classic particpants:

2014 Gildan Charleston Classic Field
Charlotte: The 49ers posted a 17-14 mark, including a 7-9 record in Conference USA play during the 2013-14 campaign. They fell to NIT Quarterfinalist participant Louisiana Tech in the quarterfinals of the CUSA tournament.
Cornell: Cornell finished the 2013-14 season with a 2-26 mark overall and a 1-13 record in Ivy League play.
Drexel: The Dragons advanced to the Colonial Athletic Conference quarterfinals after posting a 16-14 record and closing the regular season at .500 (8-8) in league play.
Miami (Fla.): The Hurricanes ended last season with a 17-16 mark while posting a 7-11 record in ACC play.
Penn State: The Nittany Lions earned a spot in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and fell to eventual-champion Siena in the quarterfinals. PSU finished the campaign with a 16-18 overall record, going 6-12 in Big Ten play.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks ended their season in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, posting a 14-20 record (5-13 SEC).
Southern California: The Trojans enter the 2014-15 season after posting a 11-21 mark last year. USC closed Pac-12 play with a 2-16 record.

• A Cornell Basketball Prospect Camp participant posted some rare insider footage from this year's Camp.