News and Notes: Friday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Friday...

•  Harvard fan and blogger, Mike James, predicts Cornell to finish 7th in the Ivy League (with a 4-10 record) for Rush The Court. He also picks Shonn Miller for First Team All Ivy League and writes:

Shonn Miller, F, Cornell – The Big Red will not be the second-worst defense in the nation in 2014-15, that much is for sure. During his last full season, Miller finished 33rd nationally in defensive rebounding rate, 74th in block rate and 60th in steal percentage. In other words, Miller was a defensive stops machine. After struggling offensively as a freshman, Miller showed significant growth in understanding how to finish at the rim and draw fouls. Whether Miller makes the All-Ivy First Team will likely depend on how much weight is put on his defensive presence, which should be enough to bring Cornell a significant portion of the way back to the national average. 

• James also writes for RTC, "March used to mean a couple things for the Ivy League: An exciting Penn-Princeton game to settle the Ivy title and NCAA bid.  One postseason berth that usually ended with a competitive loss to a Power Six school.  That narrative was shaken with Cornell’s Sweet Sixteen run in 2010...For a league that rarely advanced beyond the first game in single-elimination formats between Princeton’s stunning run to a #5 seed in 1998 and Cornell’s trip to the Sweet Sixteen, the Ivy League’s remarkable success in national tournaments in recent years is another sign that this league is on the rise.. Cornell has a lot to be excited about [this season], but that’s almost always true of a team that went 2-26 and finished at 11th-worst in the Pomeroy Ratings. Miller’s return makes the Big Red a much, much better defensive team out of the gate and should be enough to push Cornell back into the 200s nationally [in Pomeroy Ratings]."

• Brian Fulmer (Cornell '00) is quoted in the Batavian about his former high school football coach.

• The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Cal's exhibition game last night involving Dwight Tarwater (Cornell '14) and writes, "Forward Dwight Tarwater made a claim for some minutes, shooting 4-for-7 from the field and 2-for-4 from three. The Cornell transfer finished with 10 points."  Listen to Mike Montgomery's reaction.

• The Syracuse Post Standard remembers former Orangeman, Lawrence Moten and writes, "Remember that Cornell game, in Moten's freshman year, when he scored 12 critical points in a game SU could easily have lost? Syracuse was in big trouble. The program was in the middle of the NCAA investigation. The town was reeling. Moments before tip-off, in a hasty news conference, SU announced that Conrad McRae had been suspended for suspected NCAA violations."

• Baltimore Wire previews Loyola (MD) and notes the Grehyounds' season home opener is against Cornell on November 16.