News and Notes: Monday Edition

Above, a photo of three members of Cornell's 1954 conference championship team, left to right, Milt Kogan, Chuck Rolles and Ray Zelek.  Below, some news and notes for Monday...

• Cornell incoming freshman, Braxston Bunce (Kelowna Secondary School) Kelowna, BC, Canada, 6-11, C, tweeted the news on Sunday evening that he received his second consecutive selection to the Canadian Junior Men's National Team.  Bunce departed for Brazil last night with Team Canada where he will participate in the FIBA Americas Tournament.

• Over the weekend,  Cornell incoming freshman, Holt Harmon (Plano West HS), Plano, TX, 6-9, F, participated in the Faith 7 Bowl, an all-star game featuring high school seniors from Texas against Oklahoma.

• The Associated Press writes of Chris Bosh's three 3-pointers in game 7 vs. Boston on Saturday night, " He was at his best in Game 7, shooting 8 for 10, making three 3-pointers for the first time as a pro — the last time he did it, Cornell was the opponent." The A.P. is referring to Cornell's January 8, 2003 visit to Georgia Tech.

• Jeff Aubry (Cornell '99)  finished with 9 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 points on Friday night in the Puerto Rico BSN, but his Arecibo Capitanes team fell to Mayaguez 72-61 and dropped the championship series 4-1.

• Below, Max Groebe's (Cornell '12) career highlight video:

News and Notes: Friday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Friday...

• In the Puerto Rico BSN last night, Jeff Aubry (Cornell '99) finished with 3 points, 2 blocks and 7 rebounds, but his Arecibo Capitanes fell to Mayaguez 91-89 in overtime and now trail the league's championship series 3-1.

• Cornell Basketball has a presence in NBA Finals history.  Cornellian Ed Peterson, a graduate of the class of 1948, played the 1949-1950 season with the Syracuse Nationals, the franchise which subsequently became the Philadelphia 76ers.  Peterson, a 6'9" center, appeared in the 1950 NBA Finals with Syracuse which lost the series 4-2 to George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers.  In 115 career NBA games, Peterson averaged 7.0 points oer game.    (Below, Cornell's 1947-1948 team photo with Peterson in the #13 jersey, a poster for the Syracuse Nationals for the 1950-1951 season (Peterson was traded mid-season to Tri-City) and photos of Peterson appearing in the Associated Press from his time in the NBA.)  

News and Notes: Thursday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Thursday...

• The Yamhill Valley (Oregon) News-Register writes of the Yamhill Highflyers in the International Basketball League and Jason Hartford (Cornell '08), "Jason Hartford, a former [IBL] all-star, is back after playing overseas during the team’s hiatus. A 6-foot-9 forward, he helped lead Cornell to an NCAA tournament appearance before playing for the Highflyers in 2009 and 2010. 'He’s gotten some looks at NBA summer camps,' [general manager Eric] Bailey said, 'and has been MVP of leagues overseas.' Hartford, who can play every position except point guard, is back in Yamhill Valley because of his time out of the country. Bailey said players had tap water in the water bottles, causing some intestinal distress for Hartford, who had to return to the United States early. 'Just a great overall talent,' Bailey said. 'We’re lucky to have him back.'"

• Jeff Foote (Cornell '10) will be the first Net to wear a Brooklyn jersey when he participates in the NBA's Orlando Summer League with the Nets.

• The Virgin Islands Daily News lists Cornell senior, Jonathan Gray among U.S. Virgin Islanders playing collegiate athletics in the United States. Gray is a member of the national team and will commence play in the FIBA Centrobasket tournament between June 18-24.

• Cornell incoming freshman, Braxston Bunce (Kelowna Secondary School) Kelowna, BC, Canada, 6-11, C, is scheduled to play tonight in the Red-White Game, an intersquad scrimmage for the Canadian Junior Men's National Team.

• Cornell incoming freshman, Holt Harmon (Plano West HS), Plano, TX, 6-9, F, is scheduled to play on Saturday in the Faith 7 Bowl, an all-star game between high school seniors from Texas against Oklahoma. Below are the rosters for the game with the college commitments in parentheses:

What — Faith 7 Bowl
When — Saturday, 7:35 p.m.
Where — Noble Complex, Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma 

Team Texas 

Phillip Forte, Flower Mound (Oklahoma State)
Je’Lon Hornbeak, Arlington Grace (Oklahoma)
Wanaah Bail, Lamar Consolidated (Texas Tech)
Josh Gray, Wheatley (Texas Tech)
Brandon Conley, Fossil Ridge (Oral Roberts)
Holt Harmon, Plano (Cornell)
Uche Ofoegbu, John Paul Stevens (SMU)
Eric Reed, Mesquite (Long Island)
Coach — Tim McGraw, North Lake College

Team Oklahoma 

Rhett Radcliff, Forgan (Northwestern State)
Corbin Byford, Velma-Alma (Oral Roberts)
Quinton Threadgill, Haworth (Southeastern)
C.J. Cole, Sperry (Oklahoma)
Jake Bullard, Vinita (Pittsburg State)
Matt Christiansen, OC McGuinness (San Francisco)
James Woodard, Edmond Memorial (Tulsa)
Sedrick Johnson, Union (Avila)
D'Andre Wright, Lawton Eisenhower (Tulsa)
Phabian Glasco, Tulsa Washington
Coaches — Kenny Bare, Velma-Alma; Gregg Hardin, Bristow

News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Wednesday...

• Andy Glocker of CNNSI.com writes about Harvard's efforts to rise to national prominence in basketball. Glockner notes of the Ivy League, "Ever since Penn's trip to the 1979 Final Four helped spawn an 'Academic Index', the Ivies have been happy being an anachronism, with a funky conference schedule, no tournament and no real hope of landing legitimate high Division I talent thanks to the academic, financial and competitive constraints every team in the league faces.  Almost despite itself, its self-regulation and, in several cases, faculty pushback against basketball commitment, though, the league has spawned a handful of very good teams. Two years after Princeton nearly stunned Georgetown in the famous 1-16 game in 1989, the Tigers were wearing white as an 8-seed. Then came two separate top-25 Penn teams, a top-10 Princeton team, and some years later, Cornell's breakthrough 30-win campaign that ended in the Sweet 16. These last two seasons were two of the strongest and deepest in the RPI era and generated very worthy champions."

• Cornell incoming freshman, Braxston Bunce (Kelowna Secondary School) Kelowna, BC, Canada, 6-11, C, is among the the final seventeen players who are competing for twelve roster spots to represent Canada in the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Men in Brazil from June 16-20.  As part of Team Canada's training camp and tryouts this week, Bunce will compete for the "Red Team" in an open-to-the-public intersquad scrimmage on Thursday.

• Jeff Foote (Cornell '10) tweeted about his summer workouts in New York with Louis Dale (Cornell '10).  Foote will be a member of the Brooklyn Nets' summer league team in Orlando while Dale is expected to return for a third season with his pro German club, Goettingen.

• Mike Weinstein, an AAU coach with the Joy of the Game club in suburban Chicago, told the Pioneer Local that one of his young prospects in his program reminds him of "Highland Park’s Chris Wroblewski, who led Cornell deep into the NCAA tournament."

• On Tuesday night in the Puerto Rico BSN Championship Series, Jeff Aubry (Cornell '99) finished with 2 point and 10 rebounds but his Arecibo Capitanes fell to Mayaguez 94-68 and now trail the series 2-1.

News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Above, Chris Wroblewski (Cornell '12) was selected by the Cornell Daily Sun to its list of the University's Top 25 Senior Athletes.  Below, some news and notes.

• Jeff Aubry (Cornell '99) scored 8 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked 3 shots to help his Arecibo Capitanes to an 82-73 win Monday night over Mayaguez in game 2 of the BSN Puerto Rico Finals.  The series is now tied 1-1.

• Above, Cornell incoming freshman, Braxston Bunce (Kelowna Secondary School) Kelowna, BC, Canada, 6-11, C, works out in training camp yesterday with the Canadian Junior National Team in Toronto at Ryerson University.   Bunce is among the the final 17 players who are competing for 12 roster spots to represent Canada in the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Men in Brazil from June 16-20. 

• Cornell is just weeks away from one its most significant recruiting events. The Cornell Basketball Prospect Camp for elite high school players considering playing at Cornell is scheduled for June 23-24. Cornell coaches direct the camp while several veteran Big Red players serve as counselors. Cornell's incoming committed recruits may also attend.

• St. Ignatius Prep's (Cleveland, Ohio) Corner Blog writes of its alumnus and current Cornell player Shonn Miller:

After being sidelined for a few weeks in April, the corner learned that former Saint Ignatius basketball standout and Cornell freshman Shonn Miller was named the 2012 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

The All-Ivy League honors are selected by a vote of the conference's eight head coaches.

Shonn, a three-time all-district honoree while playing for Coach Sean O’Toole ’87 at Saint Ignatius, became the seventh Cornell player to take home Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and the fourth in the last seven years. He established new Cornell freshman records for rebounds (170) and blocked shots (46), while earning the conference's Rookie of the Week honor five times.

Miller also ranked among the top 10 freshman scorers in Cornell history with 250 points. Shonn, now 6-foot-7 and getting bigger and stronger everytime I see him, ranked eighth in the Ivy League in rebounding and steals, and was second in blocks.

Shonn ended his freshman season averaging 8.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 steals per game while starting in 21 of Cornell’s 28 games. He shot 44 percent from the floor, including 51 percent from inside the 3-point arc. Shonn had three double-doubles, five double digit rebounding games and nine games in which he scored in double figures.

Again, it was a privilege and a pleasure to cover Shonn during his playing days for the Wildcats and we wish him nothing but bigger and better things as his exceptional talent, on and off the court, continues to grow.

News and Notes: Monday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Monday...

• Cornell's official 2012-2013 roster is now posted online on the team's website.

• Blogging The Bracket lists the major preseason tournaments for next season, including Cornell's participation with Wisconsin and Arizona State in the Las Vegas Invitational.

• According to Nets Daily, Jeff Foote (Cornell '10) declined an invitation by the NBA to participate in the third-annual NBA D-League Elite Mini Camp on Monday and Tuesday at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute.

• Jeff Aubry (Cornell '99) finished with 4 points, 2 blocks and 7 rebounds on Saturday in Game 1 of the Puerto Rico BSN Championship Series.  His Arecibo Capitanes team however fell 86-79 to Mayaguez.

• Committed Cornell recruit, Braxston Bunce (Kelowna Secondary School) Kelowna, BC, Canada, 6-11, C, made the cut of the final 17 players who are competing for 12 roster spots to represent Canada in the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Men in Brazil from June 16-20. Bunce will participate in the team's training camp between June 2-10.  The Kelowna Capital News writes:

Kelowna basketball player Braxston Bunce is one step closer to being named to Team Canada's Junior National Development Team.

Bunce will leave for Toronto Saturday morning for a week-long training camp in advance of the FIBA Americas Basketball Championships in Brazil June 16 to 20.

The 6-foot-11 Bunce is among 17 hopefuls still remaining in Team Canada's training camp with 12 expected to make the trip to Brazil. The final cuts will be made sometime next week. Bunce survived the first set of cuts after a three day tryout in Toronto late last month.

"I feel confident in my spot but there is no guarantee," said Bunce, a KSS grad who is among three players vying for what is likely two spots at the centre position. "If I go in and keep doing what I did last week I think I will be fine. I'm optimistic going into camp."

Bunce may have a hand up on the other centre hopefuls as last summer he made the Team Canada Junior Development squad that played in the World Championships. This year he feels like he can play more of a roll.

"I definitely feel a lot stronger this year," said Bunce, who was named the B.C. high school basketball player of the year this season. "I'm a lot more confident in my game and overall I'm stronger and my body feels better."

Bunce will begin an NCAA basketball career at Cornell University this fall.

Fellow KSS basketball star Mitch Goodwin was also at the first set of tryouts but failed to make the cut.

News and Notes: Friday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Friday...

• The Shawnee News-Star of Oklahoma notes that 12 of the top players from Texas will face 12 of the best players from Oklahoma in the 2012 Faith 7 Bowl on June 9 in Shawnee, Oklahoma at Oklahoma Baptist University. Among the players selected include five committed recruits headed to Big 12 schools. Selected to the Texas All Stars is committed Cornell recruit, Holt Harmon (Plano West HS), Plano, TX, 6-9, F.

• With Brown University hiring Penn assistant coach Mike Martin as its new head coach, Dick Jerardi of the Philadelphia Daily News writes, "When 63 wins in four seasons is the high-water mark in school history, you know there is not much history at Brown. Moving up in the Ivy League is never easy, but first Cornell and then Harvard proved it is possible to interrupt the Penn-Princeton axis. Martin will now get a chance to see if it can be done at Brown."

• The Arecibo Capitanes of Puerto Rico's professional basketball league, the BSN, published a column on the Capitanes' official website about the contributions the team has received from Jeff Aubry (Cornell '99).  Arecibo is in the league's championship series and Aubry is averaging 3.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the team.  Here is a link to the Google translation of the story.