STORY LINESFifth-year head coach
Bill Courtney understands preseason polls don't have any impact on how this upcoming season will play out. Now all the Big Red men's basketball team has to do is change people's minds on the court, and they'll look to take big steps in that regard when it opens the 2014-15 campaign on the road against George Mason and Loyola (MD).
Cornell visits the Patriots out of the Atlantic 10 on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va., then heads to Baltimore, Md. for a Sunday 2 p.m. tip-off against the Greyhounds out of the Patriot League.
Observers looked at least year's 2-26 record (1-13 Ivy) and the transfer of Cornell's leading returning scorer and may have assumed more trouble was ahead in picking the team eighth in the Ivy League preseason poll. But inside and around the program, significant optimism about the squad exists.
After five weeks of practice, Courtney has had a chance to look at a nearly healthy roster for the first time in his five seasons and likes what he sees.
The senior tandem of
Shonn Miller (11.5 ppg., 6.8 rpg., 1.9 spg., 1.9 blpg. In 2012-13) and
Galal Cancer (5.7 ppg., 2.5 rpg., 2.7 apg., 1.0 spg. In 2012-13) returns after missing the entire 2013-14 campaign. Miller was a first-team all-league pick as a sophomore and is, by any measure, one of the nation's top defenders. Cancer was the team's starting point guard two years ago before stepping away from the court for a year. Together, their reemergence has the Big Red looking for a dramatic turnaround.
All-Ivy candidate
Devin Cherry (12.3 ppg., 4.3 rpg., 3.5 apg.) returns at guard, as do sophomore guards
Robert Hatter (9.0 ppg., 2.1 apg.) and
Darryl Smith (5.0 ppg., 2.3 rpg.) . Together, the second-year duo combined to win three Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors. Sophomore big man
David Onuorah showed flashes of being an impact player as a rookie (3.1 ppg., 3.8 rpg., 1.0 bpg.), while senior big men
Deion Giddens (3.8 ppg., 3.1 rpg., 0.7 bpg.),
Dave LaMore (1.7 ppg., 1.6 rpg.) and Ned Tomic (3.5 ppg., 1.9 rpg.) will provide leadership on and off the floor.
ABOUT GEORGE MASON:• George Mason is coming off an 11-20 campaign a year ago, including a 4-12 mark in its first season of Atlantic 10 play.
• The Patriots return nine letter winners and a pair of starters from last season's team, including returning leading scorer Patrick Holloway.
• Holloway, a 6-1 junior guard, spent last season primarily as a reserve who averaged 8.7 ppg., while hitting a team-high 51 3-pointers.
• Both Jalen Jenkins (7.2 ppg., 6.0 rpg.) and Marko Gujanicic (6.2 ppg., 3.2 rpg.) are also among the team's top returning scorers.
• The Patriots were selected to finish 13th in the 14-team league in the preseason poll.
• Fourth-year head coach Paul Hewitt has posted a 57-45 overall record entering 2014-15. He has also served as head coach at Siena and Georgia Tech.
THE CORNELL-GEORGE MASON SERIES:• This is the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
CORNELL VS. ATLANTIC 10:• Cornell is 17-23 all-time against current members of the Atlantic 10, though it will be facing George Mason for the first time.
• The Big Red has the following record against A-10 schools: Dayton (0-1), Duquesne (0-2), Fordham (4-4), La Salle (3-2), Massachusetts (1-0), Richmond (0-1), St. Bonaventure (8-7), Saint Joseph's (1-3), Saint Louis (0-1) and Virginia Commonwealth (0-2).
• Cornell has never played George Washington or Rhode Island in addition to George Mason.
• The Big Red was a perfect 4-0 against Atlantic 10 teams in 2009-10, topping Massachusetts and La Salle on the road, knocking off Saint Joseph's at home and defeating A-10 champ Temple in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Jacksonville, Fla.
• Cornell 6-6 in its last 12 meetings against Atlantic 10 squads dating back to its 58-54 victory at St. Bonaventure in 2004-05.
ABOUT LOYOLA (MD):• Loyola (MD) went 11-19 a season ago and 6-12 in Patriot League contests after opening the season 4-0, including an overtime victory over Cornell.
• Eight letter winners return from last season's team, including junior forward Jarred Jones (8.6 ppg., 4.5 rpg.) and junior guard Eric Laster (8.3 ppg., 3.5 rpg.).
• The team took a seven-day trip to Canada in August and went 5-0 against the outside competition, with Eric Laster averaging 15.0 points on the trip.
• Second year head coach G.G. Smith spent the previous seven seasons as assistant coach for the Greyhounds before being promoted to the head job.
• The Greyhounds open the season on Friday, Nov. 14 at Texas Tech, where they will face Smith's father and mentor, Tubby Smith.
THE CORNELL-LOYOLA (MD) SERIES:• The two teams have split the only two meetings between the programs, both coming in the last six years.
• The two teams met for the first time in the second game of the 2008 NIT Preseason Tip-Off East Regional, with Cornell earning an 82-72 decision at Boston College.
• The Big Red went on to finish with a 21-10 record and won its second of three straight Ivy League titles. Loyola (MD) went 12-20 that season in the MAAC.
• Last season, the Greyhounds sneaked out of Ithaca with a 93-89 overtime victory despite a freshman record 32 points from
Robert Hatter. Loyola (MD) ended the year 11-19, while the Big Red slumped to 2-26.
CORNELL VS. PATRIOT LEAGUE:• Cornell is 142-120 all-time against current members of the Patriot League, including 1-1 against Loyola (MD).
• The Big Red has also played American (1-1), Army (20-13), Boston University (2-2), Bucknell (23-25), Colgate (71-54), Holy Cross (2-3), Lafayette (7-11), Lehigh (13-9) and Navy (2-1).
• This is the first of two scheduled contests with Patriot League opponents this season. Cornell will play host to Colgate on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:• Head coach
Bill Courtney returns to his old stomping grounds at George Mason, where he spent eight seasons as an assistant and associate head coach under Jim Larranaga. Courtney was largely credited with recruiting the core of players that helped the Patriots to the 2006 NCAA Final Four. He helped the Patriots to a pair of regular season CAA titles and four postseason bids, including trips to the NCAA tournament in 1999 and 2001. During that run, George Mason won at least 18 games five times and won 10 league games in each of his last seven years there. The 2003-04 squad set a then-school record with 23 wins.
• Junior center
Braxston Bunce is a two-year member of Team Canada's Under-18 national team, including competing at the 2012 FIBA Americas Championship in Brazil. Canada went 4-1, with Bunce averaging 1.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in two contests.
• Cornell has had four Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in the last 12 years, including a first-teamer in Graham Dow '07, who was a Rhodes Scholar candidate.
• Cornell has been represented on the five member All-Ivy first team five times in the last seven years, with three of those years placing multiple players on the first team.
• The Big Red has had four Ivy League Rookie of the Year selections in the last 12 years, including
Shonn Miller in 2011-12.
• Over the last five seasons, Cornell has graduated three of the school's top 13 scorers, the top two assist-makers all-time, two Ivy League Players of the Year, two Associated Press honorable mention All-Americans, an Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, a Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American, three Academic All-Ivy picks and six players who competed in more than 100 career games.
• Second-year assistant coach
Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
•
Dwight Tarwater '14 graduated from Cornell last spring with a degree in Applied Economics and Management and is playing an extra year at California-Berkeley. It is the second straight year a Big Red men's basketball player has used his fifth and final year of eligibility at a BCS school, as Errick Peck '13 spent the 2013-14 campaign at Purdue. He served as a captain and part-time starter for the Boilermakers while averaging 4.6 points and 4.4 rebounds and shooting 48 percent from the floor in 32 contests (10 starts).
• Members of the Cornell basketball team represent 13 states and one Canadian province.
• Cornell has played in 45 different states, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia and France. The only states Cornell has not played in are Alaska, North Dakota, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming.
RED-WHITE GAME:• The Cornell men's basketball team stood in the corner where the players make their entrance each game cheering for the Big Red volleyball team as it closed out an exciting 3-2 win over Ivy foe Columbia. Then they went out and showed the Newman Arena crowd why everyone should be cheering for them this winter.
• In the season's first public showcase, the Red team knocked off the White 51-35 on Oct. 25. The fast-paced game was made up of a first half of 15 minutes of running clock play.
• The teams were mixed up in the second half with White leading Red 21-19.
• The Red team included the squad's expected starters in the second half against the White team's reserves.
• Two returning seniors who both missed the entirety of the 2013-14 campaign were especially impressive, as
Shonn Miller had 18 points, six rebounds and three steals while hitting 4-of-5 3-pointers, and
Galal Cancer had 11 points, two rebounds and three steals.
• Classmate
Devin Cherry had eight points, five assists and no turnovers from the point guard position.
NEXT UP:• Cornell returns to Ithaca for its home opener on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. when it hosts Colgate at Newman Arena.
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