Cornell progresses through offensive struggles

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A road win continues to elude Cornell this season, the latest being a 71-60 setback at Ivy League-leading Harvard on Friday night. It was a game that looked like a microcosm of the team’s season in several respects.

Cornell has struggled offensively all year, and that’s the clearest indication that this isn’t the Big Red of a couple of years ago. That was abundantly clear in the first half on Friday, as they struggled to get anything going and committed several turnovers that were of the costly variety. They weren’t much better in the second half, as their better shooting percentage was masked by more turnovers as well as a few baskets with the outcome not in doubt that made the score closer than it looked.

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Cornell Perseveres, Gets to Head Home At Last

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Say this much for first year Cornell head coach Bill Courtney: he hasn’t lost his team at all, despite the season going in such a way that a lot of coaches might. It hasn’t been the kind of storybook season recent years were for the Big Red, who got their first Ivy League win of the season on Saturday night when they pulled out a 91-79 decision at Brown.

No one realistically expected the Big Red to win a fourth straight Ivy League title this season. Too many key players from last season are gone and the coaching staff is new. Close losses have dogged the Big Red all season, as they have been close too many times to mention while falling short. Courtney has seen the team lose confidence late in games at times, the cumulative result of the close losses. Cornell entered Saturday night’s game with a 3-10 mark in games decided by single digits as part of their 4-15 overall record.

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Win Over Wofford May Significantly Boost Cornell

RICHMOND, Va. – If Cornell’s season turns around and they contend in the Ivy League, as many projected before the season, Thursday night might prove to be something of a turning point. That’s not the case because their 86-80 win over Wofford broke an eight-game losing streak, or because they were white hot shooting the ball for a lot of the game. Of course, those certainly don’t hurt the cause.

The Big Red entered Thursday at 2-9, with six losses by five points or less. While each loss presents a teaching tool, at some point a team doesn’t need any more teaching tools like that. … Continue Reading

Holiday on the Hardwood Classic – Semifinal Notes

RICHMOND, Va. – Wednesday night’s semifinal games in the Holiday on the Hardwood Classic are in the books. New Hampshire won the first game 68-66 over Cornell, and will take on host VCU in the title game after the Rams beat Wofford 75-66.

A few thoughts from Wednesday’s games:

• Cornell isn’t far away. The Big Red lost for the sixth time by five or fewer points, which means they’ve been right there. Cornell doesn’t have the star power of a year ago, but they do have veterans who have won like Chris Wroblewski (14 points, six assists), Errick Peck (game-high 19 points) and Adam Wire (team’s leading rebounder). But they’re all in different roles than before, an adjustment they haven’t quite made yet. … Continue Reading

Bracket Breakdown: Pac-10, Mid-Majors Show the Big East the Door

It all started with some kid from a Kentucky school not named Kentucky stunning the college basketball world with an odds-defying, game-winning jumper at the buzzer. Thanks to forward Danero Thomas, 13th-seeded Murray State shocked No. 4-seed Vanderbilt, 66-65, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last Thursday.

Racers’ fans went into a frenzy. Many people who had never even heard of the school before celebrated the feel-good upset just because of its own strange nature. Even more people, however, kicked at the ground and muttered curse words because the unexpected result shook up their brackets.

That was just the beginning. Perhaps inspired by the Racers’ Day 1 shocker, a No. 12 seed, Cornell, decided it would ride hot-shooting all the way into the Sweet 16, a similar case to that of No. 10 St. Mary’s, which unleashed its beast of a center, 6-11 Omar Samhan, in the South Region and knocked out second-seeded Villanova to also join the field of 16.

And after No. 9 Northern Iowa’s Ali Farokhmanesh made the most cold-blooded crunch-time 3-pointer in recent tournament memory to cement his team’s Sweet 16 ticket while taking down overall-top-seeded Kansas on Saturday, it was official that at least 90 percent of the country’s brackets had gone more busted than a piñata on Cinco de Mayo.

Putting aside the almighty custom of wagering on tournament predictions, however, March Madness has been splendid so far. Down-to-the-wire games have been numerous, as have been upsets. High seeds Kansas, Villanova, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Temple all got axed, but their executioners gave the competition parity and diversity. Entering the Sweet 16, 11 conferences will be represented.

Out of all surprise teams, Cornell has been the most pleasant one. The Big Red’s wins made it the first Ivy League team to make it this far in more than 30 years, and it did so with authority. Cornell smacked around No. 5 Temple in the first round and then did the same to No. 4 Wisconsin in the second while shooting a combined 58.6 percent in the games.

Even better than that, though, has been the performance of St. Mary’s Samhan, who has totaled 61 points through two games while making 24 of 32 field goal attempts. His supremacy has been the reason the Gaels are enjoying the best season in their history while Villanova is already home, lamenting its collapse.

Speaking of failure, that’s been the theme of the postseason for Nova’s conference. The Big East, widely regarded as the best league in college basketball, had a tournament-best eight entrants, but half were done by the end of the first round, and two more followed soon after in the second. Only No. 1-seed Syracuse in the West Region and No. 2-seed West Virginia in the East remain.

First-round meat: No. 6 Marquette, which blew a 15-point lead in the second half and lost to an out-to-prove-the-Pac-10-is-not-that-weak No. 11-seed Washington; No. 3-seed Georgetown, which was blasted by Ohio, a team that had a losing record in the MAC and got into the Dance only after winning its conference’s tournament; Notre Dame, which was zoned out of the tournament by No. 11-seed Old Dominion; and No. 9-seed Louisville, which also got embarrassed by the Pac-10, by Cal.

No. 3-seed Pittsburgh made the second round, but the Panthers couldn’t hang with No. 6-seed Xavier on Sunday and were ousted.

With so many high seeds gone so early, thanks in big part to the Big East, it’d clearly be silly to count any team out. In the East, No. 1-seed Kentucky will have the challenge to cool down the Big Red’s red-hot shooting, and West Virginia will have to remain impressive to get past an also-remarkable Washington. In the South, No. 1-seed Duke, which has made quick work of its rivals so far, will face a Purdue team missing Robbie Hummel, and No. 3-seed Baylor will deal with Samhan, St. Mary’s scary big man.

In the Midwest, Cinderella Northern Iowa will face No. 5-seed Michigan State, ecstatic after its buzzer-beating win over Maryland Sunday, and No. 2-seed Ohio State, the favorite to win the section now that Kansas is gone, will take on No. 6-seed Tennessee. In the West, No. 5-seed Butler, which got a scare from Murray State before advancing via a 54-52 win Saturday, will meet with Syracuse. The winner will play the winner of the Kansas State-Xavier game.

Predictions? We’re not too big on them these days, but the solid candidates to advance are Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke, West Virginia and Ohio State. These teams have been imposing through their first two games. They’re as dependable picks as Kansas was before Saturday.

Cornell Rides Great Senior Group to Another Ivy League Title

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Steve Donahue never quite expected what he’s had the last three years.  He readily admits he might never get something like it again, so he’s taking a moment to enjoy Cornell’s third straight Ivy League title, which the Big Red wrapped up with a 95-76 win at Brown on Friday night.

“I’m going to try for the rest of my coaching career to try to get a group like this, and I may never get there.  I’m pretty sure I won’t,” said Donahue.  “In terms of talent, attitude, character, off the court, style of play, they do everything you could possibly ask.”

Two years ago, Cornell ran the table in the Ivy League with a team whose core was a group of sophomores at the time.  That put a big target on their back last season, and after another title, they entered this season with an even bigger target.  Everyone figured the Ivy League was theirs to lose, with a core of seniors that had just won two in a row and has plenty of talent and experience.  That target only got bigger during the season, as the Big Red got ranked early in league play.

“That’s definitely always a challenge, and when you get nationally ranked, that target grows even bigger,” said senior center Jeff Foote.  “Everyone wants to beat you, you’re the huge game for every team when you come in to play.  Any team’s season can be made by beating us, and we had to get used to that pressure.”

The pressure definitely came to a head in February, when the Big Red went to Penn.  The Quakers knocked off the Big Red, a result that once upon a time wasn’t viewed as a monumental upset.  That shows how far the Big Red have come, but the loss also made for a challenging time as Princeton was ahead the next night and the Tigers have improved to become a contender once again.

“It was almost like an elimination game, if we lose that game at Princeton the next night, we’re two games down in the loss column and who knows what happens,” said senior Ryan Wittman, the school’s all-time leading scorer.

The way Donahue describes it, the last month was nothing but major challenges for the team.  One might say that the challenging non-league slate the Big Red played helped, but experience was undoubtedly a factor as well.

“We lose to Penn, so then your season’s in the balance because you’re going to play at Princeton,” Donahue said.  “You’ve got to play, and it’s a war, and we win that.  So then you come back the next week and it’s like another conference tournament the next weekend with Harvard, you’ve got to win there.  The next weekend, Princeton comes back to you, you’ve got to win there, and then still nothing is wrapped up, so you’ve got to go a fourth weekend.”

This wasn’t all that new to Donahue, though.  Although the Big Red might have made it look easy two years ago in running the table in Ivy League play, that wasn’t the case.  Right before that, he knew he had a good group of kids, but wasn’t sure if a title – let alone three in a row – was in the offing later on.

As freshmen, the core of this team was promising but erratic.  They played like freshmen, and it showed as they were very up and down, but finished with an 8-6 record.  Donahue, who has great respect for other programs in the league, harked back to the final game of that season, remembering how that season went and how difficult a championship would be.

“I remember being here in this gym the last game of the year,” Donahue reflected.  “We won our eighth game to go 8-6, and I remember sitting in the locker room saying, I can’t believe how hard it is to win eight games in this league.  I still respect that, it’s difficult as heck.”

The Big Red have done it with a group of highly skilled and unselfish players, and also ones of very high character.  Cornell’s ability to shoot the long ball is well-established, and on Friday night they showed it in droves as they went 20-30 from deep.  Coming into Friday night’s game, the Big Red were by far the best in the Ivy League in that area, shooting 41.9 percent from the field on the season.  That number will only go up.

The Big Red have shooters, but that’s far from the only reason they have that shooting percentage.  They have an inside threat in Foote that teams have to account for, and he’s an excellent passer as well.  That leads to another strength – passing the ball.  It’s not just point guard Louis Dale, the program’s all-time leader in assists, who can distribute the ball.  Just about everyone on the team can do it, and they’re unselfish enough that they don’t care who ultimately scores.

Perhaps most importantly, the Big Red use the three-point shot judiciously.  It’s not the be-all, end-all of their game plan, but part of it.  They shoot a high percentage but don’t put up a high number of shots per game.  Wittman noted that they generally try to establish Foote inside early in games and force teams to either commit to doubling him or go one-on-one where he can score on many Ivy League post players.

“Our ability to pass the ball is one of the big reasons why we’re a good shooting team,” said Donahue.  “Our center is our second-leading assist man.  There are a lot of guys who can shoot as well as our guys, but their ability to pass the ball and their willingness to pass the ball is one of the reasons why we’re such a good shooting team.”

The team’s unselfishness even shows up with playing time.  It’s easy to forget that Geoff Reeves is actually the program’s all-time leader in three-point field goal percentage because he comes off the bench.  He does that after starting much of last season, just like Alex Tyler, another who comes off the bench after starting for three years.  Reeves gave way to sophomore Chris Wroblewski, who has seen nothing but winning early in his college career and has certainly been part of that.  They don’t care about big minutes and accept the players who took over in their starting roles, they just want to win.

Donahue and the Big Red are all happy that they have won and that it has happened with this group.  There is clear camaraderie among this team, one more reason it wouldn’t be a surprise if they win a game in the NCAA Tournament.

“To do what we did, you don’t envision it,” said Donahue.  “You bring in good kids.  The credit is theirs, they took it to another level.”

Cornell Wins With Seasoned Veterans

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – It’s not every day you have a buildup like this for an Ivy League game, especially when the setting is Harvard.  The Crimson have never been to the NCAA Tournament, and it wasn’t an arch-rival they were about to host.  Yet Friday night’s game against two-time defending champion Cornell was sold out a month in advance, and there was much anticipation about it.

With 15 NBA scouts and several national media members present, the game lived up to its billing, but the home fans went home disappointed as Cornell played like the team of seasoned veterans that they are to take home a convincing 79-70 win.  On this night, the difference in experience couldn’t be missed in how this game went.

Harvard got off to a good start, although they didn’t get out to a big lead.  Cornell was able to hang with them and keep it as a back-and-forth game for a while in the first half, but then the differences showed.  Harvard started turning the ball over – they had 12 in the first half, which the Big Red turned into 16 points – while Cornell kept making shots and getting offensive rebounds.  Symbolic of it was an inbound pass by freshman Brandyn Curry that went over Keith Wright’s head, and after Geoff Reeves missed a fast break layup, Jeff Foote was there to collect the rebound and put it back for a 26-19 lead.

And when Louis Dale, a good but not lights-out shooter from deep, got hot from long range in the second half after Ryan Wittman had the hot hand in the first half, it was hard not to notice that they were seniors who have two Ivy League titles to their credit and have come a long way from their early days on campus.

That wasn’t always a given to help carry this team.  Last year, the Big Red had a clear locker room leader in Adam Gore, a tough player who battled injuries and always competed.  Dale and Wittman aren’t the leader types, and neither was selected as a team captain this year.  Dale is a nice, quiet young man, while Wittman is similar and would rather just be a regular kid than a star.  Head coach Steve Donohue has talked about how Wittman could have a great deal of influence on the team if he ever wanted to because his teammates have so much respect for his game.

All that said, on Friday it was hard not to think Wittman was playing not just like a senior, but a Player of the Year.  He had 27 points on 10-20 shooting, including 6-12 from behind the arc, and grabbed eight rebounds.  But more than that, it was when he made the plays and how he made them, from his shot selection to utilizing his pump fake better than anyone in college basketball because he sells his shot so well.  He had a highlight reel play as well, and naturally it came at a crucial time.  With Harvard in the midst of what would become a 12-0 run to get within five, Curry stole the ball and went in on the fast break.  Wittman hustled back to block the shot and got the ball.

“I think he played with a nastiness, a confidence, a swagger tonight that he wouldn’t want his team to lose in this environment,” Donohue said of Wittman, who moved into sixth place all-time in the Ivy League in scoring.  “He’s done that now the last two games, and I think it’s honestly something we’re going to need the rest of the way.”

While it was Wittman in the first half, it was Dale in the second half who buried Harvard.  Dale went 4-5 from behind the arc in the latter frame, and just about all of them were of the back-breaking variety, although none more so than the one he hit with 7:12 left that followed one by Wittman to put the Big Red back up by double digits.

The senior guards were both quick to give one another credit for their success.  It’s certainly true that they play off each other well, and that has come with their experience together.  It’s also a testament to their high basketball I.Q. as neither is one who will kill you with mistakes.

It wasn’t just Dale and Wittman among the seniors, although they led the way.  The senior-laden Big Red played all in all like such a team, shooting 50 percent from the field including 12-23 from long range, and out-rebounding Harvard 31-20.  They wanted it more, and you could see the chemistry this team has developed.

“They just play so well together,” said Harvard senior Jeremy Lin.  “They’re really experienced, they start four seniors, and they’ve been together for so long.”

Added Donohue: “I think we saw that tonight in stretches when Harvard made runs, I think we stayed poised and confident.”

Harvard is not out of the Ivy League race, but the Crimson need some help now.  Still, one has to remember that this is a young team, which is what the Big Red were three years ago.  While they are a contender now, head coach Tommy Amaker summed up the big lesson of the night for those not already aware.

“We’d like to think that we could become a contender in our league, and we’ve shown that we can do that, but being a contender and being a champion is a big gap,” said Amaker.

That was perhaps never more apparent than it was on Friday night.

Big Red More Than Ready For Attempt at Repeating

A year after running through the Ivy League without a loss, Cornell might enter league play in better shape than they were at the same time last year. That might sound hard to believe, especially considering most figure another undefeated run through the league isn’t likely. But it’s not hard to believe this might be the case, and if they ran through the league unscathed again, it wouldn’t be the most shocking thing to happen.

Let’s get one thing straight: this is not a prediction that the Big Red will run the table again. Such feats are quite remarkable, which is why they get the kind of attention they do. But that doesn’t mean it can’t possibly happen again, only that the odds are stacked against it. They could also be a better team without necessarily having an equal or better record. (Of course, a better Ivy League record than 14-0 is impossible.)

The Big Red won their last five non-league games, with only one being a single-digit game. They are close to having their full team, with only Adam Gore still out of action. They have been well-tested, but have also managed to post a better win-loss record in non-league play than they did last year. And this team has the experience of winning last year and knew they would come into this season as the hunted.

“That’s a team that not only should probably win the Ivy League and get in the (NCAA) Tournament, they might even be one of those teams that pulls an upset because of the way they shoot the ball, and they’re big,” said Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea, whose team lost to Cornell on Monday night.

Even though this team looks to be in a better spot entering Ivy League play than last year, head coach Steve Donohue is cautious about it.

“We’re a more veteran group, we’re stronger and deeper than we’ve been, and I feel good about it,” said Donohue. “But in the same sense, I have great respect for the league, and not only that, I have a great understanding that each season’s different, each week is different.”

Cornell was an easy pick to win the Ivy League since they brought back most of last season’s team and other contenders looked questionable. Many figured a still young Penn team would be their best challenger, and it was wide open after that. The Quakers have struggled in non-league play and now will be without Andreas Schreiber and Darren Smith for the remainder of the season. That leaves Brown and Harvard as the most likely challengers based on non-league play, and while either team might be able to nip Cornell in a head-to-head matchup, don’t bet on one of them topping the Big Red to win the league this year. Harvard is the only team besides Cornell with a winning record in non-league play (the Crimson went 8-6).

Early on, injuries didn’t help. Gore tore his ACL late in the summer and missed all of non-league play, but they expect he can comeback during the Ivy League slate. Then reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Louis Dale suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out of the first eight games. He could have played in some of them, but the staff held him out until he was very close to 100 percent.

Those injuries gave players like junior Geoff Reeves and freshman Chris Wroblewski a chance to play major minutes in the early going alongside junior Ryan Wittman, and they took full advantage. Reeves is a terrific shooter, and now he’s proven he can still knock down a high percentage of shots while playing more minutes. He’s shooting better than his career percentage entering the season, making over 48 percent of his three-pointers while now averaging over 29 minutes per game.

“He’s a great shooter, you can’t leave him open,” Dale said of Reeves. “Geoff Reeves is one of the best at knocking them down, and it’s great to have that weapon on the court.”

For his part, Wroblewski has made six starts, is shooting over 38 percent from behind the arc and has a 1.4 assist/turnover ratio. His minutes have generally gone down since Dale returned, but his effectiveness has not, and he’s now in more of a role that the coaching staff probably envisioned before the season.

“I think they’ve got a lot of confidence. They’ve always had the ability,” Wittman said of Reeves and Wroblewski. “With freshmen coming in, you never really know what you’re going to get in terms of their first college games. He’s been playing with great confidence lately, shooting the ball well. Geoff has shown the ability to shoot the ball, too, and it’s great to have many weapons.”

Wittman hasn’t stood still, either. He’s taken on more responsibility and improved his game aside from his shooting. In fact, his three-point percentage is down from his first two seasons, though no one will complain about making 40 percent from long range. He’s already posted a career high in assists with 44, which leads the team.

All told, it means the team has more options on the perimeter, especially since Wittman is even better handling the ball and passing. Dale sees a few possible lineup combinations with the development of Reeves and Wroblewski.

“It makes our team a lot more versatile in that way since I don’t always have to bring the ball up,” said the junior guard.

The player who is second on the team in assists is another reason to think this team is better. Senior Jeff Foote has developed a great deal since he first arrived in Ithaca, and the seven-footer has become much more than just a defensive presence. His offense has come to life, and he’s right behind Wittman with 42 assists as well. Wittman said they weren’t quite sure what they were getting at first, so it’s safe to say they’ve been pleasantly surprised

“We were kind of talking about, well, if he can just be in there and block some shots and rebound, that would be good, and we’ve gotten so much more than that,” said Wittman. “His ability to control the game on the block has been unbelievable. His ability to pass the ball – a lot of times, you get a big guy down there who can score, but if you double-team him he struggles. He does a good job of reading the defense and knowing when to score the ball and when to kick it out.”

Donohue added that NBA scouts have now been asking about Foote, who didn’t get any interest from any schools in upstate and western New York coming out of high school. That’s how far the big man has come.

“I got a chance to see him briefly in high school, as did every Division I, II and III program in our area, and no one thought he was good enough for their program,” said Donohue. “That is every level of college basketball.”

The Big Red did have some difficulty in non-league play at times this season. They didn’t play an easy schedule, having to travel to Boston for two NIT Season Tip-Off games and then the New York City area for two more, then going to Indiana, Syracuse, Minnesota and Saint Joseph’s. They went 3-1 in the NIT, then were unable to pull out wins in the other aforementioned road games. But they felt they got better all along, and the added development of two guards didn’t hurt.

“I think we’ve definitely been improving since the start,” Wittman reflected. “I think our schedule did that for us, really, playing a lot of good, athletic teams. I think it made us concentrate on some of our weak spots, mainly rebounding and communication on defense. I think we’ve come a long way since the beginning of the year.”

Wittman said the Big Red felt last year that they were going to get every team’s best shot once they got a few games into the Ivy League. Indeed, they established early on that they would be the team to beat, especially once they went to 3-0 with a win at runner-up Brown on the first full weekend of Ivy League play. That experience of being the hunted should only help now that they are in that position once again.

“I think we’re feeling confident, and with the experience that we had last year, we know what we have to do,” Dale said. “We know that each day we have to practice, we have to get better. I think that’s the mentality that we need going into each Ivy League game, every practice, every shoot-around, everything we do. We want to get better, and that’s what’s going to lead us to success.”

Donohue said that this year has been “a little bit of a different journey” for his team, maintaining something he has said all along. But one thing that doesn’t look to be any different is the destination. The Big Red are the favorites in the Ivy League and look to be in a better position than at this time a year ago.

NIT Season Tip-Off Notes From Boston College

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – We’ll have more a little later on Boston College, who advanced to New York with an 82-70 win over St. John’s in the nightcap on Tuesday in the NIT Season Tip-Off. They will take on Purdue in one semifinal, while UAB and Oklahoma won later in the evening and will meet in the other. But first, some notes on the other three teams that played at The Heights the past couple of nights.

Head Coach, or Head Manager?

With both his athletic director and MAAC commissioner Richard Ensor looking on, it seemed like Loyola (Md.) head coach Jimmy Patsos basically took himself out of the game against Cornell after he got hit with a technical foul near the halfway point of the first half. At halftime, he was never in his team’s huddle before they headed to the court, and he sat next at the end of the bench for most of the second half, rarely getting into the huddle in the timeouts. He sat closer to the managers than to his staff, and at one point he went into the stands during the game to talk to his athletic director.

After the game, Patsos, who has built the program from being a 1-27 laughingstock into a winner in the MAAC, said it wasn’t quite what it appeared.

“I was told that if I said one more word, that I was going to get thrown out of the arena,” said the fifth-year head coach, who added that he was not given a warning before the technical foul. “I do what I’m told. I said, okay, I won’t say one more word. I can’t afford to be thrown out and embarrass the school.

“I just thought, maybe I deserved a warning.”

The trip was a homecoming for Patsos, who grew up south of Boston in Scituate. He took his team to see Newbury Street, the Boston Public Library and the first subway system while they were in the area, which considering the crammed game schedule they have had to face is an accomplishment. The Greyhounds played two games in three days before this trip, which means by Tuesday they had played three games in as many days and four in five days due to circumstances that weren’t entirely in their control.

After winning 19 games last season, a school record in Division I, the Greyhounds have a tall task ahead in trying for a fourth consecutive winning season. They have three seniors but play a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and they looked the part of a young team in their two games at Conte Forum. They’re not lacking athleticism, but it’s clear their identity is far from being determined right now.

“We’re 1-3, but we’re young, we’re playing hard,” said Patsos. “I don’t have a go-to guy. It’s okay, I knew we were going to be young. We have some players coming in, we’re going to get older.”

The Geryhounds will travel to Charlotte next week for two more consolation games against James Madison and Davidson (which hosts).

It’s Not About Winning Now

Cornell has to go without two of their perimeter starters due to injury, so they certainly take a hit from a talent and experience standpoint. Reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Louis Dale is currently out with a mild hamstring injury, while senior Adam Gore is out at least for the non-conference schedule after tearing his ACL late in the summer.

Head coach Steve Donohue said Dale could have played, but they’re holding him out so he can get fully healthy. While they would like to win some games in non-league play, that isn’t what matters to the defending Ivy League champs. Donohue thinks Dale may be two weeks away from being in a place where it would be optimal to play.

“I think if this was an Ivy League weekend, he would have never sat out,” said Donohue. “With that being said, he may be two weeks away from risking it. There’s no reason to risk it right now, and we have so many games right now, we need 3-4 straight days in practice where he can go 20 minutes, the next day 30 minutes, the next day 40 minutes, and so on.”

The injuries leave junior sharpshooter Ryan Wittman as the only starter on the perimeter currently playing, and he almost carried the Big Red on Monday night before quietly leading them to their 82-72 win over Loyola (Md.) on Tuesday. Wittman scored 25 points, including 16 in the first half as he kept the Big Red in the game and got them the lead at times. He wasn’t quite as sharp in Tuesday, but still had 24 points.

“He does have to do a little more, and he’s taken harder shots this year,” Donohue said of Wittman. “He’s such a high percentage shooter, it’s almost to the point where I want him to take harder shots. He has to for us to be really good. He needs 15-20 looks a game, he needs to get to the foul line.”

The injuries give players like Jason Battle, Geoff Reeves and freshman Chris Wroblewski a chance to play more and have a bigger role right now, and there were some bright spots among them. Reeves has started all three games thus far and is averaging 35 minutes per game, and while he had six turnovers in the two games, he scored 20 points and looks to be developing into a better player. Wroblewski played well in the two games, handing out 10 assists with just four turnovers in 53 minutes.

That will help since the Big Red has a brutal stretch coming up. After next week’s two consolation games, they have road games at Indiana, Syracuse and Minnesota, a home date with Atlantic 10 contender La Salle, then head to Saint Joseph’s.

Big man Jeff Foote has put on some good weight since last season and had two night games in the stat sheet. He went for a combined 39 points and 15 rebounds, and he could have had more points if not for a few times he didn’t finish strong and missed shots he probably could have made. While the Big Red appear to have some good depth on the perimeter, that may not be the case up front as Brian Kreefer was the only reserve post player to see any action.

Cornell will play two more consolation games at St. John’s next week against Loyola (Ill.) and Eastern Michigan.

St. John’s Has Some Positives

As young as Loyola (Md.) is, St. John’s isn’t exactly a team full of seniors, either. The Red Storm start four sophomores alongside senior Anthony Mason, Jr., and eight sophomores and two freshmen are among the players who play appreciable or significant minutes.

Mason had a big game (24 points) in Monday’s win, especially in the early going, but other than a few plays on Tuesday night he was relatively ineffective with 12 points on 3-13 shooting (he did have six assists). Head coach Norm Roberts said he missed about a week of practice leading up to their season opener with a problem in his foot, and thought it might have bothered him Tuesday night with the team’s second game in less than 24 hours.

“I think his foot is bothering him, and I thought you could tell that by the way he was running, but he wanted to stay out there and tough it out,” said Roberts. “He’s going to be fine, but I think that limited him a little bit.”

The transition game led the Red Storm to Monday’s win, and they got it going for a time against Boston College on Tuesday night. With the athletes they have, it looks like that will be a real key for them this season, but another factor leading to it will also be one: rebounding. The Red Storm got a solid double-double from Justin Burrell (11 points, 11 rebounds) in Monday’s win, but he had just two boards in Tuesday’s loss and the frontcourt starters had just 12 total as the Eagles had a 42-28 edge on the glass.

“When you rebound it, you can get out and you can go, and we didn’t rebound it very well,” said Roberts. “And not only our big guys, our guards didn’t rebound it.”

Two more sophomores, D.J. Kennedy and Malik Boothe, were barometers of the team’s success. Both had an excellent game on Monday but struggled on Tuesday, with Boothe saddled with foul trouble that hurt him defending Tyrese Rice later in the game.

Overall, Roberts likes what he sees from his young guys. There’s clearly some potential in this group, with the toughness of Boothe and Burrell, the versatility of Kennedy and inside bodies like Sean Evans and Dele Coker.

“I think they’re progressing well. I think they’re all getting better,” said Roberts. “They’re really, really good kids and they want to do everything we ask them to do, and they want to get better. That’s a big, big key. As long as we keep doing this and gaining some confidence, we can get better and better as a team.”

St. John’s will host one of the consolation round pods next week and will take on Eastern Michigan and Loyola (Ill.).