Cornell on Red-hot streak over last nine

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For the last few months, Cornell has looked a lot less like the Big Red-faced embarrassment of the early 2000s and more like the Cincinnati Reds' "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s.

Pundits picked the team to finish first in the Ivy League preseason poll, and so far, the play has matched the hype. The Big Red have won six straight games and eight of their last nine.

And the one loss? A 14-point defeat to Duke - the No. 2 team in the country - in North Carolina.

This year marks the first time a team other than Penn or Princeton was picked to win the Ancient Eight since the media picked Dartmouth in 1988-89. Princeton ended up winning the league that year anyway.

The Big Red (12-5, 4-0 Ivy) have not just been defeating their opponents, but completely dominating them. The average margin of victory over their last six wins is 22 points, and, on the season, it's a league-best 7.1 points. Penn is worst, with a -10.5 point average differential.

Coach Glen Miller is very much aware of the Big Red's potent offense.

"They are an explosive offensive team and playing much better defense," he said.

When Miller goes through the laundry list of Cornell's strengths, it begins to sound like the perfect team - or at least one that could cause problems for its Ivy League brethren.

Cornell is shooting 40 percent from behind the arc, while still boasting big men that can score in the post. Seven players stand between 6-foot-7 and 7 feet.

To further compound potential problems for the Quakers, the Big Red shoot a league-best 77 percent from the line. Sophomore guard Louis Dale is 59-for-62 from the stripe on the season, good for a 95-percent clip and the best mark in Division-I college hoops.

"They are a very skilled offensive team," he said. "They maybe the most well balanced in the league. Plus, they have experience."

The Quakers' lack of experience has been well-documented this season. And the results of that inexperience have been downright ugly at times.

Penn and Cornell represent two of the three unbeaten teams in the Ivy League (Princeton is the third), and Saturday's battle could have huge implications for the league crown.

After what Miller calls "two modest wins in the Ivy League," he wants to see his team, "get to the level we want them to be at."

And considering that Penn won the league last year, that "level" likely involves the Quakers coming out on top.

 

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Offensive-minded Cornell now winning with defense

? Two months ago, in the aftermath of a troubling 76-73 loss to Colgate, Cornell coach Steve Donahue took a hard look at his team and a hard look in the mirror.

His version of fast-paced, high-scoring basketball tailored especially for this year's talented roster wasn't exactly producing the results he envisioned.

Cornell was 4-2 at the time, but to Donahue, the message was very clear.
Change was needed.

?I took responsibility because I thought I sent the wrong message,? Donahue said Wednesday. ?We were teaching and emphasizing the wrong things. I thought we could be a team that could score 85, 86 points a game and win a lot of games.

?But during that Colgate game I remember specifically feeling that we had to change, because I thought we were going to score about 80 points that game, and we weren't going to win that game, in my mind.?

With an 18-day layoff, Donahue and his staff went to work re-focusing the team's priorities. Half-court offensive and defensive sets became vital parts of practice again, like they had been during the first seven years of Donahue's tenure.

But the team was slow to react.

On Dec. 19, Cornell's first game back from break, Bucknell pasted the Big Red, 88-75. Guard John Griffin scored 27 points, and the Bison exploited Cornell's defense in every way imaginable in shooting what was then a season-high .547. A non-competitive 80-64 loss at Syracuse was also discouraging.

Collectively, that trio of games provided the wake-up call.

?We kind of took a step back and looked at ourselves and realized that we weren't going to win a whole lot of games playing the defense we were playing,? sophomore Ryan Wittman said.

Ever since, Cornell has been a different team defensively. Entering this weekend's much-anticipated home Ivy League series with traditional powers Princeton and Penn, the Big Red (12-5) has won eight of nine, including six straight and all four of its league games.

Cornell hasn't swept Princeton-Penn at home since 1988, when the Big Red last won an Ivy championship. But that's exactly what Cornell fans hope to see en masse, starting with tonight's tip at 7 with the Tigers (5-12, 2-0). Penn (7-12, 2-0) plays at Columbia tonight before visiting Newman Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Cornell's last three wins, all on the road, appeared to be the signature of a team living up to lofty expectations.

Against Columbia, Brown and Yale, three programs considered league title contenders, the Big Red won by a convincing 18, 11 and 21 points. Columbia's lowly .340 shooting percentage was the highest in that three-game stretch, and the Big Red succeeded in taking a pair of all-Ivy caliber guards, and one all-Ivy forward, out of the equation.

Brown's Damon Huffman was held to four points on 2-of-12 shooting, while Yale's Eric Flato managed just two points without a field goal. In the Columbia game, Cornell forced forward John Baumann into a six-point night with no field goals.

That's a far cry from the Bucknell game, and Griffin's backbreaking 27-point effort.

?If one guy's just playing defense, there's only so much you can do against Huffman and Flato and (Brown's Mark) McAndrew and all those guys, especially when they run so much stuff for them like dribble handoffs,? Wittman said. ?Our (big guys) did a great job corralling guys like Huffman and Flato and not letting them do what they wanted to do. We also had help-side defense. Earlier when we lost to Bucknell and Colgate, teams were picking us apart.

?We were just worried about hugging our man and making sure our man didn't score, meanwhile people could go one-on-one and score easy baskets on us. Now we're really playing as a unit.?

Jeff Foote's emergence has helped.

The Spencer-Van Etten graduate and 7-foot center not only clogs the interior and protects the rim, but also has shown a knack for taking charges.

?He's been a huge help,? Donahue said.

Along with Foote, sophomores like Wittman, point guard Louis Dale and forward Alex Tyler have physically matured. Junior Adam Gore, who sat out the 2006-07 season with a knee injury, has transformed himself into a hard-nosed perimeter defender.

Despite the improvement, Donahue is far from satisfied.

?If we don't improve, then we will be losing basketball games,? he said. ?Because I think college teams in general, the teams that win in February and into the March season are always improving.?

Cornell hasn't beaten Penn in 10 years. On Saturday, the Quakers will carry the torch of three consecutive league titles and 18 straight wins over the Big Red into Newman Arena.

Depending on Friday's outcomes, Saturday could be a meeting of the league's final two unbeatens. Cornell knows it isn't relying on its offense anymore.

As recently as six weeks ago, that wasn't the case.

?That's what's going to win games,? Wittman said. ?When we're in a tough game, last five minutes, that's what's going to win us games ? defensive stops.

?I think we've realized that we've bought into that.?

Notes: Gene Nighman, the manager of Cornell's Athletic Ticket Office, said Saturday's game will ?definitely sell out.? He said there are a couple hundred tickets still available, but they are expected to go quickly.

Cornell's last sellout for a men's basketball game was against Princeton in February of 2004. Cornell also sold out a home game against Georgia Tech earlier that season.