Season Preview - Cornell Big Red

Projected Finish: 1^st Place

Last Season Conference Record: 14-0 (1st)
Last Season Overall: 22-6 (.786)
RPI Last 5 years: 267-210-207-169-65

Review & Outlook:

Cornell ran the conference table last season, the first squad to do so since Penn in 2002-03, and are in search of their first back-to-back conference titles in school history. They’ve stack the deck in their favor by returning four starters, three of which received All-Ivy recognition. Point guard Louis Dale, the reigning Player of the Year, and forward Ryan Wittman, one of the best shooters in the country should vie for POY honors. Jeff Foote 7’0 and Alex Tyler 6’7 will be commanding presences in the paint. Adam Gore was another all-conference candidate, but went down to his second ACL injury in September. It remains uncertain if he will be back for the second half of the year, or petition for a 5^th year.

I’ll give Cornell a 90% chance at taking the Ivy title this year, if they can stay healthy, and they might even grab a 14 seed in the tourney if they can knock off one or two of their non-conference foes. The icing on the cake? Not only will Cornell bring back the same starting five next year, but they also add UMass transfer Max Groebe, who from day 1 is an Ivy Player of the Year type of talent. Throw in an experienced bench and this is a Cornell team that will be a factor for the next couple of years and possibly long-term.

BACKCOURT: A+
BENCH/DEPTH: A
FRONTCOURT: B+
INTANGIBLES: A

Starters Returning:

Ryan Wittman Jr., F, 6-6, 210 15.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.5 apg
Louis Dale Jr., G, 5-11, 180 13.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 4.9 apg
Adam Gore Sr., G, 6-0, 180 10.2 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.4 apg
Alex Tyler Jr., F/C, 6-7, 235 8.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.9 apg

Starters Lost:

Jason Hartford, F/C, 6-9, 245 7.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 0.6 apg

Others Lost:

Collin Robinson - USC transfer left the team last year after 13 games for “personal reasons”, transferred back to USC to become a broadcast major

Projected Starting Lineup:

PG: Louis Dale 5-11 Jr.
SG: Chris Wroblewski 6-0 Fr.
SF: Ryan Wittman 6-6 Jr.
PF: Alex Tyler 6-7 Jr.
C: Jeff Foote 7-0 Sr.

Key Reserves: Marc Van Burck 6-11 Jr. C, Jason Battle 6-4 Sr. SG, Andre Wilkins 6-5 Jr. SF, Geoff Reeves 6-5 Jr. SG, Brian Kreefer 6-7 Sr. SF

Digging a little deeper

Strengths:

• Top four scorers returning, including the reigning POYs Louis Dale.
• Cornell named 4 co-captains for this year’s squad. (Battle, Gore, Kreefer, and Mullen). That says everything you need to know about this teams cohesion
• Playing well at Duke (an 81-67 loss in early January) was a huge confidence builder last year. Another very tough non-conference schedule this year (including Indiana, Syracuse, Minnesota, St Johns, and St Joes) will provide them an opportunity to get their game right before facing much softer Ivy League opponents.
• They were an NCAA top 10 team shooting both 3-pointers and free throws last year. Moving the 3pt line back a foot will not phase sharpshooters Whittman and Gore, while also creating more space to operate for the slashing Dale and low post presence Foote.

Weaknesses:

• Adam Gore will miss the entire non-conference schedule, and may be out for the year, as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered in September.
• Louis Dale has sat out preseason practices thus far with a hamstring injury. If he can’t go 100%, or re-injures himself during the year things could go downhill quickly.

Key Factors:

• Jeff Foote, the 7’ senior postman will get more minutes and touches with the graduation of Jason Hartford. He needs to step up and be a force inside on the offensive and defensive ends. Taking an extra 100 free throws a day wouldn’t hurt either.

Incoming Class:

• Chris Wroblewski - 6’1 guard from Illinois with a good all around game.
• Alex Hill - 6’5 forward with a soft shooting touch. Soft is the key word.
• Marc Van Burck – 6’11 transfer who sat the bench at Colorado, then played a season at a Utah community college. With his size, he may be called upon to eat up minutes on defense if Foote grabs a couple of fouls early.
• Max Groebe – 6’0 guard transferred in from UMass, and will be eligible next season. He got some decent minutes as a Freshman, and should fill the gap next year after Gore graduates.

Cornell Roster

Read More