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While Cornell basketball is only one of the 36 varsity sports at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York it is the one sport that most Americans think of when their minds wander to Cornell athletics (which is not very often). Cornell basketball made history for the duration of the 2009-2010 season by cracking into the top 25 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll for the initial time in decades. In fact, the last time the Cornell Big Red hoops team was rated in the top 25 Harry Truman was in office and the date was January 3, 1951. That date marks over 59 years amid appearances in the top 25 polls. Cornell University is no stranger to top 25 rankings, notwithstanding up until this season their distinguishing trait was the annual US News and World Report publication that ranks the top universities in America (Cornell finished number 15 in the 2010 edition). The very fact that Cornell has had such a long absence from the upper echelon of college basketball has galore devout hard court fans scratching their heads and marveling if the rating is deserved or merely the result of victories versus weak opponents in an unusually weak year for dynasty college hoops programs. Uninformed skeptics need not look further than the resume Cornell has built up through the basi two thirds of the season to realize that the program has in fact been turned around beneath head coach Steve Donahue. Through January, 2010 the team already has victories over Alabama, St. John’s, Drexel, and a Harvard team touting a NBA chance (Jeremy Lin). Despite a resume with impressive victories it was probably a narrow loss that genuinely put Cornell back on the map. On January 6, 2010 Cornell lost on the road to the number one ranked Kansas Jayhawks in a game where Cornell led until the last minute of play.
Perhaps the most general aspect of college basketball is that each March teams from schools of all sizes and basketball backgrounds converge to play in a national tournament where teams like Cornell with fixed college basketball success have the prospect to compete alongside with respect to history rich universities like Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA. Cornell basketball in truth does have fixed but recent experience in the NCAA Tournament. In both the 2008 and 2009 tournaments Cornell qualified for the Big Dance but was ousted in the introductory round each year (by Stanford and then Missouri). Prior to 2008 the former Cornell requests to take part to the NCAA Tournament came in 1988 and 1954. Interestingly, in spite of four NCAA Tournament appearances (1954, 1988, 2008, and 2009) the Cornell program has a collective 0-5 record in the tournament. The curious five losses in four appearances is the result of a quirky 1954 24 team bracket that required Cornell to play a solace game in spite of a narrow introductory round loss to Navy 69-67. Cornell followed that introductory loss up by falling short to North Carolina State 65-54 shortly thereafter. The Cornell basketball program hopes to reverse their post season woes by getting their introductory NCAA Tournament victory sooner rather than later. Coach Donahue, who inherited a last place Ivy League team in 2001, hopes that when it comes to his Cornell basketball team making NCAA Tournament appearances that the third time is the charm for breaking their postseason winless streak. |
