Cornell all-time moment No. 9: Cornell defeats Bill Bradley – The Blaine Aston shot

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Cornell Box Score

We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Cornell is next because once upon a time, Barton Hall was a buzzer-beater biosphere. 

Cornell has a few impressive wins in its history. Defeating defending national runner-up Ohio State in 1940, taking down Kentucky 92-77 in 1966 and beating a Cal team featuring two future NBA players, Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray, in 1992. (Spoiler alert: Some big wins have intentionally been left out. They will be covered later in Cornell’s top 10 all-time moments.)

Arguably, the most impressive of them all is what occurred on Jan. 16, 1965.

There’s plenty of healthy debate over who is the best team in Ivy League history. The 1979 Penn team? One of Jim McMillian’s Columbia teams? The 1998 Princeton team? 2010 Cornell?

Sam MacNeil’s 1965 Cornell team did finish 19-5, but will never be in this conversation. On the other hand, the ‘65 Princeton team, led by future Hall of Famer Bill Bradley might start and end the debate.

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Cornell all-time moment No. 10: Hiring Steve Donahue as head coach

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Pictured above (from left to right): Former Cornell head coach Steve Donahue, former Cornell president Hunter Rawlings, and athletic director Andy Noel
Pictured above (from left to right): Former Cornell head coach Steve Donahue, former Cornell president Hunter Rawlings, and athletic director Andy Noel

We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Cornell is next because, well, it’s the last school left. (But not least!)

It won’t be a surprise to anyone that a good portion of the top 10 moments in Cornell basketball history will be dedicated to the three-year run from 2008 through 2010 that culminated in its first ever Sweet Sixteen berth. A lot had to happen and even more had to go right for a school with no discernable basketball pedigree to overtake the highest stage in the conference, and at times the nation. The stone that started the ripple effect was bringing the architect of the transformation to Ithaca, New York.

It was the fall of 2000 and the Cornell men’s basketball team was beginning the new century moving in the wrong direction. It had been 11 seasons since its last conference title in 1988, and the program had only finished with a winning record twice. The path toward relevance again took a detour when after four seasons and a 45-60 record, head coach Scott Thompson was forced to resign to focus on his battle with colon cancer. Whoever would take his place would inherit a team that after being picked to finished third in the league managed only a 3-11 conference record, good for dead last.

That man was 38-year-old Steve Donahue, who was officially hired on Sept. 6, 2000. It would have been a nice Cinderella story if Coach D, with a fresh motion offense, a few of his patented whistles, and some elbow grease took this group from worst to first immediately, but we all know it didn’t go down that way.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 1: The 1957-58 NCAA Tournament run

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Of course, Dartmouth’s top 10 countdown ends at this post’s conclusion because nothing gold can stay.

The 1957-58 Dartmouth squad is quite simply one of the best teams in the past 60 years of Ivy hoops.

The team finished 22-5 for an 81.5 winning percentage, eighth-best in the country. Two of those wins were NCAA tourney wins.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 2: Securing 1959 NCAA Tournament berth

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because Rudy LaRusso once had a cameo in an episode of Gilligan’s Island. 

A season after winning the Ivy League championship and winning two games in the NCAA Tournament, Dartmouth vied with Princeton for the 1959 Ivy crown. The teams split their meeting that season, the only loss either squad suffered.

So on March 7, 1959, the Indians (before they were the Big Green) and Tigers matched up in a one-game playoff at Yale to determine who would represent the conference in the NCAA tourney.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 3: Beating Yale to win CIT bid

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because Gabas Maldunas delivers.

Our No. 3 all-time Dartmouth moment just so happens to be the same as the No. 8 all-time Harvard moment.

Dartmouth went into its regular season finale on March 7, 2015 needing to defeat Yale to finish 14-14 and thus qualify for the College Invitational Tournament (CIT), for what would mark the program’s first postseason appearance since 1959.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 4: Jim Barton graduates as Ivy second-highest scoring leader

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because Rachel Dratch, Buck Henry and Mindy Kaling all went there. Comedy cred for all time right there. 

Continuing on from our previous Dartmouth all-time moment, another Jim Barton-focused item, we turn to Barton’s place as the second-greatest scorer in Ivy League history.

Barton graduated after four seasons in 1989 having scored 2,158 points, second only to Bill Bradley (who scored 2,503 in just three seasons). Barton’s career clip of 20.7 points per game ranks second in school history (behind Paul Erland ’72) and ninth in league history, a clip that not a single player in the conference has matched since then.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 5: Jim Barton posts 48 points at Brown in 1987

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because we’re keeping it kosher. 

There’ll be another post forthcoming on Jim Barton’s scoring exploits, but suffice it to say for now that he was a great scorer.

That talent was on full display Feb. 7, 1987 when Barton, then just a sophomore, notched 48 points on 18-for-29 shooting in a 98-96 overtime loss to the then-defending Ivy champion Bears.

Barton’s 48 points set a modern Ivy League single-game scoring record among players not named Bill Bradley that still stands. Again, more on Barton still to come in this countdown, but a scoring performance like this one simply could not be ignored.

 

Dartmouth all-time moment No 6: Doggie Julian retires as Big Green winningest coach

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because green and white really were Doggie colors.

Boston Celtics fans know Alvin “Doggie” Julian as the coach that preceded Red Auerbach, but Julian made a more memorable name for himself with the Indians (they weren’t the Big Green until 1974).

Julian coached Dartmouth for 17 seasons from 1950 through 1967, winning back-to-back Ivy League titles after the formation of the modern Ivy League in 1956. Dartmouth went 76-27 and 44-12 in conference play in the Ivy League’s first four seasons, never finishing lower than second. Dartmouth nabbed a NCAA East Regional Final appearance in 1958, led by Rudy LaRusso.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 7: Sea Lonergan nabs third straight first-team All-Ivy selection

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because, well, see previous post.

After a 1996-97 season in which senior Sea Lonergan led Dartmouth to a second-place Ivy finish, Lonergan was obviously deserving of a third straight first-team All-Ivy selection, and he was awarded just that.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 8: Beating Penn at the Palestra in 1997

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because Sea (pronounced ‘Shay’) is a great first name, .

Sure, Dartmouth has beaten Penn at the Palestra other times, but it never meant more than when the Big Green pulled it off Feb. 8, 1997, defeating the Quakers 74-70 in overtime.

At that time, Penn was coming off winning four straight Ivy titles and 4-1 in league play, while the Big Green were 4-2 and looking to sustain momentum (despite a two-point loss the previous night to eventual Ivy champion Princeton) from a veteran team featuring senior forward Sea Lonergan, senior center Brian Gilpin and senior guard (and excellent ball distributor) Kenny Mitchell.

It was Lonergan, a three-time All-Ivy selection, who made an odd game-saving move late in the contest.

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