Home of the Roundball Poets
No Nazir Williams, no problem.
Despite missing the standout sophomore guard due to injury, the Cornell men preserved and overcame a difficult perimeter shooting afternoon to defeat Brown, 80-73, Saturday at Newman Arena.
Cornell coach Brian Earl was forced to alter the starting lineup for the first time all season with Williams’ absence, inserting junior guard Chris Manon.
The Achilles heel of the Cornell men finally felled them Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion.
The Big Red allowed the Harvard Crimson to shoot 60% from the field as they fell 95-89 for their first Ivy League road loss of the season.
Cornell (14-5, 4-2 Ivy) showed its typical full-court pressure, but it didn’t faze Harvard (12-8, 3-3). The Crimson attacked the rim, scoring 42 points in the paint and 10 off the fastbreak.
Senior standout Chris Ledlum showed why he’s one of the best in the Ivy League, scoring 24 points and hauling down nine boards to lead the way. Senior guard Idan Tretout tallied 17, junior guard Sam Silverstein notched 16, junior forward Justice Ajogbor pitched in 12 and senior guard Luka Sakota added 10.
ITHACA, N.Y. — With 12:06 remaining, the Cornell men faced a 68-53 deficit to Yale and seemingly had no answers on the defensive end. The Bulldogs were shooting nearly 69% from the field and were dominating the interior.
But all of a sudden, something clicked for the Big Red. Cornell finished the game on a 41-14 mega-run to defeat the defending league champions 94-82 and move into solo second in the Ivy League.
“We don’t necessarily care being down a lot,” Cornell coach Brian Earl said. “Yale’s a great team. They scored on us a lot, but the waves of us coming and never stopping I felt was good. Our guys hung in there.”
ITHACA, N.Y. — In a game between the two Ivy League men’s basketball unbeatens, something had to give. On Saturday, it gave in favor of the Princeton Tigers.
Princeton outscored Cornell 12-5 in the final four minutes to win 75-68 and take an outright league lead. Mistakes added up for Cornell as the Tigers found a way to get the Big Red out of rhythm on offense.
“[Princeton] just slowed us down, mucked it up a little bit and I don’t think we reacted well to it,” Cornell coach Brian Earl said. “Just some really dumb plays. Just let it get away from us a little bit — too much one-on-one.
After a week-long break for the holidays, Cornell men’s basketball returned home to defeat Binghamton, 86-70, to wrap up the 2022 portion of the schedule. It was a straightforward win for Cornell. Sophomore guard Nazir Williams hit eight of his 10 shots for a career-high 23 points and junior guard Chris Manon scored 16 off the bench.
HAMILTON, N.Y. — Cornell men’s basketball coach Brian Earl refused to call Tuesday’s game a statement win.
But he didn’t downplay the importance of it, either.
The Big Red led for nearly 38 minutes en route to a 91-80 victory over Colgate, the two-time defending Patriot League champion an hour and a half up the road.
“It’s good to beat a program like that who has been built so much,” Earl said postgame. “We studied them a little bit and made our guys aware that there might be some open shots, but you’ve got to be unselfish and get it to the right guys, and they did that.”
ITHACA, N.Y. — After consecutive losses to Miami and Syracuse of the ACC, the Cornell men needed a bounce-back victory.
They got it in the biggest way.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — One thing has become apparent for the Cornell men the last two seasons: They’ll live and die by the three-pointer.
On Saturday against Syracuse, the Big Red got burnt.
Cornell led by as many as 11 points early in the first half, but a 2-for-17 start from behind the three-point line in the second half plagued the Big Red as they fell, 78-63, to the Orange.
“I thought we had pretty good shots, we just couldn’t make them,” coach Brian Earl said. “It just didn’t go our way at all.
ITHACA, N.Y. — After an uptempo first half saw the Cornell men score 45 points and shoot 53% from the field, Canisius managed to slow the Big Red down and claw back into the game. Jordan Henderson hit four consecutive three-pointers for the Golden Griffins and Tahj Staveskie hit two to cut their deficit down to five with 1:46 remaining, but the Big Red came up with timely stops in the final 90 seconds to defeat Canisius, 79-70.
“We pulled away a bit in the beginning and just couldn’t finish the job,” said Cornell coach Brian Earl. “We got a little bit nervous, especially in the beginning of the second half just not taking what we had in front of us.
“We’ve got to take a look at where some of the errors were. [Henderson and Staveskie] are good players, and we were sort of hoping they wouldn’t get open and they did and they made it.”
Nazir Williams notched his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, pacing a balanced scoring output for the Big Red. Guy Ragland Jr. also scored 12 off 3-for-5 perimeter shooting and Greg Dolan had 11 points and five assists. Isaiah Gray, Keller Boothby and Chris Manon each had 10.
“Tonight was a little different night, I really couldn’t make any shots,” said Williams, who went 5-for-9. “Just trying to find out what else I can do on the court if I’m not scoring – rebounding, passing and everything turned out fine.
Williams noted that playing defense can generate more energy on offense.
“Even though I’m not hitting shots, I can still always get to the rim to find my teammates, and my teammates hit shots,” Williams said.
Williams hit a contested runner with 1:13 left to put the game away after Canisius trimmed the lead to single-digits.
“We really needed that shot,” Williams said. “Down the stretch, we wanted to get good shots and I felt like I had an advantage that play.”
Cornell led by as many as 15 points in the second half. The Big Red opened the second half shooting 3-for-13 from the field, which prevented them from putting away the Golden Griffins, who went 3-for-15.
Buying into the system
Earl introduced an uptempo version of the Princeton offense last season after the Ivy League did not participate in athletics in the 2020-21 season. The Princeton offense is typically slower, not a 10-second-style system.
Earl spent the off year creating and implementing the system to prepare for the return of Ivy basketball. But he needed the team to buy into it and believe in him.
“Coach implemented a system last year – we fully bought in,” Williams said. “You’re really starting to see the great lengths we can take this, just everybody feeding off each other and sharing the ball, making shots.
“Most of us are sophomores and juniors now, it’s like we were all freshmen last year because the sophomores didn’t get to play [during 2020-21]. Just getting that experience [last year], a lot of guys averaging double-digit minutes. We just lean off our leaders if we need them, Greg [Dolan], Marcus [Filien], Sean [Hansen] — they’ve all been here before.
Cornell lost Sarju Patel, Kobe Dickson and Dean Noll to the transfer portal after their senior seasons last year. Jordan Jones entered the portal after his junior year but isn’t playing collegiately this year.
Earl added six newcomers ahead of this season, five of which are freshmen. The lone transfer, Max Watson, from Salt Lake Community College, is the only newcomer regularly playing in Earl’s system. The rest of the core this season played valuable minutes in 2021-22, which is an advantage under Earl’s unique system.
“Experience is always a thing that gets you to understand how what you want to do and what you want to stay away from,” Earl said. “It was good to get some help last year. A lot of teams have been able to scout us a little bit, too, so it’s been a little bit harder in that way.
“[Watson] has hit the ground running and we have some younger guys who are still learning stuff.”
Cornell returns to action on Saturday, when it faces Monmouth in West Long Branch, N.J. The game is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on FloHoops.
ITHACA, N.Y. — Dartmouth held a one-point lead at the half, but Cornell shot 60% in the second half and fended off several late rallies to win the Ivy League opener on Sunday, 79-71.
“It was exactly what the Ivy League is going to be like,” Cornell coach Brian Earl said. “[Dartmouth] knew exactly what we were going to do and we had to fight through it. They are a veteran team. It’s a pretty good win.”