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In a critical game in the fight for an Ivy Madness berth, the Cornell men’s offense never made the trip up to New Haven.
The Big Red scored fewer than 60 points for the second consecutive game, losing 76-58 to Yale for their fifth loss in the last six games
The loss takes Cornell out of the driver’s seat for the final spot in Ivy Madness.
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.
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.”
Most people overlooked Cornell ahead of this season. Picked seventh in the Ivy League poll, many expected the Big Red wouldn’t be much of a factor and that the team would likely win few games.
But a month into the season, the Big Red are well on their way to 10 wins before conference play even starts.
Nobody expected the Big Red to start 8-1. With nearly a brand new roster, Brian Earl’s squad has already won more games than the entire 2019-20 season, a team led by now-Syracuse star Jimmy Boeheim.
“It’s really fun,” senior forward Kobe Dickson said after a win over Canisius last week. “I love these guys [and] it’s nice to be winning with them.”
The NCAA’s new, long awaited policy of allowing players to use their name, image and likeness for commercial profit extends to the Ivy League, which says it has adjusted rules to allow players to take part in NIL activity.
Former Columbia Lions Tai Bibbs and Randy Brumant quickly signed a deal to advertise for GCDC, a Washington, D.C. grilled cheese bar, per Dafter having transferred from Morningside Heights to Howard to join former Columbia assistant coach Kenny Blakeney.