NCAA Sweet Sixteen – Cornell Big Red Poised For Big Upset Over Kentucky

The Big Red of Cornell aren’t your average #12 seed. If you think their first and second round wins over Temple and Wisconsin (respectively) were upsets, then obviously you haven’t seen this version of the ‘Big Red Machine’ play a game this season.

Ivy League Player Of The Year Ryan Wittman Is The Key Contributor For Cornell

To advance to the Sweet Sixteen, they impressively shredded Bo Ryan’s Badgers Sunday for 87 points against a team that had allowed an average of only 56.0 points per game this season – 2nd best in the entire NCAA. The team is led by Senior Guard and Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Wittman (son of legendary Randy Wittman), who became just the 5th player to score 2,000 points in league history during the win over Wisconsin. Famed sports author and Washington Post columnist John Feinstein compared Wittman to a bigger version of Steve Alford on his Sunday night radio show and he’s even convinced that Wittman, along with 7-foot senior Jeff Foote, will both be NBA players.

Friday’s win over Temple was especially gratifying for Cornell’s head coach, Steve Donahue, who knocked out his former mentor and good friend Fran Dunphy, the Owls’ bench boss. Donahue was an assistant under Dunphy for ten years at Penn, who later encouraged Donahue to take the Cornell job when it became available a decade ago.

Head Coach Steve Donahue Brings Out The Best In His Players

Just how good is Cornell? You could argue that if they played in the PAC 10 this season – or even the perennial powerhouse ACC – they would have been in position to win either of those conferences, probably even finishing a close 2nd to Duke in the latter. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim admitted earlier this year that Cornell could have competed with the big boys in the Big East this year. One of Cornell’s 4 losses this season came early on against the Orange, 88-73.

The Big Red’s success this season is a direct result of their chemistry, maturity and veteran leadership on the court. They start four Seniors – including Wittman and Foote – with three more soon-to-be-graduates coming off the bench. Having now won the Ivy League for three consecutive years, they’re are also able to draw on past NCAA Tournament experience, which include first round losses each of the past two seasons (last season to Missouri and to Stanford in 2008). It’s abundantly clear this year’s squad has learned from their past mistakes. CBS analyst Clark Kellogg said during Sunday’s telecast that “every shot is a good shot for these guys”. He wasn’t kidding. Cornell completed their road to the Sweet Sixteen by shooting over 61 percent from the field vs. Wisconsin – a winning recipe for success no matter what seed you’re ranked.

Wins over Wisconsin and Temple are one thing, but is Cornell legitimately poised to upset the #1 ranked Kentucky Wildcats in the Sweet Sixteen? The answer – most definitely.

Don't Expect A Confident Cornell Squad To Be In Awe of Kentucky

Don’t think for a minute that David – aka Cornell – will back down from Goliath – aka Kentucky. “No one is going to intimidate this team”, said Senior Guard Louis Dale, who led the Big Red with 26 points in Sunday’s romp over Wisconsin. For starters, the Big Red are battle tested. Back In January, Cornell visited one of the toughest places to play in all of College Basketball – Phog Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS – to face the top-ranked and undefeated Kansas Jayhawks. That night, the Big Red put a huge scare into the #1 team in the nation, leading at the half and for most of the game, before finally succumbing 71-66. To put that potential upset into perspective, Kansas had won 50 consecutive games at Allen Fieldhouse entering that contest.

But the biggest factor potentially weighing in the Big Red’s favour is location, location, location. Syracuse’s Carrier Dome will play host to Thursday night’s East Regional between the ‘Cats and Cornell, a mere 57-mile distance from their esteemed campus located in Ithaca, NY. Expect the crowd in attendance to be very much pro-Cornell, which should provide a huge boost for the underdog Ivy Leaguers. They can also draw off their experience of playing at the Dome earlier this season – during the aforementioned loss to the ‘Cuse back in late November.

CBS Analyst Jay Bilas picked Cornell to go to the Elite Eight prior to the tournament starting. Despite taking heat at the time, Jay’s prediction – which included a Cornell upset win over Kentucky – no longer seems so far-fetched.

A BIG RED ‘FOOTE’-NOTE

Jeff Foote originally signed to play at St. Bonaventure, but he decided to transfer after the coaches who recruited him all left for other jobs. Lucky for him that his mother is a nurse at a hospital in Elmira, NY, where she happened to look after a Cornell basketball player who suffered a serious neck injury in practice in 2006. After befriending a number of the Cornell players and coaches who came to visit their injured teammate, she realized that there would be an opening on the team – and told the coaches that she had a 7-foot son who played basketball but currently had transfered with no team to play for. I’m honestly not making this stuff up. Wittman called their new big man ‘The Missing Piece’ to their team.

Foote Is A Fan Favourite in Ithaca