Big Red offense heats up March

For the first time since 1979—and for the first time ever since the tournament expanded to 64 teams—an Ivy League squad has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA men’s basketball championships. Cornell (29-4, 13-1 Ivy) was finally able to make it past the first round of the Big Dance, thanks in large part to its versatile offense.

The Big Red’s first game of the tournament was against Temple (29-6, 14-2 A-10), which was seeded fifth in the East region. While the connection between Cornell head coach Steve Donahue and Temple head coach Fran Dunphy (Donahue was an assistant for Dunphy at Penn for 10 years) drew a lot of media attention, this matchup was already an intriguing one. The Owls were third in the nation in defending the three, while the Big Red was—and still is—leading the country in 3-point percentage, so it became a question of what would win—offense or defense?

The answer: offense.

In the first half of the game, Cornell was only 2-of-7 from beyond the arc, but managed to bank in an astounding 91.7 percent of its 2-point field goals. Big Red senior center Jeff Foote made three of those 11 2-point buckets in the first half, as the Owls were focusing primarily on Cornell’s perimeter shooters.

“If Foote was going to hurt us down low, that was a 2-point shot, and we would have lived with that,” Dunphy said in a post-game press conference.

Still, despite holding the Big Red to a below-average 28.6 percent from three-point land, the Owls found themselves trailing 37-29 at the half.

And things only got worse from there.

Just over a minute into the second half, Cornell senior forward Jon Jaques nailed a trey to put his team up 40-30. Then another senior forward, this time Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Wittman, knocked down two 3-pointers in 14 seconds to extend the Big Red’s lead 46-34.

“Yeah, I just kind of got in a rhythm for a few possessions there,” Wittman said. “I’ve got to give credit to my teammates to set great screens to get me open.”

Temple crawled back within six with 15:31 to play, but another Wittman trey swung the momentum back towards Cornell.

“Any time we were thinking about making a run as we just talked about in the first part of the second half we were pretty good on the offensive end, and we just couldn’t stop them,” Dunphy said.
The Big Red shot a much more normal 43.8 percent from downtown in the second half, pouring in 41 points to take the 78-65 victory. Three of Cornell’s starters—Foote, Wittman, and senior point guard Louis Dale—all finished with 16 points or more.

While Wittman had 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, it was Dale that led Cornell on the offensive end. The floor general not only added 21 points, but also dished out seven of the team’s 10 assists.
Ball movement was key to the Big Red’s success against the Owls.

“You know what? We’re a very good experienced passing team, and I sensed that in the A-10 they haven’t seen many teams like us that would maybe take advantage if you go under a ball screen or a triple handoff,” Donahue said.

Cornell had little time to celebrate its first-ever NCAA tournament victory, as it had to prepare for another defensive-minded team—the No. 4 seed Wisconsin (24-9, 13-5 Big Ten). And once again, Cornell’s offense overpowered its opponent’s defense, as the Big Red dismantled the Badgers 87-69.

The Big Red opened the game with an 11-1 run and never looked back. Though Cornell was leading 43-31 at the half, Foote was noticeably absent on offense as he did not attempt a singe field goal in the first 20 minutes.

Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan took the opposite approach that Dunphy took and decided instead to key in on Foote.

“We said [before the game] … we’ll limit Foote’s touches in the low post,” Ryan said in a post-game press conference.

However, Cornell’s versatile offense still found ways to score, knocking down four of its eight 3-pointers.

“That’s how good they are,” Ryan said. “They can beat you in so many different ways.”

Much like the Temple game, the Big Red never let up in the second half, outscoring the Badgers 44-38.

Cornell finished with a 61.1 percent field goal percentage and went 8-for-1 from beyond the arc. Four of the Big Red’s starters finished in double figure, as Jaques finished with nine points.

Dale led all scorers with a career-high 26 points, while Wittman finished with 24. Wittman came into the game with 1,994 career points and became only the fifth Ivy League player ever to eclipse the 2,000 mark. This was an accomplishment that went largely unnoticed, emphasizing the unselfish nature of the team.

“I just think we have so many unselfish guys on this team,” Dale said when asked about the key to Cornell’s offensive execution. “Nobody really cares how it gets done, and we come out to make plays.”

Next up for the Big Red is No. 1 seed Kentucky. Though it’ll be a challenge, Cornell has all the pieces—a seven-footer, four strong perimeter shooters, and a team-first attitude—to put up a fight against the Wildcats.