Big Red relishing big run
Big Red is ready for Big Blue.
Cornell has smashed all ideas that the basketball program is simply a bunch of Ivy League brainiacs who should be thrilled with just playing one game in the NCAA tournament.
The Big Red are enjoying their moment as the dominant darlings of the tournament.
They pounded single-digit seeds Temple and Wisconsin by 31 points to become the lowest seed to advance this year to the round of 16 and the first Ivy League team to reach the second weekend of the tournament since 1979.
And the 12th-seeded Big Red (29-4) did it with the type of fun and flair often missing in the serious survive-and-advance mood of March.
The upperclassmen told quirky stories about their video-game playing and "Lost" parties in the house they share and affectionately call the Dog Pound. A lost wager forced one player to give a ridiculous nonanswer to the first question of an off-day news conference that baffled reporters. When basketballs were nowhere to be found on the ball rack, Cornell ran its layup line without them and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.
So why stop now?
Up ahead for Big Red, the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats (34-2) in the East Regional semifinal Thursday in Syracuse, N.Y., about an hour from Cornell's campus.
"I don't know how much extra motivation you need in the Sweet 16, trying to play to go to the Elite Eight," forward Ryan Wittman said Tuesday. "If that's not motivation already, you shouldn't be here."
Cornell is undaunted by the challenge of playing the Wildcats after testing its mettle against the big boys of basketball.
The Big Red pushed then-No. 1 Kansas to the limit in Allen Fieldhouse before losing 71-66 in January. They trailed by only six at halftime in an 88-73 loss at Syracuse in November — at the Carrier Dome where they'll play Thursday.
They easily knocked off the Atlantic 10 champion Owls and shot 61 percent from the field to dominate the Big Ten's Badgers last weekend in Jacksonville, Fla.
Cornell won't back down against any team — even the Wildcats and their seven NCAA championships. Cornell vs. Kentucky is no mismatch between one program known for brains and another for basketball brawn.
Cornell is tournament-tested and stocked with seniors who have reached three straight NCAA tournaments and played in a slew of big games in intimidating environments.
Kentucky is just the latest favored team in Big Red's way, not the first.
"We want to advance; we expected to advance," Wittman said. "That was one of our goals. We just didn't want to be here."
