Basketball Preview | Shooting for three

Ivy League men’s basketball has been topsy-turvy the last couple of seasons.

From 1956 to 2007, Penn and Princeton won at least a share of the title 25 times each. Sure, every team but Harvard has won at least one title. But there’s no doubting the Tigers’ and Quakers’ dominance.

That is, until Cornell decided to crash the party.

The Big Red (21-10, 11-3 Ivy in 2008-09) have now won two Ivy titles back-to-back, breaking the Penn-Princeton dominance.

And there’s a good chance the Big Red might join elite company by becoming three-time outright champions, something that’s only happened four times.

They return over 90 percent of their scoring from last year and were unanimously picked to three-peat in the Ivy League preseason media poll.

So what’s been the key for the Big Red over the last few years?

“Like every good program it’s all based on the people that you have,” Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. “We’ve been fortunate to recruit great kids.”

Specifically, Donahue got two gems in seniors Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale. Wittman has led the Big Red in scoring the last two years while Dale was the 2007-08 Player of the Year.

Add in fifth-year senior and St. Bonaventure transfer Jeff Foote, last year’s Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, and the Big Red have the most accomplished senior class in the League.

All of this was just a dream of Donahue’s when he arrived before the 2000-01 season after 10 years as a Penn assistant coach.

The Big Red had just gone 45-60 (24-34 Ivy) in four years under Scott Thompson, including a last-place Ivy finish in 1999-2000. And their only Ivy title came in 1987-88 when they went 11-3.

Things weren’t exactly smooth right off the bat for Donahue as the team went 3-11 in Ivy play his first year.

“It wasn’t going to be a quick fix,” he said.

But after another tie for seventh place in 2001-02 at 2-12, Cornell’s stock has consistently risen in the Ivies, as the team improved from 4-10 to 6-8 to 8-6 (twice) to 9-5 and then finally to 14-0 and an Ivy title in 2007-08.

Before that year, Penn had won the last three titles and its loss in 2008 to Cornell was the team’s first since 1998.

The Quakers have a sense of respect for their New York counterparts, yet also have a twinge of jealous indifference after the dethroning.

“Good for them, they deserve [the praise]” Penn senior guard Darren Smith said. “But it’s a new year and we don’t really care about what they did last year or the year before that. Hopefully things will change.”

But just because the Big Red usurped the top spot in the conference, that doesn’t mean Penn views Cornell as enemy No. 1.

“I wouldn’t say with the emergence of Cornell there’s a heated rivalry,” Penn coach Glen Miller said. “Everyone wants to beat Cornell.”

Still, Smith — the only hoopster to play in Penn’s last win over the Big Red — thinks the Cornell contest “is a game the guys get up for.”

“They’ve come in and … taken the torch from us,” he said.

Come this winter, the Ancient Eight will find out whether or not that torch remains burning Big Red for the 2009-10 season and beyond.

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