Stanford Romps Cornell: Anatomy Of A Beatdown
Friday, March 21, 2008
Coach Donahue and The Big Red Bear pretty much sum it up
Stanford 77, Cornell 53, needless to say, I didn't expect this. I join, uhh.... myself, in the legion of surprised NCAA Tournament prognosticators after Stanford's domination of the Cornell men's cagers yesterday. The boys from Ithaca were a little more Telemachus than Odysseus against the Cardinal, it was ugly out there.
Within the first three minutes of the game, it was obvious that the Big Red was slower, shorter and much less athletic than their adversaries from Palo Alto. The Cornellians knew they had to hit a lot of 3's to have a chance, and came out firing. Firing and missing. I think the Big Red was 1-9 from three land at one point.
Despite shooting terribly from the get go, Cornell was hanging tough midway through the 1st half, and was only down 3 at 15-12 with 9:53 remaining. Things got worse, much worse. While Cornell continued it's poor shooting display, Stanford's guys started grabbing every offensive rebound and laying them in for easy points. By halftime it was 38-17, and the Big Red had shot a paltry 16% from the floor.
Did I actually watch any of the 2007-08 Cornell basketball squad's games before yesterday? No, I'm still waiting for ESPN Ivy to start round the clock coverage of the Ancient 8. I was shocked to see that Cornell's only 7 footer and possible answer (or so I thought) for the Lopez brothers weighed around 150 lbs. Jeff, let me buy you a Pinesburger the next time I'm in town. Foote battled to the best of his ability, but was just in way over his head and fouled out. 6'-9" starter Jason Hartford didn't fair much better.
Two things illustrate how bad things got. First, eight minutes into the 2nd half I started wondering if Cornell would be held to the least amount of points in NCAA Tournament history. They had 25 at the time, and it looked possible that they might not score again. Second, Stanford reserve guard, Kenny Brown, absolutely mutilated the Big Red. Brown averaged 4.2 points in 10 minutes per game this season. Yesterday he exploded for 18 points, scoring at will. Yes, Stanford's backups ran wild on the Big Red.
Let's hope for better luck in 2028.
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