ITHACA, N.Y. – In 2006, when then-Cornell basketball player Khaliq Gant checked into a local hospital in nearby Elmira to rehab an injury, one of the nurses who attended to him was Wanda Foote.
The two got to talking. Wanda informed Khaliq she had a son who played basketball. His name: Jeff Foote, a rail-thin 6-foot-9 product that wasn't on anyone's mind, much less Cornell's radar.
After walking on to St. Bonaventure and not playing at all during the 2005-06 season, Foote was looking at new colleges. She implored her son to check out Cornell, less than 20 miles from where he played high school basketball at Spencer-Van Etten High School.
Most didn't know who he was then, but now they do.
Foote, who was churned away by Division III programs prior to college, sprouted to 7-feet, added 57 pounds of muscle, and five inches to his vertical.
And he's become Cornell's most important player.
It's not senior Ryan Wittman, the sharp-shooting forward who has been on the scouts' radar for a while (there were whispers around the arena Wittman will be invited to participate in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament). It's not senior point guard Louis Dale, who orchestrates the Cornell attack with NFL quarterback-like precision.
If you don't believe that Foote is the team's most indispensable player, well then hear what long-time Big Red head coach Steve Donahue said after his team's 86-50 stomping of Harvard at Newman Arena in one of Ivy League's most touted matchups since the Penn-Princeton clashes from the mid 1990s.
"This was a game where we really had to utilize Jeff," said Donahue of Foote, who amassed 16 points, nine rebounds, blocked three shots and dished out four assists. "Even when he came here, I had people in Division III say ‘What are you doing with that kid?' They said he's not going to be good.
"Now, we have NBA teams talking about him. He's more than that, if he was 6-7, he'd be a very good player. Seven foot makes him really special."
The game plan for Cornell (18-3, 4-0 Ivy League) was put in place from the get-go. Foote used his size and pivot moves which he's developed over the past three seasons to his advantage. He exploited the big men that guarded him - Doug Miller, Keith Wright and Andrew Van Nest – in different ways. If it wasn't by his passes out of the slow-developing double teams, he beat them with soft baby hooks, and emphatic dunks. His dunk with 9:26 left in the first half nullified a 7-0 Harvard run where the Crimson pared down the lead to 19-17. After his dunk, the Big Red went on a 16-0 run; game, set, match.
"There are certain games where we talk about it and this was a game we had to (utilize Jeff) because (Harvard) scrambles around so well on defense that if you continue to do (play their style), it wears you down," said Donahue.
"We have the luxury just slowing things down, dump it inside and make them guard Jeff and at this point in his career, he's extremely effective scoring the basketball, making good decisions, and we wanted him to look to score."
Foote was surprised somewhat the double teams weren't coming quickly.
"I felt like I had a little bit of advantage and I put down that little extra strength and that helped me out," said Foote, who's averaging 12.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. "I think I was able to get into my moves and lack of a double team really helped out."
Harvard (14-4, 3-1 Ivy League), which was slow to double-team Foote because the presence of Cornell's long range bombers – the Big Red hit 12-of-27 on three-pointers, led by Jon Jacques with four makes – couldn't offset Foote's impact. Even when their star, Jeremy Lin, who was bottled up for most of the night – he committed eight turnovers in the game - before scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half, drove inside, Foote was there to block one of his shots or force several errant passes that often landed up on the sidelines.
"I think Foote's the key to their team," said Harvard coach Tommy Amaker. "He does so much dirty work, scores on the inside, is a great passer and very unselfish big man.
"I'm very fond of his game, and I'm an admirer of how he plays and I mentioned that to my kids after the game. He's a guy that makes the biggest difference and certainly played that way tonight."
Cornell, which has won 16 of 17 and its only loss during that stretch was a narrow loss to Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, is now in the driver's seat for a third straight Ivy League title. And after getting a No. 14 seed in last year's NCAA tournament and losing to Missouri in the first round, the Big Red are not worried about seeding but a few of the players wanted enough votes to crack the Top 25.
"It will be a great achievement for our team," said Dale, who finished with 13 points, five assists and no turnovers, about cracking the Top 25. "It's something that would be great because we're worthy enough to be in the Top 25."
Jacques spoke like a coach but opened up at the end of his answer when asked about cracking the polls.
"Like coach says all the time, the ratings don't matter to us; we want to focus on ourselves and get better each day," said Jacques. "The rankings are up to (the media) but it would be cool to be in the Top 25."
Donahue responded to Jacques's answer with "you get the real answer in the second part of his answer."
Laughter broke out in the press room.
These are definitely good times in Ithaca.
But in order to climb higher mountains, the Big Red will need Foote to continue his amazing metamorphic development.
"If you guys saw him as a senior in high school, then you will see what I've seen," said Donahue. "I have never been around a kid who's made such great strides on his game. People say ‘Who's responsible?'
"He's responsible. No one has worked harder to be better. He came in college and no thought he could play at any level and I think he used that as great motivation."
Below, some afternoon news and notes...
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