- Cornell's "secret scrimmage" against Siena is mentioned on CBS Sports.
- MLive.com refers to Western Michigan's visit to Cornell on November 10 as a "test" for the Broncos. It is the season opener for both teams.
- If you missed it last week, a definite worthwhile television watch is ESPN's documentary from the 30 for 30 series, "The Journey Home" - the story of Dr. James Naismith's original rules of basketball. Now Dr. Naismith did invent the concept of the game of basketball in 1891. But as we previously posted on the Origin of Basketball at Cornell University, the sport came to Cornell just one year later in 1892. Cornell University's Director of Physical Culture, Edward Hitchcock, Jr., played a role in how the game is played today with a limitation of the number of players on the court to five on five. See Sports Illustrated, January 31, 1955 issue and Naismith's book, Basketball It's Origin and Development (page 72).
6 comments:
Hey, I don't want to cause you to suffer a coronary seizure but your archnemesis, the 1998 Princeton basketball team, was today named by Sports Illustrated as the #13 "most influential" college basketball team of all time, a list topped by 1964 UCLA, 1979 Indiana State and Michigan State, 1966 Texas Western and 1974 North Carolina State.
Since the selection criterion is not the best or greatest, but rather the most influential on the history of college basketball, I'm actually surprised that SI did not list 1989 Princeton whose near-upset of Georgetown really inaugurated the modern television-driven era of March Madness.
One could very easily argue that 1989 Princeton saved the automatic bid for all low profile conferences after 1986 Brown and 1988 Cornell were blown out in the NCAA first round.
More importantly, it was the ratings bonanza which ESPN achieved with Princeton-Georgetown which unambiguously showed ESPN and CBS executives the commercial appeal of David and Goliath tournament games, launching the modern era in which CBS stands prepared to go live to any game in which a low seed threatens a high seed late.
The Princeton offense was very influential on basketball, so Princeton belongs on the list. But the 1998 team was listed only because it was Pete Carril's last Princeton team. His prior teams all ran the same offense, year in and year out. So, the '98 team was really no different from his other squads.
CBB, not sure if you're right there about Carril.
As a Cornell alum and fan, I've followed Ivy League hoops for decades, and going strictly off the top of my head, I think '96 was Carril's last season when they beat UCLA (backdoor pass from Lewullis to Goodrich) in a classic.
If I'm right, it was Carmody who was Princeton's coach in '98.
You are correct, but Carmody was running the same exact system and using Carril's recruits (Goodrich, Henderson, S.Johnson, Mastalgio etc)
I'm not following your logic.
You said that Princeton '98 was included only because it was Carril's last year.
Now you are saying that it was only because Carmody used the same offense?
This is a list of the most influential teams, not the best teams.
The '98 Princeton team was included because of the offense they ran and the influence it had on the NBA.
When choosing among the Princeton teams, SI chose '98 because it was the best example of what Pete Carril created.
This was Pete's offense and Pete's recruits.
Carmody may have drove the car, but everything under the hood was Pete's.
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