By Aidan Joly
Can you believe it’s almost February? Another weekend down in college basketball, here’s a recap of the big storylines.
Cornell hands Princeton first Ivy League loss
This blogger attended two games in Central New York on Saturday, we’ll get into the first one first.
In the day game, Cornell took down Princeton to hand the Tigers their first Ivy League loss of the season and just the team’s second loss overall. The Big Red’s stifling defense led Cornell to an 83-68 victory.
Cornell played a full-court press defense the whole way and it really affected Princeton, which only made 19 field goals and shot just 32% from the field, including just 5-27 from three. Sophomore sensation Xaivian Lee did have 17 points to pace the Tigers, but 10 of those points came from the free throw line. Otherwise, he shot just 3-13 from the field. No other Tiger was in double figures.
Meanwhile, Cornell shot almost 58% from the field. Nazir Williams had 20 points and was one of four in double figures.
Brian Earl has been the head coach at Cornell since 2016 and this appears to be the biggest win of his tenure. It improves the Big Red to 15-3 on the season and 4-0 in the Ivy, tied with Yale for first place. This surely could have been a preview for the Ivy League title game in New York City on Selection Sunday. It also sinks any real chance Princeton had at an at-large bid. It now needs to win the conference tournament to see the NCAA tournament. These two will meet again in New Jersey on March 2.
Syracuse keeps stacking wins
In the nightcap, Syracuse took down NC State 77-65 at JMA Dome.
JJ Starling and Judah Mintz are becoming the dynamic duo that the Orange faithful hoped they would be and it really showed on Saturday night. Starling paced Syracuse with 26 points and was 9-17 from the field, while Mintz had 20 (14 coming from the charity stripe) and dished out nine assists.
This is still a middle-of-the-pack ACC team that took a bad loss at home to Florida State earlier in the week, but four of its six losses have come against Duke, North Carolina, Tennessee and Gonzaga. Not a bad resume, but it still lacks a quality win and is 1-5 in Quad 1 games. Its lone Quad 1 win was a road win against Pitt on Jan. 16.
In order to make the tournament, it will need to avoid bad losses and win at least a game or two in the ACC tournament. It lacks chances at great wins the rest of the way, with the only real one being a home game against UNC on Feb. 13. We shall see about the Orange in Adrian Autry’s first year at the helm.
DJ Horne had 15 points for the Wolfpack, while Casey Morsell had 14.
Ed Cooley returns to Providence
One of the most anticipated games of the regular season, former Providence head coach Ed Cooley made his return to Friartown as the head coach of Georgetown after dramatically leaving last spring.
It went about as expected, but credit should be given to Providence fans. It didn’t go overboard. There were some expletive-laced chants throughout the game, but nothing too awful.
And, Providence was able to get the last laugh, beating Georgetown 84-76.
At some point, hopefully things will smooth over between Cooley and Providence and he will be able to come back and be remembered for bringing the program to national relevance. In his decade-plus in Providence, there was a lot more good than bad. He’s a legend there, and eventually, deserves to be treated as such.
Kansas continues to get exposed in loss
Kansas took yet another loss on Saturday, dropping a road game to Iowa State 79-75.
This loss was not as bad as the West Virginia loss, but now the Jayhawks have lost two of the last three and three of the last six.
It continues to get inconsistent production from its best players. It had the four good players, but the question is who that fifth guy would be. It is beginning to be Johnny Furphy, who has scored in the double digits in four straight games, but Dajuan Harris was limited to nine points in 38 minutes on Saturday.
This can’t keep happening for the Jayhawks. They are 4-3 in Big 12 play and seem unlikely to win the regular season title now. It faces Oklahoma State on Tuesday before a big game against Houston on Saturday.
Memphis continues freefall
Memphis took a 97-88 loss to UAB on Sunday and has now lost three games in a row after previous losses to South Florida and Tulane.
The Tigers are now 4-3 in American Athletic play after a 4-0 start and looking like it, instead of FAU, was going to be the team to beat. Now, FAU is 7-1 in league play, back in the top 25 and sitting pretty, tied with Charlotte for first place.
This has not been the Memphis team we two or three weeks ago. The defense has been the culprit. Over the past five games, Memphis has given up 87.8 points per game after giving up 66.6 points per game in the five games before that (it went 5-0 in those games).
The Tigers are going to need to figure it out on the defensive end of the floor, or else the rest of this season could get ugly and it will be seen as a big collapse from Penny Hardaway’s group.
Dayton takes first Atlantic 10 loss
It was eventually coming, but Dayton finally took its first loss of Atlantic 10, falling to Richmond 69-64.
Richmond is now in first place of the Atlantic 10, sitting at 7-0 while Dayton falls to 6-1. This year’s Dayton team is about as close to the 2019-20 edition of the Flyers as you are going to get. Even with a loss, it stayed in the AP top 25 on Monday, sitting at No. 21.
Its at-large chances did take something of a hit on Saturday but as long as it doesn’t take more than one or two regular season losses the rest of the way, the Flyers should be fine. It will face George Washington on Tuesday and then St. Bonaventure on Friday, both at home.
AJ Hoops 