iogyhufi
Masters Student
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02-06-24 10:55 AM - Post#362836
This Saturday, Yale ends its first circuit through the league with Cornell at home. This one really is a clash of styles, I think. Cornell finds success when they can get out in transition, and they're very good at finding opportunities to do so, including off of missed shots. When taken with their 5-out offense, this explains why they're first in the country in 2P% despite having no real size. Forcing them into a half-court game won't ruin them on offense, though, since they have five threats on the floor at all times.
The other end is where the clash of styles really comes into play. Cornell, it seems, simply cannot guard size in the half court. Like, at all. They have a bottom-30 d2P%, and they've struggled to guard any and all size they've gone up against in conference (including big slashing 4 men like Neskovic and Okpara). They compensate by forcing turnovers on almost 20% of opponents' possessions.
Yale really doesn't seem like a good matchup for Cornell on paper. They have legitimate size at 5, a slashing 4 who's excellent in the post, they play really slowly, make a lot of shots, and turn the ball over at the 27th-lowest rate in the country. When you add to that that Cornell is really quite bad on the defensive boards, things start to look dire.
But then again, you could've said a lot of those things about Princeton, to say nothing of the fact that it's really tiring to play for 40 minutes against aggressive defense like Cornell plays. This is a game where you're really glad it's not on the tail end of a back to back.
I'd expect Yale to win if they play well, but Cornell is more than capable of kicking the door down if a team leaves it open. It'll require a lot of discipline from the Bulldogs.
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james
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02-06-24 07:22 PM - Post#362850
In response to iogyhufi
hopefully the house of payne will give us another -15 margin bc we might need it
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james
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02-07-24 06:57 AM - Post#362860
In response to james
i hope wolf is a help here against pressure. theoretically having 5 ball handlers on the floor should be.
conversely i would expect cornell to try to trap him and get underneath his handle various ways.
step 1 us to stay out of foul trouble.
step 2 is to avoid or overcome said traps
his advantage he has is seeing over it so pushing the ball through him shld be helpful to all.
its a good point on getting worn down. if i remember correctly thats mind of what happened in ithaca last year when it came unglued in 2nd half.
hopefully one week of dedicated preparation + wolf+ cutting/spacing help us exploit
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mountainred
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Re: Cornell 02-08-24 04:22 PM - Post#362885
In response to iogyhufi
This Saturday, Yale ends its first circuit through the league with Cornell at home. This one really is a clash of styles, I think. Cornell finds success when they can get out in transition, and they're very good at finding opportunities to do so, including off of missed shots. When taken with their 5-out offense, this explains why they're first in the country in 2P% despite having no real size. Forcing them into a half-court game won't ruin them on offense, though, since they have five threats on the floor at all times.
The other end is where the clash of styles really comes into play. Cornell, it seems, simply cannot guard size in the half court. Like, at all. They have a bottom-30 d2P%, and they've struggled to guard any and all size they've gone up against in conference (including big slashing 4 men like Neskovic and Okpara). They compensate by forcing turnovers on almost 20% of opponents' possessions.
Yale really doesn't seem like a good matchup for Cornell on paper. They have legitimate size at 5, a slashing 4 who's excellent in the post, they play really slowly, make a lot of shots, and turn the ball over at the 27th-lowest rate in the country. When you add to that that Cornell is really quite bad on the defensive boards, things start to look dire.
But then again, you could've said a lot of those things about Princeton, to say nothing of the fact that it's really tiring to play for 40 minutes against aggressive defense like Cornell plays. This is a game where you're really glad it's not on the tail end of a back to back.
I'd expect Yale to win if they play well, but Cornell is more than capable of kicking the door down if a team leaves it open. It'll require a lot of discipline from the Bulldogs.
As a Cornell fan, it is hard to disagree with this analysis. The Big Red's worst two losses last year -- a year in which Cornell played national semi-finalist Miami -- was at Yale and to Yale in the ILT. While Cornell has improved their 2pt defense from putrid (bottom 10) to horrid (bottom 30), Yale is a match-up nightmare for my guys
Cornell hasn't won in New Haven in over a decade and I don't see that changing unless Yale turns in a clunker like Weber St. or Fairfield.
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iogyhufi
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Re: Cornell 02-10-24 03:27 PM - Post#362958
In response to mountainred
Man, the officiating in this game is just friggin' terrible. But Yale isn't helping its own cause, and Cornell is hitting their jumpers and taking advantage of their opportunities. Yale needs to clean things up a lot.
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james
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02-10-24 03:53 PM - Post#362964
In response to iogyhufi
gross
call the hook
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james
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02-10-24 04:36 PM - Post#362973
In response to james
tough to defend when they hit the 3 ball and we dont. have us on skates
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iogyhufi
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02-10-24 05:08 PM - Post#362982
In response to james
Jeepers creepers, what a game. Cornell couldn't miss for a large portion of the game, and Yale had nothing going from three. What a gutsy win. But boy had Yale better clean things up before any and all rematches.
Cornell's offense is legit. Very impressed by Manon and the guards especially.
Solo first in the league!
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james
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02-10-24 05:18 PM - Post#362983
In response to iogyhufi
cornell is v tough to defend. but we have showed some onions at home.
now need to do it on the road
but cornell is well engineered for the playoffs. will wear guys out
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james
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02-10-24 05:24 PM - Post#362984
In response to james
my greatest fear was wolf foul probs.
we got wolf and knowling actually w issues.
the calls on wolf on the perimeter were really vexing.
the good news is he moves his feet so well for his size that they were ticky tack nonsense and not hand or feet checks.
i think thats encouraging given how he has to defend against cornell and princeton.
knowling was a defensive victim of a good player who was on fire and simply hard to defend.
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iogyhufi
Masters Student
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02-10-24 05:45 PM - Post#362985
In response to james
Having a 50% ORB% while limiting Cornell to just two ORBs is the one area of the game I think Cornell could possibly do better at in a rematch - on O and D they were pretty much firing on all cylinders. (Obviously their interior D was poor, but that's kind of just who they are at this point, and they did very well to harass Knowling and Wolf.) Cornell is bad on the boards but that was exceptionally poor.
Agreed on Manon - he's gotta be all-Ivy 1st team this year.
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james
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02-11-24 11:23 AM - Post#363092
In response to iogyhufi
i might forget what its fully like to be young and taking the bus to the back to backs
but cornell is well positioned given its style and the dreaded ithaca/harlem swing
the good news is we have them on a friday. but columbia is growing up too
penn/princeton got harder bc penn is better w the guard coming back.
will be a tough grind.
i do think cornell is well positioned in the playoff bc of its style and neither yale nor princeton plays a deep bench.
if you rely on the 3 ball too much. even tougher
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iogyhufi
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02-11-24 11:51 AM - Post#363101
In response to james
These next two weekends will separate the men from the boys, so to speak. 3-1 would almost certainly sew up the 1 seed, 1-3 would almost certainly pit the 1 seed out of reach. The NY B2B is my biggest concern - Columbia is way too good to take lightly, and tired legs after a long, late bus ride might struggle to keep Columbia's dynamic backcourt tamped down. (The Ps are what they are; Yale has the one they absolutely have to have first while they're fresh, the game at Jadwin is really just upside from a standings perspective.)
I really would like to have the 1 seed this year, in no small part because I want no part of Cornell in the first round. Even if you win, that's an exhausting game to have to come back from and play the next day.
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james
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02-11-24 12:00 PM - Post#363104
In response to iogyhufi
after further review maybe you want cornell on a saturday. playing
on friday they can beat you 2x in one weekend.
very hopeful the crowd support at columbia for that game and any prospective playoff will reflect the enthusiam of the last few weekends. we used to have huge support there in the early 2000s when the jones bros faced off.
clearly james is touched by the crowd. that photo of him practically crowd surfing is iconic. and brings back fond memories of 2001-2
josh hill rip
go bulldogs
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iogyhufi
Masters Student
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02-11-24 05:03 PM - Post#363127
In response to james
I'm blown away by the crowds they've gotten recently. I was at the Princeton game, and it was just awesome seeing people packed in the SRO spots on the rail. The loudest I've ever heard JLA was in 2021, when Azar was fouled on the buzzer-beating 3 he banked in with Yale down 4 to Harvard (before the refs iced him), but the Princeton game had some close-second moments.
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james
Masters Student
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02-11-24 05:33 PM - Post#363128
In response to iogyhufi
they remind me of times gone by before all the other changes in the world in terms of entertainment options.
as a former teammate said to me..." i take my sons to most of the games. we get great seats. and its such a high quality product."
yet for some reason attendance was seemingly worse as the team and league trended up (relatively)over 25 yrs.
i would have said the lack of a local presence was so confusing amd frustrating but i think that could be improving. watching the sears, onis, atkinsons and wolfs (etc etc) against this competition is so great in that historic gym. hopefully we saw an inflection point that sustains.
anyway dont think it was all lost on james. hence his reaction.
now we get to face the flip side the next two weekends.
i think the ILT at columbia will be awesome.
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james
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02-11-24 05:39 PM - Post#363129
In response to james
lastly i see some comments on x from local husky fans abt wolf and the fun of games in payne whitney.
of course these guys want hurley to acquire wolf in the free agent NIL mkt.
but thats a topic for another day
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james
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02-11-24 05:49 PM - Post#363130
In response to james
i lied.
i am actually pretty concerned abt NIL for the best players in this league.
if you have true nba/euroleague potential which by my estimation would include-wolf, lee, pierce and maybe a few others who are less well known at this point-its worthy of consideration.
the $s are large and the ROI is at least debatable.
i dont think the alumni bases or league gets it yet.
unlike some of the other team fanatics on here i actually cheer for this league and would hate the talent ceiling to be undermined.
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iogyhufi
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02-11-24 06:44 PM - Post#363136
In response to james
Agreed, although I think the example of the League players who have gone before might dissuade them. There aren't that many spots in the NBA and there are a lot lot lot of highly talented players. Just getting a chance to prove yourself in the NBA is hard enough. My hope is that the degree would be valuable enough that, so long as the IL manages to put together some semblance of an NIL presence, we could manage to keep our top players around.
On a semi-related note, Danny Wolf is on pace to break Evan Boudreaux's record for most double-doubles in a single conference season.
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