What we're up against...

We've poked some fun at Cornell this week.... their star Mark Coury, their lack of a good mascot, and every one's favorite Cornell alum, Andy Bernard. That's just in our nature, folks. If we were playing Temple or Wisconsin tomorrow night instead, jokes would have been made at their expense, as well.

With that said, I think we all know that Cornell is a decent team, and they'll come ready to play tomorrow night. They'll also have the backing of the majority of people in attendance. Playing in Cornell's backyard (Syracuse is only about an hour away from the Cornell campus), expect their faithful to be loud and proud. Meanwhile, you'll have everyone else in the building rooting for the underdog. I'm sure we'll have our typical strong following there, but for all intents and purposes, this will be like a road game for our team, especially when compared to the support we had in the SEC tournament and the opening rounds in New Orleans.

Cornell is lead by senior forward Ryan Wittman. Although he's 6'7", don't expect the kid to be banging with Patterson and Cousins down low. He's more comfortable away from the basket, usually raining threes from beyond the arc. On the season, he's shooting an impressive 43% from out there, and because of that, he's not afraid to pull the trigger early and often. In a game earlier this season, Wittman shot 17 three-pointers, connecting on 7 of them, in Cornell's overtime victory over Davidson. If he gets on fire tomorrow night, it could be a long evening and disappointing end to our post-season run.

However, The Big Red do have a guy that will bang down low, and no, it isn't Mark Coury. 7'0" and 265 lb center Jeff Foote is averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds a game. He's not terribly gifted, but he's big, and sometimes, that's all you need. Still, I like DeMarcus' chances with him one on one. Still, Foote is good at dishing the rock to open shooters, so the Kentucky defense will have to be ready at all times. Of course, that goes without saying, but open shooters have been a problem for our team before.

Running the Big Red offense is senior point guard, Louis Dale. Like Wittman, Dale is a gifted shooter, hitting nearly 40% from 3 point range on the season. Averaging 5 assists a ball game, Dale can also move the ball around pretty well. At 5'11" he has little chance of driving the ball in too deep, but has proven he can make a quick stop for a mid range jumper. Wall and Bledsoe will have to stick right with him. After the game, they should be able to tell Coach Cal what type of gum he's chewing.

This trio will not be intimiated by the Wildcats, and whether they should be or not is irrelevant. Cornell has already played some high quality opponents this season, so Kentucky won't be able to throw much at them that they haven't seen already. Here's an impressive list of some of their non-conference opponents so far this season: Alabama, Seaton Hall, Davidson, UMass, Kansas, Syracuse, Temple and Wisconsin.

With all that said, I don't think Cornell has enough talent to hang with Kentucky for a full forty minutes. However, it is March after all, and they don't call it madness for nothing.