With an impressive outside shooting performance, Cornell ran away with a 95-76 victory over Brown to clinch the outright Ivy title and the league’s bid to the NCAA tournament.
Now all the attention shifts to seeding. Before the loss at The Palestra, the Big Red had a ceiling of an 8 or 9, but with that loss to a 300+ RPI Penn team, Cornell’s best case scenario is likely a 10 or 11.
Throughout Championship Week, we’ll be here to break down the action as it pertains to the Big Red’s seeding expectations.
Let’s start with the 14 conference tournaments (with current leaders in parentheses) that should remain irrelevant unless the Big Red falls during the league’s final weekend:
America East Conference (Stony Brook)
Atlantic Sun Conference (East Tennessee State)
Big South Conference (Coastal Carolina)
Big Sky Conference (Weber State)
Big West Conference (UC Santa Barbara)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (Morgan State)
Northeast Conference (Quinnipiac)
Ohio Valley Conference (Murray State)
Patriot League (Lehigh)
Southern Conference (Wofford)
Southland Conference (Sam Houston State)
Southwestern Athletic Conference (Jackson State)
Sun Belt Conference (Troy)
The Summit League (Oakland)
The following two conference tournaments have regular season leaders who would likely be close to Cornell on the S-Curve, making them potential enemies:
Mid-American Conference (Kent State)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (Siena)
That leaves 14 conference tournaments where the Big Red has allies that could bump it up the S-Curve. Any upset winners of these conferences not otherwise in at-large consideration would grab a bid and a seed below Cornell and take one away from an at-large team that possibly would have been seeded above the Big Red. The enemies in each conference are listed in parentheses for all conferences except those with more than four teams who potentially would fail to help Cornell by capturing the title.
Atlantic 10 Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
Big 12 Conference
Big East Conference
Big Ten Conference
Colonial Athletic Association (Old Dominion, William and Mary, VCU)
Conference USA (UAB, UTEP, Memphis)
Horizon League (Butler)
Missouri Valley Conference (Northern Iowa, Wichita State)
Mountain West Conference (New Mexico, BYU, UNLV, San Diego State)
Pacific 10 Conference (California, Washington, Arizona State)
Southeastern Conference
West Coast Conference (Gonzaga, St. Mary’s)
Western Athletic Conference (Utah State, New Mexico State)
UPCOMING GAMES (E=Enemy)
March 3, 2010
None
March 4, 2010
None
March 5, 2010
Northern Iowa 55 (E), Drake 40
Wichita State 73 (E), Missouri State 63
VCU (E) 66, Delaware 49
March 6, 2010
Northern Iowa (E) vs. Bradley
Wichita State (E) vs. Illinois State
Butler (E) vs. UW-Milwaukee
George Mason vs. VCU (E)
Old Dominion (E) vs. Towson
William & Mary (E) vs. James Madison
Siena (E) vs. Manhattan
March 7, 2010
Gonzaga (E) vs. San Francisco/Loyola-Marymount
St. Mary’s (E) vs. Portland/San Diego
AUTO BID S-CURVE
61-65 (16s)
Stony Brook
Quinnipiac
East Tennessee State
Lehigh
Jackson State
57-60 (15s)
Morgan State
UC-Santa Barbara
Troy
Coastal Carolina
53-56 (14s)
Weber State
Wofford
Oakland
Sam Houston State
52 (13s)
Murray State
45-51 (12/13s)
Kent State
Cornell
Siena
Utah State
At-Large (1)
At-Large (2)
At-Large (3)
