Game of the Week
Cornell (3-5) at Bucknell (5-1) – Saturday, December 17, 1:00 pm
When we last saw Cornell it was pulling out a close win at home over Lehigh to halt a three-game losing streak. With exams out of the way, the Big Red opens the next phase of its non-league schedule with a tough test. Bucknell is 5-1 with wins at Syracuse and DePaul, and looks to be one of the top mid-majors in college hoops this season. Yale found that out firsthand when it got stampeded by the Bison 87-60 at Sojka Pavilion back on November 26. Bucknell has been doing it with defense, ranking 41st in the nation in defensive efficiency. That’s bad news for a Cornell team that has been struggling offensively, averaging just 48.3 points over its last three games. However, the Big Red is coming off a 41-point second half in the win over Lehigh, so perhaps some of those issues have been resolved. Cornell will be without the services of 6-9 forward Jason Hartford, who is sitting out the next several weeks after suffering a broken wrist in the Syracuse game on November 9. Last year Bucknell triumphed 59-44 at Newman Arena and won the year before in Lewisburg as well.

Line of the Week

12.10.2005 at Binghamton   TOT-FG 3-PT   REBOUNDS                 FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT TP A TO BLK S MIN Ruscoe, Luke………………….. F 7-12 2-3 0-0 0 13 13 16 7 4 0 1 39
Impressing – Princeton’s hot start against Wyoming. The Tiger offense had been beyond stagnant so far this season in the first half, but Princeton exploded for 37 first-half points against Wyoming. Those points would come in handy in the second half when Wyoming made its run. – Penn keeps it respectable at Cameron. It was hard to tell how much of it was good defense by the Quakers and how much was poor offensive execution by the hosts, but Penn didn’t get blown out at top-ranked Duke. Now if it can repeat that trick at home against third-ranked Villanova… – Ben Nwachukwu. Prematurely dismissed as overhyped by many after a lackluster freshman year, Big Ben has really developed offensively for Columbia this season. The Lions aren’t particularly adept at feeding the post, yet Nwachukwu is averaging 13.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. – Brown offense gets untracked. Entering the game shooting 36.2 percent and just 17.0 percent from the outside, the Bears hit 25 of 52 (48.1 percent) shots and 9 of 17 (52.9 percent) three-point attempts at Binghamton. Most impressive was the balance, with five players scoring in double figures. – David Whitehurst. The sophomore went 5 for 7 from outside the arc at Duke. After not looking for his own shot much as as a freshman, Whitehurst is shooting 40.0 percent from distance on the season and could be the outside threat Penn needs with Eric Osmundson in a shooting funk.		Distressing – Harvard without Cusworth. The Crimson’s loss at Lehigh was its third straight defeat after a 5-0 start, the last two of which came without the injured Brian Cusworth. With the big man’s availability up in the air and four games in the next ten days, Harvard needs to figure it out quickly. – Casey Hughes’s streakiness. The junior wing has been wildly inconsistent thus far, scoring 13 or more points three times, only to tally five or fewer points on three occasions. After scoring a career-high 22 against Wagner, Hughes went scoreless in the Thursday loss at Hartford. – Columbia’s close shaves. The Lions have played a very soft schedule and generally have managed to be just slightly better than their weak opposition. Four times this season Columbia has held a double-digit lead in the second half, only to allow the other team back in the game. – Jim Goffredo’s shooting slump. With Cusworth out, Goffredo seems to be pressing, and the results have not been pretty. The junior guard hit 14 of his first 36 attempts (38.9 percent) from three-point range, but in the losses at BU and Lehigh he went 3 of 19 (15.8 percent) from the outside. – Princeton’s slow start against Temple. For the fourth time this season Princeton found itself in the locker room with fewer than 20 points on the scoreboard. A much better second half, followed by a strong first half on Saturday helped cover up that ugliness, but this is not a good trend for the Tigers.