The numbers: 6-11 overall, 1-2 Ivy, 263rd RPI, 262nd Sagarin, 251st Pomeroy
The recent results: lost 58-57 vs. Columbia (1/21)
The upcoming schedule: at Columbia (1/28)

Gant injured
Khaliq Gant remains hospitalized following a neck injury sustained in practice on Tuesday. While the sophomore does have feeling in his extremities, doctors are waiting for the swelling to go down to get a full understanding of the injury. Gant’s teammates are understandably concerned, with a number of them making the one-hour trip to Elmira to visit him in the hospital.

Offensive struggles continue
Cornell shot 39.1 percent on Saturday in the loss to Columbia, marking the eighth time the Big Red has shot under 40.0 percent in 17 games. The performance dropped Cornell’s team shooting to just 41.5 percent on the season, and the problem is primarily inside the arc. The Big Red is shooting well from three (37.4 percent, good for 71st in the nation) and a healthy 38.7 percent of its field goal attempts are three-point attempts. However, the rest of the offensive numbers are not good. Cornell ranks 308th in two-point shooting percentage (42.5 percent), 245th in turnover percentage (23.2 percent), 287th in free throw rate, and 308th in offensive rebounding (26.1 percent). When you add all that up, you get the 297th-ranked offense in the nation.

Collins doing less himself, contributing more
With the offense stagnating, Lenny Collins has had problems this season with trying to do too much. The preseason Ivy Player of the Year candidate attempted an average of 14.1 field goals per game in Cornell’s first nine games, shoot just 31.5 percent from the field in that span. He has refined his shot selection in the eight games since, averaging 10.6 shots per game and connecting on a much healthier 44.7 percent of them. He’s been doing a better job of getting his teammates involved, too, as his assist average jumped from an average of 2.2 per game in his first nine outings to 3.9 in the last eight contests. Strangely, Collins’s three-point shooting has been strong all year, as he is shooting better from outside the arc (38.0 percent) than he is inside it (34.2 percent).

Gore continues to shine
Adam Gore garnered his fourth Ivy Rookie of the Week award on Monday. After a quiet game in the loss at Penn, Gore bounced back with good shooting games against Princeton and Columbia. He has attempted more three-pointers than anyone in the Ivy League and is shooting a league-best 45.0 percent from the arc. But before Brown’s Scott Friske and Harvard’s Drew Housman go off in search of butterfly ballots for the Rookie of the Year voting, Gore needs to improve his passing and defense before he can be considered a lock for the honor.

Bench roles fluid
Steve Donahue has been going with different mixes of reserves so far this season. The regular rotation is 11 players deep, and a twelfth player, Jason Mitchell, has played in several close games as well. After Jason Hartford, who plays over 20 minutes a game off the bench, no other reserves average more then 2.5 points per game. Gant, David Lisle, Ugo Ihekweazu, Brian Kreefer, and Jason Battle all have scoring averages between 1.8 and 2.5 points while playing an average of 7.6 to 14.4 minutes per game.

Hartford back and making an impact
It’s strange to see the loss of a reserve affect a team’s offense so profoundly and perhaps this is just coincidental, but Cornell averaged just 51.6 points in the five games Jason Hartford missed with a broken wrist, compared to 63.5 in games Hartford has played. Despite playing just 21.8 minutes per game, the JuCo transfer ranks third on the team in scoring average at 9.4 points per game and second in rebounding at 4.8 per contest. Hartford is shooting very well from the floor (53.4 percent) and has shown a very nice touch from deep (44.4 percent on three-pointers). With production like that, it’s only a matter of time until he starts getting the majority of minutes at one of the frontcourt spots.

Statistical oddities
Ihekweazu probably should shoot more. The sophomore transfer from Wofford is hitting at a 65.2-percent clip from the field on the season. He definitely should get to the line more, as he has attempted just four free throws in 128 minutes this year and has missed all four attempts… Lisle also isn’t doing much at the line, attempting just two free throws in 198 minutes… The only Cornell players with positive assist-turnover differentials are Graham Dow (44-34), Gant (18-10), and Kreefer (4-3).