Penn's Rally Against Yale Highlights Ivy Basketball Slate

By | February 7, 2006

Ivy League basketball stepped in into high gear this past weekend, as all eight squads faced conference opponents for the first time this season.

Yale had a shot at knocking off Penn – the final undefeated squad in the conference – but the overwhelming crowd inside Penn’s home court at The Palestra and a revitalized Quaker offense was enough to fend off the Bulldogs and preserve a perfect league mark.

There was a shift in the middle of the pack, as well, as Cornell and Princeton kept title hopes alive.

Penn 68, Brown 51

The Quakers (12-6, 4-0 Ivy) allowed the Bears (6-13, 2-4) the first bucket of the game at the Palestra on Friday night, but quickly reeled off 11 straight points to open up a lead they would hold onto for the rest of the game, en route to a 68-51 victory.

Penn’s cushion ballooned to 18 at halftime, and as much as 29 points in the second half. Although the Quakers were limited to 38 percent shooting from the floor, they made up for the poor shooting by connecting on 19-of-23 free throws and making 10 steals as a team.

Ibrahim Jaaber was the leading scorer for Penn on his 22nd birthday, ending the night with 18 points. Steve Danley added 14 points, while Brian Grandieri came off the Quaker bench to drop in 11. Mark MacDonald paced the Bears with 13 points, while Keenan Jeppesen and Scott Friske added 11 and 10, respectively.

Harvard 69, Columbia 59

The last-place Lions (8-11, 1-5) almost pulled off an upset against the Crimson (12-7, 4-2), as this battle in the Big Apple saw six ties and 10 lead changes before Harvard came up with an 18-9 run in the final minutes to pull out a 69-59 win Friday night. Each squad connected on 21 field goals and pulled down 38 boards and shot within two percentage points of each other from the field.

Columbia started strong out of the gates, opening up a 14-6 lead on its home court. The Crimson pulled even and the teams traded buckets down the stretch before Harvard’s Brian Cusworth hit a lay-up to break the sixth and final tie and spark the game-winning surge. Ben Nwachukwu and John Baumann paced the home team with 16 points apiece, while Nwachukwu grabbed 10 rebounds. Justin Armstrong added 13 points for the Lions.

Drew Housman led the charge for the Crimson with 20 points, while Matt Stehle was close behind with 18 and Jim Goffredo chipped in with 12.

Princeton 66, Yale 49

Scott Greenman was the big man on campus in Princeton, N.J., Friday night, erupting for a career-high 27 points to lead the Tigers (5-12, 3-1) past the Bulldogs (11-10, 3-3), 66-49. The senior, who has been battling injuries over the first half of the season, was 8-for-11 from the field, including 5-of-7 beyond the arc, and added five assists, four rebounds, and three steals to his final stat line. Despite his performance, the game was still close, as the Tigers trailed, 40-37, with 10 minutes remaining. But Princeton – which shot 50 percent from 3-point range – got two treys from reserve Michael Strittmatter to pull in front for good. Luke Owings added an even 10 points for the Tigers, while Dominick Martin led the Bulldogs with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Dartmouth 78, Columbia 68

A 22-14 run over 11 minutes in the second half pushed the Green (3-16, 1-5) to its first conference win of the season against Columbia in the Lions’ Levien Gymnasium. The victory gave the two squads identical 1-5 league records, while both are now tied for last place in the Ancient Eight standings. Baumann and Nwachukwu paced the Lions for the second night in a row, putting up 16 and 14 points, respectively. Brett Loscalzo added 10 points from the outside, matched by

10 from fellow guard Justin Armstrong.

Dartmouth’s Mike Lang and Michael Giovacchini had identical lines for the night, finishing with 16 points and seven assists each. Chuck Flynn added 11 points for the Green, which snapped a nine-game losing streak with the win over the Lions.

Penn 74, Yale 52

At the end of Saturday night, the Quakers walked away with a 74-52 victory over Yale, but early on the Bulldogs looked poised to knock off the last unbeaten team in the Ivy League, as they raced to a 16-1 lead at the 14:03 mark of the first half at the Palestra.

But Penn – which was 91-9 in its last 100 home games when it stepped onto the court against Yale – eventually pulled even on Jaaber’s 3-pointer to open the scoring in the second half. Jaaber’s trey was just his second field goal on the night, and was the most by a player wearing the Red and Blue to that point. However, Penn’s shooting woes were about to become a faint memory.

Just a few minutes later, Penn’s Eric Osmundson made a steal in the open court and broke away for an uncontested dunk, and the scoreboard read 70-44 in the Quakers’ favor with four minutes left to play. Osmundson’s bucket was the final touch on a 51-13 run that put the Bulldogs away for good.

Osmundson walked off the court as the Quakers’

leading scorer for the night, finishing with 17 points and five assists. Jaaber added 11 points, all in the second half, while Steve Danley contributed with 10.

Martin was the only Yale player in double digits, connecting for 18 points and pulling down eight rebounds.

Princeton 52, Brown 37

This game was over long before the clock ran out in Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium, as the Tigers held the Bears without a field goal over the first 11:41, forced eight Brown turnovers, and leaped out to a double-digit advantage 10 minutes into the game as Princeton downed Brown, 52-37.

The Tigers earned the weekend sweep after connecting on 10 3-pointers for the second consecutive night.

It was Noah Savage’s turn to shine for the Tigers, as he hit for 6-of-8 from 3-point range and finished with 23 points. Nearly half of the Bears’ points came at the charity stripe, where they were 18-for-21 – a striking contrast to a 9-for-35 performance from the field. Damon Huffman led Brown in the losing effort with 14 points.

Archived article by Olivia Dwyer
Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Seniors Kick Off Class Campaign

By February 8, 2006

The Class of 2006 kicked off their Senior Class Campaign for Cornell last night by pledging to establish a new scholarship for future seniors and solicit contributions from at least half of this year’s graduating class. The Class of 2006 Scholarship will match 1,000 small student donations with a $25,000 endowment from the Lindseth family.
Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings III and Trustee Carolyn Chauncey Neuman ’64 encouraged 60 campus leaders selected from the Class of 2006 to participate in the ‘Lindseth Challenge’ by organizing and volunteering for phone-a-thons to collect donations.
While the scholarship will specifically benefit one senior each year for the next 50 years, the contributions collected from the graduating class will be used to meet “emerging needs at the University,” said Michael Zuckerman ’06, co-president of the Alumni Class of 2006.
Many of the speakers noted the dual purpose achieved by the campaign: to leave a gift for Cornell and to maximize participation between the senior class and the University.
“I believe that staying connected with Cornell is good for you,” said Neuman, who advised students to “return to Ithaca often – as often as possible – because Cornell’s treasures will always be waiting for you.”
“You have become the university; you are the university; you make the university what it is,” said Andrew Lindseth ’79, speaking on behalf of his siblings and parents, Jon A. and Virginia M. Lindseth ’56. “Now, you’re about to become the future of the university,” Lindseth added, encouraging seniors to “become part of a tradition of support for education.”
The Senior Class Campaign chose to emphasize the tradition highlighted by Lindseth by establishing the lasting scholarship.
Rawlings said that he hoped “one of you [seniors], 50 years from now
C.U. Continues Major Fundraising

By February 8, 2006

Cornell administrators are preparing to set in motion the public phase of the University’s fourth capital campaign. $650 million has already been raised for the initiative, which is scheduled to last until 2011.
Planning for the campaign began in 2002. Laurie Robinson, director of development for the office of alumni affairs and development, explained that Cornell has several projects in need of funding. Among them, the new Life Sciences Technology Building and the West Campus Residential Initiative. When these fundraising objectives started to “pop up,” the need for a university-wide fundraising campaign came into focus, Robinson said.
According to Laura Toy, interim vice president for the office of alumni affairs and development, there are three reasons the University launched the capital campaign. First, Cornell’s needs have expanded enough to require an influx of money. Second, government support for the University has decreased. Finally, the campaign is a way to involve a new set of donors. Right now, the University’s major patrons are alumni who graduated in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Now, graduates from the 1970s and 1980s have come of age and many are in a position where they can start to give back to the University.
Chip Brice, director of gift planning, agreed with Toy that reaching out to alumni from the 1970s and 1980s is one of the major goals of this campaign. He explained that the campaign is not just about money, but also about establishing connections that will cultivate the next generation of Cornell leadership.
In May 2004, the Board of Trustees received a plan for the capital campaign. After approval, the “nucleus fund” was officially launched on July 1. Staff from throughout the University are now assessing campus priorities to determine where funds would be most useful. Toy said that priorities will be set through a bottom up process: ideas start within the individual departments, move up to the deans and eventually reach Provost Biddy Martin, who will decide on the potential areas for growth. Robinson expects that when President-elect David J. Skorton comes into office, he will add his own objectives into campaign priorities.
Toy explained the current thoughts about Cornell priorities. Academic investments will be placed in areas where Cornell is positioned to be a leader. These include areas in life sciences, sustainability, computer information and one humanity department, which is yet to be determined. Money will also go towards helping students pay the hefty tuition so that the University will remain accessible to students from every socio-economic class. Maintaining the faculty will require funding also. Within the next ten years, one-third of Cornell faculty will reach retirement age. Because other prestigious schools are facing this same demographic, Cornell will not only need money to attract new upstanding faculty, but also to keep the current stars from leaving Ithaca. Finally, the most visible placements of the funds will go towards building facilities. Several buildings are already underway, such as the Life Sciences Technology Building, Milstein Hall in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, a new building for the physical sciences and facilities for Gates Hall, the new Computing and Information Science building.
At the end of the day, however, the donors will ultimately determine their money’s allocation. Toy said that generally, donors tell the University where they want their gift to go. It is hoped that they will choose from among the projects that are most important to Cornell.
Gifts to Cornell are also increasingly taking forms other than cash. According to Brice, more then 80 percent of the donations to Cornell have been “planned gifts” which include real estate, artwork, trust arrangements and stocks. The University often turns these gifts directly into useable funds. For example, if an alumnus donated 100 shares of a stock to the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell would take ownership of the stock and sell it. The revenue would then go to the designated college. “Planned gifts are a component of a successful campaign,” said Brice.
Over the campaign, Robinson and Brice will keep raising private funds for Cornell in mostly the same way as they have always done, but their demands will increase. Another difference of this capital campaign is its objective to raise money for very specific projects. As Robinson and Brice talk to potential donors, they will now be pushing certain University priorities.
Right now, the Alumni Affairs and Development Office, Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings III, Provost Martin and the deans are contacting potential donors and assessing initial gifts. Through this touch-and-go process, the final financial goal will be determined and announced as the campaign shifts into its public phase. The goal is to have 30 to 40 percent of the commitments in hand before then. Toy predicted that the campaign may be launched into its “public phase” even as soon as next fall. She hopes the start will be “something with a lot of splash to let every Cornellian know what the academic aspirations are and subsequently how the campaign will help fund those aspirations.”
Right now, $650 million has already been collected. Toy expects to have received $900 million by the end of June. The overall campaign will last seven years – two years in the nucleus fund stage and five years in the public stage. This is the same time period as the last capital campaign completed in 1995, which helped build the Kroch Library and the Goldwin Smith Lecture Hall D.
Toy herself, is well prepped to take care of such a large initiative. She has been at Cornell since 1990 where she has lead smaller campaigns, including the renovation of Lincoln Hall and the campaign for athletics.
Toy became the Interim Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development when Inge Reichenbach, resigned in spring 2005. Toy said the search for a permanent replacement was on hold until the Board of Trustees named a new president. Now with the selection of Skorton, Toy said, “the search is underway once again.”
President Skorton also is likely to be up to the challenge of a multi-billion-dollar campaign. He recently finished a $1 billion campaign at the University of Iowa. Those fundraising skills were noted as one of the major reasons he was chosen as Cornell’s next leader. Toy said she expects Skorton ” to be an engaged and involved partner.”
Countering the assumptions that former president Jeffrey S. Lehman ’77 withdrew from his office last summer because he did not meet the fundraising expectations of the board, Toy said, “I do not think that is a fair assessment.”
Toy emphasized that Skorton will not be the only fundraiser. “We shouldn’t underestimate the role the deans are playing in the campaign and that they will continue to play,” she said. She also felt that it was very fortunate that I Rawlings jumped back into office and kept the new campaign from being derailed by Lehman’s resignation. Since the beginning of the nucleus fund phase, Toy has seen momentum increasing. She attributes this progress to Rawlings, the deans and the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.
Archived article by Casey Holmes Sun Staff Writer