RICHMOND, Va. – If Cornell’s season turns around and they contend in the Ivy League, as many projected before the season, Thursday night might prove to be something of a turning point. That’s not the case because their 86-80 win over Wofford broke an eight-game losing streak, or because they were white hot shooting the ball for a lot of the game. Of course, those certainly don’t hurt the cause.
The Big Red entered Thursday at 2-9, with six losses by five points or less. While each loss presents a teaching tool, at some point a team doesn’t need any more teaching tools like that.
“The guys were joking, saying, what is this feeling?” head coach Bill Courtney said.
“We’re trying to stay positive, the coach was trying to stay positive the entire time,” said senior Adam Wire. “It does start taking its wear on you and can get in the back of your head a little bit.”
The Big Red were close several times during the streak, including Wednesday night’s 68-66 loss to New Hampshire. Last year’s more veteran team would surely have pulled out several or even all of those games, but this year’s team is not only younger, but as Courtney noted, “this whole team is new.” Courtney had a sense that the close losses were taking their toll in the form of the team starting to lose confidence late in close games.
While Thursday’s win wasn’t exactly a redemption in that sense – Cornell led by nine with less than two minutes to play and Wofford never got within one possession the rest of the way – making enough plays to seal a game like that was another good aspect of the win.
“We missed several free throws down the stretch, which we don’t do, so it was almost like we were trying to figure out another way to lose the game,” said Courtney. “But we made enough plays down the stretch to finally win a close game, which we had not been doing before.”
On Thursday, the Big Red shot like many remember last year’s team shooting – except last year’s team never had a game quite like this. The Big Red made their first 11 shots of the second half and at one point were shooting nearly 82 percent from the field for the game and over 82 percent from long range. Drew Ferry was the star from deep as he went 7-8 en route to a career-high 25 points, while he had great help there from Wroblewski with 21 points, 12 assists and just one turnover in 28 minutes.
Wroblewski is the holdover from the championship teams that the Big Red can most hang their hat on. He was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year as a freshman and started regularly on last season’s Sweet 16 team. If there’s one player whose role has had a drastic change of role, it’s the junior guard, who knows he had the luxury of playing alongside great players like Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman and now is more of a focal point of defenses as the most accomplished player still in Ithaca.
After missing the first two games due to injury and coming off the bench against Delaware, Wroblewski started every game until Thursday night’s. In fact, he didn’t come into the game until about the midway point of the first half. Against New Hampshire on Wednesday, he was just 4-13 from the field in 36 minutes, and despite six turnovers against two assists, the staff wanted something more from him.
“We challenged him a little bit over the last 24 hours to be the player that we think he is capable of, and he stepped up and did it, showed a lot of character tonight,” said Courtney.
The other holdover who has the potential to be an All-Ivy player is sophomore wing Errick Peck, and he showed it at times in both games. He scored 35 points on 12-20 shooting, and with shooters like Wroblewski and Ferry on this team, there’s a chance for a nice inside-outside combination with Peck’s ability to drive to the basket to make things happen. Peck showed some of this potential last season, but naturally his minutes were limited on a senior-laden team.
“I think the last three or four games, you’ve seen a night and day change with his game,” Wroblewski said of Peck. “It’s close to where guys can’t guard him, he can get to the basket whenever he wants. He’s the best athlete we have on this team and a different kind of athlete than we’re going to see in the Ivy League, so I’m glad he’s on our side.”
Courtney noted, as several coaches have, that there’s a very thin line between winning and losing games. There’s one line of thought that if a team scores a few more points or allows a few less points, they might not be that much better of a team even though the win-loss numbers would be different. While there is some truth to that, it can also change a team’s mindset if they win games they might not necessarily deserve to win.
“You hate to lose games as a coach, but at the same time, your lessons become much clearer when you don’t win,” Courtney said. “If we had won five of these games, we would be a totally different team and maybe we’re not as hungry as we are right now to be better. I think we’re going to be a hungry team going forward and getting better.”
The Big Red have home games with Buffalo and Stony Brook before they begin the Ivy slate with consecutive weekend games against travel partner Columbia. That gives them a reasonable chance to pick up two more wins and some momentum going into league play. If that happens, it’s entirely possible that Thursday night proves to be a turning point in their season.
