Cornell is the first team to guarantee themselves a trip to the tournament, so they deserve a profile. The Big Red make it into the field as Ivy League champions because that elite conference is apparently too good for a conference tournament. This is the first time since 1988 that Cornell has won the league, and only the seventh time since 1955 that Penn or Princeton hasn’t won at least a piece of the championship.

Cornell clinched the conference title before their season ended. They have games against Penn and Princeton remaining, but so far they are 20-5, a perfect 12-0 in their conference, and 10-6 ATS.

The team’s leading scorer is sophomore Ryan Wittman, the son of Randy, the coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He’s deadly from outside, connecting on 47 percent of his threes. Guard Louis Dale is second in scoring, and has the distinction of leading the country in free throw percentage (94.6%). He’s an impressive kid to watch – he’s only 5’11”, but he can dunk. Those are the only two players averaging double digits in points. Some of the reason for that is the ridiculous depth the team employs – 12 players average more than five minutes per game, and 17 players have seen time on the court.

Despite the dominance in the conference, the non-conference schedule doesn’t give a lot of reason for hope for this team. They were just 8-5, and losses to Bucknell, Colgate and Ohio don’t inspire confidence. They also got beat up by Syracuse and Duke, but an optimist would point out that they covered the spread in both of those games. They may be able to again cover a big spread in the tournament, but the Big Red just don’t look like they have what it takes to pull off an upset against the high level of competition they will face in the first round. There will be a Cinderella or two at the tournament this year, but Cornell will not be wearing a glass slipper.

Likely seed: 14

Potential opponent: Louisville

Tournament outlook: Bleak

Technorati Tags: Cornell Big Red, Louis Dale, Ryan Wittman