iogyhufi
Masters Student
Posts: 681
Age: 27
Reg: 10-10-17
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02-06-24 10:55 AM - Post#362836
This Saturday, Yale ends its first circuit through the league with Cornell at home. This one really is a clash of styles, I think. Cornell finds success when they can get out in transition, and they're very good at finding opportunities to do so, including off of missed shots. When taken with their 5-out offense, this explains why they're first in the country in 2P% despite having no real size. Forcing them into a half-court game won't ruin them on offense, though, since they have five threats on the floor at all times.
The other end is where the clash of styles really comes into play. Cornell, it seems, simply cannot guard size in the half court. Like, at all. They have a bottom-30 d2P%, and they've struggled to guard any and all size they've gone up against in conference (including big slashing 4 men like Neskovic and Okpara). They compensate by forcing turnovers on almost 20% of opponents' possessions.
Yale really doesn't seem like a good matchup for Cornell on paper. They have legitimate size at 5, a slashing 4 who's excellent in the post, they play really slowly, make a lot of shots, and turn the ball over at the 27th-lowest rate in the country. When you add to that that Cornell is really quite bad on the defensive boards, things start to look dire.
But then again, you could've said a lot of those things about Princeton, to say nothing of the fact that it's really tiring to play for 40 minutes against aggressive defense like Cornell plays. This is a game where you're really glad it's not on the tail end of a back to back.
I'd expect Yale to win if they play well, but Cornell is more than capable of kicking the door down if a team leaves it open. It'll require a lot of discipline from the Bulldogs.
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