Black and White, Blue and Red

The most compelling matchup of the college basketball season, the most intriguing game since Davidson played Kansas in a 2008 regional final - will be Thursday night in Syracuse, NY when 12th seeded Cornell plays #1 seed Kentucky in the third round of the NCAA tournament. There may have never been a college basketball game of such consequence and contrast.

Cornell is the first Ivy League team to win an NCAA tournament game in twelve years, the first one to win two in 31 years.

Big Blue Kentucky is the winningest program in college basketball in both total wins and win percentage.

Cornell has won seven games in the NCAA tournament. Kentucky has won seven NCAA tournaments.

Cornell does not give athletic scholarships.

Kentucky coach John Calipari has overseen not one, but two programs that were forced to vacate wins after evidence surfaced that their players had accepted additional money on top of their athletic scholarships.

Cornell’s basketball budget is around $900,000.

Kentucky’s is around $9,000,000.

The top nine in Cornell’s rotation consists of seven seniors, one junior, and one sophomore.

The top nine in Kentucky’s rotation consists of four freshmen, three sophomores, one junior, and one senior.

All nine of these players are black. Just one of Cornell’s, senior guard Louis Dale, is black.

Kentucky has at least five players who will play in the NBA. Cornell has zero.


Interestingly enough, Cornell forward Mark Coury – who has started one game this season for the Big Red – started 29 games as a sophomore at Kentucky before transferring up north.

A 12 seed has never beaten a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but this Cornell squad is no ordinary 12 seed. They lost just four games all season, spent time ranked in the AP top 25, and threw a scare into #1 Kansas on the road. Cornell led the nation in three point shooting, with six players above 43% on the season. The Big Red crushed their first two opponents in the NCAAs, 5th seeded Temple and 4th seeded Wisconsin, by double digits.

All things considered, Big Red over Big Blue Thursday night would be the signature college basketball upset of the last twenty five years.