* Click here to see the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll
ITHACA, N.Y. -- For the first time in the history of the Cornell men's basketball program, the Big Red sit among the nation's top 25 teams in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll released this afternoon. The Big Red picked up 53 votes from the panel of 31 Division I head coaches to sit at No. 25 in the poll. The Big Red is also in the second spot of others receiving votes in the Associated Press top 25 poll.
It is the first time in 59 years Cornell has been ranked in a national poll in men's basketball, as the 1950-51 team climbed as high as No. 14 in the Associated Press poll on Jan. 3, 1951. The Big Red opened the season with nine straight wins, including a victory over Stanford. It fell out the following week after an 85-45 loss at Columbia. The previous two weeks, Cornell had been ranked No. 19 (Dec. 19, 1950) and No. 18 (Dec. 26, 1950).
The last Ivy team to appear in the national polls was the 1997-98 Princeton squad that finished No. 8 in the final AP poll and No. 16 in the final USA Today/NABC poll. The last team other than Penn or Princeton to be ranked in the national poll was Columbia in 1969-70, climbing as high at No. 13 during a seven-week run.
Cornell received votes in the Coaches' Poll in the preseason (three votes) and on Nov. 16 (two votes) before five weeks of receiving zero votes. After winning the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival, the Big Red started receiving votes On Dec. 28 and has steadily increased its totals, with its 38 points moving it to 27th last week before bursting through into the top 25 this week.
The Big Red are off to an 18-3 start (4-0 Ivy) that includes wins at Alabama, St. John's, Drexel, La Salle and Massachusetts, as well as neutral site wins over Vermont and Davidson and a home victory over Harvard. Cornell's only three losses came to a pair of top five teams on the road (Syracuse and Kansas, combined 41-2 record) and to Big East foe Seton Hall. Cornell has won six straight and 16 of its last 17 contests, with nine of those wins coming by double figures and seven coming by more than 20 points. The senior trio of Ryan Wittman (17.5 ppg., 66-pointers), Jeff Foote (12.4 ppg., 8.4 rpg., 1.9 bpg.) and Louis Dale (10.7 ppg., 5.0 apg.) lead a balanced team that has been among the most potent offensively (.471 field goal percentage, .419 from 3-point range and 76.2 ppg.) and defensively (.401 field goal percentage, 63.5 ppg) in the country.
Cornell returns to action this weekend when it faces Yale on Friday, Feb. 5, and Brown on Saturday, Feb. 6, with both contests tipping off at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena in Bartels Hall.