Cornell hopes to be up for tall task in the lane
Cornell has a 7-foot center in Jeff Foote but, unfortunately, he doesn’t have a twin brother.
“Obviously we’ve got a 7-footer of our own, but we don’t have two of them like they do,” Cornell forward Ryan Wittman said Wednesday in reference to Stanford’s twin tower combination of Brook and Robin Lopez.
Foote said he’s ready for the challenge.
“We know they’re going to block some shots, but we can’t play timid around them and just kind of give in to them,” Foote said.
Battle of the Nerds?
“I guess I’d rather get publicity for going to a smart school than not a smart school,” Stanford junior guard Mitch Johnson said.
Hey, these Cornell kids are smart, too.
Sophomore guard Luis Dale is majoring in Policy Analysis and Management.
What’s that?
“Policy analysis and management is sort of like a business major with, like, a little side of policy,” Dale said.
For an extra dollar, you can also add a side of coleslaw.
History lesson
No. 8 Brigham Young, which plays No. 9 Texas A&M;, is making its 23rd NCAA appearance, but the Cougars have gone one-and-out in their last four appearances.
What’s up with that?
“I don’t try to explain what happened in the previous tournaments and stuff like that,” BYU forward-center Trent Plaisted said. “But that stuff’s all in the past, and we’re looking forward to this year.”
Plaisted rambled on a little bit more before concluding, “All we can do is focus on our effort and come out and play our best game and play hard and that’s all we can control.”
Teammate Lee Cummard was asked if he wanted to add anything to that.
“No,” Cummard said. “What he said was great.”
Following up
First-year Texas A&M; Coach Mark Turgeon had a hard act to follow when he replaced Billy Gillispie, and now Gillispie’s followed him to Anaheim.
It was a quirk of the NCAA bracket -- hmmm, or was it? -- that Kentucky ended up at the same first-round site. Texas A&M; is in the West region; Kentucky is in the South.
After leading Texas A&M; to the Sweet 16 last year before a one-point South Regional loss to Memphis, Gillispie left for Kentucky.
Turgeon was at first worried the NCAA committee might schedule Texas A&M; against Kentucky in the first round.
“I was hoping they wouldn’t do that to the kids,” Turgeon said.
Football school?
The Aggies are making their third straight NCAA appearance. Three of the school’s six NCAA tournament wins have come in the last two years.
“It goes to show that we can compete with other people on this level,” senior guard Beau Muhlbach said. “Even with the elite teams.”
Bowing down
Kentucky started 7-9 before closing 11-3.
The low point?
“We lost to -- what was the name of that school again?” guard Ramel Bradley asked Wednesday, looking to teammate Joe Crawford for an assist.
“Gardner-Webb,” Crawford said.
“We lost to Gardner-Webb,” Bradley said. “You’re like, this is ridiculous. Things can’t get any worse at Kentucky. But then when you lose again to . . .”
“San Diego,” Crawford said.
“San Diego,” Bradley repeated. “It can get worse.”
Ouch. Hey, at least the Toreros are in the NCAA tournament.
Simple man
Don’t bother asking Gillispie about traveling across country, crossing time zones and dealing with the biophysics of jet lag.
“I’m not in on all that kind of stuff,” he said. “I’m old school on a lot of things.”
Gillispie said the only measure he would take in regards to playing 2,100 miles from home was to make his players drink lots of water.
“I think water is a miracle drug,” he said.
Forward Perry Stevenson took a similarly simple approach when asked to compare his team with Marquette.
“They have a higher seed and different uniforms,” the sophomore said. “And they’re nice uniforms. We’re trying not to let that distract us.”
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Times staff writer Mike Hiserman contributed to this report.
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david.wharton@latimes.com
