NCAA Basketball: Top 25 NCAA Tournament cinderellas since 2000
By Adam Childs
19) 2010 Cornell Big Red, No. 12-seed
Record: 29-5, Sweet 16
Beat: (5) Temple Owls, (4) Wisconsin Badgers
The Cornell Big Red ran through the Ivy League, going 13-1 with their only loss at the Penn Quakers. They would only lose three other regular season games and those were to the Seton Hall Pirates, the Syracuse Orange and a close five-point loss to the Kansas Jayhawks, who were ranked No. 1 at the time.
The Big Red were a good team, but coming out of the Ivy League, not many teams were taking them seriously. That all changed as they made their run to the Sweet 16.
The Big Red were big inside with 6-foot-6 Ryan Wittman and 7-foot future NBA player Jeff Foote, but 5-foot-11 guard Louis Dale would lead Cornell in scoring in each of their three NCAA Tournament games. Dale would score 21 against the Temple Owls, 28 against the Wisconsin Badgers and 17 in their loss to the No. 1-seed Kentucky Wildcats.
Led by Dale and company, the Big Red would make easy work of Temple in the first round for the Ivy League’s first tournament win since 1998. They made it look even easier against Wisconsin, as they dominated from start to finish in beating them by 18.
The dream ended when the Big Red ran into a loaded Kentucky team. The Wildcats held Cornell to just 16 points in the first half en route to a big halftime lead. Then, they coasted the rest of the way.
Cornell could only muster 45 points for the game. Even though, they held the high scoring Wildcats to 62 points, they still got blown out. Although their run ended at the hands of Kentucky, the Big Red showed the nation that the Ivy League could play some good basketball and should be taken seriously.