An overlooked, undersized, “too nice to be good” point guard who battled injuries his entire career and still earned three first-team All-Ivy selections.  A high school multi-sport star who gracefully accepted a spot on the bench for his final year after previously starting and whose hustle, toughness and effort on defense may have exceeded that of any other player in the league.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. –– Forget lucky No. 7, the men’s basketball team wasted no time in making it eight in a row, hanging on for a 78-75 win over La Salle (7-5) on Tuesday afternoon. Ryan Wittman led both teams with a career-high 34 points, surpassing John Bajusz ’87 for the most points in Cornell history with 1,667. The senior forward also added six rebounds, three assists and two steals while shooting 4-for-9 from beyond the arc.

However, true to the team-first mentality that head coach Steve Donahue has instilled in his players, when asked by a Philadelphia reporter what his reaction was to becoming Cornell’s all-time leading scorer, Wittman responded, “Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we got the ‘W’ tonight; I didn’t even know [about setting the record] until you told me.”

Men's basketball 82, Clarkson 37

They’re Kind of a Big Deal

The men’s basketball team will take its three-game winning streak to Pennsylvania, where it will face the Bucknell Bison (4-3, 0-0 Patriot) of the Patriot League. The Red (5-2, 0-0 Ivy) will face a Bison squad looking to avenge a 75-64 loss against Cornell a season ago.

Cornell will attempt to prove its season-opening victory at Alabama was not a fluke as the Red strives for back-to-back road victories against the University of Massachusetts tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Though the guard/big man relationship has often taken center stage in elite basketball — Cornell has grasped the importance of chemistry in the post. The men’s basketball team has developed its own oversized combo in senior center Jeff Foote and junior forward Alex Tyler.

A key component of last year’s success was the play of Tyler, who started in 27 of 28 games, and Foote, who came off the bench in 22 games.

Tyler is known to pounce on opportunities. This aggressive style led to 11 steals last year, but also the third-highest turnover total (45). Along with classmate Louis Dale, he led the team with 2.9 fouls per game, fouling out three times.

“I think I just need to be a little bit smarter at the beginning of games,” Tyler said.