Monitoring the Mid-Majors: Cornell

Here's my team breakdown for Cornell, who plays tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern.

No. 12 seed Cornell (29-4, 13-1 Ivy League) vs. No. 1 seed Kentucky (34-2, 14-2 SEC)
Series Record: Cornell leads 1-0
Last Meeting: Cornell won 92-77, Dec. 28, 1966 in Lexington, Ky.
Cornell -
Key Wins: @Alabama (71-67), vs. Davidson (91-88), vs. Vermont (67-59)
Key Losses: @Kansas (71-66), @Syracuse (88-73), @Penn (79-64)
Head Coach: Steve Donahue (146-137 overall)
Key Players:
Ryan Whittman - 17.8 points, 4.0 rebounds per game
Louis Dale - 12.6 points , 4.8 assists, 2.9 rebounds per game
Jeff Foote - 12.4 points, 8.1 rebounds per game

**For the first time since 1970, an Ivy League member is in the Sweet Sixteen. For the first time in 12 years, an Ivy League member won an NCAA Tournament game.

1st Round - Win vs. No. 5 seed Temple, 78-65
- Won rebound advantage 30-20, shot 56 percent
- The Big Red's big three of Dale (21 points, seven assists), Wittman (20 points, five rebounds) and Foote (16 points, seven rebounds) controlled the game and the 12th-seeded Big Red took advantage of 11 turnovers by Temple to score 18 points off of them.
- With the victory, Cornell tied the record for most wins by an Ivy League team since the formation of the conference with its 28th victory, matching the 1970-71 Penn squad (28-1)

2nd Round - Win vs. No. 4 seed Wisconsin, 87-69
- Led the entire game and never allowed Wisconsin to creep back into it
- The Big Red shot 61 percent from the floor and made 53 percent from beyond the arc (8-of-15), scoring the most points of the season against Wisconsin and shooting a higher percentage than any of its foes all year long.
- Dale scored a career-high 26 points, while Whittman put in 24
- Cornell entered the tournament 3-63 all-time against teams ranked in the top 25. Won two games against top 20 teams in a span of a weekend.
- "You know, I just thought in all my coaching, all the experience I had on any team that I ever played on, this game here was as well executed that I couldn't even imagine that we could play that well in the stretches that we did," Donahue said.