News and Notes: Friday Edition

Above, the Cornell Athletics logo from the 80s and the early 90s. Below, some news and notes for Friday...

• The Boston Globe examines Steve Donahue's first recruiting class at Boston College and writes:

"Steve Donahue remembers the bad old days, when he was trying to establish himself as a head coach at Cornell. He had a team with little talent that produced few wins and drew few fans. Some gatherings at Cornell’s Newman Arena could be measured by the dozens.

He also remembers his recruiting mantra back then: Bring in good people, and good players will follow — eventually.

And they did, so much so that when Donahue left Ithaca, N.Y., last spring for Boston College, he had turned the Big Red into an Ivy League power with three consecutive conference titles.

'We got really good kids, and they helped us recruit kids that were better basketball players,’' said Donahue. 'And that’s the way we are doing it here.'

Donahue’s BC team is coming off a 21-13 season that ended with a second-round NIT loss to Northwestern. Donahue basically coached a team assembled by former coach Al Skinner, including All-ACC guard Reggie Jackson.

Jackson is gone, having opted to skip his senior season and enter next month’s NBA draft. So is the core group of seniors and other Skinner recruits, leaving BC in a rebuilding mode with lots of scholarships to give and some major reconstruction work for Donahue and his staff.

'It’s fun and it’s challenging,' said Donahue, who is recruiting at the top level for the first time after nearly 20 years in the Ivy League (at Penn as an assistant and at Cornell as a head coach). 'The fortunate thing is that we are at BC and we can get quality kids.' ... 'At Cornell, we had some long, lean years and you questioned yourself and asked, ‘When it is ever going to turn?’' said Donahue. 'But we got good kids and better players, and it did. And that’s why we do what we do.'"

• Cornell assistant coach Mike Blaine tweeted his congratulations to Cornell's three departing seniors. The seniors, Aaron Osgood, Adam Wire and Mark Coury were members of the Big Red's three consecutive outright Ivy League championship teams between 2008 through 2010.
  

• Cornell men's basketball was among the Cornell athletic teams honored by NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR) for 2009-2010.