Cornell coach Steve Donahue (AP photo)
An excerpt from Cornell coach Steve Donahue’s press conference today at the Carrier Dome:
Q: A little bit of a lighter note, can you step back, even though you’re so immersed in this and appreciate this match-up, just the contrasts between the schools and the styles and everything that goes with it?
Donahue: “I can. I’m enough of a fan of college basketball to understand why this is so intriguing to everybody. I et that. I don’t know if our guys really understand it. They believe that they’re a good enough basketball team without all the other tings that go along with it, to play with anybody in the country. But obviously when you ahve three or four first-round NBA picks and you’re an Ivy League school with obviously different goals professionally afterwards, there’s a little different feeling with your teammates on how you’re going to approach this game.
I think it’s fun for fans. I think it’s great that people are intrigued by the match-up. We’re going to to do what we have to do, and John (Calipari) is going to have his kids do what they do on the basketball court. I think both teams play great basketball. I think the styles are obviously extremely different. But I think they’re obviously a very talented and solid basketball team. They can have all those athletes they want, but if they didn’t play the game the right way, they wouldn’t be where they’re at right now. And I hope we play the game the right way. And obviously we’re going to try to do that and try to be successful against their style.”
