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Wittman named AP A-A, Donahue Gets Bee Award
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Courtesy: Cornell Athletic Communications
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell senior forward Ryan Wittman has
been named an Associated Press honorable mention All-American, while head coach
Steve Donahue was presented with the Clair Bee Award on Monday. Wittman joins
classmate Louis Dale (2008) and Ken Bantum (1985) as Cornellians who earned
AP honorable mention All-America honors.
Wittman became the third Cornelian to earn Ivy League Player of the Year honors,
doing so unanimously, and was picked to the first team by each of the Ivy coaches
for the third straight season. The USBWA and NABC first-team all-district pick
averaged 17.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists while setting an Ivy League
record with his 109 3-point field goals. He shot 47 percent from the field,
43 percent from beyond the arc and 83 percent from the line while chipping in
career highs of 36 steals and 13 blocked shots. The six-time Ivy League Player
of the Week scored in double figures in each of his last 32 contests and in
33 of the team's 34 contests.
The MVP of the Legends Classic Regional was an all-tournament pick at the MSG
Holiday Festival. Wittman posted 20 or more points in 12 contests this season
(Cornell 10-2 in those games). The school's career scoring leader (2,028
points) became the Ivy League's fifth 2,000-point scorer with his 24-point
effort in the NCAA tournament win over Wisconsin. He holds school and Ivy records
for 3-pointers in a season (109 in 2009-10) and career (377) and was named to
the collegeinsider.com's Mid-Major All-Decade team. He has had some of
his biggest moments in the biggest games, including scoring seven points in
the final 2:14 to seal the 48-45 win at Princeton, hitting a 35-footer at the
buzzer in overtime to lift Cornell into the MSG Holiday Festival against Davidson,
or scoring 34 points at La Salle to overcome the loss of two starters to injury.
Wittman averaged 22.0 points and 4.0 rebounds while making 17-of-25 shots from
the floor (68 percent) and 7-of-11 from beyond the arc (64 percent) in helping
the Big Red advance to the Sweet 16.
Donahue was given the Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award, which honors a Division
I men's basketball coach who through his actions on and off the court makes
an outstanding contribution to the sport of college basketball. The criteria
for this award include a coach's ability to inspire, motivate, coach, and educate
his team to achieve its fullest potential awhile insisting upon and demonstrating
outstanding character and academic success. Missouri's Mike Anderson was the
2009 recipient of the award.
Donahue has already been named the NABC District Coach of the Year, the midseason
Hugh Durham Coach of the Year by collegeinsider.com as the top mid-major coach
in the country, and a finalist for both the Hugh Durham Award and the Jim Phelan
Award for national coach of the year. His leadership pushed Cornell to the first
Sweet 16 appearance by an Ivy League tournament in the 64/65 team field and
an Ivy League record 29 victories.
The 2009-10 team won the program's third straight Ivy League title and
its first two NCAA wins. Cornell climbed as high as No. 22 nationally in the
ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, the program's first national ranking
in 59 years, and set an Ivy record for 3-pointers in a season (326). The team
also set single-season school records in points (2,545), field goals (913),
assists (543) and blocked shots (127). The Big Red won the MSG Holiday Festival
with a victory over St. John's, Cornell's first win over a Big East
school since 1969 and captured a season-opening win at Alabama, the team's
first win over a school from the Southeastern Conference since 1972. Cornell
went 11-1 at home and won 18 games away from home, the most among any Division
I school. The most attention was given to Cornell's noble effort in a
71-66 loss at No. 1 Kansas, a game the Big Red led with under a minute to play.
The Big Red then shocked the world as a No. 12 seed, knocking out both fifth-seeded
Temple and fourth-seeded Wisconsin by double figures to advance before falling
to East No. 1 seed Kentucky.
Coach Clair F. Bee, the late Long Island University coach and Hall of Famer,
compiled a .826 lifetime winning percentage, still the best in major-college
coaching history. Known as the "Innovator" Clair Bee's influence
on the game also extended to strategies (the 1-3-1 zone defense and the 3-second
rule) and the development of sports camps (Camp All-America and Kutsher's Sports
Academy). Coach Bee authored technical coaching books and conducted coaching
clinics around the world.
Donahue joined Ben Jacobson of Northern Iowa, Dave Rose of Brigham Young and
Mark Turgeon of Texas A&M as finalists for the award.
2009-10 AP All-America Basketball Teams
FIRST TEAM
Evan Turner, Ohio State, 6-7, 205, junior, Chicago, 20.3 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.9 apg,
54.0 fg pct, 1.8 steals (64 first-place votes, 323 points)
John Wall, Kentucky, 6-4, 195, freshman, Raleigh, N.C., 16.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 6.4
apg, 1.8 steals (62, 319)
Wes Johnson, Syracuse, 6-7, 205, junior, Corsicana, Texas, 16.0 ppg, 8.4 rpg,
1.9 blocks (45, 280)
Scottie Reynolds, Villanova, 6-2, 190, senior, Herndon, Va., 18.5 ppg, 3.3 apg,
39.9 3-pt fg pct, 82.7 ft pct (32, 243)
DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky, 6-11, 270, freshman, Mobile, Ala., 15.3 ppg, 10.1
rpg, 54.1 fg pct, 1.8 blocks (26, 205)
SECOND TEAM
James Anderson, Oklahoma State, 6-6, 210, junior, Junction City, Ark., 22.6
ppg, 5.8 rpg (27, 197)
Sherron Collins, Kansas, 5-11, 205, senior, Chicago, 15.6 ppg, 4.4 apg, 85.1
ft pct (15, 194)
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland, 6-6, 200, senior, Caracas, Venezuela, 19.5 ppg, 4.6
rpg, 6.3 apg, 85.1 ft pct, 1.7 steals (14, 190)
Jon Scheyer, Duke, 6-5, 190, senior, Northbrook, Ill., 18.6 ppg, 5.0 apg, 36.6
minutes, 87.5 ft pct (5, 144)
Da’Sean Butler, West Virginia, 6-7, 230, senior, Newark, N.J., 17.4 ppg,
6.3 rpg, 3.3 apg (10, 138)
THIRD TEAM
Greg Monroe, Georgetown, 6-11, 247, sophomore, New Orleans, 16.1 ppg, 9.5 rpg,
3.7 apg, 52.1 fg pct (9, 119)
Cole Aldrich, Kansas, 6-11, 245, junior, Bloomington, Minn., 11.2 ppg, 9.9 rpg,
55.9 fg pct, 3.5 blocks (7, 91)
Damion James, Texas, 6-7, 225, senior, Nacogdoches, Texas, 18.0 ppg, 10.4 rpg,
50.9 fg pct, 40.2 3-pt fg pct (1, 83)
Luke Harangody, Notre Dame, 6-8, 246, senior, Schererville, Ind., 22.4 ppg,
9.2 rpg (4, 76)
Darington Hobson, New Mexico, 6-7, 205, junior, Las Vegas, 16.2 ppg, 9.2 rpg,
4.6 apg (1, 50)
HONORABLE MENTION
Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest; Kevin Anderson, Richmond; Luke Babbitt, Nevada;
Keith Benson, Oakland; Matt Bouldin, Gonzaga; Randy Culpepper, UTEP; Noah Dahlman,
Wofford; Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech; Devan Downey, South Carolina; Muhammad
El-Amin, Stony Brook; Kenneth Faried, Morehead State; Alex Franklin, Siena;
Jimmer Fredette, BYU; Marquez Haynes, Texas-Arlington; Gordon Hayward, Butler;
Lazar Hayward, Marquette; Adnan Hodzic, Lipscomb; Reggie Holmes, Morgan State;
Robbie Hummel, Purdue; Charles Jenkins, Hofstra; Garrison Johnson, Jackson State;
Orlando Johnson, UC Santa Barbara; Tyren Johnson, Louisiana-Lafayette; Dominique
Jones, South Florida; Adam Koch, Northern Iowa; David Kool, Western Michigan;
Damian Lillard, Weber State; Kalin Lucas, Michigan State; C.J. McCollum, Lehigh;
E’Twaun Moore, Purdue; Artsiom Parakhouski, Radford; Patrick Patterson,
Kentucky; Quincy Pondexter, Washington; Jacob Pullen, Kansas State; Jerome Randle,
California; Andy Rautins, Syracuse; Justin Rutty, Quinnipiac; Omar Samhan, Saint
Mary’s; Kyle Singler, Duke; Ekpe Udoh, Baylor; Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi
State; Hassan Whiteside, Marshall; Ryan Wittman, Cornell.
