Big Ten basketball fans beware - Randy Wittman is back.
No, not the Randy Wittman who won a national championship with Indiana in 1981 and was the Big Ten Player of the Year two years later - his son, Randy Scott Wittman, a freshman guard at Cornell.
Apparently, winning in the Midwest is a family tradition.
Nearly 40 years after Cornell's last victory over a Big Ten opponent, Wittman scored 18 points in his first college start to help Cornell beat Northwestern in its season opener, 64-61.
The 6-foot-6 freshman from Eden Prairie, Minn., played all 40 minutes and also hit two huge free throws to give Cornell a three-point lead with seven seconds left.
Sophomore Adam Gore won Ivy League Rookie of the Year last season after leading the Ancient Eight in three-point shooting, and he hit 5-for-10 from downtown against the Wildcats for 15 of his 20 points.
Cornell, pegged as the third-best team in the Ivy preseason poll despite the loss of All-Ivy swingman Lenny Collins, also beat Stony Brook last night by a score of 76-72. Wittman dropped 18 points in 39 minutes, going 6-for-11 from deep.
Cornell started hot last year, too, putting a serious scare into Syracuse in the Big Red's second game, a 67-62 loss. But it went on to stumble to a 13-15 mark overall.
At least Wittman has reason to hope - Cornell has a date with another Big Ten foe next month in Iowa.
Lions get the Blues
Columbia shut down Duke's core duo of Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus on Sunday night at Cameron Indoor. A gutsy performance and a huge win for the Lions, right?
If only they had kept track of a few devilish freshmen.
Paulus, the starting point guard, and McRoberts, a dominant big man, combined for just 10 points. Coming to the aid of the sophomore captains were freshmen Brian Zoubek (18 points), Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas (12 each). The Blue Devils shot 58 percent and doubled Columbia's score, 86-43, in what will likely be the Lions' most challenging game all season.
Quote of the year so far comes from wide-eyed Columbia coach Joe Jones: "I don't know what to say - I'm still trying to get past the Cameron Crazies jumping up and down."
Maybe he's on to something. With the Crazies gone, the Lions beat UC-Davis, 95-90, last night in Durham, N.C.
Ironman
Either someone forgot to tell Marcus Schroeder to come out of the game, or Princeton's roster defections hit harder than anyone had thought.
Schroeder now holds the distinction of playing 118 minutes in his first three college starts, coming out for just two minutes in Princeton's 56-39 win over Alabama A&M; on Sunday.
The freshman guard totaled 15 assists in those three games , but only averaged 4.3 points per contest as Princeton finished fifth in the Black Coaches Association Classic in Ohio.
Last year, All-Ivy guard and team captain Scott Greenman graduated and took plenty of production and minutes away from the Tigers' backcourt.
