Cheering for Cornell but Hoping for Columbia

I’ve been a sports fan for a long, long time. Over the years I’ve become a huge fan of a lot of different sports and sporting events. But one thing that I never really got into was the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. Sure, I liked watching the first few rounds for their upsets, but truth be told, I rarely watched games past the first two rounds.

But this year will be different—it has already been different. The first day was by far the most exciting sporting day this year, and the rest of the first two rounds didn’t disappoint. From 14 seeds beating three seeds, to the top overall team in the nation losing emphatically to the University of Northern Iowa (who knew they even played basketball there?), it has been a great tournament. But the story of the tournament so far, the darling of fans everywhere, has been Cornell.

It’s hard for me to get into a sporting event, unless I have some vested rooting interest in the game. Unless it’s the Super Bowl or the finals of Wimbledon, its difficult to watch a game simply for the aesthetic pleasure of it. Without an interest in the game, I feel distant and separated from it, and you can’t take in the full pleasure of winning, or the pain of defeat.

That’s always been the problem with the tournament for me. Who do I root for? My parents didn’t go to any of these schools so I don’t have any allegiance from that angle. And in terms of local schools? Lehigh is a consistent threat to win the Patriot League, but never a real threat to win a tournament game. The Mountain Hawks played a tough game against Kansas this year, and definitely put some belief into Northern Iowa, but ultimately, that game ended like almost all of their tournament games do, in defeat. And once I decided to come to Columbia, it seemed like I would never have a team to root for.

But that changed this year. Cornell changed that. Now, I have a team to root for. I cheered the Big Red on in its win against Temple, and then watched in awe as it simply took apart a very good Wisconsin team, to the point where Wisconsin didn’t look like it belonged on the same floor as Cornell.

But that’s not what this column is about; we all know about how good and dangerous Cornell is. This tournament brought up an interesting topic in Ivy athletics, and something that separates it from any other conference in the nation. Me, along with so many other kids on this campus are rooting for Cornell, despite the fact that they are arguably our biggest rival. We’re rooting for them because of our pride and allegiance to the Ivy League. What other conference can say that? Can you imagine a Texas fan rooting for Oklahoma because they are from the Big 12? Or a Michigan fan rooting for Ohio State? Never in a million years. That’s one thing that makes Ivy athletics unique; on the national stage, we can all come together over the fact that almost no one believes that we have the athletic talent to compete with the big boys.

The other thing that Cornell’s dream run has made me realize is that, for me, it’s not a totally satisfying feeling. At the end of the day, Cornell is a great story, but to me it’s just that. I don’t go to Cornell, I go to Columbia, and I’m damn proud of it. I want to see my Columbia Lions in the NCAA tournament, and not just as a “happy-to-be-here” type of team, but as one that can legitimately beat quality teams.

Don’t laugh it off so easily. Any team can become good in a hurry, just look at Cornell. In Steve Donahue’s first year at Cornell, they went 3-11 in Ivy play. In fact, they didn’t go above .500 until his fifth year at the helm. Honestly, it takes a bit of luck for your first breakthrough. Look at this year’s Big Red squad. Ryan Wittman had a leg injury during his senior year, and didn’t get any looks from the top schools. Point guard Louis Dale had to send out highlight tapes of himself to head coaches in order to get a look, before Donahue took a chance on him. And Jeff Foote, who’s being talked about as an NBA prospect? He walked onto St. Bonaventure’s because he didn’t get any scholarship offers, and barely played as a freshman. He only transferred to Cornell when his mom, a nurse, spent a lot of time treating a seriously injured Cornell player, Khaliq Gant, and became friendly enough with the coaching staff to convince Donahue to take a chance of Foote.

So while I’ll cheer Cornell on with all of my might, deep down, I know I’ll only be satisfied when Columbia is in their place. It’ll happen someday, it’s just a question of when.

Kunal Gupta is a junior in the School of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in operations research.
sportseditors@columbiaspectator.com