“You go to Cornell? You must be really smart."

The phrase has simultaneously drawn up feelings of pride and awkwardness in Cornellians for decades. But this winter break as I externed at three different TV news stations shortly after Cornell came nail-bitingly close to beating Kansas, the phrase was nowhere to be heard.

Against an undefeated Kansas team that has made a habit of embarrassing its opponents by as many as 30 points, the men’s basketball team came within five of pulling off an historic upset for the ages that would have ended the nation’s longest home winning streak at 50.

Powered by senior forward Ryan Wittman’s 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, combined with a gutsy defensive effort that held the Jayhawks to 40.7 percent overall and prevented any big scoring runs, unranked Cornell (12-3) sent shock waves through the sports world as it led No. 1 Kansas (14-0), 41-38, at halftime –– the only team to do so all season. The Jayhawks had been limiting their opponents to 58.1 points per game; on Wednesday night, they surrendered 41 in the first half alone.

Havoc in Hanover