One blowout loss to a No. 3 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament shouldn't be enough to discourage Cornell from returning to the tournament next season.

After the Big Red suffered a 77-53 loss to Stanford in Cornell's first NCAA Tournament game since 1988, Big Red coach Steve Donahue put the experience in perspective.

"We'll play better the next time we're here," he said.

Donahue's faith is well-founded. Cornell finished 22-6 and 14-0 in the Ivy League with a team that will return all but one player. That one senior, forward Jason Hartford, was a role player who did his best work as a defender and rebounder.

The top four scorers—small forward Ryan Wittman, point guard Louis Dale, guard Adam Gore and forward/center Alex Tyler—will all...]]> Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:38:19 PDT urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,sportsxchange:20080101:ncaab,article,teamreports-2008-ncaab-cbr:1 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:38:19 PDT