A Starter for Mighty Kentucky Now Sits on Cornell’s Bench

Atop a hill near Commonwealth Stadium, Coury remembers tents that were set up where players and potential men’s basketball recruits would mingle in a roped-off area. Fans would rubberneck or point as they walked by, and children would approach seeking autographs.

“You’re on this pedestal, it’s like a big pedestal on a hill,” Coury said, smiling at the memory. “You can’t get pushed much higher up than that.”

Coury will find his new world colliding with his old one on Thursday when No. 12-seeded Cornell plays No. 1 Kentucky in the East Regional semifinal at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Coury, a bruising 6-foot-9, 240-pound redshirt forward, transferred to Cornell from Kentucky after two years and has become an important bench cog for the Big Red even though he averages only 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds a game.

The difference between the programs could not be more vast. Cornell (29-4) has played in seven N.C.A.A. tournament games. Kentucky (34-2) has won seven national championships. Cornell spends less than $1 million on its men’s basketball budget. Kentucky allocates $8.6 million.

Coury says he has no regrets. “The only thing I wish I could change is that I wish we could have a $3 million practice facility right next to our house,” he said with a laugh.

He played for Tubby Smith and for Billy Gillispie as a walk-on, including significant minutes during his sophomore year. Although Kentucky’s talent level has significantly improved since Coury departed and John Calipari arrived as the coach, it is a telling nod to the Big Red’s talent that Coury has started one game after starting 29 during his sophomore season at Kentucky.

Cornell players and coaches all season have bristled at the notion that they are a Cinderella team. There was nothing cuddly about the way they routed No. 5 Temple and No. 4 Wisconsin to become the first Ivy League team since Penn in 1979 to reach the Round of 16. A precision, unselfish offense that includes fearless 3-point shooters and the fact that they bring off the bench a former starter at Kentucky surely strengthens that argument.

Kentucky’s 6-11, 270-pound DeMarcus Cousins is considered one of the country’s top low-post draft prospects, but Cornell is not diminutive. Coury teams with the 7-foot, 265-pound Jeff Foote and the 6-7, 235-pound Alex Tyler, giving Cornell a burly frontcourt.

“I think the size and physicality that we can throw out there with him and Jeff Foote and Alex Tyler in particular is different from most Ivy League teams,” the Cornell assistant Nat Graham said.

Coury’s recruitment to Cornell was not much of a recruitment. His father had contacted the admissions office to see if his son, a 4.0 student, could transfer there. Coury’s father, Jerry, had seen Cornell and Kentucky play at the same N.C.A.A. tournament site in Anaheim, Calif., in 2008. The combination of Cornell’s talent and his son’s academic proclivity piqued the family’s interest.

St. Joseph’s Coach Phil Martelli said that he had to double-check with his assistant while preparing for Cornell because he could not believe it had a bench player who started at Kentucky.

“Look, they put together pieces here,” Martelli said. “They truly have put together a team of honest-to-goodness basketball players.”

Cornell Coach Steve Donahue said the athletic liaison for admissions at Cornell, Scott Campbell, called him about Coury and told him he was 6-9 and had started at Kentucky. He asked Donahue if he was interested.

“Um, yeah, I’m interested,” Donahue recalled with a laugh.

Donahue glanced at Coury’s statistics and the Cornell assistants looked at YouTube video. It did not take long to figure out he would be a contributor. Coury has also lived up to the academic side of things. He is majoring in finance, has a 4.0 grade point average and was reading from a textbook during one open-locker-room news media session during the first two rounds in Jacksonville, Fla. Whenever a reporter wanted to ask him a question, Coury had to stop his studying. Coury says he has an internship this summer at Goldman Sachs.

“He’s never gotten anything less than an A while he’s been there,” Donahue said.

Coury said that he knew he was playing in a different type of place when making a 20-minute walk to Cornell’s basketball facility in freezing temperatures. At Kentucky, the gym is located across the street from the dormitories where the players live.

He said there had been good and bad parts to both experiences, but was content that he made the right decision.

“They have a very good business school, one of the tops in the nation,” Coury said of Cornell. “That’s the reason that I wanted to come here. I wanted to choose Cornell because they had both, they had good academics and I saw that they had all these good sophomores.”

Those sophomores have blossomed into seniors who have led Cornell to the Round of 16. And when the Big Red squares off against college basketball’s blue bloods on Thursday, it will have one player who knows what it is like on both sides.