It’s December 21, 2009—the championship game of the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival basketball tournament. After an 11-point deficit at the half, the Big Red men’s team has tied the score against St. John. With just seconds remaining, forward Jon Jaques ’10 has the ball.
The senior captain sinks a deep 3-pointer—his fifth of the night. It not only propels the Big Red to a win, but ends a 40-year losing streak against its Big East rival.
Now, a decade and a half after that game, Jaques is working to give a new generation of players their own unforgettable moments on the paint. On the Big Red coaching staff since 2013, Jaques recently wound up his first season at the program’s helm.
“I want us to be the best teammates we can,” says Jaques. “Every coach says that, but I enjoy it when the guys are playing together, for each other, being unselfish. I’m fortunate that the culture here is such that it’s the expectation to care about each other, on and off the court. And hopefully, it shows in how we play.”
An L.A. native, Jaques majored in biology and society in Arts & Sciences.
Serge Petchenyi/Cornell University
From left, Xi Yang, PhD '10, senior lecturer of finance in the SC Johnson College of Business; Christine Ye; Christine Ye Award recipient Margaret E. Foster, doctoral candidate in communication; Cornelia Ye Award recipient Naman Agrawal, doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior; Cornelia Ye; and Derina Samuel, associate director of graduate student development at the Center for Teaching Innovation.
NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Artist concept of the gas giant planet WD 1856 b orbiting a white dwarf star. The planet is 7 times larger than the Earth-sized white dwarf it orbits. WD 1856 b has methane and hazes in its atmosphere, which would give it a similar color to Saturn's moon Titan. The white dwarf formed from a star that died 5 billion years ago, and has been cooling ever since, giving it an orange colour similar to the Sun.
