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GAME INFORMATION
Game #22: Yale at No. 25 Cornell
Tip off: Friday, February 5, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Newman Arena (4,473), Ithaca, N.Y.
2009-10 Records: Yale (8-13, 2-2 Ivy League); Cornell (18-3, 4-0 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 105-101
Last Meeting: Yale won 72-60, February 20, 2009 in New Haven, Conn.

Game #23: Brown at No. 25 Cornell
Tip off: Saturday, February 6, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Newman Arena (4,473), Ithaca, N.Y.
2009-10 Records: Brown (7-14, 1-3 Ivy League); Cornell (18-3, 4-0 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 66-45
Last Meeting: Cornell won 85-45, February 21, 2009 in Providence, R.I.

Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard, Matt Grassie)
TV: None
Live Stats: available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Video: available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Tickets: available by calling (607) 254-BEAR

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (135-136, .498) ... Donahue became the fourth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on Sept. 6, 2000.

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ITHACA, N.Y. — Fresh off its first national ranking in nearly 60 years, the Cornell men's basketball team will have a bullseye on its backs when it meets Yale on Friday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m., and Brown on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena. Barry Leonard and Matt Grassie will provide the calls on 93.5 WVBR-FM, while live video of both games will be available as part of the RedCast subscription service. 

The Big Red moved into the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll at No. 25, securing its first national ranking since the 1950-51 campaign. The program also was ranked No. 27 in the Associated Press rankings as the second team also receiving votes. Cornell has won six straight and 16 of the last 17 overall, and brings an 18-game home conference win streak into the weekend.

Cornell is coming off a weekend of sweeping contests from Dartmouth (71-37) and Harvard (86-50) by a combined 70 points, a Big Red team record for largest combined margin of victory in an Ivy League weekend sweep. Cornell and Princeton (2-0) are the only unbeatens in Ancient Eight play entering the weekend, but both have plenty of basketball remaining this season.

The senior trio of Louis Dale, Jeff Foote and Ryan Wittman continue to lead the Big Red, but it has been an efficient and balanced effort on both ends of the floor. Cornell has played at least 15 players in each of its four league games and hasn't trailed at any point during the conference season. In all, 10 players are averaging 10 minutes per game or more with eight averaging 5.0 points per game or more.

ABOUT YALE
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: James Jones (Albany '86), 11th season.
• Yale's record stands at 8-13 (2-2 Ivy) after splitting with travel partner Brown (each team winning on the road) and then topping Penn (61-48) and falling to Princeton (58-45) at home in Ancient Eight play.
• The teams have had two common opponents this season, with the Bulldogs topping Bryant (69-54) and losing to Vermont (72-60) with both games in New Haven, Conn. The Big Red knocked off the Bears at home and Vermont in a neutral court site game in Philadelphia.
• All-Ivy candidate Alex Zampier is the Ivy League's leading scorer (17.8 ppg.) and ranks among the league leaders in steals (49).
• Junior Michael Sands is also in double figures (10.6 ppg., 6.0 rpg.).
• Sophomore forward Greg Magnano has shown flashes of All-Ivy potential as well in the post, averaging 7.3 ppg. and 5.7 rpg., while Jordan Gibson averages 7.8 ppg. and 4.0 rpg., while standing second on the team in both steals (25) and blocked shots (17).
• In four league games this season, Yale has held opponents to .417 shooting overall and a .271 3-point field goal percentage. 
• The Bulldogs are 4-2 in its last six games, but have lost six straight games away from home.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads 105-101 overall in a series that dates back to the 1898-99 campaign.
• Cornell has had the best of the series recently, winning six of the last eight meetings and each of the last five in Ithaca.
• Yale won the last meeting between the team's, taking a 72-60 decision over the Big Red in New Haven, Conn.
• The Big Red's last three wins over the Bulldogs have come by an average of 22.7 points per game.

ABOUT BROWN
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: Jesse Agel (Vermont '84), second season.
• Brown enters Friday night's game at Columbia with a 7-14 record (1-3 Ivy) after suffering a heartbreaking 55-54 loss to Penn on a controversial last-second tip-in by the Quakers on Jan. 30.
• The Bears have lost three straight Ivy contests after opening the conference season with a road win at Yale.
• All-Ivy candidate Matt Mullery leads the team in scoring (14.9 ppg.), rebounding (6.0 rpg.), blocked shots (31), field goal percentage (.554) and minutes played (31.4 mpg.).
• The Bears have struggled rebounding the basketball, getting beaten on the boards by nearly six per game.
• Peter Sullivan (11.3 ppg.), Tucker Halpern (8.7 ppg.) and Andrew McCarthy (8.0 ppg., 5.6 rpg.) are also averaging at least 8.0 points per game.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads the series 66-45, dating back to the first meeting between the teams in the 1949-50 season.
• The Big Red is 9-1 in the last 10 contests against the Bears and has won six straight.
• This current senior class is 6-0 against the Bears, winning those games by an average of 17.7 points per game.
• Cornell is 39-17 all-time against Brown in Ithaca.
• A season ago, Cornell won its two games in the series by an average of 36.0 points per game.

THE STORY LINE
• Cornell brings an 18-game Ivy League home win streak into the weekend.
• Cornell is 29-3 in conference play over the last three seasons, 38-8 in the last four and 44-14 in its last 58 overall league contests.
• Cornell's three losses this season have been to a pair of top four teams (Kansas, Syracuse) and Big East foe Seton Hall, squads that have combined for a 53-9 record as of Feb. 2.

A CORNELL WIN OVER YALE WOULD ...
• make the Big Red 19-3 overall.
• give Cornell a 5-0 Ivy League record for the second time in three seasons.
• give Cornell 17 wins in its last 18 games.
• improve the Big Red's home record to 8-1.
• make the Big Red 30-3 in Ivy League over the last three seasons and 39-8 over the last four.

THE STREAKS
• Cornell is 29-3 in Ivy play over the last three seasons and 38-8 over the last four.
• The Big Red has won 18 straight conference contests at home and is 22-2 over the last four seasons. Cornell has won seven straight games at home overall.
• Cornell is 33-2 in its last 35 games at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red has won 16 of its last 17 contests overall, with the only loss coming at Kansas.
• Cornell is 77-31 over the last four years, making the Big Red seniors the winningest class in school history.
• Cornell has won five straight games by at least 20 points and three straight by at least 25 points.
• The Big Red hasn't trailed on the scoreboard for 221:43, a span of more than five and a half contests.

SOME INTERESTING NOTES
• Cornell topped Dartmouth (71-37) and Harvard (86-50) by a combined 70 points last weekend, the biggest cumulative margin in a single weekend over Ivy foes since the formation of the league.  The previous best margin was 60 in a pair of blowout wins over Brown (90-58) and Yale (64-36) at Newman Arena in 2008-09.
• The Big Red has had five different scoring leaders in its last five games.
• Cornell has outscored its opponent in each of the last 12 halves.
• The Big Red hasn't trailed for one second in Ivy League play and hasn't trailed overall in 221:43. Cornell hasn't trailed since South Dakota led 31-30 at the 3:11 mark of the first half of the Big Red's 71-65 victory in Vermillion, S.D. on Jan. 8.
• During that time, the games have only been tied for the span of 3:53, giving the Big Red the lead for 217:50.
• Cornell has not trailed during conference play (160 minutes) and has been tied for just 146 seconds. The Big Red has officially led for 157:14 of 160 minutes.
• The current starting lineup of guards Louis Dale and Chris Wroblewski, center Jeff Foote and forwards Jon Jaques and Ryan Wittman are a perfect 8-0 this season.
• Cornell is in search of its seventh 5-0 start in Ivy League play in school history when it meets Yale (1953-54, 1954-55, 1961-62, 1964-65, 2003-04, 2007-08). The Big Red has started 6-0 in Ivy play just two times (1964-65, 2007-08).
• A weekend sweep of Yale and Brown would give the Big Red its third straight 20-win season and the fourth in program history.
• A victory over Yale would make Cornell 19-3, matching the best-ever start for the Big Red after 22 games. A win in both games would make Cornell 20-3, its best-ever mark after 23 contests.
• The Big Red has posted two win streaks of at least six games for the third time in school history and the first time since the 1961-62 campaign (six-game and seven-game streaks). The 1922-23 team also posted two win streaks of seven games each.
• Cornell has five straight wins of at least 20 points, a school record.
• The Big Red has limited foes to 40 percent shooting or less in nine straight games, nearly doubling the previous all-time high of five straight set in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.

HELLO TOP 25
• The Cornell men's basketball team earned its first national ranking in 59 seasons when it jumped into the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 poll at No. 25 on Feb. 1.
• The Big Red had 53 total votes to sit behind Baylor (109) and finish just ahead of Mississippi (52).
• Cornell is the second team out of the top 25 in the Associated Press poll, receiving 39 votes.
•  It was Cornell's first-ever appearance in the coaches' poll.
• Since 1948, Cornell has spent three weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. During the 1950-51 season, the Big Red climbed as high as No. 14 on Jan. 3,1951. The two previous weeks the team was ranked No. 19 (12/19/1950) and No. 18 (12/26/1950).
• The Big Red most recently received votes in the AP poll in 2007-08 campaign, peaking with three votes heading into the NCAA tournament loss to Stanford.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red will hit the road for its first full Ivy League weekend when it visits Penn on Friday, Feb. 12, then heads to Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 13.
• The men's team will tip against the Quakers at 7 p.m., then will open against the Tigers at 6 p.m. the following day.