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GAME INFORMATION
Game #17: Clarkson at Cornell
Tip off: Monday, Jan. 11, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Newman Arena (4,473), Ithaca, N.Y.
2009-10 Records: Clarkson (6-3, 0-0 Liberty); Cornell (13-3, 0-0 Ivy)
Series Record: Cornell leads 10-0
Last Meeting: Cornell won 78-42, Dec. 7, 1999 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
Clarkson Web Site: www.ClarksonAthletics.com
TV: None
Live Stats: Available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Video: Available at www.CornellBigRed.com

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (130-136, .489) ... 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. — Cornell closes out a historic non-conference season and plays its final tuneup before Ivy League competition when it meets Division III Clarkson on Monday, Jan. 11, at 7:00 p.m. at Newman Arena at Bartels Hall. Barry Leonard will provide the call on 93.5 WVBR-FM, while live video of the game can be found on the internet as part of the RedCast subscription service.

After picking up a road split that included a five-point loss and near-upset of then-No. 1 Kansas, Cornell will attempt to win its 14th out of conference contest, extending the school record. The team's three losses have come to squads that have combined to go 39-7 as of Jan. 11.

The Big Red has won 11 of its last 12 games and will attempt to build momentum heading into its conference opener against Columbia at home on Saturday.
 
ABOUT CLARKSON
• Conference: Liberty League
• Head Coach: Mark Gilbride (Bowdoin '02), first season.
• Clarkson is off to a 6-3 start after dropping an 84-66 contest at Elmira, snapping a three-game win streak.
• Clarkson is 5-1 at home and is just 1-2 on the road.
• The Golden Knights have made three straight postseason appearances and are coming off a 15-11 campaign in 2008-09.
• First-year head coach Mark Gilbride returns six of the team's top seven scorers from a year ago.
• Senior guard Brandon Linton, a second-team all-Liberty League pick a season ago, is averaging 8.8 points, but has struggled shooting the ball (34 percent overall, 17 percent from 3-point range). He has a team-high 33 assists and is second with 17 steals.
• Elson Pickering leads three double figure scorers at 13.6 ppg. and is second on the team in rebounding (6.6 rpg.), while Felix Llanos (10.2 ppg.) and Keith Murray (10.8 ppg., 2.1 spg.) are also in double figures.
• The Golden Knights have dominant advantages over its opponents with nearly twice as many assists (127-66) while committing 29 less turnovers.

CORNELL VS. NON-DIVISION I TEAMS
• Cornell has annually played and beaten a non-Division I team in each of the last 18 seasons, posting an average margin of victory of more than 30 points.
• Each of the team's wins came by double figures except for in 2004-05, when Ithaca College made a 10-point run against Cornell reserves in the final minute in a 69-67 Big Red victory.
• Cornell is 153-61 against teams that are non-Division I foes.
• Head coach Steve Donahue has a 10-0 mark against non-Division I teams.

THE SERIES
• The Big Red leads the all-time series 10-0 dating all the way back to the first meeting in 1915-16 (a 26-25 Cornell victory).
• The last time the two squads met was in 1999-2000, a 78-42 Cornell victory at Newman Arena.
• The only team that Cornell has faced more times in its history without a loss is Alfred (13-0).

THE STORY LINE
• After an excruciatingly-close 71-66 defeat at the hands of No. 1 Kansas, the Big Red will get right back into action when it meets South Dakota.
• Cornell will attempt to win its NCAA-best 10th game away from home so far this season, entering the game with a 9-2 record.
• Senior Pete Reynolds, from nearby Blair, Neb. (approximately 150 miles away), will be playing his hometown game in front of family and friends.
• Cornell's three losses this season have been to teams a pair of Big East teams that have a combined record of 36-5 as of Jan. 8 (at Syracuse, vs. Seton Hall, at Kansas).
• The Big Red will be looking to extend its own school record for non-conference victories in a season which it set with its 11th victory of the year.

REVIEWING THE SOUTH DAKOTA GAME
• On a night when the offense wasn't crisp and their legs may not have been totally under them, the Cornell men's basketball team's defense pulled the Big Red through an important 71-65 victory over a determined South Dakota squad.
• Senior Louis Dale had 19 points and three assists, while classmate Ryan Wittman notched 18 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
• Alex Tyler and Geoff Reeves each had nine points and Jeff Foote recorded four points and 12 rebounds.
• Jon Jaques made all three of his shots, including both 3-pointers, for eight points and Mark Coury grabbed five rebounds.
• As a team, the Big Red made 12-of-12 from the free-throw line and limited the home team to 40 percent shooting overall and 29 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Big Red outrebounded USD 41-35 and had 14 assists and just 11 turnovers, but hit just 40 percent of its shots from the floor.
• South Dakota got 17 points, five rebounds and three assists out of Jake Thomas and 12 points apiece from Roman Gentry and Tyler Cain. Cain added nine rebounds, four steals and a pair of blocked shots. 

NOTES TO KNOW
• Head coach Steve Donahue was named the Collegeinsider.com Hugh Durham mid-season award winner as top mid-major coach in the country last week.
• Senior Ryan Witttman became Cornell's all-time leading scorer and the Ivy League's all-time 3-point field goal leader. The four-time Ivy League Player of the Week pick was named to collegeinsider.com mid-major all-decade team last week.
• Cornell is 11-2 away from home so far this season, the most wins of any Division I program as of Jan. 6.
• Cornell won its first-ever Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival tournament title, the longest-running holiday tournament.
• The Big Red snapped a 40-year, 46-year skid against the Big East with the win over St. John's in the final of the MSG Holiday Festival.
• The Big Red has wins over teams from the Big East (St. John's), SEC (Alabama), Atlantic 10 (La Salle, Massachusetts, Saint Joseph's) and typical mid-major powers Bucknell, Davidson, Drexel and Vermont).
• Cornell had the near-upset of the season so far, leading into the final minute before dropping a 71-66 decision at No. 1 Kansas on Jan. 6.

TOP 25 VOTES
• The Big Red received nine votes in the AP poll and 15 votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coach's Poll that was released on Jan. 4.
• 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.
• The Big Red has never been in the top 25 of the coaches poll.
• Cornell earned three votes in the preseason USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll to sit tied for 48th nationally.
• Also receiving three votes were Memphis, Mississippi, Utah State and Southern Illinois.

NEXT UP
• Cornell opens Ivy League play on Saturday, Jan. 16, at 4 p.m. when it meets Columbia.