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GAME INFORMATION
Game #18: Columbia at Cornell
Tip off: Saturday, Jan. 16, at 4:00 p.m.
Site: Newman Arena (4,473), Ithaca, N.Y.
2009-10 Records: Columbia (6-8, 0-0 Ivy); Cornell (14-3, 0-0 Ivy)
Series Record: Columbia leads 118-94
Last Meeting: Cornell won 83-72, Jan. 24, 2009 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
Columbia Web Site: www.GoColumbiaLions.com
TV: Time Warner Sports
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 (131-136, .491) ... 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. — After more than two months of being the hunter — looking for signature wins to capture the imagination of the college basketball world — the Cornell men's basketball team opens lift as the hunted when the two-time defending Ivy League champions look to make it three straight starting when the Big Red meets Columbia. Tip-off is set for Saturday, Jan. 16, at 4:00 p.m. at Newman Arena in Bartels Hall. Barry Leonard will provide the call on 93.5 WVBR-FM, while live video of the game can be heard on the internet as part of the RedCast subscription service. The game will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable Sports.

Cornell is 25-3 in Ancient Eight play (with a 15-game conference home win streak) entering the contest against a dangerous Lions team that ranks among the best shooting squads in the country. The Big Red has done most of its heavy lifting away from the Newman Arena fans so far this season (an NCAA-best 10 wins away from home).

A familiar foe stands in the way of its first league victory of the season. The Lions, who serve as Cornell's travel partner, have lost seven consecutive games to the Big Red and have never beaten this current senior class, but has a talented roster fully capable of stealing away the home court advantage. Led by sophomore sensation Noruwa Agho (18.1 ppg.), the Lions are looking to get healthy as a darkhorse candidate to challenge for the conference title. Senior Patrick Foley and junior Brian Grimes have missed the last two games with injuries after ranking No. 2 and No. 3 on the team in scoring over the first 12 games.

ABOUT COLUMBIA
• Conference: Ivy League
• Head Coach: Joe Jones (Oswego '87), seventh season.
• Columbia is 6-8 so far this season and has lost two straight and four of its last five entering the contest.
• The Lions dropped a 59-53 contest at home against St. Francis (N.Y.) on Monday, allowing the Terriers to shoot 57 percent in the final 20 minutes in watching an nine-point halftime lead evaporate.
• Columbia is 4-2 at home, but just 2-6 away from Levien Gymnasium.
• Sophomore Noruwa Agho has been one of the most efficient scorers in Division I so far this season, averaging 18.1 points on 52 percent field goal shooting and an amazing 57 percent from 3-point range (39-of-39). Strangely, he is shooting just 65 percent from the free-throw line.
• Brian Grimes, a transfer from La Salle, is posting 10.4 points and 6.7 rebounds, while senior Patrick Foley is at 9.9 points and 3.1 assists per game, but both have missed the last two contests with injury. Their status for today's game is unknown.
• The Lions have led the nation in 3-point percentage much of the season, shooting .441 from beyond the arc, but attempting less than 13 attempts per game.
• Both Columbia and its opponents are shooting an identical .439 from the field, making exactly 321-of-732 field goals this season.
• Columbia outrebounds its opponents by nearly two per game, but average four more turnovers than assists per game over its first 14 contests.

THE SERIES
• The Lions lead the all-time series between the programs 118-94.
• Cornell, however, enters the weekend having won 12 of the last 14 contests against Columbia, including seven straight.
• The Lions' last win over Cornell came in a 58-57 last-second triumph on Jan. 21, 2006 in Ithaca, when Dragutin Kravic beat the buzzer to give the visitors the win.
• The Big Red is 14-6 all-time against the Lions in Newman Arena, including winning six of the last seven meetings.

THE STORY LINE
• After setting a school and Ivy League record for regular season non-conference wins (14), the Cornell men's basketball team begins its quest for its third straight Ancient Eight title when it faces travel partner Columbia.
• The two teams rank first (Columbia, .468) and third (Cornell, .425) nationally in 3-point field goal percentage), while Ryan Wittman (18.9 ppg.) and Noruwa Agho (17.9 ppg.) rank first and third, respectively, in the conference scoring race.
• Cornell has won 12 of its last 14 games against the Lions, including seven straight.
• The Big Red rides a 15-game home Ivy league win streak dating back to 2007.
• Cornell is 25-3 in conference play over the last two seasons, 34-8 in the last three and 40-14 in its last 54 overall league contests.
• Cornell's three losses this season have been to a pair of top 10 teams (Kansas, Syracuse) and Big East foe Seton Hall, squads that have combined for a 39-7 record as of Jan. 13.

REVIEWING THE CLARKSON GAME
• Cornell held a dominant 56-22 edge on the backboards and put away a pesky Clarkson squad 82-37 on Monday at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red ended a historic non-conference season with a 14-3 mark, setting records for most non-league wins (14) and non-conference winning percentage (.824).
• Senior Ryan Wittman had 15 points and six rebounds, while classmate Jeff Foote chipped in with 14 points and eight rebounds and Louis Dale had 10 points, four assists, three steals and three rebounds to pace the Big Red.
• Cornell nearly had as many offensive rebounds (21) as Clarkson had total boards (22) and shot 49 percent overall while limiting the Golden Knights to 25 percent shooting.
• All 19 players that suited up saw action, including freshman walk-on Jon Gray, who dressed for his first career action.
• Freshmen Peter McMillan and Miles Asafo-Adjei scored their first collegiate points, while Josh Figini had a career-best five points, including a fastbreak dunk for his first basket as a Big Red player.
• The freshman play of the night came on a vicious follow-up dunk by Errick Peck, who ended the night with four points and four rebounds in 11 minutes.
• There was a lot to like despite the fact that the Big Red missed a significant number of open 3-pointers, making 9-of-27 overall. The starting backcourt of Dale and Chris Wroblewski combined for 10 assists without a turnover.

THE IVY OPENER
• Cornell opens its 54th official Ivy League season (the league was formally started prior to the 1956-57 season) with a 19-34 record in previous conference openers.
• Cornell is 15-17 against Columbia and has played the Lions more than any other team to open league play.
• The records against opponents in Ivy openers: Brown (0-3), Columbia (13-17), Dartmouth (1-4), Harvard (2-5), Penn (0-2), Princeton (0-1) and Yale (1-2).
• Cornell is 14-15 in Ivy openers at home and 5-19 on the road.
• Going back to its Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League (a forerunner of the Ivy League), Cornell's record is 44-62 in conference openers (25-28 in the EIBL).
• Cornell has won three straight Ivy openers, all against the Lions.

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 five-time Ivy League Player of the Week pick was named to collegeinsider.com mid-major all-decade team last week.
• Cornell is 10-2 away from home so far this season, the most wins of any Division I program as of Jan. 13.
• Cornell won its first-ever Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival tournament title, the longest-running holiday tournament.
• 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).

THE STREAKS
• Cornell is 25-3 in Ivy play over the last two seasons and 34-8 over the last three.
• The Big Red has won 15 straight conference contests at home and is 19-2 over the last three seasons.
• Cornell is 30-2 in its last 32 games at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red has won 12 of its last 13 contests overall, with the only loss coming at Kansas.
• Cornell is 73-31 over the last four years, making the Big Red seniors the winningest class in school history.

TOP 25 VOTES
• The Big Red received 12 votes in the AP poll and 16 votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coach's Poll that was released on Jan. 11.
• 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.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
• Cornell is 10-2 away from home so far this season, tied for the most road/neutral court wins in the country (as of Jan. 11).
• Vermont has also won 10 games (10-4) away from their home base.
• Both Northern Colorado (9-3) and Louisiana Tech (9-2) have won nine games away from home.
• Included among Cornell's road wins are victories over teams from the SEC (Alabama), the Big East (St. John's), the Atlantic 10 (Massachusetts and La Salle), as well as perennial mid-major powers Bucknell, Davidson and Vermont.
• Cornell's 10 road/neutral wins ties the school record set by the 2007-08 Ivy League championship squad.

NON-CONFERENCE NOTES
• The Big Red has guaranteed itself a fourth consecutive non-conference season with at least a .500 record with its 14-3 mark in 2009-10.
• Cornell's 14 regular season non-conference victories is the most by any team in Ivy League history.
• Cornell has won 10 non-conference contests for the second straight year and for just the fifth time in program history Before last year's 10-win non-league slate, the last time it had been done was the 1950-51 campaign when it also won 10 games. The Big Red won a program-best 11 games out of the league in 1949-50 and also took home 10 decisions in the 1919-20 campaign.
• The Big Red has a 32-16 non-conference record over the last three seasons.
• The last time the Big Red at least broke even in non-league play in more consecutive years was the 1959-60 to the 1967-68 campaign, a span of nine straight seasons.

ALL-TIMERS
• Senior Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale have each toppled Cornell career records this season.
• With a career-high 34-point effort against La Salle, Wittman surpassed John Bajusz for the school's all-time scoring record. He ended the night with 1,637 points, four more than Bajusz in his four-year career. He has since moved that total to 1,753 points. Wittman still has at least 14 games this season to add to that total.
• Dale, meanwhile, had six assists in the win at St. John's, giving him 381. That surpassed Chuck Rolles' 53-year old record of 378. He has since moved that total to 393.

PLAYER NUGGETS
• The top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski have made 105-120 free throws this season (.875), including 44-of-50 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.880).
• Wittman had a career-low four points at UMass, but has averaged 19.6 points in the 15 games since.
• He also has hit at least two 3-pointers in 16 straight games.
• Wroblewski has posted 51 assists and 21 turnovers in his last 10, including 36 assists and 15 turnovers in his last six contests.
• In Cornell's 14 wins this season, Mark Coury has made 24-of-33 shots from the floor (.727).
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 16 assists and just two turnovers in the team's last eight contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 22 of his last 32 shots (.688), including 12-of-20 from beyond the arc (.600).
• Junior Max Groebe is averaging 11.0 points on 10-of-17 shooting from 3-point range (.588) in the last three games in which he has played.
• Five different players (Dale, Foote, Jaques, Wittman, Wroblewski) have at least one game this season with 20+ points.

TEAM NOTES
• Cornell opponents are shooting .375 from the floor and averaging 58.9 points in the last seven games after shooting .456 in the first 10 contests.
• Cornell has scored at least 70 points in 14 of 17 contests.
• Cornell has a positive assist:turnover ratio in 16 of its 17 games this season.
• The team has hit 46 more 3-pointers this season than its opponents and has 87 more assists.
• The Big Red has at least 17 assists in eight of its last nine contests.
• Cornell has only trailed at the half once in the last 11 games and four times this season.
• An opponent has hits more 3-pointers than the Big Red just once this season (Bucknell, 11-6).
• The Big Red has outrebounded seven of its last 10 opponents (+5.5 over that span).
• The Big Red has hit eight or more 3-pointers in each of its last nine contests.
• In its last six contests, Cornell has led at the half by an average of 12.7 points (39.0-26.3)

NEXT UP
• Cornell will head to New York City to face the Lions on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. at Levien Gymnasium in the return trip.
• The Big Red will then return home for two contests, meeting Dartmouth on Friday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m., then faces Harvard on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. in Newman Arena.