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GAME INFORMATION
Game #15: Cornell at Kansas
Tip off: Wednesday, Jan. 6, at 7:00 p.m. CT
Site: Allen Fieldhouse (16,300), Lawrence, Kan.
2009-10 Records: Cornell (12-2, 0-0 Ivy); Kansas (13-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Series Record: Kansas leads 2-0
Last Meeting: Kansas won 100-46, Jan. 2, 1996 in Lawrence, Kan.
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
Kansas Web Site: www.KUAthletics.com
TV: ESPN360
Live Stats: Available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Video: Available at ESPN360

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (129-135, .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. — The Cornell men's basketball team has shown it can compete with some of the top teams in the nation over the last three years, but few games posed the kind of challenge Wednesday's matchup against No. 1 Kansas does when the two teams meet on Jan. 6, at 7:00 p.m. CT (8:00 p.m. ET) at Allen Fieldhouse. Barry Leonard will provide the call on 93.5 WVBR-FM, while live audio of the game can be heard on the internet as part of the RedCast subscription service. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN360. 

Both teams enter the game hot, with Cornell bringing in a 10-game win streak with an NCAA-best 9-1 record away from home, while the Jayhawks are 13-0 and have won 50 consecutive home games. Cornell and Kansas each rank among the top five teams nationally from beyond the arc.

The game will serve as a homecoming for Burlington, Kan., native Geoff Reeves. A starter and key reserve on two Ivy championship teams, he is also a high school teammate of Kansas guard Tyrel Reed. The duo were part of a state title team at Burlington HS.

The All-Ivy trio of Louis Dale, Jeff Foote and Ryan Wittman have lived up to their billing so far this season. Dale is averaging 9.7 points, 5.2 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game, while Foote is at 13.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. Wittman, the all-time leading scorer at Cornell, paces the squad with his 18.9 points. Additionally, Chris Wroblewski, last season's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, is putting up 9.8 points per game. Seniors Mark Coury, Jon Jaques and Alex Tyler, juniors Max Groebe and Adam Wire and freshman Errick Peck round out the rotation.

ABOUT KANSAS
• Conference: Big 12
• Head Coach: Bill Self (Oklahoma State '85), seventh season.
• The Jayhawks are ranked No. 1 in the country in both polls and sport a 13-0 record heading into the contest.
• Included among the wins are victories over Memphis, UCLA, Michigan, Cal and Temple.
• In its last contest, Kansas easily dispatched No. 18 Temple (84-52) on the road.
• Kansas features three All-America candidates in freshman Xavier Henry (16.3 ppg., 4.0 rpg.), Sherron Collins (13.8 ppg., 4.2 apg.) and Cole Aldrich (11.1 ppg., 10.1 rpg., 3.8 bpg.).
• The Jayhawks shoot .522 as a team and .429 from 3-point range, while allowing opponents to shoot just .338 and .265 from beyond the arc.
• Kansas holds an NCAA-best 50-game home win streak.

CORNELL VS. THE BIG 12 CONFERENCE
• The Big Red holds an 0-10 all-time record against current members of the Big 12 Conference, including an 0-2 record against Kansas.
• Cornell has also faced Iowa State (0-1), Kansas (0-2), Nebraska (0-2), Oklahoma (0-1), Oklahoma State (0-1) and Texas (0-1), while never having met Baylor, Colorado, Kansas State, Texas A&M or Texas Tech.
• The Big Red met Big 12 tournament champion Missouri in the NCAA first round a season ago. Cornell trailed by just four at the half before falling 78-59, but turned the ball over just nine times against the Tigers' pressure, a season-low by a Missouri opponent.
• This is the only scheduled meeting against a Big 12 school.

THE SERIES
• Kansas has won both previous meetings between the programs, including a dominant 100-46 victory the last time they met on Jan. 2, 1996.
• The only other meeting came in the 1955-56 season in Kansas City, a 75-58 Jayhawk victory.

THE STORY LINE
• Cornell eyes its first-ever win over a team ranked No. 1 in the country when it faces unbeaten Kansas.
• The Jayhawks will put up its NCAA-best 50-game home win streak on the line against a Big Red team that leads the nation in most victories away from home in the NCAA (9-1).
• The game will serve as a return home for Kansas native Geoff Reeves. Reeves and Jayhawk junior Tyrel Reed were high school classmates at Burlington HS. Reeves was a two-time all-state selection (first team as a senior) by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association and averaged 23.6 points as a senior. He was also a two-time first-team all-state wide receiver in football.
• Cornell brings a 10-game win streak into the contest, while Kansas is on a 13-game streak. Both streaks are among the 10 longest active ones in Division I
• The game features two of the top five teams nationally in 3-point shooting. The Big Red ranks this at .433, while Kansas is fifth at 42.9.
• Cornell's two losses this season have been to teams a pair of Big East teams that have a combined record of 22-5 as of Jan. 6 (at Syracuse, vs. Seton Hall).
• 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 season.
• A win would give Cornell a 13-2 record, tied for the best-ever 15-game start to a season for the Big Red.

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.
• Big Red has opened the season 12-2 despite missing senior starters Louis Dale and Alex Tyler for a combined nine contests.
• Cornell is 9-1 away from home so far this season, the most wins of any Division I program as of Jan. 2.
• 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).

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.

CORNELL VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
• When Cornell faces No. 1/1 Kansas, the Big Red will attempt a rarity — defeating a ranked team.
• The Big Red will be facing the No. 1 team in the country for the third time. It previously lost 108-56 at the Carrier Dome against the No. 1 ranked Orange on Nov. 29, 1989, and also dropped a 94-59 contest at Duke's Cameron Indoor Arena on Dec. 29, 1988.
• It will be the third time Cornell has faced a team ranked No. 1 nationally. In its previous two contests,
• The Big Red brings a 3-61 record (does not include one forfeit win) all-time against AP Top 25 teams and carries a 16-game losing streak in such games into the contest.
• Cornell's last win was a 74-54 triumph over then-No. 19 California, at the 1992 Seton Hall/Meadowlands Tournament. That team featured Jason Kidd (who sat out the game) and former NBA player Lamond Murray.
• The Big Red's other wins came against then-No. 17 Syracuse in 1957 (60-54), then No. 3 Princeton in 1967 (62-56) and a win by forfeit against No. 15 Minnesota in a game vacated by the Gophers after using an ineligible player in 1976.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
• Cornell is 9-1 away from home so far this season, tied for the most road/neutral court wins in the country (as of Jan. 4).
• Northern Colorado (9-3) also has won nine games away from home.
• Vermont (8-4) has won eight to rank third, while only Louisiana Tech (7-2), South Alabama (7-2) and Villanova (7-1) have as many as seven wins 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 needs one more road win to tie the school record of 10 road/neutral wins set by the 2007-08 Ivy League championship squad.

REVIEWING THE BRYANT GAME
• Cornell opened the game on a 30-4 run and controlled all aspects of the game in winning its 10th consecutive, a 75-49 triumph over Bryant on Jan. 2 at Newman Arena.
• Senior Ryan Wittman, the Ivy League's all-time leader in 3-point field goals, set a Cornell record by going 5-of-5 from beyond the arc and 7-of-7 overall en route to a game-high 19 points in just 14 minutes.
• Max Groebe had his second straight hot shooting night with 13 points, hitting 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.
• Cornell's five starters, none of whom played more than 20 minutes in the win, combined to make 17-of-21 shots from the floor (.810) and 8-of-10 from beyond the arc (.800) with 13 assists and just four turnovers.
• Jon Jaques added nine points, Geoff Reeves had eight to go along with three assists, and both Mark Coury and Andre Wilkins had six points. Chris Wroblewski had four points and six assists while running the offense.
• Overall, Cornell shot 49 percent from the floor, 52 percent from 3-point range (12-of-23) and assisted on 21 baskets. Defensively, the Big Red showed continued improvement, limiting Bryant to 35 percent overall and 27 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Big Red hit its first eight 3-pointers in the contest.

NON-CONFERENCE NOTES
• The Big Red has guaranteed itself a fourth consecutive non-conference season with at least a .500 record with its 12-2 mark so far in 2009-10 and only three games remaining.
• 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.
• 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 30-15 non-conference record over the last three 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 1,666 points. Wittman still has at least 17 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.

THE BEST START
• Cornell's 12-2 record after 14 games is tied for the best start in  school history along with a 12-2 opening to the 1961-62 and 1964-65 campaigns.
• Overall, the 1964-65 squad opened the year 19-2 before suffering three straight losses to end the year at 19-5. The 1961-62 team opened 14-2 before ending the season with an 18-7 mark.

VETERAN TEAMS WIN CLOSE GAMES
• Cornell had won six of its last nine games by eight points or less, with two coming in overtime.
• The three of the last five victories have come by five points or less.
• The current core of seniors have posted a 18-9 record in games decided by five points or less, including 4-0 this season. That mark improves to 11-3 in the last three seasons.
• The current seniors are 4-1 in overtime, including 4-0 in the last three years.

PLAYER NUGGETS
• The top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski have made 91-105 free throws this season (.867), including 36-of-42 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.857).
• Wittman had a career-low four points at UMass, but has averaged 19.8 points in the 12 games since.
• He also has hit at least two 3-pointers in 13 straight games.
• Wroblewski is 24-of-51 from 3-point range in his last 11 games (47 percent) after hitting just 1-of-5 (20 percent) in his first two.
• Wroblewski has posted 35 assists and 11 turnovers in his last seven, including 20 assists and five turnovers in his last three contests.
• In Cornell's 12 wins this season, Mark Coury has made 24-of-32 shots from the floor (.750).
• Senior Jeff Foote has five double-doubles in his last 11 games.
• In just 29 minutes of the team's last two games, Foote has scored 26 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, dished off four assists and blocked three shots while making 11-of-15 shots from the floor (.733).
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 14 assists and just one turnover in the team's last five contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 16 of his last 21 shots (.762), including 9-of-13 from beyond the arc (.692).
• Junior Max Groebe is averaging 14.0 points on 9-of-14 shooting from 3-point range in his last two games (.643).
• Five different players (Dale, Foote, Jaques, Wittman, Wroblewski) have at least one game this season with 20+ points.

TEAM NOTES
• The Big Red is averaging 81.4 points in its last seven games, all Big Red wins.
• Cornell opponents are shooting .400 from the floor in the last four games after shooting .456 in the first 10 contests.
• The team's 10-game win streak is the second-longest of the decade (behind a 16-game streak in 2007-08).
• Cornell has scored at least 70 points in 12 of 14 contests.
• Cornell has a positive assist:turnover ratio in 13 of its 14 games this season.
• The team has hit 39 more 3-pointers this season than its opponents and has 59 more assists.
• Over its last eight games, Cornell is shooting .484 from 3-point range (78-of-161).
• Over its last four games, the Big Red is shooting .530 from the floor (107-of-202) and .506 from 3-point range (42-of-83).
• The Big Red has at least 17 assists in its last six contests.
• Cornell has only trailed at the half once in the last eight games and four times this season.
• An opponent has hits more 3-pointers than the Big Red just once this season (Bucknell, 11-6).

NEXT UP
• The Big Red will visit South Dakota on Friday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m. CT in Vermillion, S.D.
• Cornell won last year's meeting, a 79-69 decision in the season opener for both two teams.
• After the Kansas-South Dakota trip, Cornell returns home to close out non-conference slate with a contest against Division III Clarkson on Monday, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m. before opening Ivy League play on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. when it meets Columbia.