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GAME INFORMATION
Game #16: Cornell at South Dakota
Tip off: Friday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m. CT
Site: The DakotaDome (10,000), Vermillion, S.D.
2009-10 Records: Cornell (12-3, 0-0 Ivy); South Dakota (6-7, 0-0 Great West)
Series Record: Cornell leads 1-0
Last Meeting: Cornell won 79-69, Nov. 14, 2008 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
South Dakota Web Site: www.USDCoyotes.com
TV: None
Live Stats: Available at www.USDCoyotes.com
Live Video: Available at www.USDCoyotes.com

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (129-136, .487) ... 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 nearly shocking No. 1 Kansas and ending its 51-game home win streak, the Cornell men's basketball team will now focus on getting back into the win column when it visits South Dakota on Friday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m. CT (8:30 p.m. ET) at the DakotaDome. 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.

Cornell led throughout the second half in a game that featured 14 lead changes and seven ties, and silenced one of the great college basketball atmospheres in the country for long stretches, but the Jayhawks were able to show their mettle and prove their ranking in the gut-check win. Big Red senior All-America candidate Ryan Wittman scored 24 points and added four rebounds, three assists and two steals in the loss.

The game will serve as a homecoming of sorts for Blair, Neb., native Pete Reynolds, who grew up approximately 115 miles away. He will have many family and friends in attendance after practicing at his old high school on Thursday.

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 9.8 points, 5.2 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, while Foote is at 13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. Wittman, the all-time leading scorer at Cornell, paces the squad with his 19.2 points. Additionally, Chris Wroblewski, last season's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, is putting up 9.7 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 SOUTH DAKOTA
• Conference: Great West
• Head Coach: Dave Boots (Augsburg '79), 22nd season.
• The Coyotes are 6-7 while playing a mix of Division I and non-Division I teams as it continues its move to the NCAA's highest classification.
• Two of USD's wins have come against Division I competition, with victories over Texas A&M-Corpus Christie and Binghamton.
• Among its losses are Texas Tech, Oregon State, Marquette and Kansas State.
• Seven players average at least 8.0 points per game, led by Tyler Cain's 14.3 points and 8.5 rebounds. Also in double figures is Jake Thomas (13.2 ppg.) and Mitchell Bouie (10.1 ppg.)
• The Coyotes are shooting .471 from the floor so fat this season, but are being outrebounded by 3.3 per game.
• Six of its seven losses are by double figures with five by 15 or more, but conversely, four of its six wins are by at least 32 points.
• In its first season transitioning to Division I in 2008-09, USD went 20-9, including 14-1 at home, and included wins over New Orleans.
• The team is 275-46 at home under head coach Dave Boots (since 1988-89).
• Boots is the school's all-time winningest coach (449-179 in 22 years) and left Division II sixth on the career wins list.

CORNELL VS. THE GREAT WEST CONFERENCE
• The Big Red holds a 3-0 all-time record against current members of the Great West Conference, including a 1-0 record against provisional member South Dakota.
• Cornell has also faced NJIT (2-0), but has never faced Chicago State, Houston Baptist, North Dakota, Texas-Pan American or Utah Valley State.
• This is the only scheduled meeting against a Great West school.

THE SERIES
• Cornell and South Dakota met for the first time in the 2008-09 season opener for both teams, with the Big Red earning a 79-69 victory at Newman Arena.
• Cornell unveiled its Ivy League championship banner in front of a crowd of more than 3,700 fans.
• Ryan Wittman had 25 points, seven rebounds, five assists, a blocked shot and a steal in 39 minutes of action to lead the Big Red, while Geoff Reeves did his part with a career-best 21 points.
• Despite missing Ivy League Player of the Year Louis Dale and second-team All-Ivy guard Adam Gore to injuries, Cornell shot 48 percent from the floor and 44 percent from 3-point range, outrebounded South Dakota 35-31, had a 2:1 assist-turnover ratio (18 assists, nine turnovers) and limited the Coyotes to an 8-of-23 effort from beyond the 3-point line (35 percent).
• South Dakota (0-1) was led by Louie Krogman with 20 impressive points to go along with five rebounds and three assists, while Dylan Grimsley fell one rebound shy of a double-double with 18 points and nine boards.
• Tyler Cain added 17 points, seven rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.

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 KANSAS GAME
• At the end of the game, the sold-out Allen Fieldhouse fans were on their feet. They were showering love on the home team, ranked No. 1 in the country, but most were also celebrating an outstanding effort by the Big Red. After 40 minutes of basketball dictated by the two-time defending Ivy League champion, No. 1 Kansas rallied in the final minute for a 71-66 win over Cornell.
• Senior Ryan Wittman scored 24 points for the Big Red, but senior All-American Sherron Collins had 33 points and made every big play down the stretch to help Kansas extend its home win streak to an NCAA-best 51 games.
• The Jayhawks' vaunted defense, which hadn't allowed an opponent to shoot 40 percent all season, allowed the Big Red to shoot 44 percent, while the Big Red defense held KU to a season-low .367 from the floor.
• Senior Jeff Foote added 12 points and six rebounds, while Louis Dale had 10 points and five rebounds off the bench after missing three games with an injured leg. Chris Wroblewski notched nine points, five rebounds and four assists in the loss.
• Hidden in the box score were outstanding efforts by Mark Coury (two points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals), who played 24 minutes with Foote in foul trouble, and Geoff Reeves (three points, three steals), as well as the defense of Adam Wire, Alex Tyler and Jon Jaques. They held the Morris twins, Marcus and Markieff, without a field goal on seven attempts and totalled nine rebounds without committing a turnover in 33 quality minutes.
• While Collins stole the show for KU, All-American Cole Aldrich had 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots and freshman phenom Xavier Henry added 14 points and six rebounds, but was hounded into a 3-of-13 night shooting the basketball. No other Jayhawk scored more than four points.

CROSS OFF ANOTHER STATE
• Cornell's game against South Dakota is the first-ever for the Big Red men's basketball team in the state of South Dakota.
• It is the 41st state that Cornell has played in all-time.
• The Big Red's season-opening win at Alabama marked the 40th state the program has played a game in.
• After the 2009-10 campaign, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming will have never hosted a game involving Cornell.
• The Big Red has also played games in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia and France.

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 12-3 despite missing senior starters Louis Dale and Alex Tyler for a combined nine contests.
• Cornell is 9-2 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).

SIGNIFICANT NOTES FROM THE GAME
• Cornell scored 41 first half points against a Kansas defense that was allowing just 58.1 points per game.
• The team's  41 points in the first half were the most the Jayhawks allowed in a first half this year.
• The Jayhawks were held to a season low in field goals (18) and field goal percentage (.367) and gave up a season-high nine 3-pointers, .436 field goal percentage and assists (18).
• Kansas' only lead of more than three points was the final margin.
• Cornell led by as many as eight (59-51) in the second half.
• The Big Red shot 54 percent from the floor in the first half and made 6-of-13 shots from beyond the arc.
• Kansas attempted 36 free throws (making 28), while Cornell only attempted 14 (making nine). In the second half, the Jayhawks attempted 23 shots from the charity stripe and the Big Red shot three.

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.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
• Cornell is 9-2 away from home so far this season, tied for the most road/neutral court wins in the country (as of Jan. 7).
• 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.

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 30-16 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 1,720 points. Wittman still has at least 16 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 386.

VETERAN TEAMS WIN CLOSE GAMES
• Cornell had won six of its last nine games by eight points or less, with two coming in overtime, prior to Wednesday night's 71-66 loss at No. 1 Kansas.
• Three of its last five victories have come by five points or less.
• The current core of seniors have posted a 18-10 record in games decided by five points or less, including 4-1 this season. That mark improves to 11-4 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 98-113 free throws this season (.867), including 38-of-44 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.864).
• Wittman had a career-low four points at UMass, but has averaged 20.2 points in the 13 games since.
• He also has hit at least two 3-pointers in 14 straight games.
• Wroblewski is 26-of-56 from 3-point range in his last 12 games (46 percent) after hitting just 1-of-5 (20 percent) in his first two.
• Wroblewski has posted 39 assists and 17 turnovers in his last eight, including 24 assists and 11 turnovers in his last four contests.
• In Cornell's 12 wins this season, Mark Coury has made 24-of-32 shots from the floor (.750).
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 14 assists and just one turnover in the team's last six contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 17 of his last 24 shots (.708), including 9-of-14 from beyond the arc (.643).
• 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
• Cornell opponents are shooting .394 from the floor and averaging 62.0 points in the last five games after shooting .456 in the first 10 contests.
• Cornell has scored at least 70 points in 12 of 15 contests.
• Cornell has a positive assist:turnover ratio in 14 of its 15 games this season.
• The team has hit 41 more 3-pointers this season than its opponents and has 66 more assists.
• Over its last nine games, Cornell is shooting .465 from 3-point range (87-of-187).
• Over its last five games, the Big Red is shooting .510 from the floor (131-of-257) and .468 from 3-point range (51-of-109).
• The Big Red has at least 17 assists in its last seven contests.
• Cornell has only trailed at the half once in the last nine games and four times this season.
• An opponent has hits more 3-pointers than the Big Red just once this season (Bucknell, 11-6).

HOW TO FOLLOW CORNELL
• Men's basketball games return to 93.5 WVBR-FM for the 2009-10 season. Longtime voice of the Big Red Barry Leonard returns on the call with the play-by-play. A half-hour pregame show and postgame analysis will enable Big Red fans to follow Coach Steve Donahue's team throughout the season. The audio of all games will also be available as part of the RedCast subscription service.
• The Big Red's home contests will all be broadcast live with streaming video as part of the RedCast subscription service. Visit www.CornellBigRed.com for all the latest information on Cornell broadcasts.
• Cornell will use SIDEARM Live Stats for each of the Big Red's home games in 2009-10. Visit www.CornellBigRed.com for all of the official statistics.
• Two Big Red games will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable Sports (channel 26 in Ithaca), as the Big Red plays host to Seton Hall on Nov. 20 and Columbia on Jan.16, 2010.
• Cornell athletics launched a new YouTube channel this summer. Highlights, interviews and features on all 36 of Cornell's varsity sports can be found at www.youtube.com/cornellathletics.

NEXT UP
• 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.