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GAME INFORMATION
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 (7-15, 1-4 Ivy League); Cornell (19-3, 5-0 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 66-45
Last Meeting: Cornell won 85-45, February 21, 2009 in Providence, R.I.

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (136-136, .500) ... 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 will attempt to capture its third straight 20-win season and fourth in school history when it meets 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 the game will be available as part of the RedCast subscription service. 

After moving into the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll at No. 25 this week, the program's first national ranking since the 1950-51 campaign, the big Red handled Yale, 90-71, in its first game with the bullseye on it. Cornell has now won seven straight and 17 of its last 18 overall, and extended its home conference win streak to 19 games in the process.

Despite not playing its best basketball, the Big Red still posted an almost absurd 20-5 assist:turnover ratio, held the Ivy League's leading scorer, Alex Zampier, to 11 points on 2-of-10 shooting, and outrebounded the physical Bulldogs 36-33. Cornell hit 13 3-pointers and had four players score at least 15 points, led by senior tri-captain Jon Jaques (17 points). Fellow tri-captain Alex Tyler added eight points and five rebounds in a high-energy effort in just 18 minutes.

The senior trio of Louis Dale, Jeff Foote and Ryan Wittman continue to lead the Big Red, with each scoring 15 points in the win over Yale. Dale added four assists in 21 minutes, while Wittman cnnected on four treys, had two assists and zero turnovers in 30 minutes. Foote was again dominant in the post, grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds, dishing four assists and blocking two shots.

ABOUT BROWN
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: Jesse Agel (Vermont '84), second season.
• Brown enters Saturday night's game with a 7-15 record (1-4 Ivy) after falling to Columbia 65-54 on Friday evening at Levien Gymnasium in New York City.
• The Bears have lost four straight Ivy contests after opening the conference season with a road win at Yale.
• All-Ivy candidate Matt Mullery leads the team in scoring (15.0 ppg.), rebounding (6.0 rpg.), blocked shots (31), field goal percentage (.551) and minutes played (31.3 mpg.). He led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds in the loss at Columbia.
• The Bears have struggled rebounding the basketball, getting beaten on the boards by six per game.
• Peter Sullivan (11.3 ppg.) and Tucker Halpern (8.3 ppg.) 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 a 19-game Ivy League home win streak into Saturday's contest and will be playing its second contest since earning its first national ranking (No. 25 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll) in 59 years.
• Cornell is 30-3 in conference play over the last three seasons, 39-8 in the last four and 45-14 in its last 59 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 55-10 record as of Feb. 6.

A CORNELL WIN OVER BROWN WOULD ...
• make the Big Red 20-3 overall, its third straight 20-win season and fourth in school history.
• give Cornell a 6-0 Ivy League record for the second time in three seasons.
• give Cornell 18 wins in its last 19 games.
• improve the Big Red's home record to 9-1.
• make the Big Red 31-3 in Ivy League over the last three seasons and 40-8 over the last four.

THE STREAKS
• Cornell is 30-3 in Ivy play over the last three seasons and 39-8 over the last four.
• The Big Red has won 19 straight conference contests at home and is 23-2 over the last four seasons. Cornell has won eight straight games at home overall.
• Cornell is 34-2 in its last 36 games at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red has won 17 of its last 18 contests overall, with the only loss coming at No. 1 Kansas.
• Cornell is 78-31 over the last four years, making the Big Red seniors the winningest class in school history.
• The Big Red hasn't trailed on the scoreboard for 261:43, a span of more than six and a half contests.

SOME INTERESTING NOTES
• A win over Brown today would give head coach Steve Donahue a record above .500 overall for the first time in his Big Red coaching career (137-136).
• The Big Red has had six different scoring leaders in its last six games.
• Cornell has outscored its opponent in each of the last 14 halves.
• The Big Red hasn't trailed for one second in Ivy League play and hasn't trailed overall in 261:43. 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 4:27, giving the Big Red the lead for 256:16.
• Cornell has not trailed during conference play (200 minutes) and has been tied for just 180 seconds. The Big Red has officially led for 197:00 of 200 minutes.
• The current starting lineup of guards Louis Dale and Chris Wroblewski, center Jeff Foote and forwards Jon Jaques and Ryan Wittman is a perfect 9-0 this season.
• Cornell is in search of its third 6-0 start in Ivy League play in school history when it meets Brown (1964-65, 2007-08).
• A win over the Bears would give the Big Red its third straight 20-win season and the fourth in program history.
• The Big Red has posted two win streaks of at least seven games just one other time (1922-23).

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.

NEWMAN NOTES
• Cornell closed the 2008-09 season with a 21-game win streak at Newman Arena, ranking as the third-longest in Division I. That streak was snapped in its 2009-10 season opener, an 89-79 loss to Seton Hall.
• The Big Red was extremely impressive in its undefeated 13-0 run at Newman Arena in 2008-09. As a team, Cornell outscored its foes by 18.9 points (80.7-61.8) while hitting at a .523 clip from the field and .471 from 3-point range. The team had a 1.5:1 assist:turnover ratio and defended at an outstanding pace, limiting opponents to .386 shooting from the floor and .297 from 3-point range.
• Cornell is still riding a 19-game home Ivy league win streak as well.
• All-time, the Big Red is 153-102 (.600) in Newman Arena since the building opened in 1990.
• The Big Red is 34-2 in its last 36 home contests.

PLAYER NUGGETS
• The top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski have made 136-156 free throws this season (.872), including 44-of-50 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.880).
• Senior Ryan Wittman has reached double figure and hit at least two 3-pointers in 20 straight games.
• Wroblewski has posted 66 assists and 31 turnovers in his last 15, including51 assists and 25 turnovers in his last 11 contests.
• Senior Jeff Foote has at least eight rebounds in 13 different games with nine double figure efforts.
• Foote has 14 career double-doubles, good for fourth place all-time at Cornell (Bernard Jackson '91 - 18, Mike Davis '80 -18, Justin Treadwell '94 - 15).
• Foote has played more than 25 minutes just three times in the last 10 games after hitting that mark 10 times in the first 12 contests with six games of 35+ minutes.
• Senior Louis Dale has 32 assists and seven turnovers in his last seven contests.
• Dale needs four rebounds to become the first Cornell player with 1,200 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 100 steals in a career.
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 19 assists and just five turnovers in the team's last 13 contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 38 of his last 63 shots (.603), including 23-of-43 from beyond the arc (.535).
• Junior Adam Wire hasn't committed a turnover in his last 10 games (94 minutes).
• Five different players (Dale, Foote, Jaques, Wittman, Wroblewski) have at least one game this season with 20+ points.

TEAM NOTES
• Cornell opponents are shooting .360 from the floor and averaging 56.2 points in the last 12 games after shooting .456 and allowing 73.0 points in the first 10 contests.
• Cornell has scored at least 70 points in 19 of 22 contests.
• Cornell has a negative assist:turnover ratio in just one game all season.
• The team has hit 87 more 3-pointers this season than its opponents and has 138 more assists.
• The Big Red has at least 17 assists in 12 of its last 14 contests.
• Cornell has only trailed at the half once in the last 16 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 12 of its last 15 opponents (+5.6 over that span).
• The Big Red has hit eight or more 3-pointers in each of its last 14 contests and averages 10.6 makes during that span.
• In its last 11 contests, Cornell has led at the half by an average of 13.5 points (38.3-24.8).
• Cornell hasn't been held below 40 percent shooting all season, but has limited opponents to 40 percent shooting or below in nine of its last 10 contests and 12 times in 22 total games.

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE NOTES
• Cornell head coach Steve Donahue was on the sidelines for his 250th career game during the NCAA first round loss to Missouri in 2008-09.
• With a win over Brown, Donahue would surpass the .500 mark for the first time in his Cornell career (currently 136-136).
• Donahue was named the 2009-10 collegeinsider.com Hugh Durham mid-season award winner as the mid-major coach of the year.
• He ranks third at Cornell in games coached (272) and fourth in career wins (136).
• Donahue enters the 2009-10 campaign with the second-longest tenure at the helm of their current team in the Ivy League. Only James Jones at Yale (11th year) has been at his current school longer than Donahue has directed the Big Red (10 years).
• He won his 69th Ivy League contest with an 86-50 victory over Harvard on Jan. 30, 2010, good for 13th place on the all-time Ivy League coaching wins list. He ranks second among Cornell coaches, with only Sam MacNeil's 77 wins from 1959-68 ranking ahead.
• Donahue picked up his 100th career coaching victory with a 67-54 triumph over Eastern Michigan in the final contest of the 2008 NIT Preseason Tip-Off on Nov. 25.
• Was the 2007-08 USBWA and NABC District Coach of the Year
• Has posted a 78-31 (.716) record in his last four seasons, including consecutive Ivy League titles.  He had a 58-105 mark after six years (.356).
• His teams matched or surpassed its win totals overall and in league play in six straight seasons (only school in the country from 2002-03 to 2007-08).
• His teams have finished in the top three of the Ancient Eight standings for five straight years.
• Donahue spent a week in July 2008 as a court coach for the U.S. Under-18 national team tryouts in Washington, D.C. The team, under the direction of Davidson's head coach Bob McKillop, also featured Alabama's Anthony Grant and Georgetown's John Thompson III as assistant coaches. The team won the silver medal at the 2008 FIBA U18 championship in Formosa, Argentina, falling to the host team 77-64 in the gold medal game.

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.