2009-10 NCAA Tournament Guide (PDF) I Live Video I Live Audio (RedCast) I Live Stats I Text Updates I 2009-10 Cornell Information Center I 2009-10 Cornell Statistics I 2009-10 Cornell Roster I 2009-10 Cornell Schedule & Results

GAME INFORMATION
Game #32: No. 12 Cornell vs. No. 5 Temple
Tip off: Friday, March 19, at 12:30 p.m. ET
Site: Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena (14,091), Jacksonville, Fla.
2009-10 Records: No. 12 Cornell (27-4, 13-1 Ivy); No. 5 Temple (29-5, 14-2 Atlantic 10)
Series Record: First Meeting
Last Meeting: Teams have never met
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
TV: CBS
Live Stats: Available at www.NCAASports.com
Live Video: Available at www.NCAASports.com
Tickets: Sold-out through Cornell Athletics

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his ninth season at Cornell (144-137, .512) ... 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 Ivy League champion Cornell men's basketball team will begin play in the 2009-10 NCAA tournament when it meets No. 5 seed Temple on Friday, March 19 at 12:30 p.m. at Jacksonville Veterns Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. Cornell will open its fifth NCAA tournament in program history in a nationally televised game on CBS, while Barry Leonard will provide the call on 93.5 WVBR-FM. Per NCAA regulations, live streaming audio will not be available as part of the RedCast subscription service, but live streaming video for all out of area games is available on March Madness on Demand at no charge on the NCAASports.com web site.

Cornell is a veteran squad looking for its first NCAA win. Senior Ryan Wittman, the Ivy League Player of the Year, paces the team in scoring (17.5 ppg.) and joins fellow first-team All-Ivy selections Jeff Foote (12.3 ppg., 8.2 rpg.) in the post and Louis Dale (11.9 ppg., 4.8 apg.) on the perimter. Cornell will be attempting to become the first Ivy League team to win an NCAA tournament game since Princeton in 1998.

Big Red head coach Steve Donahue, the District Coach of the Year, will be squaring off with Temple head coach Fran Dunphy, who he served as an assistant for at Penn for 10 seasons. It is also a matchup of the top 3-point shooting team in the country (Cornell, .434) and one of the top at defending the trey (Temple, fourth nationally, .278 allowed).

A potential upset of Temple would match the Big Red up with either No. 4 seed Wisconsin or No. 13 seed Wofford.

ABOUT THE TEMPLE OWLS:
Record: 29-5 (14-2)
Conference: Atlantic 10
Head Coach: Fran Dunphy (La Salle '80), fourth season
NCAA Bid: Atlantic 10 Automatic Bid (Tournament Champion)
No. 17 Temple finished the season by winning the Atlantic 10 tournament championship after defeating Richmond, 56-52, in the title game to improve to 29-5. That came after the Owls captured the A-10 regular season title with a 14-2 record. It will be the 28th NCAA tournament appearance for Temple, which is riding a 10-game win streak into the first round, the program's longest since the 2000-01 season. Senior Ryan Brooks leads the team with 14.3 ppg., while LaVoy Allen averages 11.5 ppg. and 10.0 rpg. A-10 tournament MVP Juan Fernandez  is also in double figures at 12.6 ppg. The Owls have been outstanding defensively all year, allowing opponents to score 70 or more points just five times all season and limiting its last seven opponents to 49.9 points per game. Atlantic 10 and District Coach of the Year Fran Dunphy has a 394-213 record with 13 conference titles, 12 NCAA tournament bids and 11 20-win seasons. Temple and Cornell have seven common opponents, with Cornell going (Kansas, La Salle, Massachusetts, Penn, St. John's, Saint Joseph's, Seton Hall), with Cornell going 5-3 against them (losses to Kansas, Seton Hall and Penn) and the Owls sporting a 7-2 mark (losses to St. John's, Kansas).

CORNELL VS. THE ATLANTIC 10: Cornell is 17-18 all-time against current members of the Atlantic 10, including 3-0 this season. Surprisingly, it will be the first time the Big Red has faced Temple, but has faced Dayton (0-1), Duquesne (0-2), Fordham (4-4), La Salle (3-2), Massachusetts (1-0), Richmond (0-1), St. Bonaventure (8-3), Saint Joseph's (0-3), Saint Joseph's (1-3), Saint Louis (0-1) and Xavier (0-1). Cornell has never played Charlotte, George Washington or Rhode Island in addition to the Owls. This is the last of three scheduled meetings this season against teams from the A-10. Cornell knocked off Massachusetts on the road 74-61 on Nov. 18 and topped Saint Joseph's 78-66 on Dec. 6, then defeated La Salle 78-75 on Dec, 29 in Philadelphia.

A WIN OVER TEMPLE WOULD ...
• make Cornell 28-4 overall, matching an Ivy League record for wins in a season with the 1970-71 Penn Quakers (28-1).
• advance the Big Red into the NCAA tournament second round where it would meet the winner of No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 13 Wofford.
• be the school's first-ever NCAA tournament win in men's basketball (0-5).
• be the first NCAA tournament win by an Ivy League school since No. 5 seed Princeton topped No. 12 seed UNLV in the 1998 first round.
• make Cornell 4-0 against Atlantic 10 teams in 2009-10.
• give the Big Red a 4-1 record againt Big Five schools and 5-1 mark against schools located in Philadelphia.
• be head coach Steve Donahue's first-ever win over his mentor, Fran Dunphy (0-12).
• be the team's 16th win in its last 17 contests.

FIFTH TIME'S A CHARM?: Cornell is making its fifth NCAA tournament appearance and is 0-5 all-time. The Big Red participated in the 1953-54 tournament as the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League champion and lost a close contest to Navy (69-67) before falling to No. 10 North Carolina State (65-54) in a consolation game in Philadelphia. The 1987-88 team also won an automatic bid from the Ivy League and was soundly beaten as a No. 16 seed by top-seeded Arizona (90-50) in Los Angeles, Calif. In 2007-08 it faced another highly-ranked team out of the Pacific 10, dropping a 77-53 decision to No. 11 Stanford. Last year, Cornell hung tight with eventual national quarterfinalist Missouri, the No. 3 seed, in Boise, Idaho before losing 78-59.

CORNELL VS. RANKED OPPONENTS: When Cornell faces No. 17 Temple, the Big Red will have a chance to do something it has rarely done — defeat a ranked team. The Big Red brings a 3-63 record (does not include one forfeit win) all-time against AP Top 25 teams and carries an 18-game losing streak in such games into the matchup. The Big Red'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.

CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE: Cornell head coach Steve Donahue and Temple head coach Fran Dunphy have a long history together as friends and colleagues. Donahue served as Dunphy's assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Penn for 10 seasons. During his tenure as an assistant under Dunphy, he was heavily involved in the recruitment of five of Penn's top 20 all-time scorers and was instrumental in helping the team to six Ivy championships in his final eight seasons there, with five NCAA tournament appearances. Additionally, current Big Red assistant coach Nat Graham played for Dunphy and Donahue, lettering twice as part of a pair of undefeated Ivy championship squads. Penn assistant David Duke worked with Donahue on the Penn staff, while Donahue coached former Penn players Shawn Trice '95 and Matt Langel '00, both of whom are now on the Temple staff.

A LITTLE LUCK: The Big Red played three games against teams in the NCAA tournament (Kansas, Syracuse, Vermont), going 1-2 in those games, but putting a scare into a pair of No. 1 seeds. The Big Red defeated America East champion Vermont 67-59 at the Legends Classic in a game played at Drexel on Nov. 28. Cornell rallied from 12 points down behind five double figure scorers (Ryan Wittman and Jeff Foote with 12 points to lead the way) and a career-high 13 rebounds from Adam Wire off the bench. Against Syracuse on Nov. 24 in the Carrier Dome, Wittman scored 19 points and Chris Wroblewski made six 3-pointers en route to 20 points, but the SU defense held Cornell to 39 percent shooting in the second half as the Orange took home an 88-73 victory. At No. 1 Kansas, Cornell controlled the game throughout and led inside of a minute to play, but the visitors missed a pair of late shots and the Jayhakws swung momentum with a three-point play by All-American guard Sherron Collins to go on for a 71-66 victory on Jan. 6. Wittman scored 24 points in the loss.

PHILLY GUY: While Cornell will need to travel nearly 900 miles to play a school located less than 200 miles away (the Big Red has travelled to Philadelphia three times already in 2009-10), it will hope for similar results. The Big Red is 4-1 in the city of Philadelphia this season and is also 4-1 against schools located in the City of Brotherly Love. Its only loss was an upset at Penn on Feb. 12, a game it avenged 15 days later with a 20-point drubbing.

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: The Big Red won its fourth Ivy League title in school history and its seventh conference title of any kind with a 95-76 win at Brown on March 5.

FIRST TO THE DANCE: For the second straight year, the Cornell men's basketball team is the first Division I team, men's or women's, to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. Cornell's 83-59 victory over Penn on March 6, coupled with Princeton's 58-44 loss at Columbia, secured Cornell's automatic bid to the “Big Dance.”

AND YET ANOTHER FIRST: The Cornell basketball team is the first team besides Penn or Princeton to win outright Ivy League championships in three consecutive years.

THREE-TIME WINNERS: In fact, only nine teams outside of perennial champions Penn and Princeton have won outright championships in the 55 years of Ivy basketball, with Cornell capturing the crown four times (1987-88, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10). Other non-P champions include the 1955-56 Dartmouth, 1956-57 Yale, 1957-58 Dartmouth, 1961-62 Yale and 1985-86 Brown squads.

20-20 VISION: The Big Red enters the NCAA tournament with a 27-4 record, joining the 1950-51 (20-5), 2007-08 (22-6) and 2008-09 (21-10) teams as the lone Cornell squads to post 20-win seasons.

FIRST TO 20-20: Cornell's 74-60 home win over Brown gave the Big Red its fourth 20-win season in program history, and three straight 20-win seasons for the first time in 111 years of Big Red basketball.

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS — THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE BIG RED:
• The 2009-10 Ivy League champion (automatic bid).
• School-record 27 wins (second-most by any team in Ivy history).
• Its 14 non-conference wins was an Ivy record for a season.
• Its 16 wins away from home (13-3 road, 3-0 neutral) is tied for the most in the country.
• Cornell's 10 non-league victories away from home (7-2 road, 3-0 neutral) were the most of any Division I school.
• First team in Ivy League history other than Penn or Princeton to win three consecutive outright conference crowns.
• The first team, men's or women's, to clinch an NCAA tournament bid for the third straight year when it earned its bid on March 5.
• Fifth NCAA tournament appearance in school history.
• Cornell has set team records for points (2,335), field goals made (837), 3-pointers (304), blocked shots (121) and games played (31).
• The Big Red won the 2009-10 Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival tournament title and finished 4-0 at the Legends Classic, joining Florida (4-0) as the only teams to go unbeaten in the 16-team event.
• Cornell learned its first win over a Big East team since 1969 (St. John's) and its first victory over an SEC team since 1972 (Alabama).
• Cornell finished first or second in the Ivy League in 16 of 22 team statistical categories and led the conference in 10.
• It will be attempting to earn its first postseason win in program history (0-5 in four previous NCAA trips, no NIT appearances).
• Senior Ryan Wittman was named Ivy League Player of the Year, joining Louis Dale (2007-08) as the only active teammates who have won their league Player of the Year awards.
• Wittman was joined on the All-Ivy first team by classmates Louis Dale and Jeff Foote, becoming the seventh trio of teammates to earn first-team All-Ivy accolades in the same season.
• Foote captured his second straight Defensive Player of the Year nod, making him the only player to ever earn the award (started in 2008-09).
• Sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski was an honorable mention All-Ivy pick.

PERFECT 10: Cornell's home victory over Princeton helped the Big Red claim its third consecutive 10-win season in Ivy League play, something it hadn't done since posting at least 10 conference victories three straight years, from 1964-65 to the 1966-67 seasons.

A WIN IS A WIN: Cornell has guaranteed itself a fourth consecutive winning season overall, posting a 27-4 mark. The Big Red went 21-10 a season ago, 22-6 in 2007-08 and 16-12 in 2006-07, giving the team four consecutive winning campaigns for the first time since 1984-85 (14-12), 1985-86 (14-12), 1986-87 (15-11) and 1987-88 (17-10).

THE STREAKS
• The Big Red has won 15 of its last 16 contests overall and is 25-2 since Thanksgiving.
• Cornell is 38-4 in Ivy play over the last three seasons and 47-9 over the last four.
• The Big Red is 7-1 on the road in its last eight contests away from Newman Arena.
• Cornell is 86-32 over the last four years, making the Big Red seniors the winningest class in school history.
• The Big Red has won 22 straight conference contests at home and is 26-2 in league play at home over the last four seasons.
• Cornell has won 11 straight games at Newman Arena overall.
• Cornell is 37-2 in its last 39 games at Newman Arena.

SENIOR CLASS: Since the Ivy League allowed freshmen eligibility in men's basketball in 1978, only three senior classes have more than the Big Red's 86 victories. Below is the list of schools

Ivy League Senior Classes with 86+ Wins
Princeton (1995-99)    95-21
Princeton (1996-2000)    92-25
Princeton (1994-98)    89-23
Cornell (2006-10)    86-32
Penn (1992-96)    86-24

TRIPLE THREAT: Cornell ranks in the top three nationally in 3-point field goals made and 3-point percentage. The Big Red is tops in Division I while hitting .434 from beyond the arc, while its 9.8 treys per game sits third among all teams. Cornell has hit at least 10 treys in 17 different games this season, a school record.

GETTING UP THERE: Cornell head coach Steve Donahue entered 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.

MOVING ON UP: Head coach Steve Donahue is in 10th place on the all-time Ivy League coaching wins list with 78 victories. He ranks first among all Cornell coaches, surpassing Sam MacNeil's 77 wins from 1959-68.

SEARCH FOR TWO GRAND: Senior Ryan Wittman enters the NCAA tournament needing 26 points to become the fifth Ivy League player to reach 2,000 career points. Princeton's Bill Bradley '65 with 2,503 points easily leads the chase, with Dartmouth's Jim Barton '89 second with 2,158. Yale's Butch Graves '84 (2,090) and Brown's Earl Hunt '03 (2,041) have also hit for more than 2,000 points. In all, 464 Division I players have surpassed that milestone, including Luke Harangody (Notre Dame), Scottie Reynolds (Villanova), Greivis Vasquez (Maryland), Devan Downey (South Carolina) and James Florence (Mercer) this year.

DALE OVER TO WITTMAN ... FOR 3: Seniors Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman have had a distinct connection in their four seasons, with Dale finding Wittman for a 3-pointer 113 times over their four years. That number was consistently at least 25 each season and accounts for 31 percent of Wittman's school-record 368 treys and 25 percent of Dale's school-record 458 assists. Ironically, their final play of their Senior Day victory over Penn was Dale finding Wittman for a 3-pointer with less than a minute to play before both were lifted to a sold-out Newman Arena serenade. Nine times in their career, Dale has found Wittman three times in a single game for a trey.

BIG DIFFERENCE: Senior Ryan Wittman's 368 career 3-pointers is not only an Ivy League record, but is 87 more than the previous record-holder, Brian Earl of Princeton (281). To put that in perspective, it is more than the difference between Earl and the No. 19 player on the list, Garrett Kreitz '98 of Penn (199). The difference of 87 between the two is equivalent to the eighth-most treys in a season ever by an Ivy Leaguer. Wittman has three of the six top single-season marks in Ancient Eight history, including a conference-record 100 so far this season.

CELEBRATED SENIORS: Cornell's group of eight seniors, who have been the core of three Ivy League championship teams, will be making their third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The class includes Louis Dale, Jeff Foote, Jon Jaques, Geoff Reeves, Pete Reynolds, Alex Tyler, Andre Wilkins and Ryan Wittman. This Big Red group is the winningest class in school history and has accumulated an 86-32 record over four seasons and a 47-9 record in Ivy play. Cornell's seniors feature the school's all-time leading scorer and Ivy League leader in 3-point field goals (Ryan Wittman), the school's career assist leader (Louis Dale), the inaugural two-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year (Jeff Foote),  a three-year starter (Alex Tyler), and a one-year starter and two-year sixth man (Geoff Reeves), as well as another one-year starter (Jon Jaques). Combined, the class has accounted for two Associated Press All-American, four NABC all-district, seven first-team All-Ivy, three second-team All-Ivy and an honorable mention All-Ivy selection, two Ivy League Player and Defensive Players of the Year, an Ivy Rookie of the Year, 18 Ivy League Player of the Week citations and an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honoree. The eight players have combined for 708 games played, 400 starts, 5,839 points, 2,178 rebounds, 1,066 assists, 420 steals, 303 blocked shots and 688 3-point field goals.

RECORD WINS: Cornell has won a school-record 27 games this season, surpassing the 22-6 mark of 2007-08. The team's win total is the most by an Ivy team this century (Penn, 25-7 in 2001-02), while its .871 winning percentage (27-4) is the best by an Ivy League team since Princeton went 27-2 (.931) in 1997-98. Since the beginning of official Ivy League play in 1955-56, only two conference teams have won at least 27 games in a season. The 1997-98 Princeton team went 27-2, while the 1970-71 Penn Quakers were 28-1. Cornell surpassed the 1967-68 Columbia team (23-5) for the most wins by a non-P team since the inception of the Ivy League and its 14 regular season non-conference wins set an Ivy record, surpassing the 13 non-league wins by the 2001-02 Penn squad.

RARE COMPANY: Senior Louis Dale was the fourth player in Ivy League history and is now just one of five to reach 1,300 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 100 steals in a career. Dale has scored 1,388 points, 424 rebounds, 458 assists and 125 steals to join Penn stars Michael Jordan (1602, 443, 469, 146) and Jerome Allen (1488, 482, 505, 166), Brown's Jason Forte (1597, 401, 514, 192) and Harvard's Jeremy Lin (1444, 478, 395, 221) in the selective group.

NCAA TEAM LEADERS: Cornell enters the NCAA tournament leading the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at .434, and if it stays atop the charts, it would be the second time the Big Red led the nation in a statistical category. Cornell led the nation in rebounding during the 1961-62 campaign, averaging an astounding 58.5 rebounds per contest.

PLAYER NUGGETS
• Late game fouling against the Big Red? Hope it doesn't end up in the hands of the top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski. The quartet have made 176-206 free throws this season (.835), including 53-of-59 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.898). As a team, Cornell has made 84 percent from the line in the final three minutes and overtime of games decided by 10 points or less.
• Senior Ryan Wittman has reached double figure in 29 straight games.
• Foote has 15 career double-doubles, good for third place all-time at Cornell (Bernard Jackson '91 - 18, Mike Davis '80 -18, Justin Treadwell '94 - 15).
• Foote has made 56-of-81 field goals in the last 11 games (.691) and is 30-of-41 from the floor in the last seven contests (.732).
• Foote has multiple blocked shots in 10 of his last 12 games.
• In Ivy play, Louis Dale has 55 assists and 24 turnovers while shooting .507 from the floor.
• Dale and Chris Wroblewski have 90 assists and 38 turnovers combined in 12 home games.
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 25 assists and just 10 turnovers in the team's last 22 contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 59 of his last 105 shots (.562), including 36-of-70 from beyond the arc (.514).
• In the five games junior guard Max Groebe has played at least 10 minutes, he averages 11.0 points and 3.4 3-pointers per game while shooting percent (17-of-28) from beyond the arc.
• Six different players have made at least 20 3-pointers this season with five hitting at least 39.
• All five starters (Dale, Foote, Jaques, Wittman, Wroblewski) have at least one game this season with 20+ points. Senior Geoff Reeves also has a 20-point contest in his career, while Alex Tyler, Mark Coury, Anthony Gatlin, Max Groebe, Errick Peck and Adam Wire each have a game with at least 13 points.

TEAM NOTES
• Cornell opponents are shooting .391 from the floor (.332 from 3-point range) and averaging 58.5 points in the last 21 games after shooting .456 (.387 from 3-point range) and allowing 73.0 points in the first 10 contests.
• Cornell has a negative assist:turnover ratio in just four games all season.
• Cornell has only trailed at the half twice in the last 26 games and five times this season.
• The Big Red's 304 3-pointers are a school and Ivy League record for a season.
• Cornell has made at least 10 3-pointers in 17 contests this season, a new school record. Additionally, the Big Red has hit nine in three other games.
• Opponents have made double figure 3-pointers five times in 2009-10, but Cornell is 4-1 in those games (only loss to Penn, 11).
• The Big Red has hit eight or more 3-pointers in 20 of its last 23 contests.
• Cornell was held below 40 percent shooting for the first time all season against Princeton (.351) at home, but has limited opponents to 40 percent shooting or below 15 times this year.

DONAHUE RECOGNIZED IN 2009-10: Head coach Steve Donahue has received numerous accolades after directing the Big Red to a record-setting 2009-10 campaign. Donahue was named the 2009-10 collegeinsider.com Hugh Durham mid-season award winner as the mid-major coach of the year and is a finalist to the Durham Award, while also being on the list for the Jim Phelan Award as national coach of the year. He was also named NABC District Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons (2007-08 and 2009-10) and was the Sporting News Ivy League Coach of the Year.

HEAD ABOVE WATER: With the win over Brown on Feb. 6, head coach Steve Donahue surpassed the .500 mark for the first time as a collegiate head coach (currently 144-137). With 144 victories, Donahue ranks eighth among all Ivy coaches since the league's official formation in 1956. He has now posted an 86-32 (.729) record in his last four seasons, including consecutive Ivy League titles.  He had a 58-105 mark after six years (.356). Donahue's 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) and have now finished in the top three in the final Ivy League standings for six straight years.

DONAHUE SPENDS TIME WITH U.S. U-18 NATIONAL TEAM: Head coach Steve 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. He has met both Grant and McKillop this season on the court, with the Big Red knocking off both Alabama and Davidson.

TALL IVY: Over the last three seasons, Cornell's 47-9 record is the best among Ivy League teams in conference action. Penn, who claimed the 2006-07 title, is second at 33-22, followed by Yale (31-25), Columbia (26-30) and Brown (25-31). Other Ivy teams include  Harvard (24-32), Princeton (24-32) and Dartmouth (15-41).

UNPRECEDENTED NON-LEAGUE SUCCESS: The Big Red posted its fourth consecutive non-conference season with at least a .500 record with a 14-3 mark, a school and Ivy League record for wins outside of conference action. 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 years. The Big Red is now 32-16 in non-conference play over the last three years.

NON-CONFERENCE DOUBLE: The Big Red won 10 non-conference contests in one season for the fifth time in program history and for just the second time since the 1950-51 season with its 14-3 record this year. The Big Red won 11 games out of the league in 1949-50 and also took home 10 decisions in the 1919-20, 1950-51 and 2008-09 campaigns.

WITTMAN A WORTHY MVP: In the 13 games Cornell has played that have been decided by 10 points or less (11-2), 11 of which have been on the road, senior Ryan Wittman has played All-America basketball. He is averaging 20.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.5 blocks while shooting 46 percent from the floor and 41 percent from 3-point range while making 3.5 treys per contest in those games. Wittman has scored at least 20 points in seven of the games and has 25 points or more in four. He played at least 35 minutes in each of the 13 contests and averaged 37.8 minutes in those games. The Ivy League Player of the Year hit the game-winning 35-footer at the overtime buzzer to drop Davidson, scored seven points in the final two minutes to knock off Princeton on the road and scored a career-best 34 points against La Salle in a three-point victory.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Cornell finished the regular season 16-3 away from home, tied for the most road/neutral wins in the country with Morgan State and Temple. Unlike those teams, however, the Big Red didn't have a conference tournament to add to its totals. The Big Red's 10 wins away from home were the most by any Division I team in non-league play. Only five other schools have as many as 15 road/neutral wins as of March 14: Murray State (15), Vermont (15) and Wofford (15). 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 mid-major powers Bucknell, Davidson, Harvard and Vermont. Cornell's 16 road/neutral wins is already a new school record, surpassing the 10 of  the 2007-08 Ivy League championship squad.

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS: Six Cornell players could set a school record for games played in a season. The previous mark of 31 was set last season and could be broken in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Mark Coury, Jeff Foote, Geoff Reeves, Adam Wire, Ryan Wittman and Chris Wroblewski, all of whom have played in all 31 games this season.

CORNELL BEYOND THE ARC: Entering the NCAA tournament, the Big Red has hit at least one 3-pointer in 595 straight games. Cornell surpassed the 500-game plateau when the Big Red connected on six treys at Princeton on Feb. 16, 2007. The last time Cornell did not hit a 3-pointer was against Denison in the 1988-89 season opener (0-for-2). Since the 3-point shot came into effect in NCAA play during the 1986-87 season, Cornell has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 645 of 649 games, connecting on 3,929 treys, an average of 6.05 per game. The Big Red has hit a 3-pointer in all 281 games coached by Steve Donahue. Cornell has set records for treys in a season in each of the last three years, going from 228 in 2007-08 to 241 in 2008-09 and now a school-record 304 and counting this year. Cornell, which  has ranked fourth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage each of the last two years (2007-08 (.409) and 2008-09 (.411) lead the country this year at .434. Cornell has hit for double figures in 3-pointers 18 times already this season, including an Ivy League single-game record 20 vs. Brown.

BIG RED IN THE 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 Coaches' poll at No. 25 on Feb. 1, then moved to No. 22 the following week before dropping out after its loss at Penn. 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). Prior to this season, the had most recently received votes in the AP poll in 2007-08 campaign, peaking with three votes heading into the NCAA tournament loss to Stanford.

FOOTE, WITTMAN INVITED TO PORTSMOUTH NBA PRE-DRAFT CAMP: Seniors Jeff Foote and Ryan Wittman have accepted invitations to compete in the 2010 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament NBA pre-draft camp. The duo will be among 64 professional hopefuls who will compete in front of approximately 200 NBA general managers, scouts and international scouts from April 7-10 at Churchland HS in Portsmouth, Va. Foote and Wittman will join fellow Ivy League hopeful Jeremy Lin of Harvard at the camp. The four-day, 12-game tournament began in 1953 and has spearheaded the rise to prominence of players such as John Stockton, Dennis Rodman, Tim Hardaway and Scottie Pippen. Six players that participated in last season's Portsmouth tournament were selected in the 2009 NBA Draft and 57 alums are presently on NBA rosters.

CORNELL IN THE COMMUNITY: As usual, Cornell has been very active in the community during the 2009-10 season. LeChase Construction Services, the Special Olympics and Cornell basketball have teamed up for the 2009-10 season. For each 3-point shot the Big Red men's and women's basketball teams convert during the campaign, LeChase will donate $5 to the Special Olympics. So far this season, the men's team has hit 304 treys and the women's team has made 170 for a total of 474. So far, LeChase will be donating $2,370. The Big Red basketball teams offered a free youth clinic on Dec. 12 that included a free-throw shooting contest to benefit the United Way of Tompkins County.

LONG BUS TRIPS: In the Ivy League, you bus it. The Cornell men's basketball team had plenty of time to get to know each other during its bus trips this season, piling up 5,250 miles on the road during the season, or approximately 88 hours of traveling. Below are the dates and miles traveled that included contests to stuff each other in the overhead compartments, truth or dare and more movies than can possibly be counted.

NEWMAN NOTES: Cornell closed out the 2009-10 season with an 11-game home win streak, the second-longest  in school history. The Big Red had 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 still holds a 22-game conference home win streak after posting its third straight undefeated home slate in Ivy play. All-time, the Big Red is 156-102 (.605) in Newman Arena since the building opened in 1990 and 37-2 in its last 39 home contests overall.

THE CAPTAINS: Three members of Cornell's vaunted senior class will serve as tri-captains for the 2009-10 season. Seniors Jeff Foote, Jon Jaques and Alex Tyler will share leadership duties for the season. It is the first year as team captain for each player.

UP NEXT: The Big Red will continue in the single-elimination NCAA tournament until it loses, then returns in October when it will attempt to capture an unprecedented fourth-straight Ivy title.