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GAME INFORMATION
Game #30: Cornell at Brown
Tip off: Friday, March 5, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Pizzitola Sports Center (2,800), Providence, R.I.
2009-10 Records: Brown (11-18, 5-7 Ivy League); Cornell (25-4, 11-1 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 67-45
Last Meeting: Cornell won 74-60, February 6, 2010 in Ithaca, N.Y.

Game #31: Cornell at Yale
Tip off: Saturday, March 6, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: John J. Lee Amphitheater (2,532), New Haven, Conn.
2009-10 Records: Yale (11-18, 5-7 Ivy League); Cornell (25-4, 11-1 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 106-101
Last Meeting: Cornell won 90-71, February 5, 2010 in Ithaca, N.Y.

Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
TV: None
Live Stats: Links available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Video: Links available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Tickets: Available through Brown and Yale

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (142-137, .509) ... 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 2009-10 Ivy League champion Cornell Big Red men's basketball team will attempt to sew up its third consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament when it faces Brown (Friday, March 5) and Yale (Saturday, March 6) this weekend to close out the regular season on the road. Both games will tip off at 7 p.m., and links to live video, audio and live stats can be found at www.CornellBigRed.com. Barry Leonard will provide the call on 93.5 WVBR-FM.

After honoring the transcendent senior class and clinching at least a share of the conference crown last weekend at home with a sweep of Princeton and Penn, the Big Red enters the weekend needing to win one game to secure its NCAA tournament appearance. A win over Brown on Friday would make the Big Red the first team to earn a spot in the “Big Dance” for the third straight year. Cornell enters the weekend with a two-game lead on Harvard and a 2.5 game lead on Princeton. Losses by Harvard and Princeton (the two teams meet each other on Saturday) would also hand Cornell the bid.

Senior Ryan Wittman, a leading candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year, paces the team in scoring (17.4 ppg.), while Foote (12.3 ppg., 8.3 rpg., 1.9 bpg.) leads the way in both rebounding and blocks and is second in  the nation in field goal percentage (.627). Senior Louis Dale is averaging 11.4 ppg. and a team-high 4.7 apg. Cornell is outscoring opponents by nearly 12 points per game and already has set the single-season Ivy record for 3-pointers by a team with 272. With 25 wins, Cornell is one of eight squads to reach that milestone since the formation of the Ivy League.

ABOUT BROWN
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: Jesse Agel (Vermont '84), second season.
• Brown has been one of the league's hottest teams of late, winning four of their last six games, including a victory at Princeton.
• All-Ivy candidate Matt Mullery leads the team in scoring (15.2 ppg.), rebounding (6.3 rpg.), blocked shots (44), field goal percentage (.559) and minutes played (31.3 mpg.).
• The Bears have struggled rebounding the basketball, getting beaten on the boards by more than six per game.
• Peter Sullivan (12.2 ppg.), Tucker Halpern (8.5 ppg.) and Andrew McCarthy (6.8 ppg., 4.9 rpg.) have also been among the team's leading scorers.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads the series 67-45, dating back to the first meeting between the teams in the 1949-50 season.
• The Big Red is 10-1 in the last 11 contests against the Bears and has won seven straight.
• This current senior class is 7-0 against the Bears, winning those games by an average of 17.1 points per game.
• A season ago, Cornell won its two games in the series by an average of 36.0 points per game.
• This year's matchup at Newman Arena saw Cornell pull away late against a hard-charging Bears team in a 74-60 Big Red triumph on Feb. 6

ABOUT YALE
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: James Jones (Albany '86), 11th season.
• Yale's record stands at 11-18 (5-7 Ivy) heading into Friday night's home contest against Columbia.
• All-Ivy candidate Alex Zampier is the team's leading scorer (17.2 ppg.) and ranks among the league leaders in steals with 55, setting a new Yale record in the process.
• Junior Michael Sands is also in double figures (10.7 ppg., 6.0 rpg.).
• Sophomore forward Greg Magnano has shown flashes of All-Ivy potential as well in the post, averaging 7.6 ppg. and 5.5 rpg., while Jordan Gibson averages 7.8 ppg. and 4.1 rpg., while standing second on the team in steals (29) and third in blocked shots (20).
• Yale is 7-7 in its last 14 contests, but have lost three of four by an average of 11.5 points per game.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads 106-101 overall in a series that dates back to the 1898-99 campaign.
• Cornell has had the best of the series recently, winning seven of the last nine meetings and each of the last six in Ithaca.
• The Big Red took home a 90-71 victory in the first meeting between the teams on Feb. 5 at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red's last four wins over the Bulldogs have come by an average of 21.8 points per game.

THE STORY LINE
• After clinching at least a share of the 2009-10 Ivy League championship last weekend, Cornell will attempt to secure the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a win at Brown on Friday and/or Yale on Saturday.
• A pair of wins would give Cornell 27 victories, a number that would match the 1997-98 Princeton squad (27-2) for the second-most by an Ivy team since the formation of the Ivy League. The 1970-71 squad went 28-1.
• The Big Red would need to lose both games to give Harvard or Princeton a shot to tie them, Cornell hasn't dropped consecutive conference contests since the 2006-07 season and haven't been swept in any Ivy weekend since losing at home to Princeton and Penn during the 2005-06 campaign.
• The Big Red has 14 wins in road/neutral site games, a school record and the most in the country.
• Several single-season school records are in play entering the final regular season weekend. Among the team records to keep an eye out for are single season points (need 120), field goals made (need 62), blocked shots (need six), steals (need 24).
• Individually, Ryan Wittman needs 66 points to set the single-season scoring record and seven 3-pointers for that record as well. Jeff Foote needs eight blocked shots to set that season record.
• Cornell will also tie last year's team with the most games played in school history with 31 when it faces Yale on Friday.

A WIN OVER BROWN WOULD ...
• give Cornell its third straight outright Ivy League title, the fifth time in Ivy history a program has done that. Penn has won at least three straight crowns three times (1970-75, 1993-95, 2005-07), while Princeton has done it once (1989-92).
• be 26 wins for the Big Red, the third-most by any team in Ivy history (since the formation of Ivy play in 1955-56)
• make the Big Red 26-4 overall.
• give Cornell a 12-1 Ivy League record.
• give Cornell 24 wins in its last 26 games.
• make the Big Red 37-4 in Ivy League over the last three seasons and 46-9 over the last four.

THE STREAKS
• Cornell is 36-4 in Ivy play over the last three seasons and 45-9 over the last four.
• 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.
• Cornell is 84-32 over the last four years, making the Big Red seniors the winningest class in school history.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
• Cornell is 14-3 away from home so far this season, the most road/neutral wins in the country.
• Its 10 wins away from home were the most by any Division I team in non-league play.
• Only eight other schools have as many as 12 road/neutral wins as of March 1. (Butler (13), Morgan State (13), Murray State (13), Vermont (13), Gonzaga (12), Northern Colorado (12), Temple (12) and Wofford (12)).
• 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 14 road/neutral wins is already a new school record, surpassing the 10 of  the 2007-08 Ivy League championship squad.

RECORD WINS
• Cornell has won a school-record 25 games this season, surpassing the 22-6 mark of 2007-08.
• The Big Red's 25 wins is tied for the most by an Ivy team this century (Penn, 25-7 in 2001-02).
• Cornell's .862 winning percentage (25-4) 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 nine conference teams have won at least 25 games in a season. Only Penn (6) and Princeton (2) have had teams that have won at least 25 games. Penn's 28 wins during the 1970-71 season is the most by an Ivy team.
• One win this weekend would give the Big Red 26 wins (only two teams with 26+ wins), while a weekend sweep would leave Cornell at 27 wins, matching the 1997-98 Princeton squad (27-2) and leaving it just one win behind the 1970-71 Quakers (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.
• The Big Red's 14 regular season non-conference wins set an Ivy record, surpassing the 13 non-league wins by the 2001-02 Penn squad.

PLAYER NUGGETS
• The top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski have made 169-199 free throws this season (.849), including 53-of-59 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.898).
• Senior Ryan Wittman has reached double figure in 27 straight games.
• Senior Jeff Foote has at least eight rebounds in 16 different games with 11 double figure efforts.
• 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 47-of-65 field goals in the last nine games (.723) and is 21-of-25 from the floor in the last five contests (.840).
• Foote has multiple blocked shots in nine of his last 10 games.
• Louis Dale is the first Cornell player with 1,200 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 100 steals in a career.
• In Ivy play, Louis Dale has 42 assists and 24 turnovers while shooting .482 from the floor.
• Dale and Chris Wroblewski have 90 assists and 38 turnovers combined in 12 home games.
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 23 assists and just nine turnovers in the team's last 20 contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 49 of his last 92 shots (.533), including 29-of-60 from beyond the arc (.483).
• Junior Adam Wire went 16 games (155 minutes) without a turnover before a miscue against Penn. He has 10 assists and one turnover in Ivy League play (133 minutes).
• 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 10 3-pointers in Ivy League play.
• Five different players (Dale, Foote, Jaques, Wittman, Wroblewski) have at least one game this season with 20+ points.

TEAM NOTES
• Cornell opponents are shooting .389 from the floor (.330 from 3-point range) and averaging 57.5 points in the last 19 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 23 games and five times this season.
• The Big Red has outrebounded 16 of its last 21 opponents (+5.2 over that span), including 11 of the last 12 games (+7.3).
• The Big Red's 272 3-pointers is a school record
• Cornell has made at least 10 3-pointers in 16 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 18 of its last 21 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.
• Opponents have gathered more than 30 rebounds just twice in the last nine contests.

CORNELL BEYOND THE ARC
• The Big Red has hit at least one 3-pointer in 593 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 643 of 647 games, connecting on 3,897 treys, an average of 6.02 per game.
• The Big Red has hit a 3-pointer in all 279 games coached by Steve Donahue.
• The 2007-08 Big Red set a school record with 228 treys, which was broken again last year when Cornell connected on 241 shots from beyond the arc despite the line being moved back. This year, the Big Red has hit 272 with two regular season games remaining.
• The Big Red has ranked fourth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage each of the last two years: 2007-08 (.409) and 2008-09 (.411). Cornell is second this season (.418).
• The Big Red hit double figures in 3-point field goals seven times a season ago, including a single-game school record of 18 against Ursinus. The team has already hit for double figures 16 times already this season, including 15 at Dartmouth.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red has completed regular season play and will await word on possible postseason competition.