* 2012-13 Cornell Men's Basketball Schedule

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Head coach Bill Courtney and his staff continue to take on all comers, as the 2012-13 Cornell men's basketball schedule proves. The Big Red will play 15 games against teams that participated in the postseason a year ago, including six contests against squads that competed in the NCAA tournament.

Cornell will play 31 games total, the second most in school history, including participating in the Las Vegas Invitational, where it will play games at 2012 NCAA Sweet 16 participant Wisconsin and Arizona State, as well as two additional contests at Orleans Arena just off the Las Vegas strip. The Big Red will also play two teams out of the pool of Florida A&M, Longwood and Presbyterian. Joining the Badgers and Sun Devils in the other round will be Arkansas and Creighton.

Also highlighting the schedule will be the second trip in seven seasons to famed Cameron Indoor Arena for a non-conference tilt with Duke when the two teams meet on Wednesday, Dec. 19. The Blue Devils, one of 15 teams on Cornell's schedule that won 19 or more games a year ago, finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference a year ago. Two days prior to the Duke game, the Big Red will visit defending Southeastern Conference tournament champion Vanderbilt.

Other highlighted non-conference games include the season and home opener against Western Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 10, and home games against reigning Atlantic 10 tournament champ St. Bonaventure on Wednesday, Nov. 14, defending America East regular season champion Stony Brook on Wednesday, Nov. 28, and 2012 Patriot League regular season champ Bucknell on Wednesday, Jan. 2. Rounding out the non-conference games against postseason tournament teams will be a matchup at 20-win American, a CIT participant a year ago, on Sunday, Jan. 6.

Four out of Cornell's seven Ivy League foes (Harvard - NCAA, Princeton and Penn - CBI, and Yale - CIT) won at least 19 games a year ago and made the postseason. They will all pose major challenges, as will improved squads from Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth, when the Big Red attempts to claim its fourth Ivy title in the last six years. The conference portion of the schedule opens at home against Columbia on Saturday, Jan. 19 at Newman Arena.

Cornell improved its win total overall and in Ivy League play in 2011-12, finishing 12-16 overall and 7-7 in conference action. The Big Red is scheduled to return 10 of its 12 leading scorers, including 2011-12 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Shonn Miller and All-Ivy guard Johnathan Gray, who spent part of the summer competing on the U.S. Virgin Islands' national team. Also expected to return is starting forward Errick Peck, the team's second-leading scorer in 2010-11 who missed last season due to injury.