QUICK HITS
• The Cornell men's basketball team will look to continue its hot play when the Big Red tackles Canisius on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 3:15 p.m. at Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN3.
• The contest will be the second game of a doubleheader, as the Canisius women's team meets Saint Francis (Pa.) at 1 p.m.
• Due to a scheduling conflict with football and the presence of ESPN3, the game will not be available on local radio.
• Cornell has started the year 2-1 for the second straight season after winning two games all of 2013-14.
• The Big Red will be looking for its first three-game win streak since the same time last season when the Big Red defeated Binghamton, Canisius and UMass-Lowell in succession from Nov. 26-Dec. 6, 2014.
• After dropping the opener at Georgia Tech, the Big Red won a thrilling double overtime contest at Colgate (101-98) before handling Binghamton in its home opener, 76-59.
• After being one of the most improved teams in the country both in the win column and by nearly all defensive metrics, the Big Red's improvement on the offensive end has been especially impressive so far in 2015-16.
• Nearly every offensive number is significantly improved this year, including ranking among the top 50 nationally in scoring (86.0 ppg.) a year after sitting 291st in that category (62.3 ppg.).
• Junior Robert Hatter is averaging 22.3 points, 6.0 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game through three contests and is coming off a 16-point, 11-assist double-double against the Bearcats, the first of his career.
• After shooting just 38 percent from the floor in his first two seasons, Hatter is hitting on 55 percent of his shots from the floor.
• Hatter has 18 assists through three contests after recording just 19 assists in 28 games a season ago while primarily playing off the ball.
• Freshman Matt Morgan isn't far behind, averaging 20.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in his first three collegiate contests, including a career-high 24 points against Binghamton.
• Morgan is the first Big Red freshman to reach double figures in the scoring column in his first three games since Adam Gore in 2005-06.
• Defensively, the Big Red has sped up the tempo as well and is coming off a game in which it limited Binghamton to 36 percent shooting from the floor and forced 16 turnovers with five steals and five blocked shots.
• Since surrendering 60 percent shooting and being outrebounded by 24 in the opener at Georgia Tech, the Big Red has limited teams to 41 percent shooting and is outrebounding foes by 7.0 per game.
• Canisius brings a 1-1 record into the contest after topping Patriot League favorite Lehigh 98-89 this past Monday.
• Cornell will be trying to slow down graduate transfer Malcolm McMillan, who ranks second nationally at 32.0 ppg.
• Along with Big Red guards Hatter (44th nationally, 22.3 ppg.) and Morgan (86th, 20.0 ppg.), the contest will feature three of the nation's 98 20-point scorers — all in the backcourt.
 • Cornell head coach Bill Courtney is in his sixth season at Cornell (52-96, .351; 24-46 Ivy, .343).
• Courtney became the fifth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on April 23, 2010.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads the all-time series 26-17 after last season's 67-60 Big Red win in Ithaca.
• The two programs first squared off during the 1914-15 season with the Big Red earning a 49-13 victory.
• Cornell and Canisius have only played five times in the last 26 years, topping the Golden Griffins 63-56 at home in 1992-93, dropping an 87-57 contest in Buffalo the following year, then Canisius winning a home-and-home series over 2000-01 (78-71) and 2001-02 (65-48) before last season's meeting.
 
ABOUT CANISIUS
• Canisius enters the contest 1-1 on the season after beating Patriot League preseason favorite Lehigh 98-89 on Monday in its home opener.
• The Golden Griffins began the season with a 96-85 loss at Hofstra.
• Malcolm McMillan, a graduate transfer from Central Connecticut State, is averaging a scorching 32.0 points per game to go along with 4.0 assists on 60 percent shooting and 93 percent from the free-throw line.
• Jamal Reynolds is averaging a double-double (14.5 ppg., 10.0 rpg.) and both Phil Valenti (14.0 ppg., 6.5 rpg.) and Isaiah Gurley (10.5 ppg.) are hitting for double figures with Kassius Robertson not far behind at 9.5 ppg.
• Canisius is scoring 91.5 ppg. and shooting 45 percent from the floor, but its opponents are scoring 92.5 ppg. on 50 percent shooting.
• Head coach Jim Baron returns two starters and seven letter winners from last season's squad that went 18-15 and reached the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament quarterfinals.
• The Golden Griffins, who have earned three straight postseason bids under Baron, were picked to finish sixth in the 11-team MAAC preseason poll.
• Baron will be looking for his 450th head coaching win over 29 seasons as head coach at Saint Francis (Pa.), St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island and Canisius.

A WIN OVER CANISIUS WOULD ...
• make the Big Red 3-1 on the season.
• extend Cornell's lead in the all-time series to 27-17.
• be the second straight over the Golden Griffins.
• make Cornell 64-52 against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference teams.
• be the 1,227th in program history (1,226-1,1370 in 117 seasons, .472).
 
CORNELL VS. THE METRO ATLANTIC ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
• Cornell is 63-52 all-time against current members of the MAAC, including 26-17 against Canisius.
• The Big Red has also played Fairfield (0-2), Iona (0-2), Manhattan (1-1), Marist (2-3), Niagara (27-20), Quinnipiac (2-2), Rider (3-0), Saint Peter's (0-2) and Siena (2-3).
• Cornell has never played Monmouth.
• This is the first of three games Cornell is scheduled to play against MAAC schools this season. The Big Red will host Siena on Dec. 1, then welcomes Monmouth on Dec. 23 at Newman Arena for the first-ever meeting between the teams.

LAST TIME OUT
• Freshman Matt Morgan wowed the Newman Nation crowd with a career-high 24 points and Cornell overcame turnovers on the offensive end with relentless pressure on the other as the Big Red opened its home slate with a 76-59 win over Binghamton.
• Morgan added four rebounds, two steals, an assist and a block along with five 3-point field goals to lead three double figure scorers.
• Junior Darryl Smith established a new career high with 16 points, including hitting 6-of-7 field goals, and classmate Robert Hatter chipped in 15 points and a career-high 11 assists.
• Junior David Onuorah posted a career high in rebounds for the second straight game, grabbing 15 errant Binghamton shots.
• After allowing an average of 107.0 points in its first two games, the Big Red's pressure defense was extremely effective against the Bearcats, forcing 16 turnovers and limiting the visitors to 37 percent shooting overall and a long 9-of-30 night from beyond the arc.
• Cornell held Binghamton to 27 points and 30 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes.
• Cornell's effort on the defensive end, that included a 37-29 edge on the backboards, helped the Big Red overcome 20 turnovers.
• Cornell hit 12-of-24 3-pointers, its third straight game with double digits in treys.
• Smith was 4-for-4 for Cornell, while Morgan was 5-of-8.
• Binghamton's Marlon Beck II had a team-high 17 points off the bench, including 5-of-10 3-pointers, while Willie Rodriguez added 14 points and seven rebounds.


 
PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Robert Hatter enters the weekend averaging 22.3 ppg., 6.0 apg. and 3.3 rebounds per contest — only Chuck Rolles '56  has ever posted an average of 20 points, six assists and three rebounds per game for an entire season (1955-56 season, 23.0 ppg., 5.7 apg., 3.3 rpg.).
• Hatter ranked 70th nationally in free-throw percentage a year ago (.833) after making just 46 percent from the line as a freshman (19-of-41).
• Hatter's 11 assists against Binghamton nearly doubled up his previous career high of six set against Western Michigan as a freshman.
• The last time a Cornell player had double figure assists in a game was when Devin Cherry had 10 against Brown in the 2013-14 campaign.
• Hatter had just 19 assists during the entire 2014-15 season when he played off the ball.
• After going scoreless in the opener against Georgia Tech, Darryl Smith is averaging 15.0 points over his last two games, including 5-of-5 from 3-point range.
• Entering that stretch, Smith's career high was 15 points.
• David Onuorah became the eighth player in school history to reach 75 career blocks with three in the win over Colgate.
• Onuorah is averaging 14.5 rebounds over his last two games, including a career-high 15 in his last contest against Binghamton.
• Onuorah is just the fourth Big Red player since 1977 to have consecutive games with at least 14 rebounds (Bernard Jackson in 1988-89; Greg Barratt in 2000-01 and Shonn Miller is 2012-13).
• Darryl Smith's 3-pointer late in regulation to tie the Colgate game was his first trey of the season, while freshman Troy Whiteside's 3-pointer in double overtime to put Cornell in the lead for good was the first of his career.
• Freshman Matt Morgan scored 20 points against Georgia Tech, the most by a Cornell freshman in a season opener since Nolan Cressler put in 20 in a win over Western Michigan to kick off the 2012-13 campaign.
• Morgan was the first Big Red freshman to start a season opener since - current Big Red juniors Robert Hatter and David Onuorah were out for the tip at Syracuse in 2013-14.
• He is the first Big Red freshman to hit for double figures in each of his first three collegiate games since Adam Gore '09 during the 2005-06 campaign.
• Junior JoJo Fallas competed for Team USA at the 14th European Maccabi Games in Berlin, Germany from July 27-August 5. Fallas was one of the leaders on a team that won a silver medal, going 4-0 before dropping the gold medal game to Russia 98-87 despite a game-high 28 points. The event was the largest gathering of Jewish people in Berlin since World War II, as more than 2,000 Jewish athletes from 36 countries attended.
• Senior center Braxston Bunce was a two-year member of Team Canada's Under-18 national team, including competing at the 2012 FIBA Americas Championship in Brazil. Canada went 4-1, with Bunce averaging 1.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in two contests.
• The Big Red lost 47 percent of the team's scoring, 59 percent of its rebounding, 73 percent of its assists, 51 percent of its steals and 49 percent of its blocked shots to graduation.
• Cornell's roster features eight freshmen, the most on a Big Red roster since the 2001-02 season when there were also eight rookies, including future 1,000-point scorers Eric Taylor'05 and Cody Toppert '05.
 
TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has scored at least 76 points in regulation in each game this season, something the Big Red did just once all last year — that coming against Division III Alfred State.
• Binghamton's .367 field goal percentage is the lowest by an opponent since Cornell upset eventual Ivy champion Harvard by limiting the Crimson to .254 shooting on Feb. 27, 2015.
• Cornell's 51 rebounds against Colgate were the most by a Cornell team since piling up 56 in a win over Clarkson in 2010.
• The Big Red hit the 100-point mark against a Division I team for the first time since scoring 104 in a 104-98 overtime win at Bucknell during the 2009-10 season when it scored 101 in a double overtime win at Colgate.
• The Big Red had last played a multiple overtime game in a 79-76 double overtime victory at home over Dartmouth during the 2008-09 campaign.
• The Big Red made 13 3-pointers in the opener against Georgia Tech, a mark that ranks 13th in a single game in Cornell history.
• Cornell has reached double figures in 3-point field goal makes in each of its first three games, the first time it has reached that mark three games in a row since it hit the mark four straight times in non-league matchups with Lehigh, Albany, Illinois and Penn State during the 2011-12 campaign.
• Cornell won 11 more games a year ago than the entire 2013-14 campaign when it went 2-26.  The Big Red's 11-win improvement was a school record.
• Third-year assistant coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• For the third straight year a Big Red men's basketball player will use his fifth and final year of eligibility at a BCS school.
• Errick Peck '13 spent the 2013-14 campaign at Purdue. He served as a captain and part-time starter for the Boilermakers while averaging 4.6 points and 4.4 rebounds and shooting 48 percent from the floor in 32 contests (10 starts).
• Dwight Tarwater '14 played his final season as a graduate student at California in 2014-15. Tarwater averaged 3.4 points and 2.9 rebounds while playing 18.8 minutes per game as a key reserve and spot starter in 33 games (13 starts). He hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 20 seconds to play to lift Cal over UCLA.
• Shonn Miller '15 will play as a graduate student at Connecticut in 2015-16, while Galal Cancer '15 will suit up for Kent State.
• Members of the Cornell basketball team represent 11 states and one Canadian province.
• Cornell has played in 46 different states, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia and France. The only states the Big Red has not played in are Alaska, North Dakota, Mississippi and Wyoming.
 
DEFENSIVE TURNAROUND/OFFENSIVE TURNAROUND
• A year ago, Cornell's defense spearheaded the Big Red's turnaround, as its points per game allowed, field goal percentage defense overall and from 3-point range were significantly down, while its steals and blocked shots were way up over the previous season.
• The Big Red limited opponents to .389 shooting for the season (18th nationally, lowest mark by a Cornell team in 50 years), an amazing turnaround after ranking 341st nationally (out of 345 Division I teams) after allowing opponents to shoot .495 in 2013-14
• Cornell allowed opponents to shoot 50 percent or better 15 times in 28 games in 2013-14, while it held 16 of its 30 opponents under 40 percent shooting and just two opponents hit 50 percent of its
• This season it is the offense that has had a makeover, significantly improving across the board.
• The Big Red's scoring, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and points per possession are all significantly up from a year ago.
 
CORNELL EIGHTH IN IVY PRESEASON POLL
• The Cornell men's basketball team was picked to finish eighth when the 2015-16 Ivy League preseason media poll was announced during the annual conference call with the league's eight head coaches.
• Yale, which shared last season's conference title with Harvard and lost in a one-game playoff with the Crimson, took five first place votes and 117 points overall to take the preseason poll.
• Columbia (114) and Princeton (108) weren't far behind, and each actually had more first place votes than the Bulldogs with six apiece.
• Harvard rounded out the top half with 96 points.
• The Big Red received 25 points, finishing behind Brown (54), Dartmouth (50) and Penn (48).
• Two media members from each school and one national representative voted in the poll.
 
RED-WHITE GAME
• Junior Robert Hatter hit a runner in the lane just before the buzzer to cap a 25-point night as Cornell's White team topped the Red squad 75-73 at the annual Red-White Game on Oct. 24 at Newman Arena.
• Hatter added eight assists, five rebounds and five steals in the win.
• Freshman Matt Morgan chipped in 22 points, six rebounds and four assists in his first appearance as Hatter's backcourt mate, while sophomore Wil Bathurst had seven points and six rebounds.
• Four players went for double figures for the Red team, including junior David Onuorah's 20 points and 12 rebounds.
• Freshmen Donovan Wright (14 points, 10 rebounds, four steals) and Troy Whiteside (14 points) and junior Darryl Smith (10 points, six rebounds) also hit for double figures.
• The Red team led by 12 (69-57) with five minutes to play before the White team ended on a 18-4 run.
• Hatter had eight points and Morgan had six during the game-ending run, including consecutive 3-pointers to knot the score at 73-73.

HOW TO FOLLOW CORNELL
• There are numerous way to follow the Big Red through the 2015-16 basketball season.
• Men's basketball games will be broadcast on 98.7 FM The Buzzer for the 2015-16 season. Longtime voice of the Big Red Barry Leonard returns on the call with the play-by-play, while former All-Ivy center Eric Taylor '05 is on board to do color analysis.
• A half-hour pregame show and postgame analysis will enable Big Red fans to follow Coach Bill Courtney's team throughout the season.
• The audio of all games will also be available as part of the IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork subscription service.
• The Big Red's home contests will all be broadcast live with streaming video as part of the IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork subscription service. Visit www.IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.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 2015-16. Visit www.CornellBigRed.com for all of the official statistics.
• You can follow the team on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Highlights, interviews and features on all 37 of Cornell's varsity sports can be found at www.youtube.com/cornellathletics, www.facebook.com/cornellathletics or www.twitter.com/cornellsports.
 
CORNELL BASKETBALL HONORED BY NCAA ... AGAIN
• Cornell University ranks among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR) for 2013-14 that was released this past May.
• The APR measures semester-by-semester records for every individual team in Division I with regard to each team members' continuing eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation.
• The NCAA "commends" teams that have APR scores in the top 10 percent within their sport, with the minimum necessary score ranging from 975 to a perfect mark of 1000 depending on the range of team scores within that sport.
• Men's basketball has been recognized seven times in the 10 years since the APR began, including five consecutive years.
 
CORNELL BEYOND THE ARC - 700 AND COUNTING
• Cornell hit 12 3-pointers vs. Binghamton on Nov. 18, 2015 its 747th straight game with at least one made 3-point field goal.
• With six 3-pointers against Oberlin on Jan. 11, 2014, Cornell extended its streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 700.
• Matt Morgan hit the program's 5,000th 3-pointer when he hit a long 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer at Georgia Tech on Nov. 13, 2015.
• 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 793 of 797 games, connecting on 5,027 treys, an average of 6.3 per game.
 
CORNELL IN OVERTIME
• Head coach Bill Courtney's record is 6-4 in overtime games during his six seasons, including 1-0 this year after its 101-98 double overtime victory at Colgate.
• Cornell went 3-1 in overtime in 2011-12, matching a school record for most overtime games in a season.
• All-time, dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 40-48 in games that go an extra period.
• Cornell is 6-9 in multiple overtime games, with the longest game for the Big Red being a five overtime contest against Princeton, won by the Tigers 66-61 on Feb. 24, 1979 at Barton Hall.
• Cornell is 29-18 in home overtime games, 2-2 in neutral contests and 10-27 in road games.
 
60TH SEASON OF IVY LEAGUE ATHLETICS
• Throughout the 2015-16 season, the Ivy League will be celebrating its 60th season with impactful content across IvyLeagueSports.com, The Ivy League Digital Network and the League's social media outlets.
• Be on the lookout for the #IvyAt60 hashtag to keep up the coverage of the League's 60th season.
 
NEXT UP
• The Big Red returns home to play its annual Division III game against Penn State-Harrisburg at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23 in Newman Arena.
• The contest will be part of a doubleheader, as the women will face Saint Francis (Pa.) at 6 p.m.