QUICK HITS
• After a two week for finals, the Big Red's first test post-exam break will be against Central New York rival Syracuse on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 12 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.
• The game will be televised on Fox Sports South and ESPN3 with Tom Werme and Mike Gminski on the call, as well as heard locally on 98.7 FM The Buzzer with Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor on the call.
• The test against Syracuse is one a Big Red team hasn't passed in more than 47 years spanning 35 games.
• Cornell will be looking for its first win over Syracuse since Dec. 4, 1968 (a 93-81 Big Red at Barton Hall in Ithaca) and its first victory over an ACC opponent since Dec. 27, 1951 (a 58-51 victory at Wake Forest).
• After a two weeks of practice, the Big Red basketball team will attempt to build on a two-game win streak they posted entering the break.
• Cornell had an impressive 81-80 victory over Siena on Dec. 1, rallying from 14 points down in the second half, then four days later handed defending Patriot League champion Lafayette a 75-57 loss.
• Junior guard Robert Hatter earned Ivy League Player of the Week after averaging 30.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.0 steals in the two wins while shooting 56 percent from the floor and 78 percent from both the free-throw line and the 3-point arc.
• 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.
• Against non-BCS opponents, Cornell is 5-2 while scoring 79.7 ppg. and shooting 46 percent from the floor and 36 percent from 3-point range.
• The Big Red is surrendering 74.0 ppg. on .413 shooting overall and .335 from 3-point range while blocking 4.6 shots and collecting 8.7 steals per contest in those seven games.
• The Big Red backcourt has been its strength, as Hatter (19.6 ppg., 4.7 apg., 3.3 rpg.) and freshman Matt Morgan (14.4 ppg., 3.4 rpg., 2.0 apg., 19 3-pointers) are the team's double figure scorers.
• Juniors Darryl Smith (9.9 ppg., 2.4 rpg.) and JoJo Fallas (4.3 ppg.) and freshman Troy Whiteside (4.4 ppg., 1.9 rpg.) have also made an impact in the backcourt.
• Junior center David Onuorah (7.0 ppg., 8.8 rpg., 1.8 bpg.) has been one of the most improved players in the Ivy League, while sophomores Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof and Wil Bathurst (9.5 ppg., 6.0 rpg., 1.7 apg., 1.1 spg., 0.9 bpg. combined) and freshmen Stone Gettings (3.3 ppg., 2.3 rpg.)  and Joel Davis (3.3 ppg., 2.3 rpg.) have been frontcourt staples.
 • Cornell head coach Bill Courtney is in his sixth season at Cornell (55-99, .357; 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
• Syracuse leads the all-time series 89-31 and carries a 35-game win streak against the Big Red into the contest.
• The two teams had their first meeting in 1900-01, an 18-15 victory by the Orange.
• Cornell is 1-21 all-time at the Carrier Dome and 0-20 vs. the Orange.
• Its only win at the Dome was a 75-54 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) to open the 2005-06 season as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
 
ABOUT SYRACUSE
• Syracuse is off to a 7-3 start, but enter the weekend having lost three of their last four after a 6-0 start that included a tournament win at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
• The Orange have wins over Connecticut and Texas A&M and losses to Wisconsin, Georgetown and St. John's.
• Former Duke transfer Michael Gbinije leads the Orange in scoring (19.8 ppg.) and assists (4.3 apg.) and also posts 3.5 rebounds and 2.9 steals per game.
• Trevor Cooney (14.0 ppg., 3.3 apg., 2.5 rpg., 2.0 spg.), Malachi Richardson (12.5 ppg., 4.3 rpg.) and Tyler Lydon (10.2 ppg., 7.4 rpg., 2.1 bpg., 1.3 spg.) are also averaging double figures.
• The Orange have relied on a seven-man rotation, and with five of them averaging 30.6 minutes per game or more.
• Opponents are shooting just 39 percent from the floor and 32 percent from 3-point range against the vaunted Syracuse zone.
• Legendary head coach Jim Boeheim, who has won nearly 1,000 games on the Syracuse sidelines and the 2003 NCAA title, is in the midst of serving a nine-game suspension and assistant head coach Mike Hopkins has taken over for him the short term.

A WIN OVER SYRACUSE WOULD ...
• make the Big Red 6-4 on the year.
• give Cornell a three-game win streak overall.
• snap Syracuse's 35-game win streak and give the Big Red its first win at Syracuse since Jan. 2, 1965.
• end an eight-game losing streak in the Carrier Dome dating back to a 75-54 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) in the first round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic on Nov. 8, 2005 (0-7 vs. Syracuse, 0-1 vs. Kentucky).
• give Cornell its first win over an ACC opponent since topping Wake Forest 58-51 on Dec. 27, 1951, snapping a 29-game skid against teams from that conference.
• be the 1,230th in program history (1,229-1,373 in 117 seasons, .472).

CORNELL VS. THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
• The Big Red is 38-135 against current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, including 31-89 against Syracuse.
• The Big Red has faced Boston College (0-3), Clemson (0-2), Duke (0-5), Georgia Tech (0-4), Maryland (0-2), Miami (FL) (0-1), North Carolina (0-3), North Carolina State (0-5), Notre Dame (1-8), Pittsburgh (5-12) and Wake Forest (1-1).
• Cornell has never faced Florida State, Virginia or Virginia Tech.
• This game is the last of three scheduled meetings between the Big Red and ACC teams this year.
• The Big Red dropped a 116-81 decision at Georgia Tech in the season opener, then fell to Pittsburgh 93-49 on Thanksgiving-eve.
• Cornell's last win over a team in the ACC at the time of the game came against Wake Forest during the 1951-52 season, a 58-51 victory on the road.
• Since then, the Big Red has lost 29 consecutive games to current members of the ACC by an average margin of 25.5 points per game.
• Only five of those 29 games have been decided by single digits.
 
LAST TIME CORNELL DEFEATED SYRACUSE
• Things have changed mightily since the last time Cornell defeated Syracuse, a 93-81 Big Red win during the 1968-69 season in Ithaca.
• Some of the things that have happened since Dec. 4, 1968 — man has landed on the moon (July 20, 1969); Cornell head coach Bill Courtney was born (May 4, 1970); 12 U.S. Presidential elections have been held; there have been 101 solar eclipses; the earth's population has increased by 3.7 billion a human being alive in 1968 has had their heart beat more than two billion times; Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim joined the SU staff as an assistant coach (1969), was promoted to head coach (1976), won a national title (2003) and 973 total games on the Orange sidelines.
• The original Star Wars was released in May 25, 1977 in the United States - nearly seven and a half years after the Big Red last beat the Orange.

LAST TIME OUT
• Junior Robert Hatter scored 29 points, the Big Red dominated the paint and Cornell ran past defending Patriot League champion Lafayette for an 85-67 decision on Dec. 5, 2015 at Newman Arena.
• Cornell outscored Lafayette 52-25 in the paint, forced 20 turnovers with 15 steals and only trailed 2-0 in leading virtually wire-to-wire in closing out the pre-exam schedule strong.
• Hatter hit on 10-of-16 field goals, including 3-of-5 from beyond the 3-point arc, and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds to go along with three assists and three steals.
• Classmate Darryl Smith added 16 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists and both David Onuorah and Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof had 11 points, matching and setting career scoring highs, respectively.
• Onuorah added eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Abdur-Ra'oof chipped in an assist and a blocked shot while hitting 5-of-7 field goals in his 20 minutes.
• Freshman Matt Morgan scored nine points, grabbed five rebounds, dished three assists and had three steals in the victory and classmate Troy Whiteside netted six points and three rebounds.
• The Big Red shot 52 percent from the floor, outrebounded the Leopards 37-34 and limited Lafayette to 21 percent shooting from 3-point range (6-of-28) and 41 percent overall.
• Nick Lindner had 19 points and nine assists, but also turned it over eight times.
• Bryce Scott and Matt Klinewski each had 14 points, with Scott adding seven rebounds.


 
PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Robert Hatter has 42 assists this season and has already more than doubled his total of 19 assists during the entire 2014-15 season when he played off the ball.
• 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 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).
• In his last three games, Hatter is 9-of-14 from 3-point range (64 percent).
• David Onuorah became the eighth player in school history to reach 75 career blocks with three in the win over Colgate and is now up to 89.
• In the five games that he has played at least 28 minutes, Onuorah is averaging 12.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game, while he is averaging 4.8 rebounds and doesn't have a block in the other four contests.
• Onuorah is averaging 9.5 rebounds over his last eight games, including a career-high 15 wins over Binghamton and Penn State-Harrisburg after averaging 3.6 per game entering the season.
• 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) after he had 14 at Colgate and 15 vs. Binghamton.
• Onuorah's 15-rebound games tie for 12th in a single game in school history.
• The junior center has shot at least 50 percent in eight of his nine games this season.
• Onuorah is averaging 2.0 blocks over his last six games after blocking four shots total in his first three contests of the year.
• After going scoreless in the opener against Georgia Tech, Darryl Smith has reached double figures in five of his eight games and has averaged 11.1 points over that span, including hitting 7-of-12 from 3-point range (58 percent).
• Smith is shooting 58 percent from 3-point range (7-of-12) and 89 percent from the free-throw line (16-of-18) so far this season.
• Over his last five contests, Smith has made 29-of-44 shots from the floor (66 percent).
• 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 was the first Big Red freshman to hit for double figures in each of his first five collegiate games since Adam Gore '09 during the 2005-06 campaign (most this century - Ka'Ron Barnes '04 with 7 in 2000-01).
• Morgan has 14 assists and six turnovers over his last five games, spanning 125 minutes of action.
• In his last three games, rookie Joel Davis is averaging 5.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 0.7 blocks in 15.3 minutes per contest.
• 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 seven of nine games this season, something the Big Red did just once all last year — that coming against Division III Alfred State.
• Penn State-Harrisburg's .299 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 reached double figures in 3-point field goal makes in each of its first three games, the first time it had 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.
• In all, Cornell has hit double figure 3-pointers in five of its nine games.
• 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 is playing as a graduate student at Connecticut (6-3) in 2015-16 (12.0 ppg., 5.3 rpg., 1.1 bpg., 0.9 spg.), while Galal Cancer '15 (4.2 ppg., 2.7 rpg., 2.3 rag., 1.1 spg.) is suiting up for Kent State (7-2). Both are starting.
• 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.

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 five 3-pointers vs. Lafayette on Dec. 5, 2015 its 753rd 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 799 of 803 games, connecting on 5,074 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 for its last home game of the 2015 season when Monmouth visits Newman Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 23 at 6 p.m.
• It will be the first-ever meeting between Cornell and the Hawks.