QUICK HITS
• For the second time this season, but the first time in 2016, the Cornell men's basketball team can knock off a defending conference champion at Newman Arena.
• To do so, the Big Red will need to top a red-hot Albany team, the three-time defending America East champion, when the two teams meet on Saturday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m.
• The game will be broadcast live on the Ivy League Digital Network, as well as heard locally on 98.7 FM The Buzzer with Barry Leonard and Albany native Eric Taylor '05 on the call.
• Cornell knocked off reigning Patriot League champion Lafayette 85-67 on Dec. 5, 2015 at home behind 29 points from junior guard Robert Hatter.
• 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 6-3 while scoring 76.9 ppg. and shooting 44 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3-point range.
• The Big Red is surrendering 73.1 ppg. on .411 shooting overall and .319 from 3-point range while blocking 5.2 shots and collecting 8.9 steals per contest in those nine games.
• Among its non-BCS opponents, only Siena (.483) has shot better than 46 percent from the floor and  all but Canisius (12) had at least 15 turnovers.
• The Big Red backcourt has been its strength, as junior Robert Hatter (19.4 ppg., 3.9 apg., 3.4 rpg., 1.5 spg.) and freshman Matt Morgan (14.2 ppg., 3.5 rpg., 1.8 apg., 1.5 spg.) are the team's double figure scorers.
• Hatter, the Ivy League's leading scorer, is averaging 23.6 points over his last five games entering the matchup with the Great Danes and also ranks among the conference's top 10 in assists (fourth, 3.9), steals (third, 1.5) and 3-pointers made (ninth, 1,9).
• Hatter has three of the top five and four of the league's top seven individual scoring games this year.
• Juniors Darryl Smith (8.7 ppg., 2.7 rpg.) and JoJo Fallas (4.7 ppg.) and freshman Troy Whiteside (5.0 ppg., 1.7 rpg.) have also made an impact in the backcourt.
• Junior center David Onuorah (5.8 ppg., 8.1 rpg., 1.9 bpg.) has been one of the most improved players in the Ivy League, while sophomores Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (4.8 ppg., 3.0 rpg.) and Wil Bathurst (5.5 ppg., 2.8 rpg., 0.6 spg.) and freshmen Stone Gettings (2.5 ppg., 2.1 rpg.) and Joel Davis (2.9 ppg., 2.1 rpg.) have been frontcourt staples.
 • Cornell head coach Bill Courtney is in his sixth season at Cornell (56-101, .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
• Albany leads the all-time series 3-2, though the Big Red has won the last two contests between the teams.
• Cornell head coach Bill Courtney earned his first collegiate head coaching victory with a 65-61 win over the Great Danes at SEFCU Arena to open the 2010-11 campaign.
• The last three meetings have both been decided by four points or less.
 
ABOUT ALBANY
• Defending America East champion Albany improved to 10-4 record, including 8-1 record in its last nine contests, after topping St. Francis Brooklyn 71-66 on Dec. 29.
• The Great Danes have four players averaging double figures with Evan Singletary (13.1 ppg., 2.9 apg., 2.5 rpg., 1.0 spg.) leading the way.
• Peter Hooley (11.9 ppg., 3.7 rpg., 3.0 apg., 1.0 spg.), Ray Sanders (10.2 ppg., 4.5 rpg., 2.4 apg.) and Joe Cremo (10.4 ppg., 2.9 rpg.) aren't far behind, while Mike Rowley (7.4 ppg., 6.9 rpg.) paces the squad on the backboards.
• The Great Danes are averaging 73.1 ppg. and shooting 45 percent from the floor as a team and have made more free throws (260) than its opponents have attempted (210).
• Defensively, Albany is limiting teams to 64.4 ppg., on 42 percent shooting overall and 31 percent from beyond the arc and is outrebounding opponents by 5.0 per game (37.4-32.4).
• The Great Danes have a 34-point win over a Yale squad that won a share of the Ivy League title a season ago and are a perfect 6-0 at home.
• Head coach Will Brown has led Albany to five conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances, including three straight.

A WIN OVER ALBANY WOULD ...
• give Cornell a 7-6 record on the season and extend its win streak to two games.
• make Cornell 5-1 at home this season.
• make the Big Red 23-24 all-time against current members of the America East Conference.
• even the all-time series with Albany at 3-3 and give the Big Red three straight victories.
• be the 1,231st in program history (1,230-1,375 in 117 seasons, .472).

CORNELL VS. THE AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE
• Cornell is 22-24 all-time against current members of the America East, including 2-3 against Albany.
• The Big Red has also faced Binghamton (9-3), Hartford (0-3), Maine (0-1), UMass Lowell (1-1), New Hampshire (1-3), Stony Brook (4-4) and Vermont (5-6).
• Cornell has never played UMBC.
 


LAST TIME OUT
•  Wil Bathurst scored 18 points and had a huge chase down block in the final minute of regulation as Cornell held on for a 65-62 victory at Saint Peter's on Dec. 28 at the Yanitelli Center.
• Bathurst scored 16 huge points in the first half, a half dominated by the Big Red's pressure defense.
• Cornell forced 12 first half turnovers and had nine steals and limited the home team to 38 percent shooting on the night.
• Despite the constant pressure, Saint Peter's erased a 13-point first half lead and nearly erased an eight-point deficit with 22 seconds remaining, but freshman Matt Morgan hit a pair of free throws and Cornell watched a desperation halfcourt heave fall short as time expired.
• Morgan and classmate Troy Whiteside hit huge 3-pointers on consecutive possessions in the second half to wipe away memories of a 3-of-22 start from beyond the arc and the Big Red hit 8-of-13 free throws in the final 62 seconds to close out the exciting win.
• Bathurst, who missed last week's contest with Monmouth, hit on 7-of-13 field goals to finish two points off his career high and added five rebounds, two assists, a steal and the aforementioned block in 31 minutes.
• Morgan, who also missed the Monmouth game, had 17 points, six rebounds and a career-high four steals.
• Junior Robert Hatter netted 16 points and four rebounds to round out the three double figure scorers, while David Onuorah had five points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
• Saint Peter's got 22 points from Antwon Portley, but he was the team's lone double figure scorer. He had 19 points in the second half, more than half the Peacocks' 36 after the break.
 
PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Over his last five contests, junior Robert Hatter is averaging 23.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.6 steals per game while hitting 12 3-pointers.
• Hatter has 47 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 before Hatter 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).
• 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 96.
• In the six games that he has played at least 28 minutes, Onuorah is averaging 11.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game, while he is averaging 4.8 rebounds and has four total blocks in the other six contests.
• Onuorah is averaging 8.5 rebounds over his last 11 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 10 of his 12 games this season.
• Onuorah is averaging 2.1 blocks over his last nine 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 11 games and has averaged 9.5 points over that span, including hitting 9-of-17 from 3-point range (53 percent).
• Smith is shooting 53 percent from 3-point range (9-of-17) and 79 percent from the free-throw line (19-of-24) so far this season.
• Over his last six contests, Smith has made 34-of-55 shots from the floor (62 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 16 assists and seven turnovers over his last seven games, spanning 179 minutes of action.
• 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
• Over the team's last five contests, the Big Red is averaging 10.4 steals per contest.
• In the last four games, Cornell is limiting opponents to 24-of-92 from 3-point range (.261).
• Cornell has scored at least 76 points in regulation in seven of 12 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 six of its 12 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 (9-3) in 2015-16 (13.0 ppg., 5.5 rpg., 1.0 bpg., 0.8 spg.), while Galal Cancer '15 (3.6 ppg., 2.5 rpg., 2.2 apg., 0.9 spg.) is suiting up for Kent State (7-4). Both are starting for their new teams.
• 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 at Saint Peter's on Dec. 28, 2015, its 756th 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 802 of 806 games, connecting on 5,097 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 will hit the road for its final non-conference contest at Howard on Jan. 6, then opens Ivy play on the road against Columbia on Jan. 16.
• Cornell's seven-game Ivy home schedule begins with the return game against the Lions on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 4 p.m., the second game of a doubleheader with the women, who face Columbia at 1 p.m.