QUICK HITS
• After dropping a thriller in the Ivy League opener, the Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to close its home-and-home series against Columbia with a split when the two teams meet on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 4 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor will be on the call on ESPN3, while the game will be simulcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.
• The two teams met last Saturday in New York City, with the Lions escaping with a 74-70 victory despite 29 points from freshman Matt Morgan.
• Cornell played without Ivy League leading scorer Robert Hatter, who missed the game due to injury, while the Lions finally got healthy with the return of Alex Rosenberg (14.1 ppg.), Lukas Meisner (4.3 ppg.) and Isaac Cohen (3.0 ppg.) from their own injuries.
• 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 7-5 while scoring 76.3 ppg. and shooting 44 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3-point range.
• The Big Red is surrendering 74.0 ppg. on .407 shooting overall and .341 from 3-point range while blocking 4.8 shots and collecting 8.6 steals per contest in those 12 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 (19.9 ppg., 4.1 apg., 3.4 rpg., 1.4 spg.) and freshman Matt Morgan (15.9 ppg., 3.3 rpg., 1.9 apg., 1.6 spg.) are the team's double figure scorers.
• Hatter, the Ivy League's leading scorer, is averaging 23.3 points over his last seven games before missing the Ivy opener against Columbia and ranks among the conference's top 10 in assists (third, 4.1), steals (fourth, 1.4) and 3-pointers made (ninth, 1.9).
• Morgan, a three-time Ivy Rookie of the Week, exploded for a career-high 29 points against the Lions to establish a freshman scoring record for the Big Red in league contests.
• Juniors Darryl Smith (9.1 ppg., 2.7 rpg.) and JoJo Fallas (4.5 ppg.) and freshman Troy Whiteside (5.1 ppg., 1.9 rpg.) have also made an impact in the backcourt.
• Smith is shooting 64 percent from the floor for the season and has made 11 consecutive field goals over his last three games.
• Junior center David Onuorah (5.7 ppg., 7.9 rpg., 1.8 bpg.) has been one of the most improved players in the Ivy League, while sophomores Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (4.4 ppg., 3.5 rpg.) and Wil Bathurst (5.4 ppg., 2.7 rpg.) and freshmen Stone Gettings (2.1 ppg., 2.1 rpg.) and Joel Davis (2.6 ppg., 2.0 rpg.) have been frontcourt staples.
• The Lions enter the weekend with a 12-6 record (1-0Ivy League) and are 8-1 in their last nine contests under head coach Kyle Smith.
• The game will feature three of the top six scorers in the Ivy League, with Cornell's Hatter (first, 19.9 ppg.) and Morgan (sixth, 15.9 ppg.) and Columbia's Maodo Lo (fifth, 15.9 ppg.). The same three are all ranked in the top four in the conference in steals (Lo, first at 2.0; Morgan, second at 1.6; and Hatter, fourth at 1.4).
 • Cornell head coach Bill Courtney is in his sixth season at Cornell (57-103, .356; 24-47 Ivy, .338).
• Courtney became the fifth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on April 23, 2010.

THE SERIES
• Columbia leads the all-time series between the programs 126-99.
• Cornell has won 16 of the last 27 meetings between the squads, but in the short term, Columbia has won eight of the last 11 contests.
• The teams split the series a year ago, with each team winning on the road.
 
ABOUT COLUMBIA
• Columbia enters its Ivy League road opener with an impressive 12-6 record, including a 8-1 mark in its last nine contests.
• The Lions are 10-2 at home and just 2-4 on the road.
• Senior Maodo Lo leads four double figure scorers at 15.9 ppg. to go along with 3.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.0 steals per contest.
• Alex Rosenberg (14.1 ppg., 4.4 rpg., 2.0 apg.), Grant Mullins (13.2 ppg., 3.6 rpg., 3.3 apg.) and Luke Petrasek (12.3 ppg., 5.6 rpg., 1.9 apg., 1.2 bpg.) are also posting double figures in the scoring column.
• The Lions are shooting 45 percent from the floor, 38 percent from 3-point range and 73 percent from the line and are averaging nearly 16 assists per contest.
• Nearly half of Columbia's shot attempts come from beyond the 3-point arc (46.5 percent).
• Sixth-year head coach Kyle Smith has posted an 88-78 record with the Lions and guided them to a 21-13 record a season ago with a spot in the Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament, the program's first postseason appearance since 1968.

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD ...
• even Cornell's record at 8-8 on the season and its Ivy record at 1-1.
• make the Big Red 5-2 at home this season.
• be the 100th for Cornell in the series with Columbia (99-126).
• be the 1,232nd in program history (1,231-1,377 in 117 seasons, .472).
 • Playing without the Ivy League's leading scorer on the road against a senior-laden team, the Cornell men's basketball team looked anything like the underdog, but Columbia was able to hold on for a 74-70 win on Jan. 16, 2016 at Levien Gymnasium.
• Freshman Matt Morgan scored a career-high 29 points to lead three double figure scorers, but it was a big shot by Maodo Lo, a few unlucky bounces late and its own turnovers that helped the Lions to the win.
• Lo hit a 3-pointer late in the shot clock to steady the home team before a furious late Cornell comeback fell short - but not without plenty of drama.
• Morgan hit 10-of-23 shots, including 5-of-13 from beyond the arc, and his energy and swagger kept Cornell within striking distance throughout.
• For the second straight game, junior Darryl Smith made all five of his field goal attempts as part of a 12-point day, while freshman Troy Whiteside scored a career-best 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out two assists while capturing his first collegiate start.
• Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof notched seven points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals, the latter three numbers all career highs.
• Junior JoJo Fallas had seven big points off the bench.
• Lo, who was limited to 3-of-13 shooting, ended the night with 13 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals.
• Alex Rosenberg scored a team-high 14 points off the bench, Jeff Coby had a double-double with 13 points and 11 boards and Kyle Castlin and Grant Mullins each scored 12 points.
• The Lions were limited to 37 percent shooting, but turned Cornell over 18 times and held a 41-33 rebounding edge.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Over his last seven contests, junior Robert Hatter is averaging 23.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game while hitting 16 3-pointers.
• Hatter has 57 assists this season and has tripled 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).
• No Cornell player is averaging 30 minutes per game, with Hatter averaging a team-high 29.9.
• Freshman Matt Morgan's 29 points against Columbia are the most by a Big Red player in an Ivy opener and the most by a Cornell freshman in an Ivy League debut.
• Over his last four contests, Morgan is averaging 21.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.5 steals while connecting on 14-of-40 3-pointers.
• 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 22 assists and 16 turnovers over his last 10 games, spanning 281 minutes of action.
• Darryl Smith enters the game having hit 11 consecutive field goals over three games and has connected on 48-of-73 shots (.658) in his last nine games.
• After going scoreless in the opener against Georgia Tech, Smith has reached double figures in eight of his 14 games and has averaged 9.9 points over that span, including hitting 11-of-20 from 3-point range (50 percent).
• David Onuorah became the sixth player in school history to reach 100 career blocks with one in the win at Howard.
• In the seven games that he has played at least 28 minutes, Onuorah is averaging 10.4 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game, while he is averaging 5.6 rebounds and has five total blocks in the other eight contests.
• Onuorah is averaging 8.3 rebounds over his last 14 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 11 of his 15 games this season.
• Onuorah is averaging 1.9 blocks over his last 12 games after blocking four shots total in his first three contests of the year.
• In his last two games, junior Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof is averaging 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals per contest to go along with 4.5 points and 2.5 assists.
• 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 eight contests, the Big Red is averaging 9.4 steals per contest.
• Cornell is averaging 5.2 blocks over its last five games.
• The Big Red is limiting foes to .404 shooting over its last seven games (174-of-431) after allowing opponents to shoot .454 in the first eight games (239-of-526).
• Cornell has forced 155 turnovers (17.2 per game) over its last nine games.
• Cornell has scored at least 76 points in regulation in eight of 15 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 nine of its 15 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 (12-5) in 2015-16 (13.2 ppg., 5.4 rpg., 1.0 bpg.), while Galal Cancer '15 (3.8 ppg., 2.4 rpg., 1.6 apg., 0.8 spg.) is suiting up for Kent State (12-5). Miller has started every game for UConn, while Cancer has been in the Golden Flashes' lineup in 11 of its 17 contests.
• 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 10 3-pointers at Columbia on Jan. 16, 2016, its 759th 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 805 of 809 games, connecting on 5,123 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 begins a four-game Ivy road swing with a trip to Harvard on Friday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m.
• Cornell will visit Dartmouth the following night for a 7 p.m. tip.