QUICK HITS
• The Cornell men's basketball team will kick off the 2016-17 season, the first under head coach Brian Earl, with a New York road trip that includes road games at Binghamton and Siena this weekend.
• The Big Red will tip off the season at Binghamton on Friday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m., then head to square off with Siena on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m.
• Earl, one of the greatest players in Princeton basketball history, served as assistant and associate head coach at his alma mater and helped his program to a 143-69 overall mark, a 72-26 league mark and five postseason appearances since the 2009-10 season.
• Cornell head coaches are 11-10 in their coaching debuts on the Big Red sidelines.
• The first-year head coach inherits a squad that includes an All-Ivy League backcourt in sophomore Matt Morgan (18.9 ppg., 3.1 rpg., 2.0 apg., 1.4 spg.) and senior Robert Hatter (17.1 ppg., 3.5 apg., 3.2 rpg., 1.2 spg.), the first- and third-leading scorers in the Ancient Eight, the conference's leading field goal percentage shooter in senior Darryl Smith (9.1 ppg., 3.4 rpg., 1.2 spg.) and defensive anchor David Onuorah (5.0 ppg., 6.8 rpg., 1.6 bpg.).
• Morgan was the nation's fifth-leading freshman scorer in the country a year ago (54th overall) and broke the conference's rookie scoring record.
• Sharp-shooting senior guard JoJo Fallas (5.0 ppg., 1.4 rpg., 1.0 apg.), starting forward Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (4.0 ppg., 3.3 rpg.) and key rotation players Troy Whiteside (4.8 ppg., 2.1 rpg.), Wil Bathurst (3.8 ppg., 2.4 rpg.), Joel Davis (2.7 ppg., 1.7 rpg.), Stone Gettings (2.1 ppg., 1.8 rpg.) and Desmond Fleming (1.6 ppg.) will try to help Cornell improve over last year's 10-18 campaign.
• In all, the Big Red returns better than 97 percent of its minutes, points, rebounds and assists from last season.
• Cornell enjoyed a 10-day foreign trip to Spain in August, going 3-0 and getting a chance to bond with its new coaching staff.
• A pair of sophomores played big roles during the team's trip to Spain, with Gettings (9.3 ppg., 4.3 rpg., 3.3 apg. in Spain) and Whiteside (7.0 ppg., 5.3 rpg.,) showing that they likely will play more significant roles in the lineup in 2016-17.
• Cornell played outstanding defense throughout its three-game foreign tour, holding opponents to 61.3 ppg. while shooting 30 percent from the floor and 25 percent from the 3-point arc.
• The Big Red led the Ancient Eight and was 31st nationally in steals per game a year ago (7.8 spg.) and 39th in turnovers forced (14.7 tpg.).
• The pair of early road games is representative of this year's schedule, with 17 games away from home and more than 12,700 miles of travel —more than halfway around the earth (circumference of 24,901 miles).
• Including the Big Red's August trip to Spain and Cornell basketball will log more than 21,000 miles of travel in just eight months.
• You could travel back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles three times and still have enough mileage left over to cycle to entire Tour de France course – twice.
• The Big Red defeated both Binghamton (76-59) and Siena (81-80) at home a season ago as part of a 7-7 non-conference season.
• The matchups with the Big Red will be the season opener for both opposing teams.
  • Cornell head coach Brian Earl is in his first season at Cornell (0-0, .000; 0-0 Ivy, .000).
• Earl became the sixth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on April 18, 2016.

ABOUT BINGHAMTON
• Binghamton returns all five starters and 12 letter winners from last season's 8-22 squad that placed sixth in the America East with a 5-11 mark.
• Third-team All-America East selection Willie Rodriguez (15.1 ppg., 6.7 rpg.), a junior forward, is the lone double figure scorer returning, with senior guard Marlon Beck (9.8 ppg., 2.7 rpg., 73 3-pointers) and sophomore guard Emerson Davis (9.4 ppg., 4.2 rpg., 2.5 apg.) weren't far behind.
• The Bearcats will also welcome sophomore transfer guard JC Show from Bucknell, who averaged 6.7 points per game for the Bison in 2014-15.
• The Bearcats closed out last season with a 3-3 mark in its final six games.
• Binghamton allowed opponents to shoot just .435 from the floor and .337 from 3-point range while allowing just 68.6 ppg.
• Fifth-year head coach Tommy Dempsey enters the season with 231 wins in his 14 seasons as a head coach.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads the all-time series 8-3 after last season's 76-59 triumph in Ithaca.
• The two teams first met in 1988 and have squared off every season since 2010-11.
• Cornell is 6-1 in games played in Ithaca and 2-2 on the road, including consecutive wins (2012, 2014) at the Events Center.
• The Big Red has won two straight and four of the last five meetings between the programs.
  • 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 on Nov. 18, 2015.
• 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.


  • Cornell is 21-25 all-time against current members of the America East, including 8-3 against Binghamton.
• The Big Red has also faced Albany (2-4), 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.

A WIN OVER BINGHAMTON WOULD ...
• give head coach Brian Earl his first win as a collegiate head coach.
• give the Big Red a season-opening win on the road for the first time since dropping George Mason 68-60 in 2014.
• extend the Big Red's win streak in the series to three.
• be the third straight win for Cornell over Binghamton in Vestal.
• be the 1,235th in program history (1,234-1,387 in 117 seasons, .471).

ABOUT SIENA
• Siena returns its top-five scorers from last year's team that went 21-13 and advanced to the College Basketball Invitational.
• Senior Brett Bisping (15.9 ppg., 10.4 rpg.) averaged a double-double a season ago and was one of five players to average double figures.
• Javion Ogunyemi (14.9 ppg., 6.1 rpg.), Marquis Wright (14.5 ppg., 4.9 apg., 4.4 rpg.), Nico Clareth (13.1 ppg., 3.2 rpg.) and Lavon Long (10.6 ppg., 5.5 rpg., 3.3 apg.) also return.
• The Saints were 13-7 in the MAAC and an impressive 13-4 at home overall.
• Siena's strength was on the boards a season ago, outrebounding foes by 7.8 boards per game.
• Fourth-year head coach Jimmy Patsos has helped the Saints to a pair of postseason appearances and a 52-51 overall mark on the Siena sideline.
• Patsos has a 13-year head coaching record of 197-186.

THE SERIES
• The all-time series is tied 3-3.
• The two teams met for the first time in 1985 with Siena earning a 70-55 decision in the finals of the Siena Invitational.
• The Big Red then took a meeting during the 2007-08 campaign, an 83-77 triumph over the Saints.
• Siena won two straight meetings, but Cornell has now won consecutive games, including last season's comeback 81-80 victory in Ithaca.
  • Junior Robert Hatter scored 28 of his game-high 32 points in the second half as the Big Red erased a 14-point deficit to knock off Siena 81-80 at Newman Arena.
• Hatter had five points in the final minute, including the game-tying 3-pointer with 53 seconds left and the go-ahead free throw 25 seconds later.
• The Big Red trailed by 14 two minutes into the second half, 10 with 9:26 to play and six with 2:20 left, but rallied each time despite watching Siena make shot after shot.
• The Saints hit 6-of-8 3-pointers in the second half to continually deflate the Big Red defense, but Hatter answered the bell each time.
• The junior hit 10-of-20 shots from the floor, including all four 3-pointers, and connected on 8-of-11 free throws to go along with six assists, three rebounds and three steals, including one on Siena's last possession that allowed classmate Darryl Smith to get fouled and nail a pair of free throws to salt the game away.
• Freshman Matt Morgan had 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Darryl Smith had 12 points, two rebounds and two steals.
• Junior David Onuorah was a force down low with nine points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in the win.
• Cornell scored 50 points after halftime, hit 10-of-22 3-pointers and turned the ball over just twice after the break to rally for the win.
• Siena's Brett Bisping had 16 points and 18 rebounds and Marquis Wright had 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, but both fouled out in the final minute.
• The Saints also got 17 points from Javion Ogunyemi, 13 points off the bench from Ryan Oliver and 11 points, six assists and five rebounds from Lavon Long.
• The Saints connected on 8-of-16 3-pointers, including the 6-of-8 performance in the second half.


  • Cornell is 65-55 all-time against current members of the MAAC, including 3-3 against Siena.
• The Big Red has also played Canisius (26-18), Fairfield (0-2), Iona (0-2), Manhattan (1-1), Marist (2-3), Monmouth (0-1), Niagara (27-20), Quinnipiac (2-2), Rider (3-0) and Saint Peter's (1-3).
• This is the first of games Cornell will play against MAAC opponents this season, as the Big Red will also visit Monmouth on Nov. 22.

LAST TIME OUT
• Matt Morgan and his teammates did all they could to send Robert Mischler out with a win in his final collegiate game, and the senior captain did his part too.
• Cornell used all the emotions of Senior Day to hold off Brown 75-71 on March 5, 2016 at Newman Arena.
• Morgan scored 25 points, becoming the first Ivy League freshman to reach the 500-point plateau for a season and added four rebounds, four assists, a block and a key late steal that sealed the victory.
• Darryl Smith, who broke a 52-year old single-season school record for shooting percentage (.649), added 13 points, four rebounds and two steals and Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof and JoJo Fallas each had eight points.
• Robert Hatter had a strong all-around floor game with seven points, seven assists, four rebounds, three steals and just two turnovers.
• But it was the six points, one rebound and one steal in Mischler's second career start that got Cornell's competitive juices flowing, especially after a slow start that saw the home team fall behind 9-0 less than four minutes into the contest.
• It was Mischler's 3-pointer that got the Big Red on the board and breathed life into a team that would collect nine steals, block six shots and limit its turnovers (eight) while hitting half its shots from beyond the arc (9-of-18).
• Brown placed all five starters in double figures with Cedric Kuakumensah scoring 21 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking three shots.



SEASON OPENERS
• Cornell will attempt to build on its 75-42 all-time record in 117 previous season openers.
• The Big Red is 8-3 over the last 11 years, including six straight wins from 2005-2010.
• Cornell is 9-7 to open seasons in the 21st century with wins over Northwestern (2006-07), Alabama (2009-10) and George Mason (2014-15) in guarantee games.
• The Big Red is 28-32 in openers since Ivy play began in 1956-57.
• Cornell dropped its opener a season ago, falling 116-81 at Georgia Tech.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Matt Morgan, a four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, averaged 22.6 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.3 blocks while shooting 43/34/81 in Ivy League play.
• Morgan set a Big Red freshman season scoring record with his 27-point effort against Harvard, surpassing Ryan Wittman '10 (436) with 439 total points and finished with 510 points, the eighth 500-point season in school history.
• His 33-point night at Harvard a season ago bested the school's freshman single-game scoring record.
• 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 Big Red 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).
• Junior Robert Hatter had three 30-point games last season, the most by any Cornell player since Ken Bantum also had three during the 1984-85 campaign.
• Hatter has 85 assists last season, more than quadrupling his total of 19 assists during the entire 2014-15 season when he played off the ball.
• Darryl Smith had a span of 14 consecutive field goals to start Ivy League play and connected on 66-of-94 shots (.702) in his final 17 games.
• Smith was 9-of-13 from 3-point range over his final seven contests of 2015-16.
• David Onuorah became the sixth player in school history to reach 100 career blocks and enters his senior season with 118.
• Onuorah was one of two Ivy League student-athletes (Harvard skiier Maile Sapp was the other) chosen to represent the conference at the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Phoenix, Arizona this past April.
• Senior JoJo Fallas competed for Team USA at the 14th European Maccabi Games in Berlin, Germany from July 27-August 5, 2015. 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 his 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.
• Fifth-year 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 returns better than 97 percent of its minutes, points, rebounds and assists from last season.
 
TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• Fourth-year assistant coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Members of the Cornell basketball team represent 10 states and one Canadian province.
• Cornell has played in 46 different states, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia, France and Spain. The only states the Big Red has not played in are Alaska, North Dakota, Mississippi and Wyoming - and the Big Red will cross Wyoming off the list for state 47 when it visits the Cowboys on Dec. 17 as part of the Las Vegas Invitational.
• This year's schedule features 17 games away from home and more than 12,700 miles of travel —more than halfway around the earth (circumference of 24,901 miles).
• Including the Big Red's August trip to Spain and Cornell basketball will log more than 21,000 miles of travel in just eight months.
• You could travel back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles three times and still have enough mileage left over to cycle to entire Tour de France course – twice.
• Cornell hit 233 3-pointers as a team last season, good for fourth in a single season — nine of the last 10 seasons rank in the top 10.
• The Big Red ranked in the top 10 in both steals (fifth, 217).

CORNELL SEVENTH IN IVY PRESEASON POLL
• The Cornell men's basketball team, under the direction of first-year coach Brian Earl, was picked seventh in the 2016-17 Ivy League media preseason poll.
• The media poll was made up up 17 voters - two from media covering each of the conference's eight schools and one from a national media member.
• Princeton was picked first with 12 first place votes and 130 points, while Harvard was a close second with five first place votes and 123 points.
• Defending champion Yale was slotted third (101) and Penn was picked fourth (72). Rounding out the field was Columbia (61), Dartmouth (48), the Big Red (42) and Brown (35).
• Cornell was picked to finish eighth two seasons in a row only to finish fifth and sixth, respectively.
• For a third straight season, the Big Red is expecting to upset the preseason rankings.
• Finishing fourth would give Cornell a spot in the first-ever Ivy League men's basketball tournament, and it has the weapons to challenge for a spot to compete for the automatic NCAA bid.
 
RED-WHITE GAME
• The Red team led wire-to-wire behind 20 points from sophomore Matt Morgan and 14 from classmate Donovan Wright for a 57-46 win over the White team at the annual Red-White Scrimmage on Saturday, Oct. 22 at Newman Arena.
• Morgan added three rebounds, three assists and two steals in the contest, while freshman Josh Warren had six points, six rebounds and four assists.
• Junior Wil Bathurst chipped in six points, four rebounds and three assists for the winning team, which had 13 assists to just four turnovers and made 7-of-16 3-pointers.
• Sophomore Stone Gettings (16 points, four rebounds) and senior Robert Hatter (15 points) led the White team.
• JoJo Fallas added nine points, five rebounds and two assists and senior David Onuorah had four points and a game-high nine rebounds.
• The intrasquad scrimmage was comprised of two 12-minute halves.

HOW TO FOLLOW CORNELL
• There are numerous ways to follow the Big Red through the 2016-17 basketball season.
• Men's basketball games will be broadcast on 96.3 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 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.
• 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 2014-15 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 eight times in the 11 years since the APR began, including six consecutive years.
 
CORNELL BEYOND THE ARC - 700 AND COUNTING
• Cornell hit nine 3-pointers vs. Brown on March 5, 2016, its 772nd 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 818 of 822 games, connecting on 5,225 treys, an average of 6.4 per game.
 
CORNELL IN OVERTIME
• 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.
 
BIG RED HOOPS ENJOYS FOREIGN TRIP TO SPAIN
• Cornell University has one of the broadest reaches of any educational institution in the world, and that reach was evident when the men's basketball team made a goodwill tour of Spain in August.
• First year head coach Brian Earl and his staff had their first extended opportunity to work with the team when it took a 10-day trip overseas that included three contests.
• Starting with a five-day training camp in Ithaca prior to leaving, the team visited Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona prior to the new semester beginning.
• The Big Red enjoyed time in all three cities, visiting the Royal Palace of Madrid, attending a Barcelona soccer match, and touring the country's former capital of Toledo as well as the Valencia bullfighting museum.
• Seventeen players and eight staff members in total made the trip to Europe.
• The Big Red went 3-0 on the trip, defeating Eurocolegio Casvi 67-52 in Madrid, Valencia Select 69-63 and Sant Julia Select 72-69 in Barcelona.
• With minutes nearly evenly split among the 13 players who saw action on the trip, rising sophomore Matt Morgan led the team in scoring (14.0 ppg.), rebounding (7.0 rpg.) and steals (1.7 spg.), while senior Robert Hatter (13.3 ppg., 6.7 rpg., 3.7 apg.) also filled the stat sheet.
• Sophomores Stone Gettings (9.3 ppg., 4.3 rpg., 3.3 apg.) and Troy Whiteside (7.0 ppg., 5.3 rpg., 1.7 apg.) ranked third and fourth among the team's top scorers.
• Defensively, the Big Red allowed its three opponents to shoot just 30 percent from the floor, 25 percent from 3-point range and outrebounded opponents by 7.7 boards per game.
• Cornell has previously made foreign trips to play in places like Cuba and Australia, with the last escape coming in the spring of 2007 when the Big Red visited France.

MILLER '15 SPENDS SUMMER WITH UTAH JAZZ
• Former Cornell All-Ivy forward Shonn Miller '15 signed an NBA summer league deal to play for the Utah Jazz's entry in the Salt Lake City Summer League.
• He averaged 2.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in five games for the Jazz, including an eight-point, five-rebound performance in a win over the Portland TrailBlazers.
•Miller ranked second in the Ivy League in scoring (16.8 ppg.), rebounding (8.5 rpg.) and free-throw percentage (.834) and among the top 10 in blocks (fourth, 1.8) and steals (eighth, 1.3) en route to earning unanimous first-team all-league and second-team NABC all-district honors as a senior in 2014-15.
• He was one of 26 finalists for the Lefty Driesell Award as the nation's Defensive Player of the Year.
• he became the first Cornellian and fifth Ivy player to record 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, 100 blocks and 100 steals in a career.
• He sits in the top 20 all-time in scoring (19th, 1,065), rebounding (14th, 608), steals (11th, 126), blocked shots (fourth, 154), free throws made (13th, 266) and free-throw percentage (18th. .785).
• Following his graduation, Miller played one season at the University of Connecticut as a graduate transfer, earning American Athletic Conference honorable mention accolades.
 
NEXT UP
• The Big Red will make its home debut against Colgate on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in Newman Arena.
• The Big Red knocked off Colgate 101-98 in double overtime as Robert Hatter netted 33 in the win.