QUICK HITS• The Cornell men's basketball team, picked to finish eighth in the preseason Ivy League standings, looks for the season sweep against teams it enters the week tied with in the Ancient Eight rankings when Dartmouth and Harvard visit Newman Arena.
• Saturday's contest with Harvard will be available on the Ivy League Digital Network and simulcast on ESPN3 with Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor on the call.
• Leonard and Taylor will broadcast Friday night's game on 98.7 FM The Buzzer, while Saturday's contest will not be on local radio.
• A half-game out of fourth place, Cornell can jump into the conference's top half with a weekend sweep.
• The backcourt has been Cornell's strength, as freshman
Matt Morgan (18.9 ppg., 3.2 rpg., 2.0 apg., 1.5 spg.) and junior
Robert Hatter (18.2 ppg., 3.5 apg., 3.1 rpg., 1.3 spg.) are the league's two leading scorers.
• Hatter, the Ivy League's leading scorer, was averaging 23.3 points over his last seven games before missing the first four conference games of the season and ranks among the conference's top 10 in assists (fifth, 3.5) and steals (fifth, 1.3).
• Morgan, a four-time Ivy Rookie of the Week and one-time Ivy Player of the Week, is averaging 26.5 points in Ivy League play and is posting 18.9 points overall per night, the fourth-highest scoring freshman in the country (52nd overall).
• At 18.9 ppg., Morgan is posting the highest scoring average for an Ivy rookie in history (current leader Earl Hunt of Brown at 17.0 ppg. in 1999-2000).
• Juniors
Darryl Smith (8.6 ppg., 3.2 rpg.) and
JoJo Fallas (5.0ppg.) and freshman
Troy Whiteside (5.3 ppg., 2.2 rpg.) have also made an impact in the backcourt, while senior
Robert Mischler (1.5 ppg.) and junior
Desmond Fleming (2.2 ppg.) have also been part of the rotation.
• Smith is shooting 64 percent from the floor for the season and has hit 32-of-44 field goals over his last 10 games (.727). He would rank ninth nationally in field goal percentage (.640) with enough attempts (would be only player 6-3 or shorter in the top 50).
• Junior center
David Onuorah (5.5 ppg., 7.5 rpg., 1.6 bpg.) has been one of the most improved players in the Ivy League, while sophomores
Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (4.1 ppg., 3.4 rpg.) and
Wil Bathurst (4.2 ppg., 2.5 rpg.) and freshmen
Stone Gettings (2.1 ppg., 1.9 rpg.) and
Joel Davis (2.4 ppg., 1.7 rpg.) have been frontcourt staples.
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• Cornell head coach
Bill Courtney is in his sixth season at Cornell (59-108, .353; 26-52 Ivy, .333).
• Courtney became the fifth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on April 23, 2010.
A WIN OVER DARTMOUTH WOULD ...• make Cornell 10-13 on the season, including 5-5 at Newman Arena.
• push its Ivy League record to 3-6 on the season.
• snap a five-game home losing skid.
• complete the first season sweep over Dartmouth since the 2011-12 campaign.
• be the 1,234th in program history (1,233-1,382 in 117 seasons, .472).
ABOUT DARTMOUTH• Dartmouth enters the weekend with an 8-14 overall record and a 2-6 Ivy League mark after splitting at home with Yale (65-75) and Brown (87-70) last weekend.
• Dartmouth is 1-9 on the road this season, including 0-3 in league play.
• Freshman forward Evan Boudreaux leads Dartmouth by averaging 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds to lead three double figure scorers.
• Miles Wright (11.5 ppg., 4.4 rpg., 1.1 spg.) and Connor Boehm (10.5 ppg., 5.3 rpg., 2.0 apg.) are also scoring in double figures.
• Opponents are shooting 46 percent from the floor against Dartmouth, but the Big Green are outrebounding opponents by 3.0 per game and are forcing nearly 15 turnovers per game.
• In his second stint as head coach of the Big Green, Paul Cormier has a 140-207 record and is looking for his fourth straight season increasing the team's win totals.
• Dartmouth finished fourth in the Ancient Eight a year ago and earned a big to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
THE SERIES• Cornell took a 106-105 lead earlier this year in a series that dates back to the 1900-01 campaign.
• Cornell has had the best of the series recently, having won 20 of the last 25 meetings.
• The two teams have split the season series in each of the previous the last three years.
LAST TIME VS. DARTMOUTH• Trailing by nine at the final media timeout, Cornell went on a 16-3 run to end the game and sweep the New England road trip for the first time since 2010 after a 77-73 victory over Dartmouth on Jan. 30, 2016 at Leede Arena.
• For the second straight night, freshman
Matt Morgan posted a 30 point game, ending the night with 32 to go along with two blocks and a rebound.
• He finished 17-of-23 from the free-throw line, the third-most attempted in a game in school history and the fourth-most made.
• Morgan became the first Big Red freshman to score 30 points twice in a season and the first Big Red player to score at least 32 points in consecutive games ever.
• Junior
Darryl Smith added 13 points, four rebounds and three assists and classmate
JoJo Fallas had nine points and two steals.
• Freshman
Troy Whiteside had eight points,
David Onuorah (seven) and
Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (six) combined for 13 rebounds and three steals and the Big Red overcame 25 percent shooting from the floor after halftime.
• Cornell's never say die attitude was personified by senior captain
Robert Mischler, who hit a pair of first half 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer to send the visitors into the break up six.
• Dartmouth freshman Evan Boudreaux had 24 points and 16 rebounds and Connor Boehm hit 8-of-10 shots on his way to 22 points.
• The Big Green outrebounded the Big Red 39-30 and overcame the halftime deficit to take a 12-point second half lead before watching Cornell rally late.
ABOUT HARVARD• Harvard enters the weekend with a 10-14 record (2-6 Ivy) after splitting at home with Brown (79-73) and Ivy leader Yale (55-67).
• Junior Zeno Edosomwan is averaging 14.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 blocks per game and ranks among the nation's most improved players.
• Six other players are averaging between 6.6 and 9.3 points per game, including Agunwa Okolie (9.3 ppg., 5.4 rpg.) and Corey Johnson (9.3 ppg., 2.6 rpg.).
• The Crimson is allowing opponents to shoot just .404 from the floor and .292 from 3-point range while connecting on 38 percent from beyond the arc itself.
• Harvard has posted a 149-57 (.723) overall record since the start of the 2009-10 season.
• Head coach Tommy Amaker is approaching becoming Harvard's all-time winningest men's hoops coach with his 171 victories, just eight behind Frank Sullivan. He has guided the Crimson to five straight Ivy titles and four consecutive NCAA tournaments.
THE SERIES• Cornell leads the series 92-77 dating back to the first meeting between the teams in the 1901-02 season.
• Harvard has a narrow is 14-13 in the last 27 contests thanks to nine consecutive wins, a streak that was snapped in the last meeting, a 57-49 Big Red win in Ithaca on Feb. 27, 2015.
• The Big Red has now won consecutive contests against the Crimson after a 77-65 victory in Cambridge, Mass. earlier this year.
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LAST TIME VS. HARVARD
• Cornell freshman
Matt Morgan scored a school freshman record 33 points and junior
Darryl Smith joined him in making a number of key plays down the stretch, but it was an unlikely hero whose first career 3-pointer after 75 games sent the Big Red home with a 77-65 win over five-time defending Ivy champion Harvard at Lavietes Pavilion on Jan. 29, 2016.
• Junior center
David Onuorah's first points of the night came on an unlikely 3-pointer, beating the buzzer from the left wing after an inbounds pass found the only open Big Red player with just under two minutes to play, pushing a tenuous two-point Big Red edge to five and highlighting a game-ending 13-0 run.
• Morgan hit 8-of-19 shots from the floor overall, including 5-of-12 from 3-point range, and connected on 12-of-13 free throws while adding five rebounds, three assists, three steals and no turnovers in 37 minutes of action.
• Smith chipped in 12 points with seven rebounds, two steals and a pair of blocked shots.
• Freshman
Troy Whiteside had nine points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals and
JoJo Fallas notched six points and four boards.
• In all, Cornell turned the ball over just nine times, forced 15 turnovers and hit 10 3-pointers against the bigger Crimson.
• Zena Edosomwan had 24 points, 10 rebounds and a pair of blocks to go with an assortment of powerful dunks.
• Tommy McCarthy chipped in with 16 points, eight assists and six rebounds, but also was charged with six turnovers.
• Corey Johnson had 15 points and eight boards, as only five different players scored for the Crimson.
• Harvard dominated the glass (51-34) and had a 42-20 scoring edge in the paint, but were limited to 5-of-19 shooting from beyond the arc and made just 6-of-17 free throws.
LAST TIME OUT• Jackson Donahue scored 25 points, Matt Howard had 20 and Darien Nelson-Henry had 15 points, 16 rebounds and six assists and Penn used a 56-point second half to hold off Cornell 92-84 on Feb. 13 at Newman Arena.
• The Quakers shot 63 percent after halftime and connected on 5-of-9 3-pointers after the break, outrebounded Cornell 45-32 for the game and was +15 at the free-throw line.
• Freshman
Matt Morgan continued his torrid scoring pace with a game-high 28 points to go along with four assists and three rebounds, while
Robert Hatter chipped in 21 points, four rebounds and four assists.
•
JoJo Fallas nailed all four of his 3-point attempts on his way to a 16-point, four-assist night.
•
Troy Whiteside had nine points and five rebounds and
David Onuorah ripped down nine rebounds.
• The Big Red connected on 12 3-pointers, including 10 after halftime, and had 16 assists to just 11 turnovers in the contest.
• The game featured the return to the sidelines of Quakers coach Steve Donahue, who directed the Big Red for 10 seasons (2000-10) and guided the program to three Ivy titles and the 2010 NCAA Sweet 16.
PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW• Freshman
Matt Morgan has scored at least 19 points in nine of his last 10 contests.
• The four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week is averaging 25.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.5 blocks while shooting 44/37/79 in Ivy League play.
• Morgan's 29 points against Columbia were the most by a Big Red player in an Ivy opener and the most by a Cornell freshman in an Ivy League debut.
• His 33-point night at Harvard bested the school's freshman single-game scoring record.
• Over his last 11 contests, Morgan is averaging 23.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals while connecting on 36-of-100 3-pointers.
• Morgan has led the Big Red in scoring in eight straight contests, while
David Onuorah has paced the team in rebounding in six of the last seven games.
• Morgan enters the weekend 40 points away from breaking Ryan Wittman's freshman scoring record of 436 points, a mark that would also push him into the top 20 in single-season scoring at Cornell.
• Morgan has hit four or more 3-pointers in a game eight times so far this season.
• 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).
• Over his last seven contests before his injury, junior
Robert Hatter was averaging 23.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game while hitting 16 3-pointers.
• Hatter has 63 assists this season and has more than 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).
•
Darryl Smith had a span of 14 consecutive field goals to start Ivy League play and has connected on 69-of-106 shots (.651) in his last 16 games.
•
David Onuorah became the sixth player in school history to reach 100 career blocks with one in the win at Howard and now has 108 for his career.
• In the nine games that he has played at least 28 minutes, Onuorah is averaging 10.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, while he is averaging 5.7 rebounds and has 12 total blocks in the other 13 contests.
• 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.
• Senior captain
Robert Mischler enters the weekend having connected on six consecutive 3-point attempts over his last five games.
• Three different players (
JoJo Fallas,
Robert Hatter,
Darryl Smith) have had games where they hit 4-of-4 3-pointers, tied for the second-most makes from beyond the arc in a game without a miss in Cornell history.
• Junior
Desmond Fleming is shooting .706 from the floor for the season (12-of-17).
• After scoring eight or more points just twice inthe team's first 14 games, freshman
Troy Whiteside has hit that mark five times in eight league games.
• 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.
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TEAM NOTES TO KNOW• During Cornell's four-game losing streak, opponents are shooting .475 from the floor (114-240) and .429 from 3-point range (39-91) and outrebounding the Big Red by 17.3 per game.
• The sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth on the road was the first for a Big Red team since knocking off Brown and Yale during the 2012-13 campaign.
• With 85 blocked shots, Cornell needs three more to join the top 10 in a season in school history.
• Cornell also needs five more 3-pointers to jump into Cornell's top 10 in the season list and 13 to hit 200 in a year for the fourth time in
Bill Courtney's six seasons as head coach.
• Cornell is averaging 4.6 blocks over its last 12 games.
• The Big Red has forced 253 turnovers (15.8 per game) over its last 16 games.
• The Big Red is averaging 10.7 turnovers per game over the last six after averaging 14.6 miscues over the team's first 16 matchups.
• Cornell has scored at least 76 points in regulation in 12 of its 22 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 half of its 22 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 (18-7) in 2015-16 (13.4 ppg., 5.6 rpg., 1.0 bpg., 0.9 spg.), while
Galal Cancer '15 (4.9 ppg., 2.5 rpg., 1.4 apg., 0.9 spg.) is suiting up for Kent State (16-8). Miller has started every game and is the leading scorer and second-leading rebounder for UConn, while Cancer has been in the Golden Flashes' lineup in 13 of its 24 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's eight freshman is the second-most of any Division I program (Bradley - 10).
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.
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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.
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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.
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CORNELL BEYOND THE ARC - 700 AND COUNTING• Cornell hit 12 3-pointers vs. Penn on Feb. 13, 2016, its 766th 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 812 of 816 games, connecting on 5,179 treys, an average of 6.3 per game.
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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.
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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.
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NEXT UP• The Big Red closes out its regular season road schedule when it visits Penn (Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.) and Princeton (Saturday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.).
• Both contests will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.
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