QUICK HITS
• With one weekend remaining, the Cornell basketball team will try and springboard into the offseason with momentum for one of the nation's youngest teams when Yale and Brown come to town.
• The Big Red will look to knock the Bulldogs out of first place in the Ivy League when the two teams meet on national television on Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m., then celebrates captain Robert Mischler on Senior Day when Cornell welcomes the Bears on Saturday, March 5 at 6 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• Friday night's game against the Bulldogs will be televised by the American Sports Network, with Carl Reuter and Tim Scarborough providing the call.
• Both contests will be available on the Ivy League Digital Network, with Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor also on the radio call on 98.7 FM The Buzzer.
• The backcourt has been Cornell's strength, as freshman Matt Morgan (18.9 ppg., 3.1 rpg., 1.8 apg., 1.4 spg.) and junior Robert Hatter (17.9 ppg., 3.4 apg., 3.3 rpg., 1.1 spg.) are the league's top two leading scorers.
• Morgan, a five-time Ivy Rookie of the Week and one-time Ivy Player of the Week, is averaging 23.3 points in Ivy League play - 3.6 ppg. more than second place Evan Boudreaux of Dartmouth (19.7 ppg.).
• Morgan became the Ivy League's all-time freshman scoring leader last weekend and enters the final weekend of the season 27 points shy of recording Cornell's eighth 500-point season in more than 100 years of Big Red basketball.
• At 18.9 ppg., Morgan's scoring average for an Ivy rookie is the highest in conference history (current leader Earl Hunt of Brown at 17.0 ppg. in 1999-2000). He enters the week ranked sixth among all rookies across the country and 52nd overall among all players.
• Juniors Darryl Smith (8.8 ppg., 3.4 rpg., 1.3 apg., 1.2 spg.) and JoJo Fallas (5.0 ppg., 1.3 rpg., 1.0 apg., 0.7 spg.) and freshman Troy Whiteside (5.1 ppg., 2.2 rpg., 1.0 apg., 0.8 spg.) have also made an impact in the backcourt, while senior Robert Mischler (1.2 ppg.) and junior Desmond Fleming (1.7 ppg.) have also been part of the rotation.
• Smith is shooting 64 percent from the floor for the season and has hit 56-of-81 field goals over his last 15 games (.691). He would rank 10th nationally in field goal percentage with enough attempts (would be only player 6-3 or shorter in the top 60).
• Smith's .638 field goal percentage is tied for first on Cornell's single-season list, just behind James Maglisceau's .638 in 1963-64 - 52 years ago.
• Junior center David Onuorah (5.0 ppg., 7.0 rpg., 1.6 bpg.) has been one of the most improved players in the Ivy League, while sophomores Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof (4.0 ppg., 3.4 rpg.) and Wil Bathurst (3.8 ppg., 2.5 rpg.) and freshmen Stone Gettings (2.1 ppg., 1.8 rpg.) and Joel Davis (2.8 ppg., 1.7 rpg.) have been frontcourt staples.
• Cornell is looking to reverse a number of trends that have led to its eight-game skid - opponents are shooting .453 from the floor (214-472) and .373 from 3-point range (66-177) and outrebounding the Big Red by 13.9 per game.
 • Cornell head coach Bill Courtney is in his sixth season at Cornell (59-112, .345; 26-56 Ivy, .317).
• Courtney became the fifth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on April 23, 2010.

ABOUT YALE
• Yale sits in first place in the Ancient Eight at 20-6 (11-1 Ivy) and has won 15 of its last 16 and three in a row since its only league loss at Princeton, 75-63.
• The Bulldogs are 9-6 on the road this season, though it is 4-1 in league play.
• Justin Sears (16.7 ppg., 7.4 rpg., 2.7 apg., 1.8 bpg.), Makai Mason (15.7 ppg., 3.8 apg., 2.6 rpg.,),  and Brandon Sherrod (12.2 ppg.,  7.0 rpg., 1.2 apg.) are all scoring in double figures.
• Yale is limiting opponents to 41 percent shooting and 32 percent from beyond the arc while pounding teams on the backboards (+10.8 per game).
• Offensively, Yale shoots 47 percent from the floor and 49 percent in Ivy play.
• Head coach James Jones, the dean of Ivy League coaches, has won two conference titles in his 17 seasons directing the Bulldogs with a 251-238 record (139-97 Ivy League).

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ...
• make Cornell 10-17 on the season.
• push its Ivy League record to 3-10 on the year.
• snap an eight-game losing skid.
• end the Bulldogs' six-game win streak in the series.
• be the 1,234th in program history (1,233-1,386 in 117 seasons, .471).

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads 110-109 overall in a series that dates back to the 1898-99 campaign.
• Cornell has a narrow edge over the last 11 seasons, winning 11 of the last 21 meetings.
• Yale, though, has had the better recently, winning seven of the last eight meetings between the teams.
 • Yale's dominance on the glass and balanced offense kept it unbeaten, controlling Cornell throughout en route to an 83-52 victory on Feb. 6, 2016 at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
• The Bulldogs won the rebounding battle 56-22 and nearly matched the Big Red's total rebounds with its 20 offensive boards and outscored the visitors 22-1 on second chance points.
• Four Yale players had at least seven rebounds and five reached double figures in scoring.
• The home team seemingly did everything right all night, shooting 59 percent in the first 20 minutes and connecting on 12-of-23 3-pointers in total, leading from wire-to-wire and by as many as 39 points.
• Cornell freshman Matt Morgan continued his impressive campaign with a game-high 20 points, including 5-of-10 3-pointers, but he was the lone Big Red player to reach double figures.
• David Onuorah had three points, seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal and Desmond Fleming had eight points off the bench.
• Yale was led by Jack Montague's 16 points, while reigning Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears had 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
• Brandon Sherrod (10 points, seven rebounds, three assists), Makai Mason (10 points, three rebounds) and Sam Downey (10 points, eight rebounds) also hit double figures for the Bulldogs.
• Yale controlled the game in every phase in the first half, shooting 59 percent from the floor and connecting on 6-of-13 3-pointers.
• When it missed, it was on the offensive glass - of its 13 missed shots, the Bulldogs collected nine offensive boards.



ABOUT BROWN
• Brown enters the weekend with an 8-18 overall record (3-9 Ivy), including 1-12 away from home.
• The Bears have been led by senior Cedric Kuakumensah, the Ivy League's all-time leader in blocked shots (304), who is averaging 13.9 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per night.
• Tavon Blackman (13.3 ppg., 5.5 apg., 2.3 rpg., 1.2 spg.) and Steven Spieth (11.1 ppg., 7.1 rpg., 3.5 apg.) are also averaging double figures, while Obi Okolie (9.4 ppg., 4.3 rpg.) and JR Hobbie (8.3 ppg.) aren't far behind.
• The Bears are scoring 73.3 points per game and shooting 35 percent from beyond the arc while hitting 8.1 3-pointers per game.
• Brown is surrendering 79.7 points per game and 46 percent shooting in Ivy League games.
• Fourth-year head coach Mike Martin has guided his alma mater to a 49-65 record and directed the 2013-14 team to a spot in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

THE SERIES
• Cornell leads the series 74-50 dating back to the first meeting between the teams in the 1949-50 season.
• The Big Red is 17-6 in the last 23 contests against the Bears.
• Brown ended Cornell's 13-game win streak in the series in March of 2014 and has won four of five since.
 • Freshman Matt Morgan and junior Robert Hatter each had 19 points and junior David Onuorah posted his first career double-double, but Brown snapped Cornell's two-game league road win streak with an 86-80 victory on Friday evening at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
• Morgan added five rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Hatter had a pair of rebounds, and assist and a steal in his first game back after missing the last three weeks due to injury.
• Onuorah was a presence all night with 11 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high four steals, while sophomore Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof had a career-best 14 points and Darryl Smith chipped in 13 points with eight boards.
• The Big Red hit just 9-of-31 from beyond the arc and connected on 11-of-20 free throws, while Brown hit 47 percent from the floor overall and from beyond the arc, while connecting on 21-of-24 free throws.
• The Big Red had 12 steals and forced 16 turnovers, but were outrebounded 48-38.
• Cedric Kuakumensah had 16 points and 12 rebounds with three blocked shots and Steven Spieth scored 16 points with nine boards and five assists to lead four Brown double figure scorers.
• JR Hobbie hit five of Brown's nine 3-pointers en route to 15 points and Tavon Blackmon notched 14 points, five assists and four rebounds.



LAST TIME OUT
• Matt Morgan scored 20 points on his way to breaking the Ivy League freshman scoring record, but a Princeton run to start the second half silenced Cornell in a 74-60 Tiger victory on Feb. 27 at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• Needing eight points on the night to surpass the record of 460 points by Earl Hunt on Brown in 1999-2000, Morgan netted 20 - 14 after halftime - to end the night with 473 points on the year with two games remaining.
• The record-breaking basket came on a driving layup with 7:24 remaining in the second half.
• He added two rebounds and an assist while hitting three 3-pointers, all coming within a two-minute stretch late in the contest.
• Junior Robert Hatter had 18 points, two rebounds and two assists and almost singlehandedly kept the Big Red in the game in the first half, including nailing a halfcourt buzzer-beater to get the visitors back within 37-34 at halftime.
• Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof chipped in four points and tied a career high with seven rebounds and Stone Gettings and Darryl Smith each netted six points for the Big Red.
• Princeton shot 58 percent from the floor after the break and opened the second half on a 20-3 run that gave the Tigers enough separation to avoid a late Big Red run.
• Spencer Weisz led Princeton with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and Amir Bell (16 points), Devin Cannady (15 points) and Steven Cook (11 points) all reached double figures in the scoring column.
• Princeton assisted on 20 baskets, turned the ball over just eight times and blocked seven shots in the win.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Freshman Matt Morgan has scored at least 14 points in 15 straight contests.
• The four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week is averaging 23.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.4 blocks while shooting 44/37/82 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 his current total of 473 points ranks 14th on the school's season list.
• Morgan has hit four or more 3-pointers in a game nine times so far this season.
• 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.
• 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).
• Junior Robert Hatter has three 30-point games this season, the most by any Cornell player since Ken Bantum also had three during the 1984-85 campaign.
• In seven contests prior to his injury, Hatter was averaging 23.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game while hitting 16 3-pointers.
• Since his return, Hatter has four games with at least 18 points and three games of seven points or less, averaging 14.5 over the eight games.
• Hatter has 75 assists this season and has nearly quadrupled 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 56-of-81 shots (.691) in his last 15 games.
• Smith is 7-of-10 from 3-point range over his last five contests.
• David Onuorah became the sixth player in school history to reach 100 career blocks with one in the win at Howard and now has 114 for his career.
• 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.
• 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 in the team's first 14 games, freshman Troy Whiteside has hit that mark five times in 12 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.
• Cornell's eight freshman is the second-most of any Division I program (Bradley - 10).
 
TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• During Cornell's eight-game losing streak, opponents are shooting .453 from the floor (214-472) and .373 from 3-point range (66-177) and outrebounding the Big Red by 13.9 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 97 blocked shots, Cornell needs three more to reach 100 as a team in a season for just the ninth time in school history.
• Cornell has hit 221 3-pointers this season as a team, good for the fifth-highest total in school history and the fourth time in Bill Courtney's six seasons as head coach the Big Red has hit 200 in a season.
• Cornell has scored at least 76 points in regulation in 12 of its 26 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 12 of its 26 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 (20-9) in 2015-16 (13.0 ppg., 5.6 rpg., 1.0 spg., 0.9 bpg.), while Galal Cancer '15 (5.5 ppg., 2.8 rpg., 1.4 apg., 1.0 spg.) is suiting up for Kent State (18-11). 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 18 of its 29 contests and paces the team in steals.
• 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 seven 3-pointers at Princeton on Feb. 27, 2016, its 770th 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 816 of 820 games, connecting on 5,213 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 season is complete and the 2016-17 campaign begins with practice this coming October.