STORYLINE:
• The Cornell men's basketball team will play its first full Ivy League home weekend of the season, starting a six-week sprint on its #PathtothePalestra when Harvard (Friday, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m.) and Dartmouth (Saturday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m.) visit Newman Arena.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor will provide the play-by-play locally on 96.3 FM The Buzzer, while live video of the game can be viewed on the Ivy League Digital Network, with the Dartmouth game also simulcast through ESPN3.
• Cornell will look to build on last weekend's 67-62 victory at Columbia, a game that saw the Big Red defense limit the Lions to 31 percent shooting.
• Sophomore Matt Morgan leads the Ivy League in scoring (18.3 ppg.) and 3-pointers (55), while ranking in the top 20 in minutes played (third, 33.0 mpg.), free-throw percentage (fifth, .852), 3-point percentage (seventh, .401), assists (13th, 2.4 apg.), steals (15th, 0.9 spg.) and rebounding (17th, 5.0 rpg.).
Senior Robert Hatter became the 26th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau earlier this season and ranks second on the team in scoring (12.4 ppg.) and assists (2.5 apg.) and is tied for third in rebounding (4.6 rpg.) while shooting 58 percent from inside the 3-point arc.
• Sophomore Stone Gettings continues to emerge as one of the top post players in the Ivy League and is averaging 12.4 ppg., 5.5 rpg. and 2.9 apg. while shooting 38 percent from 3-point range.
• Senior guard JoJo Fallas has started the last 16 games and ranks third on the team in 3-pointers (22), all the while posting a 2.29 assist:turnover ratio - the highest of any Cornellian who has played half the team's minutes in more than 35 years.
• Sophomore Troy Whiteside rounds out three sophomore starters has blossomed in his new role, shooting 64 percent (38-of-59) in his last 10 outings while averaging 9.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists over his last seven contests.
• Freshman Josh Warren ranks fifth on the team in scoring (5.9 ppg.) and tied for third in rebounding (4.6 rpg.), while senior Darryl Smith (4.0 ppg., 2.6 rpg.), junior Wil Bathurst (4.8 ppg., 3.4 rpg.) and sophomore Jack Gordon (9.0 ppg., 2.3 rpg., 2.3 apg. in last three contests) are also firmly in the rotation.
• First-year head coach Brian 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.
• Earl, the 1999 Ivy League Player of the year and a three-time Ivy champion, graduated with an Ivy League-record 281 3-pointers, a mark that stood until Cornell's Ryan Wittman '10 surpassed him in 2010, and closed his career ranked fifth all-time at Princeton with 1,428 points.
• 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.

A WIN OVER HARVARD WOULD:
• make Cornell 6-12 on the season and 2-1 in Ivy League play.
• push Cornell's lead in the all-time series to 93-78.
• make the Big Red 3-2 in the last five meetings against Harvard.
• give the Big Red a 3-2 record in the 2017 calendar year.
• be the 1,240th in program history (1,239-1,398 in 117 seasons, .470).

ABOUT HARVARD:
• Harvard enters the weekend with a 10-5 record (2-0 Ivy) after sweeping a home-and-home series against travel partner Dartmouth.
• Since the beginning of December, the Crimson are 9-1 with wins over Boston College and Houston.
• Two players are averaging double figures in scoring, led by freshmen Bryce Aiken (13.3 ppg., 2.8 apg., 2.3 rpg.) and Seth Towns (11.7 ppg., 3.7 rpg., 1.9 apg., 1.1 spg.).
• Four others are scoring between 6.6 and 8.9 points each night.
• After missing last season with an injury, senior Siyani Chambers is averaging 8.9 ppg., 6.2 apg., 2.4 rpg. and 1.3 spg.
• The Crimson is allowing opponents to shoot just .397 from the floor and .338 from 3-point range while connecting on 37 percent from beyond the arc itself.
• Harvard has posted a 163-64 (.718) overall record since the start of the 2009-10 season.
• Head coach Tommy Amaker is Harvard's all-time winningest men's hoops coach and has a 185-100 record with the Crimson.
• He has guided the Crimson to five Ivy titles and four NCAA tournaments.

THE CORNELL-HARVARD SERIES:
• Cornell leads the series 92-78 dating back to the first meeting between the teams in the 1901-02 season.
• Harvard has a narrow is 15-13 in the last 28 contests, including a series split in each of the last two seasons.

LAST TIME VS. HARVARD:
• Cornell freshman Matt Morgan became the school's freshman scoring leader as part of a 27-part performance, but Harvard rallied from a 21-point second half deficit to stun the Big Red 76-74 on Feb. 20, 2016 at Newman Arena.
• Morgan scored 22 points in a head-turning first half and set the record with a game-tying 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining.
• Not to be denied, Harvard regained the lead as Tommy McCarthy hit a floater with 5.5 seconds remaining.
• With one last chance, Morgan had the ball knocked away momentarily by Corey Johnson and couldn't recover in time to get off a game-tying effort.
• McCarthy ended the evening with 21 points, eight assists and five rebounds to lead the charge.
• Morgan was the lone Cornell player in double figures with his 27 points, surpassing Ryan Wittman's 436 points from the 2006-07 campaign to top the charts.
• He finished the contest with 439 points.
• Morgan hit 5-of-10 3-pointers and Cornell hit 11 as a team, including an 8-of-13 effort in the first half in building a 46-31 lead at the break.
• After shooting 63 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes, Cornell was limited to 28 percent after the break, including just seven field goals.
• Joel Davis had a career-high nine points, JoJo Fallas and Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof each had eight and Robert Hatter had seven points, seven rebounds and six assists.
• The Big Red had 10 team steals, but committed 17 turnovers themselves.
• Besides McCarthy, Agunwa Okolie had 16 points and seven rebounds, Zena Edosomwan had 13 points and a game-high 10 boards and Corey Johnson scored 10 to round out four double figure scorers.



ABOUT DARTMOUTH:
• Dartmouth is 3-12 on the season and is in search of its first Ivy League win of the year heading into Friday night's contest at Columbia.
• The Big Green was on a three-game losing streak after winning three straight - all of which came after an 0-9 start.
• Three Big Green players are averaging double figures, with Evan Boudreaux leading the way at 15.9 ppg. and 9.1 rpg.
• Guilien Smith (12.7 ppg., 3.9 rpg.) and Miles Wright (10.9 ppg., 5.4 rpg.) join Boudreaux in double figures.
• Dartmouth is shooting just 41 percent overall and 33 percent from beyond the arc, but hit on 75 percent of its free throws.
• First-year head coach David McLaughlin previously won 189 games in 10 seasons at Stonehill before becoming associate head coach at Northeastern in three years.

THE CORNELL-DARTMOUTH SERIES:
• The two teams have an evenly split 106-106 series that dates back to the 1900-01 campaign.
• Cornell has had the best of the series recently, having won 20 of the last 26 meetings.
• The two teams have split the season series in each of the previous the last four years, with each team winning on the road last year.

LAST TIME VS. DARTMOUTH:
• Dartmouth freshman Evan Boudreaux scored 22 points and 18 rebounds and the Big Green held off a late Big Red rally to avoid a season sweep with a 78-66 victory on Feb. 19, 2016 at Newman Arena.
• Cornell junior Darryl Smith scored a career-high 22 points and added five rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.
• Freshman Matt Morgan added 16 points and junior Robert Hatter netted 11.
• Cornell rallied from a 20-point deficit with 12 minutes to play to get within six two different times in the final minutes, the last time at 68-62 with 1:45 left after a Morgan trey.
• The Big Green hit all eight free throws over the game's final 76 seconds to claim the win.
• Boudreaux's efforts on the backboards allowed them to outrebound the Big Red 46-32, including 16-8 on the offensive glass.
• Taylor Johnson added 14 points and Miles Wright ended the night with 13 points and seven rebounds for the visitors.
• Dartmouth limited Cornell to 25 percent shooting in the first half on its way to a 36-24 lead and didn't slow down early in the second before the Big Red made a run to get back into it, led largely by a personal 12-point run by Smith.
• The junior made 9-of-13 field goals and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc for the game and scored 17 second half points.



LAST TIME OUT:
• The Cornell men's basketball team had plenty to overcome to pick up its first Ivy League win under head coach Brian Earl.
• Without four-year starter and 1,000-point scorer Robert Hatter, despite 22 turnovers (15 in the first half) and a deficit on the road with under four minutes to go, the Big Red was resilient enough to hand Columbia a 67-62 loss on Jan. 21 at Levien Gymnasium.
• The Big Red defense held Columbia to just 1-of-12 and 2-of-17 shooting to start the game and held the Lions to 31 percent shooting from the floor, a season low by an opponent.
• Along with a balanced offense and clutch free-throw shooting in the final minutes, Cornell was able to avenge the previous weekend's shootout win by the Lions.
• Sophomore Matt Morgan had 17 points, seven assists, six rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals to lead the Big Red offense, but it was Wil Bathurst's 12 points and six rebounds that sparked Cornell late.
• Bathurst put Cornell into the lead for good with a runner with three minutes remaining, then knocked out two free throws with 14 seconds left after he rebounded a Columbia miss on a game-tying 3-point attempt.
• Troy Whiteside and Stone Gettings rounded out four double figure scorers with 13 points each.
• Mike Smith had a game-high 24 points for Columbia, though it came on 8-of-21 shooting.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW:
• Sophomore 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 last season.
• Morgan's 34 points in the win over Northeastern tied a Cornell record at Newman Arena, matching a 34-point effort by Nolan Cressler in an overtime loss to Brown in 2014 (record is Brown's Jason Forte with 36 points during the 2004-05 season.
• He has hit at least one 3-pointer in 17 consecutive games (dating back to last season) and has connected on multiple shots beyond the arc in 11 straight contests, averaging 19.7 ppg. over that span.
• Morgan is averaging 4.1 made 3-point field goals per game over his last 10 contests.
• The sophomore has reached double figures in scoring in 32 of his last 33 games.
• Morgan is averaging 5.0 rebounds per game -  mark that if maintained would be the most by a Cornell guard over a full season since Gerry Newby '73 averaged 5.3 rpg. as a senior in 1972-73.
• Sophomore Stone Gettings has already set career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws.
• Gettings has 13 double figure scoring efforts after hitting that mark just once as a freshman.
• Getting's eight assists at Lafayette and at home against Columbia are the most by a non-guard since Adam Wire had eight at Albany in the 2010-11 season at Albany.
• His 12 points, eight rebounds and eight assists made Gettings just the fourth player to have at least 10 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in the same game (Zeke Marshall vs. Cortland in 1993, 12-10-8; Louis Dale vs. Toledo in 2009, 14-9-9; Chris Wroblewski vs. Yale in 2012, 18-8-10).
• Sophomore Troy Whiteside is shooting .644 (38-of-59) from the floor over his last 10 games, averaging 9.0 points over that span.
• Senior JoJo Fallas has 32 assists and 14 turnovers so far this season, and his 2.3 assist:turnover ratio would rank first all-time among Cornell players who saw half the team's minutes in a season.
• Fallas has 30 assists and just nine turnovers over his last 11 games (265 minutes).
• After shooting .423 from the field over his first two seasons (83-of-196), senior Darryl Smith is shooting .619 (120-of-194) over the last two years.
• Junior Wil Bathurst is just the second player since 1978 to post a line score of at least 14-5-7 off the bench for the Big Red when he did so against Fisher (Mass.) - Chris Wroblewski posted 21-5-12 in a 2010 win over Wofford.
• 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:
• Cornell has posted four of the school's top 11 single game 3-point field goal contests, including games of 16 against both Troy and Fisher (Mass.) (No. 3 all-time).
• Over its last three home games, Cornell is averaging 90.3 points on 52 percent shooting with 39 made 3-pointers and 69 assists on 96 baskets (72 percent of its field goals).
• For the season, the Big Red is scoring 82.8 points on 49 percent shooting at home and averaging 19.4 assists per game (vs. 66.2 ppg., 41 percent shooting and 13.9 apg. in true road games).
• The Big Red has a positive assist:turnover ratio (266 assists, 245 turnovers) for the first time since posting a positive mark (380:377) in 2011-12 and is +31 over its last 10 games (182:151).
• The Big Red has had at least three double figure scorers in 15 of the season's first 17 contests.
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (VMI) one of five active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Scott (Baylor) and Bryce (Vanderbilt) Drew; Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Rhode Island) Hurley; Joe (Yale) and James (Boston University) Jones; and Sean (Arizona) and Archie (Dayton) Miller.
• 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 nine states and one Canadian province.
• Cornell has played in 47 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 and Mississippi after crossing Wyoming off the list late last week.
• 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.

NEXT UP:
• Cornell remains home to complete a season-opening homestand when the Big Red welcomes Brown and Yale to Newman Arena.
• The Big Red will meet the Bears on Friday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m., then plays the defending Ivy League champion Bulldogs the following night at 6 p.m.
• Cornell leads the all-time series against Brown, 76-51, while Cornell and Yale have split 220 games down the middle.