STORYLINE:
• The #PathtothePalestra begins for Cornell men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m. when Columbia visits Newman Arena for the Ivy League opener for both teams.
• The contest is the second of a doubleheader, with the women's teams from both schools kicking things off at 1 p.m.
• The game will be broadcast live on the Ivy League Digital Network and simulcast on ESPN3 with Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor '05 on the call.
• Cornell will celebrate the Third Annual Fred Geise Memorial KIDS DAY on Saturday, with free activities, including face painting, a bounce house, a poster making station, and a photo booth to begin at 3:30 p.m.
• Kids receive free admission to both the women's (1 p.m.) and men's (4 p.m.) games and there will be plenty of free giveaways courtesy of CFCU Community Credit Union and Nissan.
• With 99 wins in the all-time series, a victory for Cornell would make Columbia the third different opponent it has beaten at least 100 times (Yale -110, Dartmouth - 106).
• Sophomore Matt Morgan leads the Ivy League in scoring (18.7 ppg.) and 3-pointers (49), while ranking in the top 20 in minutes played (third, 33.0 mpg.), free-throw percentage (sixth, .843), rebounding (13th, 5.1 rpg.) and 3-point percentage (15th, .389).
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 (12.6 ppg.) and assists (2.6 apg.) and third in rebounding (4.8 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 12.2 ppg., 5.7 rpg. and 2.7 apg. while shooting 38 percent from 3-point range.
• Senior guard JoJo Fallas has started the last 14 games and ranks third on the team in 3-pointers (20), all the while posting a 2.73 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 71 percent (32-of-45) in his last seven outings while averaging 9.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists over his last five outings.
• Freshman Josh Warren ranks fifth on the team in scoring (5.6 ppg.) and third in rebounding (4.7 rpg.), while senior Darryl Smith (4.5 ppg., 2.5 rpg.) and junior Wil Bathurst (4.5 ppg., 3.2 rpg.) 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 COLUMBIA WOULD:
• make Cornell 5-11 on the season.
• be the 100th all-time against Columbia (99-127).
• give the Big Red a 2-1 record in the 2017 calendar year and make it 3-2 at home this season.
• snap a six-game losing streak in Ivy League openers.
• be the 1,239th in program history (1,238-1,397 in 117 seasons, .470).

ABOUT COLUMBIA:
• The Lions enter Ivy play with a 6-7 overall record and riding a two-game win streak after victories at Maine (98-73) and at home against Howard (66-48).
• Columbia features a balanced offense, with six players averaging at least 5.7 ppg. and three in double figures, led by All-Ivy candidate Luke Petrasek (14.6 ppg., 7.0 rpg., 2.4 apg.).
• Nate Hickman (14.1 ppg.) and Mike Smith (12.5 ppg., 3.5 apg.) are also scoring double figures.
• The Lions are averaging 75.5 points each night on 46 percent shooting, good for second in the Ancient Eight.
• Columbia is coming off a 25-10 season (10-4 Ivy) that culminated in winning the 2016 CollegeInsider.com Tournament with consecutive victories over Norfolk State, Ball State, NJIT and UC Irvine.
• Just one starter returns from that team, though 14 letter winners are back.
• First year head coach Jim Engles returns to Columbia after eight seasons at NJIT that included winning the 2013 Great West regular season title.
• Engles, who served as an assistant coach to Joe Jones on Morningside Heights from 2003-08, sports a 122-153 career record.

THE CORNELL-COLUMBIA SERIES:
• Columbia leads the all-time series between the programs 127-99.
• Cornell has gone 16-12 in the last 28 meetings between the squads, but in the short term, Columbia has won nine of the last 12 contests.
• The Lions swept the series a season ago.

LAST TIME VS. COLUMBIA:
• Freshman Matt Morgan continued his torrid scoring pace with 26 points, but Columbia drained 13 3-pointers and held off Cornell 79-68 on Jan. 23, 2016 at Newman Arena.
• In addition to his 26 points, Morgan handed out four assists, grabbed three rebounds, had one steal and blocked one shot.
• David Onuorah was the only other Big Red player to reach double-digits with 10 points on a 5-of-7 performance, to go along with eight rebounds, one block, one steal, and one assist.
• Freshman Troy Whiteside also scored eight points.
• The Lions connected on 13-of-24 shots from beyond the arc, with both Maodo Lo and Luke Petrasek going 4-of-6 from deep.
• Columbia got 18 points from Lo, 16 points and eight rebounds from Petrasek and 11 each from Grant Mullins and CJ Davis.
• The Lions shot 50 percent overall and 54 percent from 3-point range while assisting on 16 of its 25 baskets.



THE IVY OPENER:
•Cornell opens its 61st official Ivy League season (the league was formally started prior to the 1956-57 season) with a 20-40 record in conference openers.
• Cornell is 15-22 against Columbia in league openers and 15-18 at home.
• The programs' records against other opponents in Ivy openers: Brown (0-3), Dartmouth (1-4), Harvard (2-5), Penn (0-2), Princeton (1-1) and Yale (1-2).
• Going back to its Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League (a forerunner of the Ivy League), Cornell's record is 45-66 in conference openers (25-28 in the EIBL).

LAST TIME OUT:
• Cornell dominated the glass, shared the basketball and closed out non-conference season on a high, running past NAIA foe Fisher College 100-72 on Jan. 8 at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red raced out to a 53-28 halftime lead, doubled up the smaller Falcons on the boards (48-24) and shot 56 percent from the floor with 28 assists in the easy victory.
• The 28 assists ranks second all-time in a single game in Cornell history, while its 16 3-pointers made tied a season high and ranks third in a contest.
• It was the 22nd 100-point game in school history and just the fifth of the 21st century.
• Cornell placed five players in double figures, with sophomore Matt Morgan leading the way with 19 points and seven rebounds, all coming in the first half.
• Senior Robert Hatter and junior Wil Bathurst each had 14 points, with Bathurst adding seven assists, five rebounds and two steals in the victory.
• Sophomore Stone Gettings 13 points and nine rebounds to go along with four assists and four blocked shots, and classmate Jack Gordon had a career-high 11 points, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
• All 11 players that Cornell dressed scored and grabbed at least one rebound.
• Fisher's Kyle Holmes had a game-high 22 points and added six rebounds, three steals and two assists, while Darrell Grady (12 points, four assists), Cooper Neal (10 points, three assists) and Brodric Smith (10 points) all hit double figures for the visitors.
• The Falcons had 10 steals and connected on 47 percent of its shots after halftime and 42 percent for the game.



IVY MADNESS:
• The inaugural Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments will take place Saturday and Sunday, March 11-12, 2017, at the Palestra in Philadelphia.
• The top four teams will earn berths in the tournament, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championships on Sunday.
• All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks.
• For more information, visit www.IvyMadness.com .

NEXT UP:
• Cornell returns the favor and heads to New York City for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Lions at Levien Gymnasium on Saturday, Jan. 21.
• The Big Red is 9-5 at Levien over the last 14 seasons.