HEAD COACH BRIAN EARL
• Brian Earl is in his second season as the Robert E. Gallagher '44 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Basketball (11-24, .314; 4-10 Ivy, .286).
• He became Cornell's 22nd head coach in April of 2016.
• Earl helped his alma mater, Princeton, return to national prominence during nine seasons as an assistant and associate head coach.
• The Tigers had posted a 143-69 overall record and a 72-26 record in Ancient Eight games since 2009-10, never finishing lower than third place and winning 20 or more games five times.
• His Ivy League peers voted him as the league's top assistant coach in a November 2010 FoxSports.com poll, earning the recognition prior to a 2011 season in which Princeton won the Ivy League title and returned to the NCAA Tournament.

CORNELL-NORTHEASTERN SERIES
Overall: Northeastern leads 4-2, first meeting in 1981-82
In Boston, Mass: Northeastern leads 2-0
Current Streak: Cornell, 1
Last Meeting: Cornell, 80-77 (11/30/2016 in Ithaca, N.Y.)
Earl vs. Northeastern: 1-0 (0-0 on the road)
Series Notes: Northeastern has won both previous meetings in Boston, 74-58 in 1982-83 and 55-51 in 1985-86 • the Big Red is 2-1 against the Huskies in Ithaca, including last winter's 80-77 win at Newman Arena • the teams met in the consolation game of the Marist Pepsi Classic in 2004-05, with future NBA guard JJ Barea hitting a 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left to give him 35 points and the Huskies an 88-85 victory • the last three meetings between the programs have been decided by four points or less • the Big Red is 8-13 all-time against current members of the Colonial Athletic Association

LAST TIME OUT
• Cornell took a second half lead on Duquesne and then put the screws to the Dukes, forcing the home team to miss 13 consecutive field goals to pull away for a 78-71 victory on Monday evening at the Palumbo Center.
• Cornell shot 56 percent from the floor for the third straight game, but it was the defense that won this one on the home floor of its Atlantic 10 foe.
• The Big Red limited the Dukes to 35 percent shooting overall, including 31 percent after halftime.
• Cornell blocked six shots and waited out a Duquesne team that started out red-hot from beyond the arc after entering the game shooting just 29 percent from deep.
• Junior Matt Morgan became the first Cornell player in more than 30 years to register five straight 20-point games with a 24-point, five-assist effort, while classmate Stone Gettings had 19 points in just 18 minutes of action after getting into early foul trouble.
• Jack Gordon had 12 points, one off his career high, and Josh Warren hit all three of his field goals en route to eight points.
• Junior Steven Julian (eight points, eight rebounds, four assists, three blocks) and senior Wil Bathurst (seven points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks) both had strong all-around floor games in the win.
• Renee Castro-Caneddy had a game-high 26 points, while Eric Williams Jr. notched 12 points and 10 rebounds.
• Mike Lewis II was the third double figure scorer for Duquesne with 13 points, five rebounds and four steals.



LAST TIME VS. NORTHEASTERN
• Sophomore Matt Morgan had a career-high 34 points, including the go-ahead basket with 19 seconds left, to lift the Big Red men's basketball team to an 80-77 victory over Northeastern on Nov. 30 at Newman Arena.
• Morgan nailed a career-high seven 3-pointers, matching a Cornell record at Newman Arena, to lead three double figure scorers in a back-and-forth affair that featured 20 lead changes and 11 ties.
• Senior Robert Hatter played a terrific floor game with 15 points, eight assists and four rebounds and freshman Josh Warren chipped in 12 points, six rebounds and four assists off the bench.
• Cornell was crisp on offense all evening, dishing off 22 assists on 29 baskets while hitting 51 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc.
• Northeastern was no slouch itself, shooting 49 percent from the floor and assisting on 19 baskets while connecting on 12-of-13 free throws.
• The visitors got 27 points, nine assists and five rebounds from TJ Williams and 24 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot from Alex Murphy.
• The home team got its first home win for first-year head coach Brian Earl thanks to an all-out effort against the 2016 NCAA qualifiers who already own victories over Connecticut and Kent State.
• Senior JoJo Fallas had six points and was credited with a key steal in the final 30 seconds, sophomore Troy Whiteside had a key steal late in the contest and every one of the nine players who saw action contributed in an important moment.



NOTES VS. DUQUESNE
• The win was Cornell's first over an Atlantic 10 school since topping George Mason 68-60 on the road to begin the 2014-15 campaign.
• Matt Morgan scored 24 points for his fifth straight game with 20 or more points. He became the first Big Red player to reach that milestone since John Bajusz in 1986-87.
• With a pair of 3-point field goals, Morgan became the sixth Big Red player to connect on 175 career treys.
• Cornell shot .564 for the game, the third straight contest at .550 or better (first time doing that since the 1987-88 Ivy League championship season).
• Steven Julian is the first Cornell player to put up at least eight points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks in a single game against a Division I opponent since Jeff Foote against Harvard in 2010 (16 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three blocks).
• Matt Morgan (scoring) and Steven Julian (rebounding) have led the team in their respective categories in each game this season.
• With his 19 points in just 18 minutes, Stone Gettings surpassed 500 career points (505), joining the top 100 in career scoring in Cornell history (96th).
• The wins over Toledo (80-77) and at Duquesne (78-71) represent the first winning streak under head coach Brian Earl.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Excluding the Syracuse game, Cornell is averaging 78.2 points on 50 percent shooting, hitting 8.4 3-pointers per game and registering 17.0 assists offensively.
• 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.
• Fifth-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 the District of Columbia.
• 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 last year.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 807 consecutive games dating back to a contest 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, the Big Red has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 853 of 857 games (5,515 3-pointers over that span).
• The Big Red returns 72 percent of its scoring, 74 percent of its rebounding and 71 percent of its assists from last season — one of just 16 Division I teams nationwide to bring back 70 percent of its scoring, rebounding and assists from 2016-17.
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 40-49 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 29-19 in home overtime games, 2-2 in neutral contests and 10-27 in road games.
• The Big Red ranks among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR) for 2015-16 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. Cornell has been recognized nine times in the 12 years since the APR began, including seven consecutive.

NEXT UP
• After a two-week hiatus due to final exams, the Cornell men's basketball team returns to action when it visits Longwood on Saturday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m.
• Cornell won the only previous meeting between the two programs when it topped the Lancers 84-78 in the championship game of the 2012 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational Lower Bracket.