HEAD COACH BRIAN EARL
• Brian Earl is in his second season as the Robert E. Gallagher '44 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Basketball (13-27, .325; 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-AUBURN SERIES
Overall: First-ever meeting
In Auburn, Ala: N/A
Current Streak: N/A
Last Meeting: N/A
Earl vs. Auburn: N/A
Series Notes: Cornell and Auburn will meet for the first time on the hardwood • the Big Red is 3-13 all-time against current members of the Southeastern Conference, having also played Alabama (1-1), Arkansas (1-0), Georgia (0-1), Kentucky (1-1), LSU (0-3), Missouri (0-2), South Carolina (0-2) and Vanderbilt (0-3) • the Big Red's last meeting with an SEC team came in 2012-13, a 66-55 defeat at Vanderbilt

LAST TIME OUT
• Juniors Stone Gettings (39) and Matt Morgan (34) combined for 73 points, but a late Delaware run in regulation, but the Blue Hens' Ryan Daly made key plays at key moments to rally the home team to a 97-96 victory on Thursday afternoon at the Bob Carpenter Center.
• For the second straight game, both Gettings and Morgan surpassed the 30-point mark, something that hadn't been done previously at Cornell in more than 60 years.
• Gettings was 16-of-21 from the floor, made 7-of-8 3-pointers, and chipped in five rebounds and four assists.
• His point total ranks third in a game in Big Red history and is the most since George Farley set a school record with a 47-point outing at Princeton in 1960.
• His 16 made field goals is also the third-most at Cornell, his seven 3-pointers stands sixth and his .875 3-point percentage sits 17th.
• Morgan tied his personal best with 34 points, matching his total a year ago against Northeastern, and added a career-best 11 rebounds for his first double-double.
• His seven assists also matched his career best.
• In the end, it wasn't the record-setting performances by the Big Red that shone through - instead it was Delaware leading scorer Ryan Daly, who ended the night 5-of-17 shooting.
• His 19 points and seven rebounds didn't show his impact.
• The sophomore's driving layup with 16 seconds left sent the game into overtime, then scored eight point in the extra session.
• Daly scored the go-ahead basket with under a minute to play in overtime, stole a pass on the ensuing Big Red possession and then went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 41 seconds to clinch the win.
• Five Blue Hens' players reached double figures, with Ryan Allen leading the way with 24 points.
• Anthony Mosley had 18 to go along with seven assists, Eric Carter had 15 points and 12 boards and Chyree Walker scored 10 to round out the fivesome.
• Delaware shot 49 percent for the game, including 64 percent in the second half.
• The home team made 10 of its final 11 shots in regulation to rally from a nine-point deficit with 3:57 remaining and six points back with under two minutes to play..

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• After having teammates score 30 points in the same game just once in the first 119 years of Cornell basketball, juniors Matt Morgan and Stone Gettings have now reached that milestone in consecutive games.
• Prior to the Niagara contest, the only previous time two Cornellians scored more than 30 points in the same game was on March 2, 1956 at the famed Palestra in Philadelphia when Bo Roberson (32) and Chuck Rolles (30) did so against Penn.
• In between, Cornell played 1,611 games over those ensuing 61 seasons.
• Morgan, the nation's third-leading scorer, has been on a tear, averaging 26.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists over his past 10 games, including claiming Ivy League Player of the Week Honors twice.
• Morgan has reached double figures in 34 consecutive games, tied for the seventh-longest active streak by a Division I player in the country entering the week.
• The 34 consecutive double figure scoring games has tied John Sheehy's 34 straight (1953-55) for the 62-year-old school record.
• He is the only player in school history to put together two streaks of at least 20 consecutive games scoring in double figures (also a 21-game streak from 2015-16).
• Now averaging 25.3 points per game, Morgan's scoring average would be the highest ever by a Cornell player if maintained (Chuck Rolles '56 averaged 23.0 points in 1955-56).
• If maintained, his 25.3 ppg. would be the seventh-highest by an Ivy League player and would be the most since 1971-72, when Brown's Arnie Berman also scored 25.3 ppg., and would be the highest average since the 3-point shot was invented by nearly a full point per game (Dartmouth's Jim Barton, 24.5 ppg. in 1987-88). 
• Morgan is the first Big Red player to post 10 consecutive 20-point games (previous Cornell record was six).
• The junior has hit multiple 3-point shots in 16 consecutive games dating back to last season and has connected on at least one trey in 21 straight (seventh-longest streak at Cornell, one game from fifth).
• Morgan is averaging 33.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists while hitting 5.5 3-pointers per contest over his last two games.
• Morgan became the first Cornell player to declare early for the NBA Draft during the spring of 2017, withdrawing before the early entry deadline to preserve his final two seasons of eligibility.
• After missing much of the preseason due to injury, junior Stone Gettings is averaging 16.3 ppg., 5.5 rpg. and 2.5 apg. in just 22.5 minutes per contest. 
• The only games by a Cornellian with more than Gettings' 39 points against Delaware were 47 scored by George Farley against Princeton in 1960 and 42 by Chuck Rolles at Syracuse in 1956.
• In his last eight games, spanning 193 minutes, Gettings has scored 148 points, grabbed 45 rebounds, dished 26 assists and collected four steals and three blocks — 30.7 ppg., 9.3 rpg., 5.4 apg. per 40 minutes.
• Over his last two contests, Gettings is averaged 34.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
• Junior forward Steven Julian paces the Ancient Eight in rebounding (7.5 rpg.) and ranks among the circuit's top 10 in steals (1.5 spg.) and blocked shots (2.0 bpg.).
• Julian has at least five rebounds in all 11 of his games with the Big Red and has led the team in that category seven times.
• The junior college transfer has at least three blocked shots in four straight games and five of his last six starts.
• Since inserting junior Jack Gordon into the lineup eight games ago (4-4), Cornell's offense has averaged 79.1 points per game while shooting .493 from the floor (234-of-475).
• Junior Jack Gordon's career-best 10 rebounds against Niagara obliterated his previous career best of four.
• With Gordon and Gettings each registering double digit rebounds vs. Niagara, the juniors became the first Big Red teammates to accomplish that feat since Louis Dale '10 (11) and Jeff Foote '10 (10) did so against Dartmouth during the 2007-08 campaign.
• Cornell was 2-0 after moving freshman point guard Terrance McBride into the starting lineup four games ago, but 0-2 since he went out with an injury.
• Members of the Cornell basketball team represent 10 states and the District of Columbia.
• Three Cornell starters played more than 41 minutes and each of the other two played at least 37 — less of a big deal for Ivy League basketball players, who play back-to-back nights throughout conference season (Friday and Saturday nights).

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red has scored 80 or more points in three straight games for the first time since Cornell opened the 2007-08 season with four straight such games.
• After turning the ball over 23 times in a loss at Northeastern on Dec. 2, the Big Red has piled up 74 assists with just 42 turnovers in four games since.
 • Four of Cornell's five wins have come by single digits and the fifth came by 10 points.
• 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.
• 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 812 consecutive games (11th-longest streak in Division I) 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 858 of 862 games (5,557 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 40-50 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 10-28 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.
• Are Cornell Student-Athletes on Scholarship? The easy answer is no. Cornell student-athletes are awarded need-based financial aid, just as any other student who applies to the school. That package can come in the form of student loans and grants. The basic intent of the original Ivy League agreement of 1954 was to improve and foster intercollegiate athletics while keeping the emphasis on such competition in harmony with the educational purpose of the institutions. The Ivy League is nationally recognized for its level of success — absent of athletic scholarships — while rigorously maintaining its self-imposed high academic standards. The Ivy League has demonstrated a rare willingness and ability, given the current national pressures on intercollegiate success, to abide by these rules and still compete successfully in Division I athletics. 

NEXT UP
• Cornell closes out its non-conference slate when it hosts Central Pennsylvania on Friday, Jan. 5 at 5:30 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• It will be the first-ever meeting between the Big Red and the Knights, who play in the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association).