HEAD COACH BRIAN EARL
• Brian Earl is in his second season as the Robert E. Gallagher '44 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Basketball (14-28, .333; 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-PENN SERIES
Overall: Penn leads 154-74
In Philadelphia, Pa.: Penn leads 87-28
Current Streak: Penn, 9 games
Last Meeting: Penn won 69-66, 2/24/17 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Penn: 0-2
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1903-04 season • the Big Red's nine-game losing streak against Penn is tied for its longest against a league opponent (Yale - 9) • that streak reaches 11 of the last 12 meetings • prior to that, Cornell won 7-of-8 contests • Penn swept the series a year ago,  knocking off the Big Red 82-63 in Philadelphia and toppling Cornell 69-66 just 10 days later in Ithaca.

A WIN OVER PENN WOULD
• even Cornell's record at 7-7 on the season.
• give the Big Red a win in its Ivy opener for the first time since the 2011-12 season (67-59 home win over Princeton).
• cut the Quakers' edge in the all-time series to 154-75.
• snap a nine-game skid against Penn, giving the Big Red its first win the series since Feb. 2, 2013 (a span of 1,440 days).
• give Cornell a two-game Ivy road win streak dating back to last season (3-2 last five).
• be the 1,249th in program history (1,248-1,415 in 118 seasons, .469).

LAST TIME OUT
• Four players scored in double figures and the bench paid big contributions as Cornell closed out its 2017-18 non-conference schedule with a 93-69 win over Central Penn on Jan. 5 at Newman Arena.
• The tandem of juniors Matt Morgan (21 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, two blocked shots) and Stone Gettings (15 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals, one block) again led the way, but they had plenty of help.
• Junior Jack Gordon scored a career-high 15 points, matching Ryan Wittman's school record with his five 3-pointers without a miss.
• Freshmen Bryan Knapp (12 points) and Jimmy Boeheim (nine points, eight rebounds) also posted career scoring highs.
• The Big Red assisted on 23 baskets, hit 13-of-29 3-pointers, blocked 10 shots and controlled the game after the opening minutes despite some rough patches.
• Junior Steven Julian had three of the 10 blocks and chipped in four points and six boards, Terrance McBride had four points and five assists, Joel Davis notched six points, three rebounds and two assists and 11 players got into the scorebook on the evening.
• Randy Dupont had 16 points to lead four double figure scorers for Central Penn.
• Joel Zola and Juwan Gooding each had 11, while Noah Baylor had 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
• Central Penn had 16 offensive rebounds, outscoring the Big Red 15-9 on second chance points,and was even for the night against the bigger Big Red (43-43).



LAST TIME VS. PENN
• The Cornell men's basketball team dug itself a hole it couldn't shovel out of, dropping an 82-63 decision to Penn on Feb. 12 at the Palestra.
• Senior Robert Hatter had a game-high 22 points and sophomore Stone Gettings had 21 points,seven rebounds and five assists, but 22 turnovers overall and 22 percent shooting in the first half doomed the visitors, who trailed 42-14 at halftime.
• The Big Red came alive in the second half, shooting 52 percent and scoring 49 points, but it wasn't enough.
• Sophomore Matt Morgan scored 12 second half points and junior Wil Bathurst chipped in a career-best nine rebounds in the loss.
• Penn got great balance, with the freshman tandem of AJ Brodeur (15 points, four rebounds, five blocked shots, three assists and three steals) and Ryan Betley (22 points, eight rebounds, two steals) leading four double figure scorers.
• Devon Goodman had 13 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals and Matt Howard posted a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
• Penn had 14 steals and seven blocked shots to overcome 18 turnovers of its own.



THE IVY OPENER
• Cornell opens its 62nd official Ivy League season (the league was formally started prior to the 1956-57 season) with a 20-41 record in conference openers.
• Cornell is 0-2 against Penn in league openers and 5-22 on the road.
• The programs' records against other opponents in Ivy openers: Brown (0-3), Columbia (15-23), Dartmouth (1-4), Harvard (2-5), 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 45-67 in conference openers (25-28 in the EIBL).

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 reached that milestone in consecutive games against Niagara and Delaware.
• 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 25.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists over his past 12 games, including twice claiming Ivy League Player of the Week honors.
• Morgan has reached double figures in 36 consecutive games, the fifth-longest active streak by a Division I player in the country entering the week.
• The 36 consecutive double figure scoring games surpassed John Sheehy's 34 straight (1953-55) for a school record that had held for 62 years.
• 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 24.9 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 24.9 ppg. would be the ninth-highest by an Ivy League player and would be the most since 1971-72, when Brown's Arnie Berman (25.3 ppg.) and Princeton's Brian Taylor (25.0 ppg.) both exceeded that total, and would be the highest average since the 3-point shot was installed into the college game (Dartmouth's Jim Barton, 24.5 ppg. in 1987-88).
• Morgan is the first Big Red player to post 12 consecutive 20-point games (previous Cornell record was six).
• The junior has hit multiple 3-point shots in 18 consecutive games dating back to last season and has connected on at least one trey in 23 straight (fifth-longest streak at Cornell).
• Morgan is averaging 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists while hitting 4.0 3-pointers per contest over his last four 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 15.8 ppg., 5.8 rpg. and 2.6 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 10 games, spanning 238 minutes, Gettings has scored 175 points, grabbed 61 rebounds, dished 33 assists and collected seven steals and four blocks — 29.4 ppg., 10.3 rpg., 5.5 apg. per 40 minutes.
• Over his last four contests, Gettings is averaged 24.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists.
• Junior forward Steven Julian paces the Ancient Eight in rebounding (6.9 rpg.) and blocked shots (1.8 bpg.) and is sixth in steals (1.2 spg.).
• The junior college transfer has at least three blocked shots in five of his last six games and seven of his last nine starts.
• Since inserting junior Jack Gordon into the lineup 10 games ago (5-5), Cornell's offense has averaged 80.3 points per game while shooting .483 from the floor (291-of-603).
• Gordon, a career 45 percent 3-point shooter, tied a single-game school record for 3-point percentage in a game, joining Ryan Wittman '10 (2010 vs. Bryant) as the lone Cornellians to hit five 3-pointers in a game without a miss when he did so against Central Penn.
• 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 is 3-0 after moving freshman point guard Terrance McBride into the starting lineup six games ago, but was 0-3 when he went out with an injury.
• Members of the Cornell basketball team represent 10 states and the District of Columbia.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red has scored 75 or more points in six straight games for the first time since stringing together six consecutive contests spanning the final three games of 2006-07 and the first three of the 2007-08 seasons. (Last time with seven straight, 1/19/66-2/18/66).
• After turning the ball over 23 times in a loss at Northeastern on Dec. 2, the Big Red has piled up 109 assists with just 72 turnovers in six games since.
• 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 814 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 860 of 864 games (5,578 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.

#ROADTOIVYMADNESS RETURNS
• The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments return to Philadelphia, where they will take place Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11, 2018.
• The top four teams will earn berths to the tournament, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championships on Sunday.
• All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks.
• For tickets and more information please visit IvyMadness.com.

NEXT UP
• Cornell concludes its three-game, season-opening Ivy road swing when it visits Columbia on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. at Levien Gymnasium.
• The Lions lead the all-time series 128-100 after each team won on the road a year ago.