STORYLINE
• The Ivy League men's basketball regular season begins for both Cornell and Columbia when the teams meet on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 1:30 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The contest, part of a doubleheader with the women's team tipping at 11 a.m., will be broadcast live on the Ivy League Network with Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor '06 on the call.
• Cornell Athletics will celebrate its Fifth Annual Fred Geise Memorial KIDS DAY — free activities, including face painting, bounce house, sand art and more games begin at 11 a.m. 
• Cornell has won three of its last four contests entering Saturday's Ivy opener after closing out non-conference play with an 86-74 win at Towson on Jan. 9.
• The Big Red will also be in search of its first four-game home win streak since opening the 2015-16 campaign with four straight victories at Newman Arena.
• Senior guard Matt Morgan enters the matchup among the national leaders at 23.6 ppg. while adding 4.8 rpg., 2.7 apg. and 1.1 spg.
• Morgan enters the game five points shy of Ryan Wittman's school record of 2,028 points.
• Morgan, who holds the nation's third-longest double figure scoring streak at a school and Ivy-record 67 games, is coming off a career-high 38-point effort in the Big Red's 86-74 win at Towson.
• Morgan is one of four returning starters for the Big Red, who went 12-16 in 2017-18 and earned the program's first-ever bid to the Ivy League Men's Basketball Tournament.
• Seniors Troy Whiteside (3.9 ppg.), Steven Julian (3.4 ppg., 6.6 rpg., 2.4 apg.), Jack Gordon (5.0 ppg., 2.5 rpg., 2.1 apg.) and Joel Davis (2.7 ppg.) join junior Josh Warren (9.1 ppg., 3.9 rpg., 3.2 apg.) and sophomore Terrance McBride (3.9 ppg., 2.2 rpg., 1.8 apg.) as players who have spent significant time as starters and are expected to continue playing key roles for Cornell in 2018-19.
• Sophomore forwards Jimmy Boeheim (10.3 ppg., 3.6 rpg.), the son of Naismith Hall of Fame Coach Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, and Jake Kuhn (5.0 ppg., 1.8 rpg.) have also been significant contributors off the bench, with Boeheim joining Davis in the starting lineup for the last two games (2-0).
• Third-year head coach Brian Earl will look to continue the program's upward swing, as the Big Red made a two-game jump in conference play a year ago.

THE SERIES VS. COLUMBIA
Overall: Columbia leads 129-101
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 64-51
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 82-81, 1/27/18 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Columbia: 2-2
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1902-03 season • Cornell leads 18-14 over the last 16 seasons • narrowing that down, the Lions are 11-5 over the last 8 years • five of the last eight meetings have been decided by five points or less

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD ...
• give Cornell a 9-8 overall mark, the latest in a season it has been better than .500 since it had a 12-11 record during the 2014-15 campaign.
• cut the Lions' lead the series to 129-102.
• make the Big Red 21-42 in Ivy League openers all time, including 16-23 vs. the Lions.
• be the 1,263rd in program history (1,262-1,432 in 118 seasons, .468).

THE IVY OPENER
• Cornell opens its 63rd official Ivy League season (the league was formally started prior to the 1956-57 season) with a 20-42 record in conference openers. 
• Cornell is 15-23 against Columbia in league openers and 15-19 at home. 
• The programs' records against other opponents in Ivy openers: Brown (0-3), Dartmouth (1-4), Harvard (2-5), Penn (0-3), 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 45-68 in conference openers (25-28 in the EIBL).

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Matt Morgan enters the Columbia game needing five points to match Ryan Wittman '10 for the school's career scoring record (2,028 points), a mark that would also move him into fifth place on the Ivy League's career scoring list.
• He's also 18 points from catching former Brown star Earl Hunt for No. 4 on the Ivy scoring list.
• His 2,023 points ranks ninth among all active men's college basketball players (all divisions)
• Morgan's 67 consecutive double figure scoring games has surpassed John Sheehy's 34 straight (1953-55) for a school record that had held for 62 years and can double up that mark against the Lions.
• Morgan is making his bid to lead the Ivy League in scoring for the fourth straight year, as his 23.6 ppg. is well ahead of Princeton's Devin Cannady (19.5 ppg.).
• Morgan is the only Cornell player ranked in the top 20 in Ivy League scoring,
• Sophomore Jimmy Boeheim is the eldest son of Syracuse head men's basketball coach and Naismith Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim.
• Senior Steven Julian has nine brothers and sisters.
• He is averaging 8.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots over his last eight games.
• The Big Red will have three junior college transfers (Steven Julian, Chaz Mack and Thurston McCarty) on its roster for the first time in program history in 2018-19.
• Sophomore Riley Voss has been credited with 15 assists and just two turnovers on the season.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell is 4-0 this season and 11-2 in three years under head coach Brian Earl when holding opponents under 40 percent shooting and are 6-1 in 2018-19 and 25-9 overall when outshooting its foe.
• Cornell's bench outscored its opponents' reserves in its first 11 games this season and 15 straight contests dating back to last year before SMU held a 19-17 edge in bench scoring. That stretch is now 14-of-16 games this season and 18-of-20 overall.
• Cornell has averaged 12.0 3-pointers per game in its last two contests after making just 22 treys total in its previous four games (5.5 per game) while shooting just .237 from beyond the arc.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 845 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 891 of 895 games (5,810 3-pointers over that span).
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 42-51 in games that go an extra period. Cornell is 7-10 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 30-19 in home overtime games, 2-2 in neutral contests and 11-29 in road games.
• Head coach 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 (Connecticut) Hurley; Joe (Yale) and James (Boston University) Jones; and Sean (Arizona) and Archie (Indiana) Miller.
• Sixth-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.
• The Big Red ranks among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR) for 2016-17 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 10 times in the 13 years since the APR began, including eight consecutive.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red will return the trip when it heads to New York City to meet the Lions on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.