ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team has accepted an invitation to compete in the 2019 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) and will meet Robert Morris in the first round on Tuesday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at the North Athletic Complex in Moon Township, Pa. The winner will advance to meet a team to be determined, with the site, date and time to be announced.

At 15-15 overall and 7-7 in Ivy play, Cornell has its first .500 regular season overall and in conference play since its last postseason team - the 2009-10 squad that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16. Head coach Brian Earl's team swept Ivy champion Harvard and tied for fourth overall in the league standings, improving its win total in conference play for the third straight season. Featuring unanimous first-team All-Ivy and NABC All-District selection Matt Morgan, the second leading scorer in conference history with 2,309 points, the Big Red has four returning starters from a 12-16 team in 2017-18 that earned the program's first-ever bid to the Ivy League Men's Basketball Tournament.

Cornell is the sixth Ivy League school to participate in the CIT, with Columbia winning the title in 2016 and Yale advancing to the final in 2014. Overall, Ivy schools are 10-6 (.625) in seven previous appearances.

Created in 2009, the tournament is a single elimination event that uses the old NIT model in which there is no set bracket. Future round opponents are determined by the results of the previous rounds. All games are played at on-campus sites. Northern Colorado won the 2018 CIT title, defeating Illinois-Chicago in the finals on CBS Sports Network.


The Colonials went 17-16 overall, including 11-7 in the Northeast Conference, under former Penn star Andy Toole. Josh Williams leads three double figure scorers at 13.9 ppg., while Charles Bain (10.2 ppg.) and Matty McConnell (10.2 ppg.) and Malik Petteway (9.8 ppg.) also lead the offense. It is the program's second CIT appearance in program history.