ITHACA, N.Y. -- Ten contests against 2019 postseason opponents highlight the 2019-20 Cornell men's basketball schedule announced today. The Big Red will have 12 dates at Newman Arena among its 27-game schedule.
 
Four games against returning NCAA tournament teams (Syracuse, Patriot League champion Colgate and two vs. Ivy champ Yale) and non-league matchups at Power Five conference foes DePaul and Penn State dot the slate, while 22-game winner and CIT participant NJIT visits the Big Red's home court. In all, 13 contests will be played against teams that won at least 18 games a season ago and 16 will be vs. teams that posted winning records.
 
Cornell kicks off the campaign at home when Binghamton visits on Tuesday, Nov. 5, followed by its first road game of the year on Sunday, Nov. 10 at Bryant. A home contest against NJIT on Wednesday, Nov. 13 sets up a four-game road swing that closes out the month, with consecutive games against DePaul, Syracuse, Coppin State and Navy. DePaul finished 2019 by reaching the finals of the CBI Tournament, while the game against the Orange will feature the third matchup featuring Big Red junior Jimmy Boeheim playing against the team headed up by Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, his father. While Cornell and Syracuse have met six years in a row and 124 times in history, the Big Red will play Coppin State for the second time and first in 30 years. Cornell and Navy meet for the second straight season after the Big Red's 61-50 home win to close out the 2018 calendar year, but will visit Annapolis for the first time in more than 100 years (Feb. 13, 1915 - a 24-23 Cornell victory).
 
The Big Red opens December by returning home for contests with Towson (Dec. 1) and Lafayette (Dec. 7). Three straight road games close the calendar year beginning with a road contest at defending Patriot League champion Colgate on Dec. 11. Hartford (Dec. 22) and Penn State (Dec. 29) provide the opposition before Cornell ends non-league play and opens 2020 with a home matchup with SUNY Purchase on Jan. 7 – 11 days before its league opener at Columbia.
 
The conference season will again be treacherous, with 10 of its 14 contests coming against teams that won at least 16 games and more than half its battles (eight of 14) vs. opponents that won at least 19 games a year ago. After opening with its traditional home-and-home series with the Lions, the Big Red will play its next five Ivy contests against the five squads that went .500 or better in league play with three on the road.
 
The 2019 Big Red team earned a spot in the CIT, the Big Red's first trip to a postseason tournament since the 2010 NCAA. Cornell finished .500 in conference play for the first time in nine years, finishing tied for fourth in the league standings. The team owned a win over defending Ivy champ Penn, a sweep of 2019 league champion Harvard, as well as a 21-game winner NJIT on the road. Three starters from that team have graduated, including four-time All-Ivy guard Matt Morgan, the No. 2 all-time scorer in conference history.