Men's Hoops Opens At Home With Colgate Tuesday, Eyes First 3-0 Start In Quarter-Century

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• The Cornell men’s basketball team will attempt to post its first 3-0 start to a season in a quarter-century when it hosts Central New York rival and defending Patriot League champion Colgate for its home opener on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor ‘05 will be on the call on ESPN+.
• The last time the Big Red opened a season 3-0 was during the 1996-97 campaign when it defeated Buffalo (70-62) and Haverford (90-39) at home sandwiched around a victory at Lehigh (69-68). Prior to that — it was 1964-65.
• Cornell’s Brian Earl will coach against his best friend from eighth grade, ninth-year Colgate head coach and 2018 and 2019 Patriot League Coach of the Year, Matt Langel.
• The pair were not only great friends, but later found themselves on opposite sides of the great Princeton-Penn rivalry.
• Earl, the 1999 Ivy League Player of the year and a three-time Ivy champion, graduated with an Ivy League-record 281 3-pointers, a mark that stood until Cornell’s Ryan Wittman ’10 surpassed him in 2010, and closed his career ranked fifth all-time at Princeton with 1,428 points. 
• Langel was part of two Ivy title teams at Penn, where he scored 1,191 points and hit 201 3-pointers, good for fourth all-time for the Quakers.

ABOUT COLGATE
• Colgate is 1-1 following a season-opening 65-58 victory over Northeastern and a 77-74 defeat at NC State.
• The defending Patriot League champions lost conference Player of the Year Jordan Burns, but Nelly Cummings (22.0 ppg., 10-of-13 from 3-point range) has picked up the scoring load as five other players are averaging between 8.0 and 9.5 points per night.
• One of those players is Tucker Richardson (8.0 ppg., 7.5 rpg., 4.0 apg.), who paces the team in rebounds and assists. 
• Colgate has relied on a solid eight-man rotation with three of his players seeing more than 32.0 minutes per game.
• The Raiders are allowing opponents to shoot 53 percent inside the 3-point line, but just 24 percent from beyond the arc with 3.5 makes per contest.
• Three-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Matt Langel has led the Raiders to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and three consecutive program-record win performances.

THE SERIES 
Overall: Cornell leads 73-58, first meeting in 1901-02
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 45-26
Current Streak: Colgate, 4
Last Meeting: Colgate, 66-58 (12/11/2019 in Hamilton, N.Y.)
Earl vs. Colgate: 0-4 (0-2 at home)
Series Notes: The Big Red’s last win in the series came on Nov. 16, 2015, a 101-98 double overtime victory in Hamilton • the two teams first met in March of 1902 and have squared off every season since 2012-13, excepting the 2020-21 season when the Ivy League did not compete due to the COVID-9 pandemic • Colgate holds a 6-5 edge over the last 11 meetings •  the Big Red is 150-127 all-time against current members of the Patriot League • Cornell holds series advantages against Army West Point (20-13), Lehigh (13-9) and Navy (3-2) and trails Bucknell (25-23), Holy Cross (3-2) and Loyola (MD) (2-1) • the series with American (1-1), Boston University (2-2) and Lafayette (12-12) are tied.

A WIN OVER COLGATE WOULD ... 
• make Cornell 3-0 to start a season for the first time since the 1996-97 campaign and for the second time since 1965.
• push its lead in the all-time series to 74-58.
• extend its win streak to four games overall.
• give head coach Brian Earl his first win over Colgate (0-4) and good friend, Raiders’ coach Matt Langel.
• be the fourth consecutive for Cornell in its home opener.
• make the Big Red 151-127 all-time again members of the Patriot League.
• be the 1,279th in program history (1,278-1,460 in 120 seasons, .467). 

LAST TIME THEY MET 
• Colgate used a 23-2 second half run to erase a double-digit deficit and the reigning Patriot League champions used that momentum to top Cornell 66-58 at Cotterell Court.
• Senior Josh Warren had 12 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Big Red, while junior Jimmy Boeheim chipped in 11 points, all in the first half, to go along with five rebounds and three assists. 
• Junior Terrance McBride and freshman Jordan Jones each had nine points and six rebounds Riley Voss had seven points and Bryan Knapp was credited with four points, three rebounds and three assists as Cornell suffered its eight straight defeat. 
• The Big Red shot just 28 percent in the decisive second half after hitting on 61 percent in the first 20 minutes.
• Four Colgate players reached double figures and three more had at least seven points as the Raiders erased a double-digit second half deficit. 
Cornell had a 38-28 edge on the glass, but the Raiders turned the ball over just six times Keegan Records had 12 points and nine boards off the bench while Jordan Burns, Nelly Cummings and Tucker Richardson had 10 each.

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 90, Lafayette 85
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE
• The Cornell men’s basketball team put five in double figures and it was the shot that cemented the fifth that solidified the Big Red’s 90-85 win over Lafayette at the Kirby Sports Center. 
• Senior Sarju Patel hit a 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining, his first trey since playing at VMI in 2019, to stem Lafayette’s late momentum and lift the Big Red to its third straight road victory dating back to the 2019-20 season. 
• Patel finished with 10 points with six rebounds.
• Sophomore Chris Manon had 19 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals and junior Jordan Jones scored 19 with six rebounds and two assists. 
• Keller Boothby hit four 3-pointers for a career-best 12 points and Greg Dolan chipped in 10 points. 
• Kobe Dickson had a team-high eight rebounds and four assists to go along with eight points.
• Cornell made 45 percent of its shots and knocked down 12 3-pointers in the win, making more free throws (20) than its opponent attempted (14) for the second straight game.
• Lafayette had four in double figures itself, with Tyrone Perry leading the way with a game-high 25 points, while seven-footer Neal Quinn had 19 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots, while Leo O’Boyle netted 19 with five rebounds and three assists. 

NOTES FROM LAFAYETTE GAME
• Cornell’s bench outscored Lafayette’s 24-5.
• For the second consecutive game, Cornell made more free throws (20) than its opponent attempted (14).
• Senior Kobe Dickson has led the team in assists in each of its first two games (four apiece). Prior to this season, he had never finished with a team-high in assists.
• Chris Manon has 20 free throw attempts in his first two collegiate games to become the first Big Red player with 20 free throw attempts in a two-game span since Matt Morgan shot 20 in contests against at Columbia (8) and vs. Penn (12) during the 2018-19 season.
• Freshman Nazir Williams (3-of-3 field goals, 1-of-1 3-pointers, 2-of-2 free throws) has not missed a shot in his first two collegiate games.
• The Big Red’s 12 3-pointers made against Lafayette were the most in a game since connecting on 13 in an 86-71 loss at Yale on Feb. 1, 2020..
• Sarju Patel's 3-pointer with 13 seconds left was his first in a collegiate game since March 9, 2019 when he went 1-of-3 against No. 22 Wofford in the Southern Conference Tournament.

NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red will be one the least experienced teams in the country in 2021-22,  bringing back less than a third of its scoring, rebounding and assists from two seasons ago (Cornell and the Ivy League did not compete in 2020-21 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). 
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 889 consecutive games 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 935 of 939 games (6,131 3-pointers over that span).
• In 2019-20, the Big Red lost three games by a single point, five by a single possession, six by four points or less and eight by single digits.
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (VMI) one of three active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley and Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones.
• Junior Jordan Jones’ father Max played in the NFL (Buffalo Bills) and the USFL (Birmingham Stallions), while his uncle Sean Jones played in the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders, Houston Oilers and Green Bay Packers, winning a Super Bowl title in 1997 with the Packers and twice capturing All-Pro honors.
• Senior Dean Noll helped guide Shawnee HS (N.J.), the alma mater of Cornell head coach Brian Earl, to a state title as a senior, earning MVP honors for the championship game. He broke the school’s single-season scoring record with 737 points - besting the previous mark of 675 set by Dan Earl, Brian’s older brother.
• Senior Sarju Patel seat out the 2019-20 season as a transfer and 2020-21 due to the pandemic after averaging 10.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 0.9 steals per game at VMI under head coach Dan Earl.
• Ninth-year assistant coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Four 2020 Cornell graduates and Big Red starters — Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse, 18.0 ppg., 5.0 rpg.), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice, 3.5 ppg., 2.0 rpg., 2.0 apg., 2.5 spg.) and Riley Voss (Wright State, 6.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg., 1.0 apg.) — will play at Division I institutions this winter as grad students.
• 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 continues to be ranked among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR). 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 since the APR began in 2005, including seven consecutive (2009-16).
• The Big Red’s 18-man roster represents seven states, with seven players coming from the great State of the New York, three more from both New Jersey and Texas and two from California.
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 41-51 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 10-29 in road games.
• 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.

CAPTAINS 
• A trio of first-year captains will lead the Big Red into the 2021-22 campaign.
• Seniors Kobe Dickson and Sarju Patel and junior Greg Dolan will take primary leadership roles.

Photos by Dave Burbank, Madison Epperson, Eldon Lindsay, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr