Men's Basketball Looks To Remain Unbeaten When Wells Visits On Friday

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• Cornell 3-0 start is the best in a quarter-century, but you have to go back even further for the last time the Big Red opened a year 4-0.
• Division III foe and Central New York neighbor Wells College will stand in the way of the men’s basketball team accomplishing something that hasn’t been done since 1961 when the teams tip on Friday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor ‘05 will be on the call on ESPN+.
• That 1961-62 Big Red team went 19-5 and began the season with six consecutive victories, including triumphs over Syracuse (83-68) at home and Illinois (72-60) on the road. 
• Cornell and Wells, separated by just 27 miles, will be meeting on the hardwood for the first time.
• Located in nearby Aurora, N.Y., Wells rejected an offer by Era Cornell to merge in 1866 and opened two years later as an all-women’s college. It opened its doors to people of all genders in 2004. 
• Cornell Director of Athletics Andy Noel served on the Board of Trustees at Wells from  2006-13.
• Wells Athletic Director Mike Lindberg was a fixture in Ithaca College athletics for three decades prior to taking the leadership post at Wells in 2014. 

ABOUT WELLS
• Wells is 3-1 on the season with wins over Cazenovia (72-63) and SUNY ESF (89-66) prior to a Wednesday’s wild 106-101 victory against Keuka.
• The Express were 5-20 in 2019-20 before sitting out the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Jarek Feliz leads Wells in scoring (15.5 ppg., 6.5 rpg., 2.5 apg., 1.5 spg., 1.8 blpg.), while Ransel Rodriguez (15.0 ppg., 5.8 apg., 3.8 rpg., 1.5 spg.) and Ty McBride (12.3 ppg., 2.8 rpg., 3.3 apg.) are also averaging double figure.
• Logan Jacobs (8.5 ppg., 5.3 rpg.) and Dylan Perry (9.5 ppg.) are not far behind, while Jalen Feliz is among the team leaders in rebounding (5.8 rpg.).
• Rodriguez was among those who had monster games in the victory over Keuka with 23 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds and four steals, while Jarek Feliz compiled 19 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
• Wells is shooting 46 percent from the floor overall and has relied on its defense, limiting opponents to 41 percent shooting and forcing nearly turnovers per game.
• Head coach Joe Wojtylko was named the first head coach in Wells history in 2007 and has been at the helm ever since, compiling 144 wins.

THE SERIES 
Overall: First Meeting
Series Notes: Cornell has almost annually played and beaten a non-Division I team, going 28-0 with an average margin of victory of more than 30 points per game in the last 27 seasons • The 2010-11 season was the only one in the last 24 years where the schedule was made up completely of Division I teams • each of the team’s 28 wins have come by double figures except for in 2004-05, when Ithaca College made a 10-point run against Cornell reserves in the final minute in a 69-67 Big Red victory • this is the first of two games scheduled against non-Division I teams, as the Big Red will also meet Keuka on Dec. 5 at home.
 

A WIN OVER WELLS WOULD ... 
• make Cornell 4-0 to start a season for the first time since the 1961-62 campaign.
• extend its win streak to five games overall.
• be the first-ever against Wells
• make Cornell 6-0 against non-Division I schools under Brian Earl.
• mark the 169th institution that Cornell has defeated in men’s basketball since its first varsity season in 1898-99.
• be the 1,280th in program history (1,279-1,460 in 120 seasons, .467). 

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 78, Colgate 68
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY I HIGHLIGHTS
• Cornell men’s basketball team improved to 3-0 for the first time since 1996 after wearing Colgate out in the second half en route to a 78-68 victory at Newman Arena. 
• Cornell had three players reach double figures in scoring and eight notch at least eight points.
• Cornell trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and reversed that in the second half, leading by as many as 16 as the Big Red threw waves of players and pressure at the Raiders, causing the visitors to shoot 1-of-15 from beyond the arc after the break and 6-of-32 for the game. 
• Jordan Jones netted a team-high 14 points, while Sean Hansen had a career-high 11 with three assists and Keller Boothby scored 10 with nine boards. 
• Nazir Williams had nine, Dean Noll scored seven with four rebounds and three assists and three players had six apiece, including Kobe Dickson who added eight boards. 
• No Cornell player played more than 25 minutes, and the Big Red bench outscored Colgate’s by a dominant 42-10 mark with a 22-8 edge in fastbreak points. 
• The Raiders got 20 points from Nelly Cummings, while Tucker Richardson scored 13 and Jack Ferguson had 11. 
• Keegan Records was credited with seven points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.

NOTES FROM COLGATE GAME
• The Big Red's home win over Colgate was its first contest at Newman Arena since a 67-58 defeat at the hand of Harvard on Feb. 29, 2020 - a span of 627 days.
• Cornell snapped a four-game losing skid against the Raiders and picked up its first win over Colgate at Newman Arena since the 2014-15 campaign.
• The victory was Cornell's fourth consecutive in its home opener.
The win was the Big Red's fourth straight overall dating back to the 2019-20 season, its longest win streak since a nine-game stretch during the 2009-10 season.
• The win was also head coach Brian Earl's first over a team coached by Matt Langel, his best friend from eighth grade.
• Over its last two games, the Big Red is averaging 16.0 assists.
• The Big Red's 15 offensive rebounds against Colgate are the most since hauling in 26 in an overtime loss at Coppin State on Nov. 23, 2019.
• Cornell's 50 rebounds were the most since 
• The Big Red's three-game non-conference win streak is its first since topping Canisius, Binghamton and UMass Lowell in consecutive games during the 2014-15 season.

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 890 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 936 of 940 games (6,137 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, 16.0 ppg., 4.5 rpg.), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice, 5.0 ppg., 1.7 rpg., 3.3 apg., 2.0 spg.) and Riley Voss (Wright State, 4.0 ppg, 1.3 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