Big Red Wants To Keep Fast Start Going When It Meets Coppin State On Friday

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• Cornell will put its undefeated home record on the line against the road warriors of Coppin State when the two teams meet on Friday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor  ‘05 will be on the call on the ESPN+ broadcast.
• Cornell is off to a 6-1 start, its best record after seven games since 1967, and has won eight of its last nine non-league contests dating back to the 2019-20 campaign.
• The Big Red is averaging a healthy 22.8 assists per game over its last four contests while averaging 12.3 treys over that same span.
• Cornell has played at least 11 players in each contest as part of its usual rotation, with no one averaging more than 22.6 minutes per game.
• Cornell didn’t pick up its sixth win in 2019-20 until Feb. 22 and its seventh on March 7 en route to a 7-20 campaign.
• The Big Red’s six November victories is a school record, one more than it claimed during the 2009-10 Ivy League champion and NCAA Sweet 16 season.
• The defending MEAC champion Eagles are 1-10 after Wednesday’s 93-81 loss at nationally-ranked St. Bonaventure.
• Friday’s game will be its 11th road game of the year, five more than any other school in the country (Tarleton State - 6).

ABOUT COPPIN STATE
• Coppin State brings a 1-10 record into the contest after  a 93-81 loss at No. 25 St. Bonaventure and has now lost five in a row.
• The defending MEAC regular season champions will be playing their 11th road game of the season, winning its only home contest so far (71-49 over Loyola (Md)).
• Among its losses were contests to Loyola Chicao, DePaul, Connecticut, Virginia, Canisius and East Carolina.
• The Eagles have struggled from the floor, shooting .366 from the floor and .280 from beyond the 3-point arc while taking nearly 50 percent of its shots from 3-point range.
• Coppin State was picked to finish fourth in the preseason MEAC poll, with Nendah Tarke and Kyle Cardaci named to the preseason all-league team.
• Three players are averaging double figures, with Jesse Zarzuela (14.5 ppg., 3.5 rpg., 3.3 apg., 1.5 spg.), Tyree Corbett (11.7 ppg., 6.4 rpg.) and Tarke (11.5 ppg., 6.2 rpg., 1.6 apg., 2.9 spg.) each hitting that mark.
• Tarke is the reigning MEAC Rookie of the Year.
• Coppin State features nine newcomers, including four Division I transfers, four JUCO transfers and one freshman.
• Former NBA star and NCAA champion Juan Dixon is in his fifth season as head coach.
• The all-time leading scorer at Maryland, Dixon previously spent time on the staff at his alma mater and one year as head women’s coach at the University of the District of Columbia.

THE SERIES 
Overall: Coppin State leads 2-0, first meeting in 1989-90
In Ithaca, N.Y.: 0-0
Current Streak: Coppin State, 2
Last Meeting: Coppin State, 68-66 in OT (11/23/2019 in Baltimore, Md.)
Earl vs. Coppin State: 0-1 (0-0 at home)
Series Notes: The two teams have only met twice with Coppin State coming out victorious both times • the Eagles earned an 86-79 victory in the consolation game of the 1989 Chaminade Christmas Classic in the first meeting • the Eagles claimed a 68-66 overtime victory in 2019-20 • Cornell has a 3-2 all-time record against current members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference • Cornell is 2-0 all-time against Howard and won the only meeting with Norfolk State • the Big Red has never faced Bethune-Cookman, Delaware State, Florida A&M, Hampton, Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, Savannah State or South Carolina State.

A WIN OVER COPPIN STATE WOULD ... 
• make Cornell 7-1 to start the season for the first time since 1967.
• be the first ever against the Eagles (0-2).
• up Cornell’s non-conference record to 9-1 over its last 10 contests. 
• keep the Big Red unbeaten at home this season (currently 3-0).
• be the 1,284th in program history (1,283-1,461 in 120 seasons, .467).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 89, Canisius 75
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE
• The Big Red won its record sixth game in November behind five double figure scorers in n 89-75 victory over Canisius at the Koessler Athletic Center. 
• Cornell surpassed its previous best total of five wins in November set by the 2009-10 Ivy League champs with its third road victory of the young season. 
• The Big Red shot .618 from the floor, the 14th-best shooting game in school history.
• Kobe Dickson led the double figure scorers with a career high 17 and Jordan Jones had 14, but it was hometown hero Greg Dolan who made the biggest impact. 
• The junior guard had 12 points ojn 5-of-5 shooting with eight assists, six rebounds and a blocked shot without committing a turnover in 27 minutes of action.
• Sarju Patel chipped in 13 points, Sean Hansen had 10 off the bench and Keller Boothby notched eight points and five rebounds in the win. 
• Cornell connected on 67 percent of its shots after halftime, was credited with 23 assists.
• The Golden Griffins sliced a 27-point second half deficit to 12, but never got within single digits despite 19 points and seven rebound off the bench by Malek Green and 16 from Scott Hitchon.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• After starting out his career 0-for-3 from 3-point range, sophomore Keller Boothby has made 15-of-27 treys over his last six games (.556).
• No Big Red player has recorded more than 30 minutes of playing time this season, with senior captain Kobe Dickson’s 29:53 against Binghamton being the high-water mark.
• Sophomore Sean Hansen had 11 rebounds in just 12 minutes of action against Wells, the Big Red’s first double figure rebounding game off the bench since Errick Peck corralled 10 vs. Longwood on Nov. 24, 2012.
• Hansen has 12 assists and three turnovers over his last five outings.
• 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 former Penn State star, Dan Earl.
• Patel’s 3-pointer with 13 seconds left at Lafayette 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.
• Patel has been credited with 11 assists and two turnovers in 158 minutes of action this season.
• Freshman guard Nazir Williams has shot 50 percent better in six of seven games and is shooting 62 percent (21-of-34) from the floor overall.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• After the Ivy League didn’t compete during the 2019-20 season, Cornell’s first game against Binghamton, a 76-67 Big Red victory, was its first in 612 days.
• The Big Red features an 18-player roster for sixth-year head coach Brian Earl that includes 11 that had never suited up for Cornell and 10 that had never played a collegiate game prior to Nov. 9.
• No player that had previously suited up for a full season for the Big Red averaged 20 minutes per game. Along with the 11 players that have never played a minute for Cornell, two of the returners combined to play 41 total minutes.
• The Big Red’s home win over Colgate on Nov. 16 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.
• In two different games this season, Cornell has limited opponents below 20 percent shooting from beyond the arc in more than 30 attempts - prior to this season it had never happened since the 3-point shot was instituted in Division I in 1986.
• The Big Red’s five-game win streak to start the season was its longest since walking off the floor victorious in nine consecutive contests late in 2009-10.
• Its six-game non-conference roll was its longest since winning 10 consecutive during the 2009-10 season when it advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Over its last four contests, Cornell is averaging 22.5 assists and has a 1.7 assist:turnover ratio.
• The Big Red has 71 offensive rebounds in its last five games (14.2 per game).
• Cornell has held five of its seven opponents to 40 percent shooting or below, and five foes to sub-33 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
• The Big Red is averaging 38.7 points per game off the bench, including 43.4 over its last five outings.
• Cornell has outscored opponents 131-58 on fastbreak points so far this season.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red is 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 894 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 940 of 944 games (6,186 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.
• 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, 12.3 ppg., 6.7 rpg.), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice, 3.0 ppg., 1.1 rpg., 1.7 apg.) 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).
• 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.

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