GAME 16: Harvard (10-5, 2-1 Ivy) at Cornell (9-6, 1-3 Ivy)

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 22 - 2:00 p.m.
Venue: Newman Arena (3,500) - Ithaca, N.Y.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @CUBigRedHoops
 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to get back on track when it welcomes Harvard to Newman Arena on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 2 p.m.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor '05 will call all the action on ESPN+.
• Cornell has dropped three consecutive games, all on the road, against perennial conference contenders Penn, Princeton and Yale.
• Despite its skid, the Big Red's 9-6 start marks its best record after 15 games since the 2009-10 season.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team has already surpassed its win total from 2019-20 (7-20) with wins over defending conference champions from the Patriot League (Colgate) and MEAC (Coppin State).
• Cornell, which ranked ninth in the nation in scoring entering the weekend, ranked No. 1 in the country in adjusted pace in terms of shortest average possession time in Division I during the non-conference season.
• The Big Red leads the conference in points per game despite not having a player ranked in the top 10 in scoring and just one player in the top 20.
• Cornell has been especially dominant in its 6-0 start at home, averaging 95.2 points and outscoring opponents by 27.2 points while assisting on 25.3 baskets per contest and shooting at a 52-41-70 clip. 
• The Big Red has shared the ball all season long, ranking third nationally in assists per game (19.1).
• Sophomore Keller Boothby has emerged as one of the nation's top shooters, ranking first nationally in 3-point percentage (.534) and fourth in the Ancient Eight (83rd nationally) with 2.60 made 3-pointers per contest.
• Monday's scheduled Martin Luther King Jr. matinee between Cornell and Columbia was postponed due to the winter storm that dropped a foot of snow on Ithaca beginning on Sunday evening.
 

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: Cornell leads 95-84
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 50-38
Current Streak: Harvard, 2 games
Last Meeting: Harvard won 67-58, 2/29/20 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Harvard: 2-6
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • Harvard had won six straight meetings before the Big Red's season sweep during the 2018-19 campaign • Cornell won two consecutive prior to that stretch, but that came on the heels of nine consecutive Crimson wins
 

A WIN OVER HARVARD WOULD ...

• make Cornell 10-6 on the season.
• move the Big Red's record in Ivy play to 2-3.
•extend its win streak at home to seven games.
• snap a three-game losing streak.
• end a two-game skid against Harvard dating back to the 2018-19 season.
• extend the Big Red's lead in the all-time series to 96-84.
• be the 1,287th in program history (1,286-1,466 in 120 seasons, .467).
 

SOME NOTES TO KNOW

• In its last six games (1-5), Cornell has been credited with 86 assists and 95 turnovers while shooting .405 from the floor (143-of-353) while opponents have shot .523 (180-of-344) over that same span.
• In its nine wins, Cornell has a robust 1.68 assist:turnover (200:119) ratio, while that number falls to 0.92 in its losses (86:93).
• Cornell is averaging 11.3 3-pointers made per game over its last 12.
• The Big Red is averaging 40.3 points per game off the bench, including 83 against Keuka.
• Cornell has more than doubled up its opponents on the fast break so far this season, outscoring opponents 278-136 in transition.
• Cornell clinched its first winning non-conference slate since the 2009-10 season (16-4).
• It took 11 games for a Cornell player to surpass 30 minutes of playing time in a game, as Keller Boothby recorded 30:29 of playing time at Syracuse.
• Nine different players have led the Big Red in single-game scoring, eight have led in assists and 11 players have paced the squad in rebounding in at least one contest. 
•Twelve different players have scored in double figures in at least one game this season.
• After starting out his career 0-for-3 from 3-point range, sophomore Keller Boothby has made 39-of-70 treys over his last 14 games (.557).
• Over his last seven games, Boothby has nine assists and just two turnovers in 173 minutes of court time while hitting 17-of-34 3-pointers (.500).
• Sophomore Chris Manon has multiple steals in each of his last five games and is averaging 3.0 steals per game over that span.
• 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.
• After averaging 4.7 points over the first seven games this season, Noll is posting 10.9 per game over the past seven (along with 3.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 0.9 steals per game in just 22.6 minutes).
• Senior Sarju Patel sat 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.
• 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.
• Since going 0-for-5 from the field at Penn State, freshman Guy Ragland Jr. has made 27-of-44 field goals (18-of-35 from 3-point range) and at one point made nine straight 3-pointers to set a Cornell record.
 

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

• 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'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.
• 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.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 902 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 948 of 952 games (6,273 3-pointers over that span).
• 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.
• Seniors Kobe Dickson and Sarju Patel and junior Greg Dolan are serving as the team's tri-captains for the 2021-22 campaign.
 

NEXT UP

• The Big Red returns to the road and closes out the month when it visits Brown on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
• The Big Red leads the all-time series 81-54 after going 5-2 in the last seven meetings.
• The teams have split the season series each of the last two campaigns.
• Brown has won two straight contests between the teams in Providence by an average of 17.5 points per game.