GAME 17: Cornell (10-6, 2-3 Ivy) at Brown (10-11, 2-4 Ivy)

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 29 - 4:00 p.m.
Venue: The Pizzitola Sports Center (2,800) - Providence, R.I.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @CUBigRedHoops
 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell men's basketball team will try to get back to even in conference play when it visits Brown on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
• The contest will be the Big Red's 900th all-time in Ivy League play dating back to the 1953-54 season and sports a 383-516 record (.426). 
• Scott Cordischi and Russ Tyler will call all the action on ESPN+.
• Cornell is coming off a 76-61 victory over Harvard on Jan. 22 at home, helping the team improve to a perfect 7-0 at home this season and guaranteeing itself a winning record in Ithaca.
• The Big Red outscored the Crimson 44-24 in the second half, shooting 57 percent for the game while limiting Harvard to 36 percent.
• Junior Jordan Jones returned after missing five games and made a huge impact with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists off the bench to lead four double figure scorers.
• The Big Red's 10-6 start marks its best record after 16 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 11th 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 qualifying player ranked in the top 20 in scoring.
• The Big Red has shared the ball all season long, ranking third nationally in assists per game (19.1) — behind only Arizona (21.8 apg.) and Gonzaga (19.3 apg.).
• Ten players are averaging double figure minutes and two more are over nine minutes per contest, with the Big Red playing at least 11 players in each game.
• Sophomore Keller Boothby has emerged as one of the nation's top shooters, ranking first nationally in 3-point percentage (.519).
 

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: Cornell leads 81-54
In Providence, R.I.: Brown leads 34-33
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 63-45, 2/22/2020 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Brown: 5-3
Series Notes: Cornell holds an 81-54 lead in a series that dates back to the 1949-50 campaign • Cornell has had the best of the series recently, having won 23 of the last 32 meetings • the Bears ended Cornell's 13-game win streak in the series in March 2013 and the series is nearly split right down the middle since (Brown leads 8-7)
 

A WIN OVER BROWN WOULD ...

• make Cornell 11-6 on the season.
• even the Big Red's record in Ivy play at 3-3.
• snap a three-game road losing streak.
• be its second straight over the Bears while extending its overall lead in the series to 82-54.
• be the 1,288th in program history (1,287-1,466 in 120 seasons, .467).
 

SOME NOTES TO KNOW

• Cornell is averaging 11.2 3-pointers made per game over its last 13.
• The Big Red is averaging 40.1 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 293-143 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.
• Sophomore Chris Manon has multiple steals in each of his last six games and is averaging 2.8 steals per game over that span.
• Over his last five contests, Manon is averaging 11.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game  while shooting 43 percent from the floor and 46 percent from 3-point range. 
• 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 11.1 per game over the past nine (along with 3.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 0.9 steals per game in just 23.0 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.
• Over the team's last three outings, Patel is averaging 12.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists while making 14-of-24 shots from the floor (.583).
• 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.
• Cornell's opponents have more turnovers than assists in five of its last six games.
• The Big Red has posted seven games this season with at least 20 assists, a school 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 903 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 949 of 953 games (6,282 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

• Cornell will play its only back-to-back Ivy League weekend when Princeton and Penn visit next week, beginning with a rematch against the Tigers on Friday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red led by as many as 18 in the second half, but Matt Allocco's buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted the Tigers to a 72-70 win on Jan. 8 at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• The Tigers remain unbeaten in conference play (5-0) and bring a 10-game win streak into Saturday's home contest against preseason Ivy favorite Yale.