GAME 13: Cornell (9-3, 1-0 Ivy) at Penn (4-10, 1-0 Ivy)

Date & Time: Friday, Jan. 7 - 7:00 p.m.
Venue: The Palestra (8,722) - Philadelphia, Pa.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @CUBigRedHoops
 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to start an Ivy League season 2-0 for the first time in more than a decade and end a seven-game skid at the Palestra when the Big Red meets Penn on Friday, Jan. 7 at 7 p.m.
• Joe Tordy and Vince Curran will be on the call on ESPN+.
• After opening Ivy season with a 79-71 victory over Dartmouth this past Sunday, the Big Red will have a chance to go 2-0 in Ivy play for the first time since the 2009-10 Sweet 16 campaign.
• The Big Red is off to a 9-3 start in 2021-22, its best record after 11 games since that same 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, ranked fifth in the nation in scoring at 85.7 ppg., 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 scoring despite not having a player ranked in the top 10 in scoring and just one player in the top 20.
• Cornell has shared the ball all season long, ranking second nationally in assists per game (20.8) and is in the top 20 in assist:turnover ratio (1.51).
• Senior Dean Noll is the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week after averaging 15.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in games against Syracuse and Dartmouth, including scoring 15 second half points in the comeback win over Dartmouth in the Ivy opener. 
• Senior Kobe Dickson (3.5) and junior Greg Dolan (2.9) rank second and fifth, respectively, in the conference in assists.
• Dickson also leads the team in rebounding (5.4 rpg., ninth in the Ivy League) and is bidding to become the third Big Red player to lead the squad in both categories in the last five seasons — it had never happened prior to that in more than 100 years.
• Sophomore Keller Boothby has emerged as one of the nation's top shooters, ranking first nationally in 3-point percentage (.559) and second in the Ancient Eight (72nd nationally) with 2.8 made 3-pointers per contest.
 

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: Penn leads 159-75
In Philadelphia, Pa.: Penn leads 92-26
Current Streak: Penn, 3 games
Last Meeting: Penn won 78-64, 3/6/20 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Earl vs. Penn: 1-7
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1903-04 season • the Big Red snapped an 11-game losing streak against Penn in Ithaca during the 2018-19 season • the Quakers have won 16 of the last 18 meetings, including sweeping the season series in 2019-20 • prior to that, Cornell won 7-of-8 contests
 

A WIN OVER PENN WOULD ...

• make Cornell 10-3 to start the season.
• give the Big Red a 2-0 Ivy League start for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.
• be the Big Red's first win over the Quakers at the Palestra since the 2012-13 season (snapping a seven-game skid).
• cut the Quakers' lead in the all-time series to 159-76.
• give Cornell a win in its Ivy road opener for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign (Columbia, 67-62).
• be the 1,287th in program history (1,286-1,463 in 120 seasons, .468).
 

SOME NOTES TO KNOW

• During Cornell's last seven contests (5-2), Cornell has shot .508 from the floor (220-433) and .407 from the 3-point arc (87-of-214).
• After starting out his career 0-for-3 from 3-point range, sophomore Keller Boothby has made 33-of-56 treys over his last 11 games (.589).
• Since going 0-for-5 from the field at Penn State, freshman Guy Ragland Jr. has made 19-of-28 field goals (14-of-23 from 3-point range) and at one point made nine straight 3-pointers to set a Cornell record.
• Cornell is averaging 12.0 3-pointers made per game over its last nine.
• Over its last nine contests, Cornell is averaging 23.1 assists and has a 1.65 assist:turnover ratio.
• The Big Red is averaging 43.1 points per game off the bench, including 83 against Keuka.
• Cornell has outscored opponents 243-99 on fastbreak points so far this season.
• 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.
• Senior Kobe Dickson became the first player in school history to record nine assists and nine rebounds in the same game when he did so vs. Coppin State.
• 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.
• 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.
• Over his last four contests, freshman Guy Ragland Jr. is averaging 13.0 points and 4.0 rebounds while hitting 11-of-19 3-pointers (.579).
 

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 899 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 945 of 949 games (6,246 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 be right back in action tomorrow when it visits Princeton on the back end of the critical early Ivy League weekend.
• The Big Red and the Tigers will tip off on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• The Tigers hold a 148-83 edge in the all-time series, though Cornell swept two meetings in 2019-20 and are 3-2 in the last five against Princeton.