GAME 14: Cornell (9-4, 1-1 Ivy) at Princeton (11-3, 1-0 Ivy)

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 8 - 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Jadwin Gymnasium (6,854) - Princeton, N.J.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @CUBigRedHoops
 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to salvage a split of the treacherous Penn-Princeton road trip when it visits the Tigers on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• The Big Red is coming off Friday night's 79-65 loss to Penn at the Palestra, with the Quakers pulling away in the final minute to boost its final margin.
• Despite last night's loss, the Big Red is off to a 9-4 start in 2021-22, its best record after 13 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 fifth 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 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 (20.4) and is in the top 20 in assist:turnover ratio (1.50).
• 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 (3.0) rank second and fifth, respectively, in the conference in assists.
• Dickson also leads the team in rebounding (5.2 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 (.538) and second in the Ancient Eight (72nd nationally) with 2.7 made 3-pointers per contest.
 

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: Princeton leads 148-83
In Princeton, N.J.: Princeton leads 86-29
Current Streak: Cornell, 2 games
Last Meeting: Cornell won 85-82, 3/7/20 in Princeton, N.J.
Earl vs. Princeton: 3-5
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • the two teams have split the meetings down the middle over the last 16 seasons (series tied 16-16) • the Tigers have the better of the recent meetings, claiming 15 of the last 20 after the Big Red had gone 7-1 in the previous eight matchups • Cornell snapped a six-game Princeton win streak in 2018, a three overtime thriller won by the Big Red at Newman Arena • the Big Red swept the season series in 2019-20 and has a two-game win streak.
 

A WIN OVER PRINCETON WOULD ...

• make Cornell 10-4 to start the season.
• improve the Big Red to 2-1 in Ivy play, including 1-1 on the road.
• give Cornell a three-game win streak over the Tigers.
• even the team's road record at 4-4 on the season.
• cut the Tigers' lead in the all-time series to 148-84.
• give Cornell its first win streak in consecutive games at Jadwin Gymnasium since the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.
• be the 1,287th in program history (1,286-1,464 in 120 seasons, .468).
 

SOME NOTES TO KNOW

• During Cornell's last eight contests (5-3), Cornell has shot .484 from the floor (244-504) and .399 from the 3-point arc (99-of-248).
• After starting out his career 0-for-3 from 3-point range, sophomore Keller Boothby has made 35-of-62 treys over his last 12 games (.565).
• Since going 0-for-5 from the field at Penn State, freshman Guy Ragland Jr. has made 24-of-37 field goals (16-of-29 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 10.
• Over its last 10 contests, Cornell is averaging 22.3 assists and has a 1.57 assist:turnover ratio.
• The Big Red is averaging 42.5 points per game off the bench, including 83 against Keuka.
• Cornell has outscored opponents 248-107 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 five contests, freshman Guy Ragland Jr. is averaging 12.8 points and 3.6 rebounds while hitting 13-of-25 3-pointers (.520).
• In its nine wins, Cornell has a robust 1.68 assist:turnover (200:119) ratio, while that number falls to 1.12 in its losses (65:58).
 

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 900 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 946 of 950 games (6,258 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 completes its three-game road swing when it visits defending Ivy League champion Yale on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 2 p.m. at John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.
• Yale leads the all-time series 118-110, including 15 consecutive victories.
• The Big Red's last win over Yale came in a 68-61 victory on Feb. 15, 2013 in New Haven behind 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots from Shonn Miller.