Men's Basketball Opens 2022-23 Season Monday at Boston College

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• The Cornell men’s basketball team opens the 2022-23 season when it visits ACC foe Boston College on Monday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
• The contest will be the first meeting between the programs in more than a half century (1969), with the Golden Eagles winning all three previous meetings.
• Picked fifth in the Ivy League Preseason media poll, the Big Red is coming off a 15-11 season that included an appearance in the Ivy Tournament and a fourth-place finish among the Ancient Eight.
• Four starters have departed, with three of the seniors moving on to play as graduate transfers at other Division I institutions (Ivy League does not allow graduate student eligibility) — Dean Noll (Stony Brook), Kobe Dickson (Howard) and Sarju Patel (Albany).
• Over the past two seasons, seven grad transfers have gone on to play Division I basketball elsewhere — Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice) and Riley Voss (Wright State).
• While the loss of four starters is usually crippling, the Big Red returns eight players who saw at least nine minutes of action per game for a squad that played at least 11 in each of its 26 contests.
• A win for the Big Red over the Golden Eagles would be the program's first win over an ACC school since 1951-52, snapping a 37-
game skid (last win was 58-51 vs. Wake Forest on Dec. 27, 151 at the Dixie Classic in Raleigh, N.C.).

THE SERIES 
Overall: Boston College leads 3-0
In Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College leads 1-0
Current Streak: Boston College, 3 games
Last Meeting: Boston College won 74-70, 12/31/1976 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Earl vs. Boston College: 0-0
Series Notes: Boston College has won all three previous meetings in a series that dates back to 1969 • that first meeting came in Barton Hall in Ithaca, with the Golden Eagles securing a 78-60 win on Dec. 19, 1969 • the teams completed the home-and-home when BC earned a 101-76 triumph on Jan. 8, 1971 in the only previous meeting in Chestnut Hill • the teams last met in the consolation game of Minnesota’s Pillsbury Classic with BC claiming a 74-70 win on New Year’s Eve 1976. 

A WIN OVER BOSTON COLLEGE WOULD ... 
• be the first-ever victory over the Golden Eagles (0-3).
• make Cornell 79-44 all-time in season openers.
• up Cornell’s non-conference record to 11-3 over its past 14 contests.
• give Cornell four consecutive wins in season openers for the first time since the 2008-10 seasons.
• be the first win over an ACC school since 1951-52, snapping a 37-game skid.
• be the 1,293rd in program history (1,292-1,470 in 121 seasons, .468).

LAST TIME OUT: Princeton 77, Cornell 73
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY
• In an instant classic that featured 10 lead changes and five ties in the second half alone, Princeton made the plays in the final 60 seconds and Cornell rimmed out the game-tying bucket late as the top-seeded Tigers clawed past the Big Red, 77-73, on March 12, 2022 at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion. 
• Tied 73-73 entering the final minute, Princeton collected three of its four offensive rebounds of the night, winning the game on Ivy League Player of the Year Tosan Evboumwan's driving layup with 36 seconds to play. 
• The Big Red's had a chance to tie, but All-Ivy guard Dean Noll's pull-up jumper in the lane rolled out with nine ticks left. 
• Princeton's Ryan Langborg went to the line and connected on two free throws to ice the contest and send Princeton to the final.
• Seniors Sarju Patel and Dean Noll each had 13 points, freshman Nazir Williams had 12 and Kobe Dickson scored 10 with six rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots to lead the Big Red. 
• Greg Dolan added an efficient seven points with four assists, three rebounds and a steal. 
• Both Sean Hansen and Jordan Jones scored five apiece, with Jones adding four rebounds. 
• The Big Red shot 49 percent from the floor, outrebounded the Tigers 36-31 and committed just seven turnovers.
• Evboumwan scored 21 points with six rebounds and six assists, while Jaelin Llewellyn had a game-high 23 with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. 
• Ethan Wright was also posted double figures with 12 points and six boards. 

NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red’s five-game win streak to start the 2021-22 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.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 912 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 958 of 962 games (6,358 3-pointers over that span).
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (Chattanooga) 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.
• Tenth-year assistant coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• After the Ivy League didn’t compete during the 2019-20 season, Cornell’s first game of the 2021-22 season 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, 2021 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.
• 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.
• Are Cornell Student-Athletes on Scholarship? The easy answer is no. Cornell student-athletes are awarded need-based financial aid, just as any other student who applies to the school. That package can come in the form of student loans and grants. The basic intent of the original Ivy League agreement of 1954 was to improve and foster intercollegiate athletics while keeping the emphasis on such competition in harmony with the educational purpose of the institutions. The Ivy League is nationally recognized for its level of success — absent of athletic scholarships — while rigorously maintaining its self-imposed high academic standards. The Ivy League has demonstrated a rare willingness and ability, given the current national pressures on intercollegiate success, to abide by these rules and still compete successfully in Division I athletics.

Photos by Dave Burbank, Madison Epperson, Eldon Lindsay, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr