Men's Basketball Returns From Finals Break, Looks To Snap Long Streaks At Syracuse

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• In what has already been a record-breaking season, the Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to snap a pair of long skids against the Orange when the Big Red visits Syracuse on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. at the JMA Wireless Dome.
• Derek Jones and Randolph Childress will be on the call on the ACC Network.
• The Big Red will be looking for its first win over Syracuse since Dec. 4, 1968 — with 41 consecutive losses in the meantime.
• Cornell will also be playing its first victory over an ACC opponent in more than 60 seasons, a losing skid that has reached 39 games.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team is off to a 7-2 start with its only losses being a pair of two-point road decisions at ACC foes Boston College and Miami. 
• The Big Red's recently snapped seven-game win streak was its longest in more than a decade going back to a nine-game run in 2009-10, the Ivy championship and Sweet 16 season.
• Senior captain Greg Dolan paces the team in scoring (13.9 ppg.) and assists (4.3 apg.) and is second in rebounding (4.6 rpg.) and steals (1.7 spg.) for the 7-2 Big Red.
• Eight players are averaging at least 7.6 points per game as part of a balanced attack.
• Cornell is ranked in the top two nationally in 3-pointers attempted per game (first, 32,1), 3-pointers made per game (second, 11.9) and assists per game (second, 20.9).

THE SERIES 
Overall: Syracuse leads 95-31
In Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse leads 65-12
In The Dome: Syracuse leads 27-0
Current Streak: Syracuse, 41 games
Last Meeting: Syracuse won 80-68,12/29/21 in Syracuse, N.Y.
Earl vs. Syracuse: 0-5
Series Notes: The Big Red’s last win in the series came on Dec. 4, 1968, a 93-81 victory in Ithaca • Cornell is 1-28 all-time in the Dome and 0-27 against the Orange • the program’s only win in the Dome was a 75-54 victory over Saint Francis (Pa.) to open the 2005-06 season at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic • the Big Red is 38-144 against current members of the ACC • Cornell’s last win over a team in the conference at the time of the game came vs. Wake Forest the 1951-52 season, a 58-51 victory on the road • since then, the Big Red has lost 39 consecutive games to current members of the ACC • Cornell has 31 wins all-time against Syracuse, the last coming in 1968, but all were prior to its time in the conference.

A WIN OVER SYRACUSE WOULD ... 
• push Cornell's record to 8-2 on the season for the second straight year.
• snap a 41-game losing streak to the Orange.
• be the first win over an ACC school since 1951-52, snapping a 39-game skid.
• push the Big Red's road record to 4-2 this season.
• up Cornell’s non-conference record to 18-5 over its past 23 contests.
• be the 1,300th in program history (1,299-1,473-2 in 121 seasons, .469).

THE LAST TIME CORNELL DEFEATED SYRACUSE
• Things have changed mightily since the last time Cornell defeated Syracuse, a 93-81 Big Red win on Dec. 4, 1968 in Ithaca. 
• Some of the things that have happened in the 19,736 days since — man has landed on the moon (July 20, 1969); Cornell head coach Brian Earl was born (1977); 14 U.S. Presidential elections have been held; the earth’s population has more than doubled, increasing by 4.3 billion; a human being born on that day has had their heart beat approximately 1,99 billion times while taking approximately 437 million breaths; Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim joined the SU staff as an assistant coach (1969), was promoted to head coach (1976), won a national title (2003) and more than 1,000 games on the Orange sidelines and had a son (1998), Jimmy, who would later suit up for the Big Red (2017-21) before helping extend the win streak with 16 points and seven rebounds while playing for the Orange in 2021.
• Below are some highlights from 1968, when the Big Red last earned a victory over the Orange.

Category                1968                                          2022
Loaf of bread           $0.22                                         $1.85
Milk (Gallon)           $1.21                                         $4.22
New Car                 $2,450                                        $48,094
Gas (Regular)           $0.34                                         $3.85
New House               $26,500                                       $384,800
Postage Stamp           $0.06                                         $0.60
Household Income        $9,670                                        $87,864
No. 1 Song              “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”            “Creepin'” by Metro Bloomin,
                        by Marvin Gaye                                The Weeknd & 21 Savage

LAST TIME OUT: Miami (FL) 107, Cornell 105
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS
• The Cornell men's basketball team nearly rallied from a 21-point second half deficit, but a last-second shot fell short and Miami escaped with a 107-105 victory over the Big Red at the Watsco Center. 
• The Big Red trailed 75-54 with 17:54 remaining before it rallied, getting within single digits with a little over four minutes to play, then cutting it to two with possession with four seconds remaining. 
• Five Cornell players scored double figures as the Big Red set a visiting team Watsco Center record with its 105 points and 27 assists along the way. 
• The Big Red assisted on 27 baskets with just seven turnovers, shot 52 percent from the floor and hit 12 3-pointers.
• Greg Dolan had 19 points and six assists, Chris Manon added 18 points, six assists and three steals, and Nazir Williams tallied 18 points, five rebounds and five assists. 
• Sean Hansen also reached double figures with 14 points and six boards and Max Watson chipped in with 13. 
• Miami got a career-high 36 points from Isaiah Wong, who added seven rebounds and six assists in a dominant effort. 
• Jordan Miller chipped in 22 points with five boards and four assists and Norchad Omier posted 17 points, 12 assists and made 6-of-7 shots from the floor. 

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Senior Greg Dolan paces the Ancient Eight in assist:turnover ratio (3.00), and his career 2.49 is the best mark in school history.
• Dolan, who entered the season with six double figure scoring games, has already surpassed that mark with eight in the team's first nine contests.
• Junior Keller Bootby has turned the ball over just once in 209 minutes on the court (10 assists) this season and  has just 12 career miscues (one every 67.5 minutes). Dating back to its game on Feb. 5, 2022 against Penn, he has just one turnover in 398 minutes of action (15 assists and 38 3-pointers made over that span).
• Junior Chris Manon has 65 steals in 35 career games, or 1.85 steals per game, just off of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 18.0 minutes per game over that span. 
• The Big Red's two-headed center of Sean Hansen and Guy Ragland Jr. is combining to average 17.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.5 blocks while playing 40.8 minutes per game.
• Junior Sean Hansen set a school record by hitting all eight field goals in the win over Saint Francis (Pa.), doubling his previous scoring high with 26 points and becoming the first player in school history with a game of at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
• With his double-double in the win over Ithaca, Ragland became just the sixth player in school history with multiple double-double efforts off the bench (Stan Brown, Mike Millane, Bernard Jackson, Brian Kopf and Jeff Foote) in a career.
• Sophomore Nazir Williams is shooting 59 percent from the floor from inside the 3-point arc for his career (67-of-114).
• He has reached double figures in six consecutive games and eight of nine this season.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell trailed at the final media break in each of its past three games, using a 20-2 ending run to top Delaware 74-67 on Dec. 1, outscoring Lafayette 11-0 to end the game to rally past the Leopards on Dec. 4, 73-68, then making a run at Miami with an 11-3 run before falling the Hurricanes, 107-105.
• Among 352 Division I teams, Cornell ranks in the top 10 percent nationally in the rankings of seven of 25 categories despite having just one individual in the top 50 of any category (Greg Dolan in assist:turnover ratio, 27th at 3.00).
• The Big Red leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (85.1), 3-pointers made per game (11.9), 3-point percentage (.370), assists (20.9), assist:turnover ratio (1.53), steals (10.0), turnovers forced (16.1), turnover margin (2.4) and field goal percentage (.498).
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 22-13 record (.629), a  mark that is 22-8 when removing guarantee games (.733).
• Over the past two seasons, the Big Red is averaging 18.2 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 80.7 points per game. 
• The Big Red has held opponents to sub-30 percent shooting from beyond the arc in five of its nine games this season.
• At the same time, Cornell has made double figures in 3-pointers in seven of nine games.
• Since the season opener against Boston College, the Big Red has a 1.72 assist:turnover ratio (170:99), including 60:27 over its past three contests.
• If maintained, Cornell's 85.1 scoring average would be the program's second-highest in school history, just behind the 1965-66 team that posted a school record 85.2 points per outing.
• In the Big Red's nine-man rotation, five players are shooting 54 percent or better from the floor and eight are averaging at least 18.0 minutes per contest.
• All nine players in the rotation have, at worst, a neutral assist:turnover ratio. 
• Cornell's consecutive wins at Monmouth and Delaware, both Colonial Athletic Conference opponents, were against foes who won at least 20 games a season ago.
• 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.
• The Big Red's 22 3-pointers against SUNY-Delhi broke the school record of 20 at Brown on March 5, 2010, a game where the 2009-10 Big Red clinched the Ivy League title in Providence, R.I. That mark is the tied for the most by any Division I team this season (Chattanooga vs. Covenant, 11/29/2022)
• Cornell's 114 points against SUNY-Delhi were the third-most in a game in school history and marks the 26th time that the Big Red has surpassed the 100-point mark.
• Cornell's 31 assists against SUNY-Delhi tied for the second-most in a game in school history, with three of the top four marks coming in the past 25 contests.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 921 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 967 of 971 games (6,465 3-pointers over that span).
• 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.
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (Chattanooga) one of four active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley, Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones and Archie (Rhode Island) and Sean (Xavier) Miller.
• 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, Hannah Rosenberg, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr