Big Red Visits Miami With Eyes On Ending Long Skid vs. ACC Foes

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• The Cornell men's basketball team will head into exam break on Thursday, but not before it has a chance to make waves when it visits Miami on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Watsco Center.
• Tom Werme and Mime Gminski will be on the call on Bally Sports.
• The Big Red's seven-game win streak overall is its longest in more than a decade going back to a nine-game run in 2009-10.
• Cornell will be looking for its first-ever win over Miami as well as its first victory over an ACC opponent in more than 60 seasons, a losing skid that has reached 38 games.
• The Big Red has picked up gut-check wins in each of its past two outings, outscoring Delaware 20-2 on the road for a 74-67 win on Dec. 1, then posting the final 11 points to steal a 73-68 triumph over Lafayette on Dec. 4. 
• Senior captain Greg Dolan paces the team in scoring (13.4 ppg.) and assists (4.1 apg.) and is second in rebounding (4.9 rpg.) and steals (1.6 spg.) for the 7-1 Big Red.
• Eight players are averaging at least 7.9 points per game as part of a balanced attack.
• In just the past four games alone, the Big Red has had 16 players reach double figures with only one tallying more than 12 points (Dolan, 15 at Delaware).
• Cornell is ranked in the top five nationally in 3-pointers per game (second, 11.9), fastbreak points (second, 23.4), assists per game (third, 20.1) and effective field goal percentage (fifth, .591).

THE SERIES 
Overall: Miami leads 1-0
In Coral Gables, Fla.: Miami leads 1-0
Current Streak: Miami, 1 game
Last Meeting: Miami won 94-74,12/27/62 in Coral Gables, Fla.
Earl vs. Miami: 0-0
Series Notes: Miami won the only previous meeting between the teams, a 94-74 win on Dec. 27, 1962 in the first round of the Hurricane Basketball Classic • Rick Barry had 22 points and 25 rebounds for Miami, while Jerry Szachara had 21 oiiunts and Ray Ratkowski had 20 •  the Big Red is 38-143 against current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference • Cornell’s last win over a team in the conference at the time of the game came vs. Wake Forest during the 1951-52 season, a 58-51 victory on the road • since then, the Big Red has lost 38 consecutive games to current members of the ACC, including a 79-77 loss at Boston College on November 7, its only loss this season..

A WIN OVER MIAMI WOULD ... 
• push Cornell's record to 8-1 on the season for the second straight year.
• even the all-time series with the Hurricanes at 1-1.
• be the first win over an ACC school since 1951-52, snapping a 38-game skid.
• give the Big Red an eight-game win streak, its longest since winning nine in a row during the 2009-10 campaign.
• up Cornell’s non-conference record to 18-4 over its past 22 contests.
• be the 1,300th in program history (1,299-1,472-2 in 121 seasons, .469).

• The Big Red will see former head coach Bill Courtney, now Miami's Associate Head Coach, on its trip South.
• Courtney led the Big Red for six years (2010-16), posting a 60-113 record (27-57 Ivy), where he coached or recruited  three of the school's top 15 scorers, including All-Ivy first teamers Chris Wroblewski, Shonn Miller and the school's all-time leading scorer, Matt Morgan.
• The 21st head coach in school history, Courtney's staff included Jon Jaques '21, while assistant coach Max Ginsberg '18 and director of operations Kieran Hurley '17 both served as team managers during their undergraduate years.

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 73, Lafayette 68
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS I GALLERY
• Cornell rallied from a six-point deficit in the final three minutes to claim its seventh straight victory, a 73-68 triumph over Lafayette at Newman Arena.
• Greg Dolan, Chris Manon and Nazir Williams had 12 points apiece to lead the Big Red offense that made just 8-of-26 from 3-point range (31 percent). 
• Dolan added four assists and three boards, Manon had six rebounds and two assists and Williams chipped in five boards. 
• Keller Boothby was a +16 in his 23 minutes, scoring seven points, and Isaiah Gray also scored seven and posted five boards. 
• Max Watson scored six with a game-high four steals, while Marcus Filien had five big points and chipped in four rebounds along with stellar defense.
• Lafayette got 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists from Kyle Jenkins as one of three Leopard players in double figures. 
• Leo O'Boyle netted 14 points, grabbed five boards and dished four assists and T.J. Berger scored 11 points off the bench. 
• Lafayette shot 41 percent from 3-point range, but missed its final five behind the arc as the big Red rallied for the win.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 920 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 966 of 970 games (6,453 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.
• 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.
• 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, Hannah Rosenberg, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr