ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team returns home for the first time in three weeks when it welcomes Monmouth to Newman Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• The Big Red returns to action following a nine-day break after capturing the Jacksonville Classic Bay Brackey title with wins over Cal State Fullerton (88-70) and Utah Valley (74-1).
• Senior Chris Manon was named Tournament MVP after averaging 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.5 assists per game on 63 percent shooting in the two wins.
• The Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 85.7 points per game while shooting 51 percent overall and 37 percent from 3-point range and assisting on 18.0 buckets per outing.
• The team's 5-1 start matches its best after six games in a season since 1967 (also done in 2021-22 and 2022-23).
• Cornell will put its 14-game non-conference home win streak on the line against Monmouth while also trying to even the all-time series with the Hawks at 2-2.
• The Big Red has also won 24 consecutive non-guarantee, non-conference contests.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team is shooting a blistering .624 from inside the arc this season, outpacing the previous record of .582 set last season.

GAME INFORMATION
Monmouth at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Monmouth (4-3, 0-0 Colonial Athletic), Cornell (5-1, 0-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Monmouth leads 2-1
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
8 Years • 255 Miles • 3 Meetings
Overall: Monmouth leads 2-1
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Monmouth leads 1-0
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 81-63,11/25/22 in West Long Branch, N.J.
Earl vs. Monmouth: 1-1

SERIES NOTES
The two programs first squared off during the 2015-16 season with the Hawks scoring a 78-69 victory • The Big Red's first-ever win in the series came last year, an 81-63 Big Red victory in West Long Branch, N.J. • Cornell is 14-21 all-time against current members of the CAA • Cornell holds series advantage over Hofstra (3-2)and Towson (1-0) and is tied with Stony Brook (4-4), but trails against Delaware (2-3), Drexel (1-3), Northeastern (2-5), UNCW (0-1) and William & Mary (0-1) • the Big Red has never faced Charleston, Elon, Hampton or North Carolina A&T.

A WIN OVER MONMOUTH WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 6-1 to open the season.
• up its non-conference win streak to 24 in non-guarantee games. 
• extend its non-conference home win streak to 15 games.
• give Cornell a 38-23 record overall (.623) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• make the Big Red 23-4 at home (.852) over the past three seasons.
• be the 1,332nd in program history (1,331-1,493-2 in 123 seasons, .471).

LAST TIME VS. MONMOUTH
• The Big Red overcame a slow start and used a strong defensive effort to claim an 81-63 victory over Monmouth at OceanFirst Bank Center.
• The Big Red held the Hawks to 38 percent shooting, including 29 percent from beyond the arc, and collected 12 steals and six blocked shots in its first-ever win over Monmouth.
• Four players scored in double figures for the Big Red, which shot 52 percent overall and made 14-of-35 3-pointers. 
• Cornell assisted on 23 of its 31 baskets and shot over 50 percent in both halves. 
• Keller Boothby and Chris Manon scored 12 points apiece, with Nazir WIlliams scoring 11 and Max Watson netting 10. 
• Greg Dolan scored nine points and added five rebounds, four assists and three steals in the win.
• Monmouth got 17 points, four rebounds and four steals by Jack Collins and 15 from both Tahron Allen and Klemen Vuga. 
• The rest of the team shot just 5-of-25 from the floor, and Monmouth turned the ball over 23 times total. 


 
LAST TIME OUT
• On an afternoon when the offense struggled, the Cornell men's basketball team still had enough to take home a trophy. 
• The Big Red relied on its defense and rebounding in a 74-61 victory over Utah Valley at Flagler Gymnasium. 
• To win the Jacksonville Classic Bay Bracket, the Big Red needed its best defensive effort of the season. 
• Cornell held the Wolverines to 39 percent shooting overall and a miserable 4-for-26 effort from beyond the arc while outrebounding its foe 46-33. 
• The decisive first half saw Cornell hold Utah Valley to 30 percent (10-of-33) from the floor in taking a 28-24 advantage into the locker room.
• Chris Manon, the tournament MVP, posted 13 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals to lead a balanced attack that placed four in double figures. 
• Guy Ragland Jr. posted his third career double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds, including six on the offensive end, while both Sean Hansen and AK Okereke also chipped in 11. 
• Drake Allen scored 16 points and Cale Stone-Carrawell netted 15 with five rebounds for Utah Valley.
 
PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the weekend with three double figure scorers, a total of nine regulars averaging at least 5.5 points per contest, and 11 posting at least 2.0 points.
• Four regular Big Red players are shooting 60 percent or better from the floor and six are at 50 percent or better.
The Big Red's three leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Guy Ragland, Keller Boothby and Sean Hansen) have combined to shoot .427 (38-89) from beyond the arc so far.
• In his first six career starts, sophomore Cooper Noard leads the team in scoring (12.0 ppg.) and 3-pointers (12-of-27) made and second in rebounding (4.5 rpg.).
• Noard leads the team in minutes played at 25.0 through six contests and is among 10 regulars averaging at least 11.8 minutes.
• Sophomore AK Okereke, is averaging 8.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 20.7 minutes per game with a pair of double figure scoring games while shooting 71 percent from the floor (17-of-24).
• The former walk-on had a streak of 10 consecutive made field goals over the first three games of 2023-24, tied for the fifth-longest streak in school history (record is 14 by Darryl Smith in 2015-16).
• Chris Manon has 122 steals in 60 career games, or 2.03 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.1 minutes per game for his career. 
• Manon had 63 steals in 2022-23, surpassing a two-decades old single-season school record 54 set by DeShawn Standard (1997-98) and matched by Wallace Prather (2001-02).
• Manon collected seven steals in last season's win over Binghamton, tied for the second-most in a single-game in school history and the most since Lenny Collins posted a record eight at Bucknell on Jan. 20, 2004.
• In his 18 minutes of action against Fordham this season, Manon was +24 and finished with a line of 14-4-3 with three steals.
• His five against Yale in the Ivy League Tournament semifinals broke a tourney record for steals in a game.
• Manon's .529 career field goal percentage ranks seventh all-time at Cornell among players with at least 400 shot attempts.
• The senior became the 82nd player in school history to reach the 600-point plateau with his nine points at George Mason.
• The Big Red's two-headed center of Sean Hansen and Guy Ragland Jr. combined to average 18.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks while playing 40.8 minutes per game in 2022-23.
• The duo is even better this season, averaging 21.0 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.0 steals in 39.0 minutes per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor and 40 percent from 3-point range. 
• 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.
• Both Manon and Hansen are looking to join a select group of 10 Big Red players to record at least 500 points, 250 rebounds, 100 assists, 25 blocked shots and 25 steals in their careers. Manon is just 32 rebounds away, while Hansen needs 43 points, 37 rebounds and one blocked shot. Two of those 10 Big Red players to reach those marks have played for head coach Brian Earl (Matt Morgan '19 and Josh Warren '20).  
• With his double-double in last year's 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.
• Ragland posted five points, seven rebounds and six assists off the bench against Morrisville, becoming just the seventh Big Red player to tally at least five points, five rebounds and five assists in the same game off the bench at Cornell.
• Senior Keller Boothby has multiple 3-pointers made in each of his past three games, shooting 8-of-14 (.571) over that stretch.
• Boothby shot .478 (22-of-46) from 3-point range in Ivy play last year.
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Freshman Jacob Beccles scored 15 points in his collegiate debut, the most by a Big Red rookie in his first game since Chris Manon netted 17 points in a win over Binghamton to kick off the 2021-22 season.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red had its streak of 23 consecutive non-conference wins against opponents from conferences other than the ACC or Big Ten dating back to an 80-76 loss at Hartford on Dec. 22, 2019 snapped at George Mason— a streak that spanned 1,424 days.
• At the same time, Cornell has now won 24 straight non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford.
• Cornell has hit double figures in 3-pointers three times in its six games this season, with season highs of 14 vs. SUNY Morrisville and George Mason.
• Division I opponents are shooting just 27 percent from 3-point range this season (35-of-129).
• Of the 30 100-point games for the Big Red in school history, head coach Brian Earl has been at the helm for nine of them, including for five of the top 10 totals.
• Earl's teams also have seven of the top 10 single-game assist totals. and six of the top 10 made 3-point field goal totals.
• The Big Red was placed third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, its highest preseason selection since also being chosen third in the 2010-11 poll
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 37-23 record (.617), a mark that is 37-16 when removing guarantee games (.698).
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.5 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.0 points per game. 
• Despite playing at the fastest pace in the Ancient Eight, Cornell's 12.4 turnovers per game was the second-lowest average in the league a year ago.
• Cornell  led the Ivy League in 11 categories in 2022-23, including scoring offense (81.7), 3-pointers made (10.7) and attempted (30.4) per game, assists (17.5), assist:turnover ratio (1.41), steals (9.7), effective field goal percentage (.556) and fastbreak points (15.9), while ranking in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense, assists, bench points, fastbreak points, steals and 3-pointers made and attempted. 
• Cornell is 22-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 12-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• With 300 3-pointers last season, Cornell's mark ranks second in a season for the Big Red.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 945 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 990 of 994 games (6,709 3-pointers over that span).
• The Big Red's seven-game win streak last season was its longest since walking off the floor victorious in nine consecutive contests late in 2009-10.
• Graduated seniors Greg Dolan '23 (Loyola Chicago) and Marcus Filien (UAlbany) have moved on to play as graduate transfers at other Division I institutions (Ivy League does not allow graduate student eligibility).  
• Over the past three seasons, nine grad transfers have gone on to play Division I basketball elsewhere — Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse), Kobe Dickson (Howard), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice), Dean Noll (Stony Brook), Sarju Patel (UAlbany) and Riley Voss (Wright State).
• Current seniors Darius Ervin, Isaiah Gray, Sean Hansen, Chris Manon and Evan Williams are currently in the portal for 2024-25.

MISCELLANEOUS TEAM NOTES
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (Chattanooga) are one of five active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bryce (Grand Canyon) and Scott (Baylor) Drew, Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley, Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones and Archie (Rhode Island) and Sean (Xavier) Miller.
• Associate head coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• 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).

THE BIG RED IN OVERTIME
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 42-51 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 31-19 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.

UP NEXT
• The Big Red will return to the road to face Lafayette on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. at the Kirby Sports Center.
• Cornell has a narrow 13-12 edge in the all-time series after last season's 73-68 Big Red victory in Ithaca.
• The Big Red has had the better of the series recently, winning six of the past seven contests between the programs.