ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to continue its memorable start when it visits Central New York rival Syracuse on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. at the JMA Wireless Dome. The contest will be broadcast on the ACC Network.

• The Big Red will be looking for its first win over Syracuse since Dec. 4, 1968 — with 42 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 40 games.
• The Big Red enters the contest with four consecutive wins, the most recent a 79-71 victory at Lafayette on Saturday.
• The Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 85.5 points per game while shooting 51 percent overall and 35 percent from 3-point range and assisting on 18.1 buckets per outing.
• Seven different players are averaging at least 7.3 points per game with three in double figures.
• The team's 7-1 start matches its best after eight games in a season since 1967 (also done in 2021-22).
• Head coach Brian Earl's team is shooting a blistering .661 from inside the arc this season (second nationally in two-point field goal percentage), a number that stands at .804 over its past two games (41-of-51).

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Syracuse
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 8:00 p.m.
SITE: JMA Wireless Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell (7-1, 0-0 Ivy League), Syracuse (5-3, 0-1 ACC)
SERIES RECORD: Syracuse leads 96-31
BROADCAST: ACC Network
STATS: Cuse.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
121 Years • 53 Miles • 127 Meetings
Overall: Syracuse leads 96-31
In Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse leads 66-12
In The Dome: Syracuse leads 28-0
Current Streak: Syracuse, 42 games
Last Meeting: Syracuse won 78-63,12/17/22 in Syracuse, N.Y.
Earl vs. Syracuse: 0-6

SERIES NOTES
The Big Red's last win in the series came on Dec. 4, 1968, a 93-81 victory in Ithaca • Cornell is 1-29 all-time in the Dome and 0-28 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 38-145 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 40 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 8-1 to open the season for the second time in the past three seasons, tied for its best mark after nine games since 1967-68.
• snap a 42-game losing streak to the Orange.
• be the first win over an ACC school since 1951-52, snapping a 40-game skid.
• up the Big Red's record away from home to 6-1 (4-1 in true road games).
• give Cornell a 40-23 record overall (.635) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,334th in program history (1,333-1,493-2 in 123 seasons, .472).

LAST TIME VS. SYRACUSE
• Syracuse used a big second-half run and a game-long Big Red cold streak from beyond the arc to collect a 78-63 win over Cornell at the JMA Wireless Dome. 
• Nazir Williams scored a team-high 12 points with four assists, three rebounds and three steals, while Sean Hansen scored 11 with seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. 
• Both Keller Boothby and Isaiah Gray had eight points apiece in the loss, while Greg Dolan had a career-high 10 assists and just one turnover. 
• As a team, the Big Red assisted on 21 of its 25 buckets and posted 22 offensive rebounds, posting a 45-39 edge on the glass.
• For the second straight year at the Dome, Cornell set a new team record with its 48 3-point attempts, but despite getting open shot after open shot, could connect on just 13 (27 percent).
• All five Syracuse scorers reached double figures, with Joe Girardi posting a game-high 19 points. 
• Jesse Edwards added 11 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots in the middle.


 
LAST TIME OUT
• On an afternoon that saw the Big Red struggle from beyond the arc and with turnovers, Cornell controlled the boards and made its free throws en route to a 79-71 win over Lafayette at the Kirby Sports Center. 
• Sean Hansen paced three Big Red double figure scorers with 19 points, while Isaiah Gray notched 13 points and five rebounds and Nazir Williams chipped in 10 points, six rebounds and three assists. 
• Guy Ragland Jr. posted nine points and eight boards and Chris Manon was the fifth regular with at least nine points, scoring nine with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. 
• Cornell held a 40-32 edge on the glass to overcome an 8-of-32 shooting night beyond the arc and a season-high 20 turnovers.
• Kyle Jenkins scored 16 points with five rebounds and three steals to lead a Lafayette team that shot 43 percent overall and connected on nine 3-pointers, though players other than Jenkins made just 5-of-24 (21 percent).
• The Big Red connected on 18-of-23 field goals inside the 3-point arc (78 percent).



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the week with three double figure scorers, a total of nine regulars averaging at least 4.0 points per contest, and 10 posting at least 2.0 points.
• Six regular Big Red players are shooting .558 or better from the floor and seven are at 50 percent or better.
The Big Red's three leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .441 (45-102) from beyond the arc so far.
• In his first seven career starts, sophomore Cooper Noard is second on the team in scoring (11.9 ppg.), rebounding (4.6 rpg.) and paces the team in 3-pointers (22-of-45) made.
• Noard leads the team in minutes played at 24.8 through eight contests and is among nine regulars averaging at least 11.3 minutes.
• Sophomore AK Okereke, is averaging 7.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 20.0 minutes per game with a pair of double figure scoring games while shooting 71 percent from the floor (22-of-31).
• 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 127 steals in 62 career games, or 2.05 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.0 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 .527 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 21.7 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals in 38.8 minutes per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 37 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 25 rebounds away, while Hansen needs 13 points, 31 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 four of his past five games, shooting 11-of-20 (.550) 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 26 straight non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford.
• Cornell has hit double figures in 3-pointers four times in its eight games this season, with season highs of 14 vs. SUNY Morrisville and George Mason.
• Division I opponents are shooting just 29 percent from 3-point range this season (53-of-186).
• 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 39-23 record (.629), a mark that is 39-16 when removing guarantee games (.709).
• 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 81.1 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 23-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 13-0 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 947 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 992 of 996 games (6,728 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 returns from a two-week exam break to square off with Siena on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y.
• Siena leads the all-time series 4-3, though the Big Red has taken two of the past three meetings between the teams.
• The two squads have not met since the 2016-17 season, an 89-78 win for the Saints.
• The series dates back to 1985, though six of the contests were played between 2007-16.